The last days of steam display at Rosegrove

3:51pm Friday 16th May 2008

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THERE'S a show of steam at Rosegrove Library this month.

It's a display of the last days of steam trains at Rosegrove, Burnley, which was one of three of the last bastions of the great beasts, along with the motive power depot at Lostock Hall and Carnforth.

As steam disappeared from the tracks and engine sheds all over the country, the locos ran at Rosegrove until Sunday, August 4, 1968, a poignant date in the annals of the railways - and for the men who worked with them.

Steam was very much a British invention during the Industrial Revolution, reigning supreme on the national railway network for 200 years and so August 4 was a landmark, not only in railway terms, but for history.

By 1964 steam had already become a thing of the past in large parts of the country, but the North West was able to experience the sights and sounds of steam hard at work for a few more years.

Those who worked on the railways can look back on early starts, as early as four in the morning, when the burnt ashes from yesterday's travels had to be cleaned out and inaccessible points in the bowels of the locomotive oiled ready for a new day.

And when the weather was cold, sometimes it would take several hours preparation to raise the steam.

The library exhibition runs until May 31.

l Do you have any stories, or photographs, of the last days of steam to share with readers?