The final cut

...and this is the last steam-hauled passenger train to pass over the Sutton Park line prior to the 1968 nationwide end of steam.

Black 5 number 44944 bursts under the Anchor Road bridge at Aldridge station with a Locomotive Club of Great Britain special excursion (1Z09) from Euston to Chester on the 26th February 1967. The engine was allocated to Oxley shed at that time. Oxley closed officially along with Saltley Steam Depot in March 1967, though the occasional remaining steam engine was coaled and watered there until August of that year.

Photo copyright PP Newell.