47500 Hinksey 3 March 1984

47500 Great Western passes Hinksey Yard on 3 March 1984 with the 1O74 10:23 Manchester Piccadilly to Brighton service. The loco was Old Oak Common's royal train loco, which explains its smart condition, with silver buffers and white painted pipework. This picture shows the less famous Oxford skyline, with the distinctive Romanesque style church tower of St Barnabas in Jericho visible directly above the loco. Note also the large area of barren ground directly behind the rusting corrugated iron fence. This heavily contaminated land is the site of the former Oxford gas works.