The Fifteen Guinea Special

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.5 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 17 September 2018

⏱️ 12 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The train which marked the end of the steam age on Britain's main-line rail network. The Fifteen Guinea Special was a passenger service which ran from Liverpool to Carlisle on August 11th 1968 to commemorate the withdrawal of steam locomotives from the country's main railways. Steam locomotives had worked on British railways since the early 19th century. Thousands lined the route to see the last locomotives in action. Alex Last speaks to rail enthusiast Mark Smith who was on board the special train. Photo: The locomotive, Oliver Cromwell, was one of four locomotives used on the Fifteen Guinea Special, 11 August 1968 (Mark Smith)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless
0:06.8	searching is a nightmare we want to help you on our brand new podcast off the
0:11.8	telly we share what we've been watching
0:14.0	Cladie Aide.
0:16.0	Load to games, loads of fun, loads of screaming.
0:19.0	Lovely. Off the telly with me Joanna Paige.
0:21.0	And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less
0:24.9	searching and a lot more watching listen on BBC sounds. Choosing what to
0:32.1	watch night after night the flicking through the endless
0:36.5	searching is a nightmare we want to help you on our brand new podcast off the
0:41.5	telly we share what we've been watching.
0:43.7	Cladie Aide!
0:45.7	Loads of games, loads of fun, loads of screaming.
0:48.2	Lovely.
0:49.0	Off the telly with me Joanna Paige.
0:51.2	And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less
0:54.7	searching and a lot more watching listen on BBC sounds hello and welcome to
1:00.4	the witness podcast with me Alex Last and today we take you back to 1968 and the last days of steam on
1:08.2	Britain's main railways. We realized it really was to be the end. There were people who really thought this was going to be the very last
1:26.0	champs to see a steam engine. I can't remember anywhere where there wasn't somebody. At
1:32.4	trackside looking, waving, taking pictures or holding their children up or whatever. In 1968, Mark Smith was a 20-year-old student when British Railways decided to remove the last steam locomotives
1:44.4	from the British mainline rail network ending an age of steam that had lasted 150
	...

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