Bedlay Colliery was only seven miles from where I was brought up in Glasgow and my Dad used to drive past the end of the exchange sidings on his way to work every day. However, it wasn't until after I'd left home and moved south of the border that I started visiting. No. 17, a Barclay 0-4-0ST dating from the late 1940s, was taking a break between duties at the mine in May 1981. After Bedlay closed in December 1981, the loco was transferred to Barony in Ayrshire where it had the honour of being the NCB's last working steam loco.