SIR – In reply to B Barraclough’s inquiry about the locomotive ‘Victoria’, - Number.45565, it was one of the ‘Jubilee’ class of locomotive introduced by the L.M.S. in 1934, and named after the Australian state. There were close to 200 of this successful class, and were used on express passenger and fast freight duties. ‘Victoria’ was based at Low Moor for much of the sixties until its withdrawal in January 1967, one of just a handful still in service at this time.

Low Moor was an important rail centre, with its engine shed and junction station on the Halifax-Bradford line, there was a short lived branch to Dudley Hill, and a main branch to Mirfield and Thornhill, which served towns in the Spen Valley such as Cleckheaton. The station closed in June 1965, and the shed in October 1967, the last steam shed in Bradford.

There are several publications about the area, may I recommend Bellcode Books Railway Memories No 4 which covers Bradford, with a section on Low Moor, and Railway Memories No 11 covering stations in the Spen Valley. I have an old VHS tape called Pennine Steam, which contains footage of steam engines in the Low Moor area.

S. Brook, Pavillion View, Cleckheaton