Favourite Train Spotting Places

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.

I must admit it was something i never got the chance to do as a child as i was a round 7miles from the nearest station and as i child of the 80s i tend to think the “Romance” had already gone from the Railway by that time, Although as a child it was exciting to get a train to Brighton or Portmouth for a ferry to the Isle of Wight.
I now work for the railway and from time to time we get to see a “Real” train in the form of something puffing steam and burning coke, Which always attracts a crowd.

Maybe the kids of today would benefit from a bit of train spotting instead of computer games etc

91Regal, did the Beyer-Garratt coal trains go past you? I never managed to spot a Beyer-Garratt myself, but I believe that may have been their territory.

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 think you’ll find, Rep, that the Princess class were a Stanier design that worked the West Coast LMS line to Glasgow, you would have been very fortunate to see one on the ECML. But no doubt somebody will pull out their old spotting notebooks from the bottom of the wardrobe and prove me wrong.

Not exactly a notebook but BR did trials of all the big four companies on different regions not long after nationalisation!

31’s and 37’s on the North Wales Coast!!!!
47’s on Cross Country!
73’s on the Gatwicks!
And REAL (Valenta) HST’s………………… Magic!!!!!

H

After many years (the demise of the Deltics on mainline work was pretty much the end of train spotting for me) I’ve started writing down train numbers again and I find that, despite the constant stream of EWS and Freighliner Class 66 sheds, Eastleigh station is a good place to see a lot of freight trains in the South.

In the old days it was anywhere on the ECML for me, especially the Doncaster area.

91Regal, did the Beyer-Garratt coal trains go past you? I never managed to spot a Beyer-Garratt myself, but I believe that may have been their territory.
Apropos Victors, my first posting in the RAF was as a radar technician working in the control tower (on PAR and ACR7D) at RAF Cottesmore with two whole squadrons of Victor B1s on it – 10 and XV squadrons. I thought I had died and gone to heaven!
PAR = Precision Approach Radar for ground-controlled approaches
ACR7D was the Decca Airfield Control Radar for control up to 30 miles away
The last ACR7D console I saw was in the aviation museum in Stockholm, and I was itching to undo the screws and pull the display out to check the wiring!

and plenty of Queen Elizabeth Class too.

I think you’ll find, Rep, that the Princess class were a Stanier design that worked the West Coast LMS line to Glasgow, you would have been very fortunate to see one on the ECML. But no doubt somebody will pull out their old spotting notebooks from the bottom of the wardrobe and prove me wrong, and my apologies if I’m being pedantic.
I would lay claim to having had a fairly good spotting position during the late fifties. This was a bridge over what is now the Midland mainline into St. Pancras, and was about 300 yards north of Napsbury station, south of St. Albans – both the bridge and the station have long since gone. The bridge led to a narrow strip of allotments, and a gate in a high wire mesh fence. If all this sounds rather unremarkable, the saving grace was that Radlett Airfield was on the other side of said fence. More specifically it was the hard-standing at the NE end of the airfield i.e. the end where the products of Handley Page wound themselves up to full chat before launching into wind and out over Park Street and Radlett villages. So my train spotting was punctuated by watching various Hastings, Heralds, Canberras and the mighty Victors do their thing. The locomotives on the St. Pancras line were not the biggest and most powerful in the land, Jubilee’s and Stanier 8F’s being the biggest, but towards the end of my interest in such boyish pursuits the introduction of the Blue Pullman DMU rakes and Peak class diesels added a bit of interest. Unfortunately I didn’t have a camerea in those days.
You can still see working Jubilees and Peaks on preserved lines and the occasional main line excursion, what wouldn’t we give to see a real Handley Page product flying.

Chernyakhovsk, in the Kaliningrad region, was definately my most impressive bit of trainspotting. Standing in the landing pattern, Su-24s were flying in on the left hand, with to the right a massive trainyard with a few dozen derelict steam engines rusting away.

Barnetby!

I still like to go there now! (mind you i was brought up with the diesels!)

Regarding Froddingham Shed, being a “Scunny Lad” i can say that Froddingham shed (Diesel Depot) does still exist, its now owned by Grant Rail for servicing the various types of track plant, as the road up there is a private road we tend to not go up there very often!

