The last steam train driver has just retired after 48 years working on the railway.

Donald Sewell, from Sanderstead, started working on steam trains as a fireman at 16 – shovelling coal into the firebox to produce the steam that ran the trains – and retired at 65 after driving the newest innovation in rail travel, the Virgin Pendolino trains.

He moved to England from Jamaica as a teenager and applied for the job in Preston after seeing it advertised in the paper and after a short interview and a medical he was set to work.

The father-of-five and grandfather-of-two said: “It was a job that took you all over the country, I thought it was pretty exciting.”

Having travelled all over Britain, Mr Sewell eventually took the decision to move his family from Preston to London as there were more driving opportunities.

After steam trains became obsolete, he went on to drive diesel, electric and the latest Pendolino trains.

He said: “I was the last steam driver to retire.

“I definitely prefer the new Pendolinos, they are so clean and so fast.

“It’s different to steam because you just sit there like you are in a car. With the steam engines it was more physical, it was dirty – you got smoke blowing in your eyes.

“The diesel made your clothes smell. I did not get the joy from diesel that I got from steam – you could look out the window and see the wheels moving.

“The pendolino is the Rolls Royce of trains, its like being in an aeroplane, it goes at 125mph.”

The jovial grandfather confides he would like to spend his retirement on a Jamaican beach but as his wife does not want to move away from their grandchildren, he will settle for living in Croydon.