Help with questions on BR & LNER

two pic’s of some boxy looking tank engine (highly polished) which he finished his career on, as a pilot (he said) showing less experienced drivers the layout & points/lines in & out of Liverpool St Stn.

The station pilot was an engine permanently on station for pulling stock/trains in and out of the platforms, not for teaching drivers. I suspect it’s possible that may have happened too but that’s not why it was there. Liverpool St had two I believe.

I’m sure one of the more fanatical spotters on here can be even more accurate but that’s my understanding.

I also have no interest in diesels but I do make an exception for Deltics. There’s something about the sound that really gets to me. I had a cab ride in one recently when the six remaining production locos were all together at the Deltic Preservation Society’s open day at Barrow Hill. Seriously overpowered train – two coaches and a Deltic at each end.

Try also.

http://railways.national-preservation.com/

Thank you gentlemen for sharing these shots. Some real treats for the likes of me who were not around to enjoy steam.

Locos at Lincoln

The only two pictures I have from those days at Lincoln:
1. A3 60065 Knight of Thistle on a Sunday diversion for East Coast main line track maintenance.
2. B1 61405.
I think I had one of those nasty little Kodak plastic cameras, although at the time it would have been a precious object to me! As you say, tiny viewfinder and no adjustments at all, shutter speed couldn’t cope with moving objects.

1) A3 Merry Hampton with driver about to put the lamps on, presumably it had just come off shed.
2)Same loco pulling out the station heading north.
3)My cameras were not very good, not only did my Ilford Sporti 4 have a useless viewfinder, but anything moving quickly or in poor light was a waste of time. This is an unknown A4 on the Elizabethan, 1962.
4) The last A4 I saw at Grantham, Sir Nigel Gresley heading north at high speed 1963, after this, the services were mostly dieselised and there was a steam ban at Kings X, so our trips to Grantham finished.

How about Derby Open Day when I have time.

Many thanks, Pete! I turned 16 in August 1959, left school and disappeared into the RAF in September, trainspotting days ended for good then!

1) Flying Scotsman about to depart for the north, this was shortly before it’s purchase by Alan Pegler.

2) 60134, Foxhunter, 1962.

3) Mallard at the south end, everyone wanted to go in the cab when this turned up, 1963.

4) Seagull on Grantham shed, 63, this was the only time that I sneaked round, they didn’t have a turntable at Grantham, the locos having to turn on a triangle at the back of the shed.

Grantham
1) May 1958, 60015 Quicksilver, note the loose panels on the streamlined casing and the fact that it’s sounding it’s chime whistle. This is taken at the north end, the Lincoln departure bay behind me and the Nottm bay behind the train. Next to the water crane was a small wooden hut on which somebody had painted ‘The Royal Box’, we used to stand in it when there was a really fast non-stop coming through.
Note the 04 on the freight line, they were used for the High Dyke iron ore trains.
2) 1962, 60047 Donovan looking if it’s just coming off shed judging by the pile of coal in the tender.
Some early Diesels
3) The original Deltic at the south end of the station Aug 1960.
4) Same day, the Master Cutler Pullman heading north.
5) 1961, what looks like a brand new production Deltic, in the early days the cabs used to be full of men in white coats making notes on clipboards.
6) The one off Brush Falcon, D0280, 1963.

That’s it! Archibald Sturrock! Memory begins to fade after 55 years! More Grantham pictures, if you please. When I was much older I lived for a couple of years next to the East Coast main line when the Deltics were running, but hardly glanced at them.

Before I get on to Grantham, I’ll start with Lincoln.
Lincoln Exhibition 17/1/59, I think that the reason for this event was the opening of this goods depot, next to the old steam sheds by the Roman Basin and probably since demolished, somewhere I still have the programme.

1) Mallard with a qeue to go in the cab and through the corridor tender.
2) V2 60881 of Doncaster shed, always liked these locos.
3) Me and the old man, wearing his de-mob coat and both wearing a nice line in caps, it must have been cold that day.
4) One of the EM1 electric locos from the Woodhead line, obviously didn’t arrive under it’s own power.

The only jarring thing is that the Americans had PAINTED the motion with thick silver paint! Sacrilege, especially as you can see she is standing in a restaurant now and hardly likely to rust.

