On this day in 1962 the Pines Express ran over the Somerset and Dorset for the last time. Manchester to Bournemouth, a named train since 1910, and for its farewell over the Mendips it was given 92220 Evening Star — a 9F ten-coupled goods engine, the last steam locomotive British Railways ever built, out of Swindon two years earlier and already at the end of its era before it had properly worn in.

The S&D never made anything easy. Out of Evercreech Junction the line climbs hard to Masbury summit, which is why the route kept banking engines busy at the back of trains all its working life: one crew at the front doing the famous part, another shoving away out of sight and getting none of the photographs. Both did the same job that afternoon.

What I think about is the shed. Evening Star was turned out in green with a copper-capped chimney rather than plain black, and for the last Pines the fitters and cleaners went over her again, because you do that for a train that isn't coming back. She survived, which is more than the line did, and the photograph below shows her indoors now, handrails and access steps alongside, someone in a red top leaning in to look at the cab. Still worth the climb.