1st March 2001

Class 60 no. 60081 "Isambard Kingdom Brunel", wearing its coat of Great Western Railway green and embellished with cast brass number and nameplates, rolls through the station at 12.41 on the 6T24 Immingham to Santon loaded iron ore train. This was the only time I saw this locomotive in this celebratory livery before it "put a leg out of bed" (blew a piston!) and was promptly withdrawn. A rather ignominious end for a special celebrity engine. At the time of writing (2018) it is one of many Class 60s laid up out of service at Toton depot, Nottingham, with an uncertain future.