Preservation is living history.

Yes I get a nostalgic buzz from my tours around preserved steam railways but we must never loose sight of the very real purpose they serve historically. For the young of today we have kept our history alive in many ways none the least through our industrial preservation of how things were. There is no better or more profound way to learn than through experience

The top picture shows the only preserved L & NWR's Super D at Grosmont in present times. The lower picture shows a similar engine hauling a large heavy freight up Shap on the West Coast main line many years ago. Were it not for preservationists and very generous donors and sponsors this would not have been possible. The Super D took several hundred thousand pounds, in excess of 750,000, to bring back into mainline steaming condition and we have Pete Waterman and his team at Crewe to thank for that. He quite openly states the number of free hours given by the staff at Crewe were beyond being counted