Page updated 5 September 2007

WELCOME to Echoes of the Past, Trains On-line’s own window on the lost world of British Railways. The pictures that appear on this page date from the late 1960s through to the demise of British Rail. These pictures will be refreshed on a monthly basis and may occasionally show ‘past and present’ scenes.

This pair of grimy Class 20s (above) was taken in August 1970 at Leicester London Road Station and contains much of interest to both modeller and rail enthusiast: small yellow warning panels, discs, red buffer beam. The Home and Distant signal is on a wooden post and the signal arms are lower quadrant and of Midland Railway origin.

Taken on the same day the scene below shows another pair of 20s heading north along the Midland main line, though they are in more ‘modern’  liveries, the leading 20 in BR blue with full yellow ends, the other appears to be still in green with red buffer beam, though it is so dirty it is difficult to tell.