Rail campaigner calls for iconic workshop painting for new Doncaster museum

The new Danum Gallery Library and Museum will feature locomotive Green Arrow as well as dozens of other exhibits from Doncaster’s railway heritage and history when it opens to the public following the coronavirus lockdown later this year.

Now rail buff Barry Lifsey has called for Doncaster Council bosses to install a huge painting inside the new building on Chequer Road to showcase the huge Doncaster workshop where some of the world’s most famous locos were built.

The painting – Pride of The Plant by Eric Bottomley – shows a Class A3 Pacific loco outside the New Erecting Shop, part of the huge Plant Works site at Hexthorpe where both the Mallard and Flying Scotsman came to fruition.

Mr Lifsey, who spent nearly three decades repairing and working on dozens of trains at the sprawling industrial site, spearheaded the drive to get the New Erecting Shop its Grade II status several years ago. The building will be 130 years old this year.

He said: “My suggestion is that permission be obtained from the copyright owner to request that the print be enlarged to be fit for purpose to take centre stage with the locomotives to publicise this wonderful building that manufactured railway locomotives for Doncaster's heritage.”

A copy of the painting hangs on the wall at his Finningley home.

He added: “The New Erecting Shop is 130 years old in 2021 and visitors to the museum should be given the opportunity to see an enlargement of the print where Mallard, Flying Scotsman,Green Arrow and many many more steam locomotives were built.”

Both the Flying Scotsman and Mallard are synonymous with the golden age of steam railways – the former one of the world’s best known locomotives after becoming the first steam loco to smash the 100mph barrier while Mallard, which arrived 15 years later also retains its place in the record books as the holder of the fastest steam train ever built.