Although there were only 3 members of Class 13, they deserve a spot of their own. Single Class 08's could not cope with the trains that were required to be hump-shunted at Tinsley Yard in the 70's and so BR came up with this ingenious idea to solve the problem. You can't use 08's in multiple so chop the cab off the front one, control it from the second loco and then the crew might just be able to see something, but not much I'll be bound! Their power must have been enormous and they carried out their humble and unexciting duties for quite a number of years.

I know that a lot of people pass out just at the thought of a Class 37 but I've never been particularly fond of them. When I was a lad we calledthem 'Dog Noses' - what ever happened to that name?

I onjly ever saw 4 of these strange creatures in traffic, two pairs, on test. Ordered straight off the drawing board for a non-existent traffic, they were packed off to Scotland sharpish when they proved to be rubbish and lived oyt their short but glorious lives there. Strange how things gradually gravitate northwards on the railways as they prove to be crap or become knackered!

All of the odds and ends are in here. The odd industrials, odd members of classes that were still about, steam, that sort of thing. I was tempted to shove all of the Western stuff in as well but good taste forbade me.

I decided to put all of the hydraulics in here as I don't have very many pictures of them and most of those will be broken down, out of traffic. I never really liked any of them much, except fot the 'Hymeks', which had quite nice lines. The others were a right ugly bunch.

Posdsibly the most popular class of engine in preservation ever, Class 33's were exotic creatures to me as a kid. We used to see one a week, on the Saturday afternoon Cliffe - Uddingston cement train. It was the highlight of my Saturdays at Essendine and they carved themselves a little niche in my heart from then on.

Baby Cromptons - lovely engines. I saw most of Class 27 when they were allocated to Leicester and regularly worked into Peterborough and March but Class 26 had all gone to Scotland before I became seriously interested in them.

I loved Rats - still do. Typical Derby engines. So small and underpowered that any decent train required 2 of them and then they always sounded as though they were ripping their guts out. You could certainly never mistake the sound of one for anything else - and vibrate! Iliked to watch them when they were ticking over and everything shook. The first loco I ever took a picture of was of brand new D5207 on a Peterborough - Leicester at Melton Mowbray.

I always liked Class 40's, mainly for their sheer size and power I think. Nothing else sounded quite like them or looked quite like them. I always thought the ocean l,iner names really suited them and I think the whole class should have been named for them. I remember visiting Crewe Works in 1986 and seeing some cut in half. Very sad.

I always liiked Class 20's. I never saw any until they were all moved to the Midland and Scottish Regions and then, because so many worked in the Midlands and Yorkshire, saw loads of them.

There weren't too many electric locos in the early '70's, except of course on the WCML. There were a few on the Southern, the Tommies in t'North and that was about it.

I always seemed to live smack in the middle of Class 31 territory and I really liked them, even if I did get sick of the sight of some of them! They were everywhere and aon all kinds of trains. I also liked their green livery, simple but effective.

193 'Peaks' were built and what stalwarts they were. The miles they must have covered hammering up and down the Midland Main Line over the years beggars imagination. A retired March driver lives opposite me and claims that 'Peaks' were his favourite locos as they'd always get you home somehow. It was very sad to see them dumped at March Depot after withdrawal in the late '80's.

The ubiquitous 'Gronk'. I never met anyone who'd seen them all in the 60's or 70's. You just couldn't find half of them. A station like Peterborough would have dozens of them scattered about on various pilot duties - none left now!

I loved the 03's best of all from the multitude of small shunters built after modernisation, especially the early ones with the upside down chimneys. I went to school at Bourne in Lincolnshire and we used to have a daily freight from Sleaford with an 03. The station was just behind our school and me and Bill would spend our whole lunch time just watching it potter about.

I started trainspotting seriously in the early '60's and the first 20 Class 47's were brand new and operating on the ECML. I loved them and thought their version of the green livery was excellent. I had just 'copped' them all when suddenly there were 50 of them and, all of a sudden it seemed, hundreds.

The Class 12 shunters were forerunners of Class 08, built in the transitional period from LMS to BR, in whose old area of operations they were mainly to be found.

Living in Peterborough and Grantham, I obviously saw all of this class many times over. I did not particularly like them eventhough one of the abiding memories of my childhood will always be sitting at Essendine listening to them howling as they raced down Stoke Bank. 'Tulyar' was the last one I 'copped' and thus my favourite.