Our competitions in 2022 and 2023 for local amateur photographers have given us two years of fascinating photographs for our website homepage. We have continued the competition in January this year, and have again been delighted at the response and highly impressed with the overall standard of entries. That does make life difficult in selecting only twelve winners.

Our April winner, Di Thomson, has submitted a lovely nostalgic photograph of LMS Stanier Class 4 6 0, at Insch station (located on the Aberdeen to Inverness railway line). The locomotive shown is an ‘active service’ locomotive in use for various purposes. Lovingly maintained, it is still certified for regular mainline use. It is not used for Scotrail purposes but has, for example, been the power behind Jacobite excursions on the Fort William to Mallaig line and, on one occasion, ‘starred’ in Coronation Street. It first entered service, for the London Midland and Scottish railway company (LMS) in 1945, and was taken over by British Rail in 1948 when the railways were nationalised.

In the background, we can see Dunnydeer Hill with the remains of Dunnydeer Castle at the summit. Now a ruin, the castle is believed to have been started around 1260, although there are the remains of a vitrified fort in the location, said to date from about 250 BC. Given the reasonably close remains, atop Bennachie, of a Pictish settlement or hill fort, one can reasonably assume the presence of a reasonably sized population hereabouts, since time immemorial.

A steam train at Insch, with the ancient castle in the background is a joy for me, evocative of childhood days. Modern high speed trains are a marvel, no doubt, but there is little that can match the sound of a steam train for rekindling memories of long ago.

If you’re interested in learning more about each of our images as part of our photography competition, take a look at one of our previous submissions.