Happy memories of the smell of warm diesel from the locomotives idling at The Central, I applaud you on the many photographs here as they bring back many memories of living close to the site of Forest Hall station and the variety of locomotives and workings which I took for granted but now are a distant memory along with the sound of a 56 slogging up Benton Bank in the middle of the night on a MGR train which seemed to take forever!
As an aside I used to play football on a Saturday morning as a school event right beside the ECML between FH and Killingworth and the kids I played with were amazed I could tell the difference between a loco out of view coming past us whether it was a 56,37,47 or the odd rarity.