Years after the closure of the Malta Railway remnants littered the former railway yard at Hamrun. Here, surrounded by scrap, Engine No.1 hangs on sandwiching an interloper, a much debased tramcar, against the arch of the 1883 engine shed.

This image is in fact a stitch I’ve produced of two photos, hence the greyed-out areas. Reputedly taken on the same occasion in 1941 along with another looking in the opposite direction, it does give more breadth and a wider perspective to the scene behind the old platform before everything was scrapped.

Oddly, No.1 was not one of the three locomotives retained for teaching purposes at the technical school after the railway closed; these were No.s 2,3 and 5. No.1 may have been left unsold when the last of the rollingstock was disposed for scrap in 1937. The fate of the other chosen engines isn’t known.

Both the Manning Wardle-built engine and the remains of the tram survived until the end of WWII, still being recorded there in 1945, but their ultimate fate is unknown… unless you know more?