Regards

H

favourite train spotting places

The bottom of our street(100yds) where the main London to edinburgh line in the sixties,everything passeed along those lines. Mallard,Bittern ,Dwight D. Eisenhower,Silver Fox,(all the streaks in fact) and plenty of Queen Elizabeth Class too.and lots of Austerity class,every tank engine class and the early diesels too inc Deltic Prototype amazing days!

Papa lima , Chuffed does still get used but usually in conjuntion with a profanity !
Seeing Bittern certainly made living next to (read on top of ) the East Coast Mainline worthwhile today , the door shaking rumbling the other night at 1 ‘o’ clock in the morning was , I thought , just another heavy goods train or maybe the oil tanker train .

spike

One of my regular bike trips was the 15 miles to Newark, past RAF Swinderby (with lots of Vampire T.11s in the circuit) and if I saw Bittern or any other A4 (“Streak”) on the main line I would have been well chuffed! (Do people in the UK still say they are “chuffed” when they are overjoyed?)

Outside my front door is quite good ! , this old thing just went chuffing by , about half an hour ago , Bittern and one coach , I didn’t have my camera to hand but googled it and found this pic ,

Spooky!!!!!!!:eek: 😮 😮 😮

spike

I was at Grantham too! Around 1954. On a school trip from Lincoln City School a few years later, we trainspotters bunked off to Dover shed, see the results here (use the Search facility for Dover).
http://www.train-photos.com/
At the ripe old age of 64, I still photograph locomotives (steam preferably, but there are very few in Sweden) at every opportunity.
I had an Eagle badge once, and read it avidly from the very first issue onwards. Dan Dare was of course my favourite, and there was a space-type radio programme that thrilled me. What was that called? I suppose kids today would not be able to understand what it meant to have sugar (i.e. sweets) rationed!
Those were the days, when I would disappear on my bike all day and my parents didn’t worry at all. A bit later, when I was about 14, I biked all the way from Lincoln to Scunthorpe along the main road – no gears on the bike, no sandwiches, boy, was I tired and hungry when I got back! That was the road that goes past Scampton (obligatory aviation mention there!).

I think that the programme was called ‘Journey into Space’, probably Dan Dare inspired too.
You may be interested to know that assuming your cycle trip to Scunthorpe meant a look at Frodingham engine sheds, well, they have the last steam coaling tower left on the system, the other one at Carnforth is in preserved ownership so it doesn’t count. Trouble is, Frodingham has closed so the future of the tower is in jepardy, I doubt whether English Heritage would take on an uninspiring piece of concrete, but who knows.

I didn’t really get into Train “Spotting” but spent many a summer day at a junction in Timperley, near Altrincham. Skelly junction??
This would be 65 and/or 66.
And yes, I would cycle the 7 miles to Ringway on the country lanes from Brooklands near Sale. Cycle home in the dark with no worries or threats. Brooklands road used to continue in a straight line towards the airport at the Timperley end, IIRC it was called Brooks Drive?
Also used to cycle to Barton, in those days not many visiting A/c, so week after week with no new reggies!

Jumpers for goalposts!

Depends what trains you are into I guess, for steam trains Mid Hants Railway is very good. Wales has the Talyllyn Railway also steam. Also worth a visit if in the area Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.

I was at Grantham too! Around 1954. On a school trip from Lincoln City School a few years later, we trainspotters bunked off to Dover shed, see the results here (use the Search facility for Dover).
http://www.train-photos.com/
At the ripe old age of 64, I still photograph locomotives (steam preferably, but there are very few in Sweden) at every opportunity.
I had an Eagle badge once, and read it avidly from the very first issue onwards. Dan Dare was of course my favourite, and there was a space-type radio programme that thrilled me. What was that called? I suppose kids today would not be able to understand what it meant to have sugar (i.e. sweets) rationed!
Those were the days, when I would disappear on my bike all day and my parents didn’t worry at all. A bit later, when I was about 14, I biked all the way from Lincoln to Scunthorpe along the main road – no gears on the bike, no sandwiches, boy, was I tired and hungry when I got back! That was the road that goes past Scampton (obligatory aviation mention there!).