Today's post, 7th February 2012, comprises two pictures of jigsaw puzzles that illustrate the strong partnership, noted in previous posts, between jigsaw manufacturer Gibsons and the railway artist Barry Freeman. Both jigsaws are of the 636-piece panoramic format.
Picture number one shows the puzzle titled Winter Wayfarers. Barry's painting shows a LMS, streamlined ‘Coronation’ class locomotive hauling the ‘Coronation
Scot’ express beside the Oxford Canal at Stretton-under-Fosse in Warwickshire. The crack express is in blue and silver ‘uniform’ and headed by Stanier 4-6-2 No.6221 Queen Elizabeth. On the adjacent canal a
rather rotund lady almost fills the deck of a narrow boat, travelling in the opposite direction, with a second boat
just ahead. A man and his dog look on inquisitively - a wonderful jigsaw puzzle from an equally superb painting. 
Picture number two, of jigsaw The Last Days, shows a Freeman painting of two, huge Stanier 4-6-2 locomotives, both in wartime black livery. The location is Roade Station in Northamptonshire and the date, 1947. On the left is 'Princess Coronation' class No.6233 Duchess of Sutherland passing through with a southbound express. On the right, waiting for 'right away' with a southbound parcels train, is 'Princess Royal' class No. 6203 Princess Margaret Rose. Typical of Barry, an old bus, a Bristol JO 5G of the United Counties Bus Company, is included in the background.