It was displayed at the entrance to an open ended shed for many years, so the paint is either to cover up the rust or was to prevent it rusting in the first place! Although I believe it was re-painted some time in the 1990’s.

Regards,

Dan

That’s it! Archibald Sturrock! Memory begins to fade after 55 years! More Grantham pictures, if you please. When I was much older I lived for a couple of years next to the East Coast main line when the Deltics were running, but hardly glanced at them.

A4 Pacific Dwight D Eisenhower

I just happened to drop in to the Rail Museum at Green Bay, Michigan, as one does (especially when one lives in Sweden) in 2003 and was flabbergasted to see this apparition!
I hadn’t seen her since she was at the buffers with an up express in 1960something at King’s Cross!
The only jarring thing is that the Americans had PAINTED the motion with thick silver paint! Sacrilege, especially as you can see she is standing in a restaurant now and hardly likely to rust.

I was living in a children’s home in Grantham in 1956, pocket money 1/9 per week, enough to go to the pictures and buy a bag of sweets! We used to scramble up the bank on the northwest side of Grantham station and put pennies on the rails to see them squashed to double the size by the Pacifics that were waiting; Grantham was I think an engine change stop for expresses to Scotland. The very first I saw was (A2?) “Archibald Russell”, I’ll never forget that either. Of course we were often chased away by the railwaymen but it was a magnet for us anyway! Health and safety would have a fit nowadays, but I survived and so did my mates. Later I lived in Lincoln and often cycled to Newark, some 15 miles away, just to look at the East Coast main line and collect some numbers for a couple of hours. I don’t suppose any children today would do such a thing! I am still an anorak and proud to be one, but diesels do nothing for me!

If you picked those pennies up too quickly, they used to burn your fingers!!
I can’t find a reference to Archibald Russell, however there was an A1 Pacific called Archibald Sturrock, 60118, could that have been the one.
The LNER pacifics did not do well in the preservation stakes, a few A-4’s, including one, Dwight D Eisenhower, in the States, have survived, but of those other glorious engines, only 1 A3 and an A2 are left. They are currently building a brand new A1, but it won’t be the same. I have some photos of the last 2 A1’s dumped at York sheds in 1966, pity they didn’t survive.
Not all the early diesels were that bad, the Deltics were big, noisy, smoky and very powerful, we didn’t disaprove of them at the time.
As for Health and Safety issues, I’ve been looking through some of my old pics and cringed at where I stood to take some of them, I don’t know how I survived.
I never went to Newark much, not a lot stopped there and I found the station quite claustrophobic and as a kid was always worried about the unusual flat crossover where the Nottm to Lincoln trains went over the ECML, still there I believe.
One of our favourite trains was the so called Tamworth Mail that left Lincoln in the early evening and ran non-stop to Nottingham, usually pulled by a B1 from Lincoln shed, passenger accomodation was limited but it had one of the old mail vans with pickup equipment, we used to hang out the window waiting for it to work.
If you are interested I have some pics taken at Lincoln open day in 1959, complete with Mallard, I remember squeezing through the corridor tender.

I was living in a children’s home in Grantham in 1956, pocket money 1/9 per week, enough to go to the pictures and buy a bag of sweets! We used to scramble up the bank on the northwest side of Grantham station and put pennies on the rails to see them squashed to double the size by the Pacifics that were waiting; Grantham was I think an engine change stop for expresses to Scotland. The very first I saw was (A2?) “Archibald Russell”, I’ll never forget that either. Of course we were often chased away by the railwaymen but it was a magnet for us anyway! Health and safety would have a fit nowadays, but I survived and so did my mates. Later I lived in Lincoln and often cycled to Newark, some 15 miles away, just to look at the East Coast main line and collect some numbers for a couple of hours. I don’t suppose any children today would do such a thing! I am still an anorak and proud to be one, but diesels do nothing for me!

I don’t know about the others but I most certainly would love to see more.

Yes PL – the Gressley one off was 60700. Somewhere at M&D’s there are some copies of prints of some steam and the W1 (IIRC) is in there. I will see what I can borrow.

Pete 70048 was shedded at Willesden 1A as at October 1963.

