Steamtown USA, Bellows Falls, Vermont 1967

This atmospheric scene from Steamtown USA shows a fascinating gathering of preserved locomotives, captured during the early years of American railway preservation. Front and centre on the left stands an unmistakably British visitor: the rust-red outline of Southern Railway M7 Class 4-4-0T No. 30053. Still awaiting restoration, it sits coupled to a matching green-and-cream Great Western Railway corridor coach — a distinctly British pairing that must have looked rather foreign on Vermont soil. Beyond them, barely visible at the far end of the siding, is another British guest: Southern Railway ‘Schools’ Class 4-4-0 No. 926 Repton, then newly imported and soon to become one of Steamtown’s star operating locomotives.

Remarkably, all three British exhibits seen on the left have since returned home. Today, 30053 steams at the Swanage Railway, the GWR coach now lives on the West Somerset Railway, and Repton runs on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, making this photograph a rare record of their American chapter.

To the right stand several American locomotives — black, rugged, and industrial in appearance — including a compact saddle-tank engine with a white smokebox door and yellow hazard striping. Its squat proportions contrast sharply with the British engines’ tall chimneys and tidy Victorian lines. A sign attached to the locomotive reads “Please Keep Off”, though the eager young visitor beside it suggests such warnings weren’t always effective.

Behind the lineup, a wooded hillside frames the museum grounds beneath a heavy summer sky. The locomotives sit on stub tracks set into a paved display area, giving the scene a sense of a static outdoor exhibit rather than an operating yard — very much reflecting Steamtown’s evolving identity during the late 1960s.