The
Last
of
Steam//


The strange thing about steam railway engines is the degree of devotion in which they are held. Obsolescence usually confers a swift consignment to the scrap heap, but not with steam railways. It can probably be explained by the quite naked display of power and precision engineering which the locomotives make visible. So much modern technology is hidden and disguised that the open honesty of a locomotive appeals to mankind’s love of the machine. These photographs were taken in 1967 at the last steam railway engine shed in the West Midlands in Oxley, Wolverhampton.

Tombstone and epitaph for railwaymen killed in one of the first accidents, St John's churchyard Bromsgrove (1966)
The last days of steam at the Oxley Engine sheds, Wolverhampton (1967)
The last days of steam at the Oxley Engine sheds, Wolverhampton (1967)
The last days of steam at the Oxley Engine sheds , Wolverhampton (1967)
The last days of steam at the Oxley Engine sheds, Wolverhampton (1967)
The last days of steam at the Oxley Engine sheds , Wolverhampton (1967)
The last days of steam at the Oxley Engine sheds, Wolverhampton (1967)
Retired train driver , Oxley engine sheds, Wolverhampton (1967)
The last days of steam at the Oxley Engine sheds 2, Wolverhampton (1967)
The last days of steam at the Oxley Engine sheds, Wolverhampton (1967)
The last days of steam at the Oxley Engine sheds, Wolverhampton (1967)
The last days of steam at the Oxley Engine sheds, Wolverhampton (1967)
The last days of steam at the Oxley Engine sheds, Wolverhampton (1967)
The last days of steam at the Oxley Engine sheds, Wolverhampton (1967)
The last days of steam at the Oxley Engine sheds, Wolverhampton (1967)
Fireman stoking the boiler, Oxley engine sheds Wolverhampton (1967)
The last days of steam at the Oxley Engine sheds, Wolverhampton (1967)
The last days of steam at the Oxley Engine sheds, Wolverhampton (1967)
Going on shift at dusk, Oxley engine sheds, Wolverhampton (1967)
Going on shift at dusk, Oxley engine sheds, Wolverhampton (1967)
Railwaymen on the last day of steam at the Oxley engine sheds, Wolverhampton (1967)
Train driver oliing driving wheels (1967)