This painting is a personal memory from my early childhood. The small child looking up at the driver of the locomotive is me.
This would have been around 1955 when steam still predominated at Euston. The locomotive is a Princess Royal type pacific built by William Stanier in 1934. It has just arrived from Scotland at the old Euston Station which was torn down in 1959 and replaced by a concrete monstrosity which is neither aesthetically pleasing of functional.
Every year as a small child I would run ahead of my Mother and Father when the train arrived at Euston, I would run up to the cab of the loco and as likely as not the driver would invite me up to stand in the cab.
Like many young boys then I wanted to be an engine driver, so I was in my element. The painting of the people and the engine is very childlike as befits a memory of long ago.
