In August 1983 I had a three day rail fest around the Midlands using a Midland Railtourer ticket. 

As a gricer, this was terrific.  You got seven days of unlimited travel across a wide area of the Midlands for what was very little money.  Sadly, I could only use three of the seven days.

1338 is one of a class of only two engines, unusually employing Kitson-Hawthorn valve gear with the link above the running plate, built for the Cardiff Railway in 1898.

The Cardiff Railway was owned by the Marquis of Bute and was the smallest railway absorbed into the Great Western in 1923.

I’ve just added some new scans of my slides dating from 1983 to the Picture Gallery. 

The pictures were taken at Clapham Junction on 3 August 1983 – and show a time of rapid change.

The Chemin de Fer de la Corse (CFC) is a fascinating metre gauge rail network serving the French island of Corsica.

At the time of my visits in the 1980s it was a delightful combination of beautiful scenery and quaint rolling stock.

Billard Autorail Type A80D no 503 was built for the P.O. Correze in the mid-1930s. 

It subsequently moved to Corsica and was used in regular passenger service in red and cream livery until about 1984

Locotracteur no. 114 of the CFC (Chemins de Fer de Corse) was built in the works at Bastia in 1955 from secondhand parts. 

The locotracteur was known as the "Sous-Marin" on account of the round windows.  Quite why is a mystery because submarines don't have round windows!

After a 15 month gap, I'm back at Loughborough for a photo charter.  The loco?  A Black 5 - and not just any Black 5 - a Kingmoor Black Five. 

In 1967 as a twelve year old I looked down in awe from Etterby Bridge at the lines of workstained locomotives lined up outside Kingmoor shed.  Black 5s, 8Fs, Britannas and 9Fs dominated. 

We spent a whole afternoon wandering around the shed gathering numbers.  Kingmoor closed to steam some months later at the end of 1967.  It left a memory with me that's remained ever since.

My trip to the UK has brought me to Scarborough. 

I've an hour to spare so I've been seeking out some of the last operational semaphore signals on the ‘Big Railway’.

Living in Cyprus I do miss a spot of casual gricing. 

So on a visit to the UK as I drove over the East Coast Main Line just north of York at the amazingly named Nether Poppleton I had to stop and have a look. 

The snow was an added bonus!