When I first abandoned my previous deviantART account, I set up matt-durkan-railways with the intention of photographing as many (if not all) of the preserved steam locomotives in Britain. And I suppose you could say this is still the underlying motive behind it, but there is lot more too it than that.

It is more about sharing Britain’s rich railway heritage with the world and above all, having fun along the way. It's nothing too serious

However, I have become somewhat obsessed with capturing the L.N.E.R's A4 class.
This once numbered 35 strong, but 6 have survived into preservation. So far, I've not done too badly.

I have seen No 7:
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I have seen No 9
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I have seen No 19
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I have seen No 22
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All on many occasions, however, so have many people. Things get tricky when you start going for the 5th and 6th survivors.

No 8 "Dwight D Eisenhower" resides at the National Railroad Museum, Green Bay, Wisconsin.

No 10 "Dominion of Canada" is currently in a terrible neglected state at Exporail, Canada (although a team of BRITISH volunteers is due to head over to give her a cosmetic overhaul shortly)


Now as luck would have it, this summer I am going to America, and have even managed to wangle a trip to Green Bay specifically to see No 8 This means I will be one of the lucky few to have seen 5 out of 6 preserved A4s.

Now I just need to think of an excuse to go to Canada