Interesting, the shed plate in that picture is definately not 1A, that picture would have been taken at the end of August 1962, perhaps the loco was on it’s way to it’s new shed allocation.
If you want to see some more pics, I have loads, is there a particular area, region or loco that you are interested in, let me know and I will publish if I can.

I am still trying to find my railway stuff, especially every copy of Trains Illustrated from 1968, which I found in a second-hand book shop somewhere and have put in what is obviously a VERY safe place! There would probably be a picture of a Crosti 9F there somewhere!
I should also have my photo negatives dating from 1958-59, too.
I remember very well seeing the Gresley 4-6-4 (was it 60700?) at Grantham once, probably in 1956 or so, and nearly passed out with shock and delight!

That’s interesting, it was about the same time that I saw it as well, I’m sure it was standing on the shed line adjacent to the station, waiting to take over a north bound train, why there were so many engine changeovers at Grantham always puzzled me. So where were you living at the time, we were always lurking around Derby and particularly Grantham, which was a pretty exciting place to visit, travelling over from Nottingham Vic in a bumpy old Gresley non-corridor coach pulled by a Thompson L1 2-6-4 tank from Colwick sheds, these locos had a fantastic turn of speed, not surprising since their power out put was higher than a Castle class or a Jubilee, believe it or not, so with only 4 carriages on and the level run to Grantham, you had to hang on for dear life, it must have been quite lively in the cab, pity non have survived, very handsome looking engines.
The staff on Grantham station were not very tolerant of trainspotters and tended to either chuck you off the station or try and put you back on the next train to Nottingham. My brother came up with a cunning plan.
In the late 50’s and early 60’s he was very much into electronics and built himself a small, portable transistor radio, something you never saw in those days. We timed our visits during the summer holidays to coincide with a Test Match, which he would listen to on the platform.
As the staff at Grantham were all cricket fanatics, including the station master, he was constantly being asked for an update on the score, during a round up of spotters on the station, the boss came out of his office and ordered that as we were well behaved, that we could stay, then turned round and asked whether Trevor Bailey had reached his century yet!
Have loads of Grantham and Derby pics if you are interested.

I don’t know about the others but I most certainly would love to see more.

Yes PL – the Gressley one off was 60700. Somewhere at M&D’s there are some copies of prints of some steam and the W1 (IIRC) is in there. I will see what I can borrow.

Pete 70048 was shedded at Willesden 1A as at October 1963.

I am still trying to find my railway stuff, especially every copy of Trains Illustrated from 1968, which I found in a second-hand book shop somewhere and have put in what is obviously a VERY safe place! There would probably be a picture of a Crosti 9F there somewhere!
I should also have my photo negatives dating from 1958-59, too.
I remember very well seeing the Gresley 4-6-4 (was it 60700?) at Grantham once, probably in 1956 or so, and nearly passed out with shock and delight!

Finally, a page from my old Combi, as I packed up taking numbers in 64-65, and Brits were all over my areas of operation then, including the famous Crewe visit, I wouldn’t be surprised if I saw them all in the end, how sad only 2 of these remain.
I do have some modern video of Britannia in action on the Stortford-Ely specials about 10 years ago, when, reliving the events of the 60’s we were allowed in the cab and took part in various movements around the station, bliss.

I was at Derby Open Day in 1958 or 1959, I remember there was a Crosti boilered 9F there with a mechanical stoker, and lots of new diesel locos. I didn’t have a camera then, more’s the pity!

Great, would you be interested in some of my other pictures of the ‘Day of Days’, most of the Crosti 9F’s were based at Toton and had the lower boiler removed, I can remember them when the exhaust came out the side but mainly when they were in the conversion state, b######d if I can find a picture of one, we probably thought they were a bit boring at the time.
I can even remember the LMS Garretts, we didn’t have a car in those days but my old man had a tandem and with him on the front, my brother on the back and me on the crossbar on a red leather seat we used to go down to Stanton Gate Sidings every Saturday lunchtime to watch the goings on, often involving Garretts pulling what seemed to be 5 mile long coal trains, followed by a trip to the Stanhope Arms pub and back for mothers lunch, we were never late.
Our cameras which took the published pictures were crap by modern standards, a Brownie, followed by an Ilford Sporti 4, then a Hanimex 35mm, and uncontrollable that was, all the exposures and shutter speeds were linked, I would have killed for what we have now.