This train is heading north at speed and is taken at the south end of Bletchley station on the main-line ‘down-side’ (away from London) platform, looking south towards the brickworks (whose chimneys are clearly visible), where the branch line from Oxford curves-in to join the west-coast-route mainline tracks. The west coast main line trains into and out of Euston thundered through at a speed that seemed to be at least 60 mph, and perhaps more, shaking the platform and leaving a wonderful swirl of steam and smoke and air and the noise that only a steam train at speed can make. It was an amazing experience and not to be missed (*), but it was not easy to identify the engine numbers at speed, and I used to spend most of the time during my days trainspotting at Bletchley, not on the station platforms, but on the little hill with the water tower adjacent the engine shed on the north side of the station, which allowed one to view activity in the shed as well as the through traffic. I have no exact date for this shot. This applies, sadly, to all my photos, more or less, and arose from the fact that for some reason I didn’t use a notebook for my camera work. And the films were home-developed, and I relied on remembering the details later after they had been processed. The year is probably mid-1950s. (*) Especially for someone used to the Oxford station situation where all passenger trains stopped, and most goods trains went through at low speeds, sometimes at little more than walking speed.