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.

1) Same train, heading south at speed.
2) 70026, Polar Star starting out from Lancaster at about New Year 1966-67
3) Same train, showing lots of winter smoke.
4) Royal Scot relief, Carnforth 66, unidentified Brit but believe me, it was shifting, could be 70031, Byron.

1) On the way up to visit my uncle at Morecambe we went by train, hauled by a Class 47 from Crewe, this shot I took out of the window at Wigan Springs Bank Sheds, identidy of the Brit unknown,
2) 70029, Shooting Star at Carnforth 1966, by this time the Brits were painted green but had lost their lining and nameplates, I have a lot of colour slides taken at this time, including of this one, but am unable to publish.
3) 1966, Lancaster, a bit of action, unknown Brit on a Christmas relief special, and it was really going some.

1) Brits would turn up at all sorts of unexpected places, Burton on Trent 70022, Tornado, summer 64, note the lack of nameplates.
2) Tornado again, earlier in the year at Cricklewood, complete with nameplates.
3) The day of the roundhouse visit at Crewe, and I can’t find those shots, 70049, Solway Firth.

4) 70014, Iron Duke at Annesley 1965, several Brits ended their lives at this outpost of the GC, used on semi- fasts from Nottm Vic to Marylebone but not averse to a bit of freight work either.
When first built, this loco was kept pristine for use on the Golden Arrow, along with 70004 William Shakespeare.
5) An unexpected viewing, Toton sheds were a 15 min bike ride from my house where we would sit on the spoil heap and watch the activity through binoculars. One day during the school holidays, must have been summer 64, we arrived to find a rare Scottish Brit near the coaling tower, 70051 Firth of Forth, never found out why it was there.
6) One day I was walking towards the Central Market in Nottingham, when I heard the sound of a chime whistle in Vic station, believing it could be an A4, I ran down to the platform to find another Scottish Brit, 70054, Dornoch Firth, shunting stock in the station. The driver kindly allowed me on board and I spent a happy hour moving around the station, shovelling coal and pulling the whistle.

Have dug out some more pictures of Brits if anyone is interested, I tried downloading earlier but the computer crashed, so I’ll have to spread them out.

1) My only picture of a Brit at Liverpool St, 70038, Robin Hood, 1959, should have been shedded at my home town I know, but I don’t think it ever went near Nottingham.
2) Derby Open Day 1962, 70048, The Territorial Army, 1908-1958, I can’t make out the shed plate, but it could be Scottish. Not all Brits were originally named and 70047 always stayed anonymous. Note the handrails on the side of the smoke deflectors, these were removed following an accident caused by poor visibility on the WR, this must have been one of the last to retain them.
Derby Open Days were the business, they always used to display rare locos that were not seen in the area, ie Coronations, note 46256 next to the Brit, as well as some good anoraks. We were allowed to run riot round the works and sheds, however one year we were in the roundhouse when a load of kids managed to drive a 4F off the track, they were lucky not to put it into the turntable pit. After that the sheds were off limits, if anyone wants to see more pics of Derby Open Day, I have a few.
3)70034, Thomas Hardy in a typical end of service state at Carnforth, 1966.

A few pictures for you to look at:-

1) This a picture that I found in the Observers Book of Locomotives by H C Casserley, this picture is attributed to the late, great R C Riley who died in July. It shows J69 68619 at L St with either the driver or fireman looking out the cab, could this be your grandfather. My apologies to those who have rights to this picture, but it could be important to Hornchurch.

The other pictures are all taken by me.

2) The N7 69621 taken at Leeds in 1965 prior to restoration.
3) Evening Star at Derby Open Day 1963 clearly showing the Cardiff 88A shedplate on the smokebox door.
4) Britannia at Crewe North 1965, I can’t find the pictures I took in the roundhouse that day.
5) Rather unusually, Britannia at Grantham, 1963, on a north bound parcels from the Anglia region, as you can see, the cab was crammed with kids including me after I took the picture.
6) Rising Star at Carnforth Dec 1966 on the Barrow-Euston express, the famous buffet as featured in the film ‘Brief Encounter’ is just to the right of the loco, it has recently been lovingly restored and worth a visit.
7) The same train departing Carnforth and minutes away from the water deluge on Hest Bank troughs.
8) Typical B-1 at Nottingham Victoria, 1958, these locos had just then started replacing the B-17’s from GC services, most of our allocation were named after local football teams, ie Nottingham Forest, Derby County, Sheffield Wednesday etc, I believe that all these clubs still have the original nameplates.

The N7 69621 is actually owned by the East Anglian Railway Museum which is between Halstead and Colchester. To get the full story of this loco go on their web site. Due to their lack of a decent running line it tends to get based away, however after some recent attention it is in fact running up at Sheringham and with it being half term this week, probably running today, try their station webcams.
It was used as one of the Liverpool St pilots up to 1963 then stored for years at Leeds Neville Hill along with The Great Marquess, LNER K4 2-6-0.
The other type of tank used as the station pilots were the GE class J-69 0-6-0T, but I think that they had all been withdrawn by 1962 and replaced with the N-7’s.
I’ve got my scanner working and dug out some of my old piccies, I’ll see what I can find of interest.

I’ve checked the NNR website, the N-7 isn’t running today, maybe later this week.