By February 1976 class 24’s were becoming rare as withdrawals took there toll, so I was quite surprised to find three class 24’s stabled together in the mist and drizzle at Nuneaton, 7th February 1976. My records state that they are 24046, 24142 and 24136 in that order, however 24136 is clearly an error as it was withdrawn in October 1975 still in green livery. I suspect that “24136” is either 24133 or 24134 or 24137. Originally D5046, 24046 was one of a batch of locomotives built at Crewe works for delivery to depots in East Anglia. The frames were laid down at Crewe works during the summer of 1959, and it entered service in October 1959, allocated to Ipswich MPD. By 1968 it had migrated to its final home of Stoke Division (in reality Crewe Diesel Depot) where it would remain until withdrawn five months after this photograph in July 1976. It was broken up a year later at Swindon works in July 1977.