On a recent trip to the Swanage Railway (last month) we knew there would only be one passenger train operating but we were caught unawares by a freight train awaiting our passenger train at Corfe Castle station.

As we approached, I snapped a hurried photo of the loco at the head of the goods train – a steamy and atmospheric sort of photo on what was a grim day for weather.

Later we discovered this train was out and about for guard training. We caught up with it again later in the day when we alighted at Corfe Castle

The loco is number 31806 and she is of class U – often called U-boats. The first ones were rebuilds of the ill-fated River class tanks. They had been introduced in 1917 and they became U class from 1928. 31806 had been one of those powerful tank engines.

During my train…