Unfortunately, PL, the Beyer-Garretts were history by the time I became interested in spotting so I never saw one – they must have been an interesting sight and sound. I believe that they were indeed in use on the St. Pancras line, hauling long lines of coal wagons from the Nottinghamshire pits into the Big Smoke. There’s a memory hovering on the edges of my mind that I’ve seen a photograph of something flying over Radlett airfield with a B-G on the railway line in the background.
Incidentally, on the other side of the railway bridge where I used to spot were two rows of terraced houses (built for the workers in the local mental hospital, which at that time was still open). They were no more than 100 yards away from the NE hard-standing where Victors used to run up to full power. I often wondered whether they appreciated this……..

I’ve just returned from a few days away at my old Nottingham haunts, how to cram so much into a few days.
My son is at Nottm Uni and I took him and a couple of his mates on a big tour yesterday, this included showing them where all the coalmines, engine sheds, viaducts, steelworks etc etc used to be when I was a youth, including a look at the Cromford canal and former High Peak railway. This went on to include a visit to Kathleen, JFK’s sisters grave at Chatsworth, a famous chip butty at Grindleford Station cafe, a climb to the 1500ft high summit of Mam Tor in a snowstorm, a visit to the plague village at Eyam, a trip round the ruined derelict mansion of Sutton Scarsdale Hall when it was getting dark and an attempted visit to the abandoned Annesley Hall. The youth of today thought the whole day out was fantastic, what amazed them was how the industrial past of the Notts and Derbys coalfields had been almost eradicated from the face of the earth, they could not imagine what things had been like even in my lifetime.

The Beyer-Garretts were mainly based at Toton shed, which was/is just a couple of miles from our house. At that time, in the 50’s, I believe it was the largest marshalling yard and shed in Europe. On a saturday lunchtime my dad would get out the tandem and with my brother on the back and me on a little red seat on the crossbar we would cycle down to a place called Stanton Gate which was at the end of Toton yards and at the junction for Stanton Ironworks. We would sit on the bridge and watch the Garretts trundle past pulling infinitely long coal trains to be put into Toton yard, or dragging empties back up the Erewash Valley line. If we were lucky we would see the revolutionary coal hoppers introduced by the LMS in the 30’s.
We would then go up to the Stanhope Arms at Stanton-by-Dale for a ‘lemonade’.
Sad to say that by the time my brother got his camera, the Garretts had been replaced by Crosti boilered 9F’s.
I had a look at Toton on saturday, the shed was full of those awfull looking General Motors Class 66’s, the company favourites, made in Canada, we don’t seem to be able to build locos anymore, I had a look at the site of Derby Works, now Pride Park, home of a crap football team and various naff service industries. What a bloody waste.
Thank you Mrs Thatcher, Grantham must be embarrased at having raised a Gorgon.