The strong connection between the Guild of Railway Artists (GRA) and jigsaw company Gibsons, continues into 2020. G.R.A. artists including Fellows Philip Hawkins, John Austin, Malcolm Root and Terence Cuneo (deceased), and Members Eric Bottomley, Barry Freeman (deceased), Gerald Savine and Stephen Warnes, among others, have jigsaws to their name. David Noble is now added to this formidable list. The latter currently has two 2020 additions to the Gibsons' railway portfolio and I will use both on my blog.
Today's post, 29 June 2020, features one of the David Noble jigsaws titled Pickering Station, a 1000-piece example.
The railway in the painting is owned by the The North Yorkshire Moors Historical Railway Trust Ltd. which began as the NYMR Preservation Society in 1967. The railway was opened in 1973, following completion of the purchase of the line a year earlier. Pickering Station is the starting point of the NYMR; at 18 miles long running through Levisham and Goathland to Grosmont it is the third longest preserved railway in England. Additional services to the seaside town of Whitby were introduced in 2007.
The locomotive in David's painting is ex LMS class 5MT (mixed traffic) 4-6-0, No.45407 The Lancashire Fuslier. The locomotive was built in 1937 by Armstrong Whitworth of Newcastle and is owned by the Riley Engineering Company, Riley & Son. In the picture, many enthusiasts are attracted to the train about to leave for Grosmont and a worker adjusts the position of a smokebox door lamp. Following Heritage Lottery Funding, the station was renovated between 2000 and 2011 and a new roof installed. The new roof can be seen clearly, in David's painting.
