A volcanic departure! Great stuff. I had the great pleasure and privilege to fire (and drive a bit) the Duke when he visited the GCR in 2010.

Many thanks for your input, Pete. I first posted a colour version over on the dark side this morning and I have received a comment akin to yours, "Looks like Vesuvius erupting" ;-)
The experience of seeing such events never leaves the memory bank as the vision, sound and smell gets recorded in different places.
If I could travel on the footplate of any loco from the preserved collection, my preference would be for the Duke.

Ditto... what can I say... THAT Smoke !!!

It's not all smoke as you know, Pam. There is a fair amount of steam leakage in there too and right up your street.

Wow, that's a lot of smoke:-)

A pity that stitching photos was not a common practice at that time or I could have added the upper half to this photo ;-) Re the previous comment, HFF to you and yours, Gudrun.

Oh - the wonderful days of steam - I loved traveling by train then. Thanks for the memories. HFF

Thank you, Helen. I find it hard to believe that most people do not have experience of travelling by such means. HFF!

A lot of huff and puff there.

You are still the master of understatement, Maurice ;-)

Same to you, Neil!

HFF Neil....a lot of steam and power ;)
Let´s make it like this!

We all have our dreams, Tanja ;-))

HFF to you too.

Under full steam into the weekend! ;-D

HFF, Neil!

Smashing composition - I especially like the portrait orientation, which meant you could get most of the smoke in shot. Excellent Neil..!!