Horse Power

What a lovely picture this is but a sad one too as it shows the very last shunting horse on British Railways, in the 1960s:

click to enlarge

Here are the details from the National Railway Museum website:

Charlie, the last horse to be used for shunting, with his handler Lol Kelly, Newmarket, 1967. Newmarket was the last British Railways depot to withdraw horses for shunting. They were retained there until 1967 to move special vehicles used for transporting racehorses. Horses had been used to haul vehicles from the earliest days of the railways. Although locomotives could move heavier loads, horses were cheaper and more flexible, so for many years were kept to shunt at small depots.

People often ask about the horse hooks on our coal wagon and are surprised to hear that horses once did this job.

I imagine the man in charge of the horse would nowadays be dressed from head to foot in orange.   Maybe the horse too.

Here's another one from 1953 at Witham.   The horse seems keen to go a bit faster than the shunter would like.   The wagon is just like ours.

This must have been pretty much the scene under our tower when railway horses were stabled here;

And finally, Moreton-in-Marsh C 1890.   The horse was obviously very much part of the team:

But the station cat is nowhere to be seen.