At St Pancras station, early on the morning of Saturday

June 17th 1972, we were waiting in the train that was due to leave at 07.40 when, unexpectedly, Sulzer Type 2 Class 25 number 5220, bearing the scars of a close encounter, clanked its way past the gasometers, now converted into bijou apartments as part of the Coal Drop Yard gentrification project, onto the rake of stock adjacent to us. Acting like an old school station pilot it coupled up and is here heading the coaches off to Cricklewood Carriage Sidings. Our train was one of two, a Blue train and a Red train and we were the latter. Both were named Steam Safari and the tour was part of the return to steam of A4 4498 Sir Nigel Gresley. At the head of this leg, which ran via York to Newcastle, was Sulzer Type 4 Peak Class 45 number 72, then it would be steam to Carlisle followed by return over Ais Gill and the Settle and Carlisle, headed by another Peak, number 118. Note the disused siding to the wagon lift allowing the lowering of wagons to the station undercroft which was a bonded warehouse and now the Eurostar border check and waiting area.