This story begins in April 1985. I had paid a visit to Crewe to ride and photograph the remaining REs at that depot. By 1985 only Runcorn and Crewe were still operating dual door REs, and all that remained were of the HFM-J batch with curved windscreens.

It was obvious that their days were numbered, so due reverence had to be paid while it was still possible. The Crewe specimens were mainly confined to dull town services, but there were some regular rostered trips out of town to Audlem and Walgherton. It was on one of the trips to the latter destination that this photograph was taken, at the terminus next to the Boar's Head pub.

I was happy enough if not overwhelmed to have tracked SRG191 down here [it was on a working I had been tipped off about] but I could never have imagined then that weeks later I would encounter the vehicle a hundred miles away in a tiny Welsh slate town.