Returning to Grantham

[rob237]

A loading dock and goods shed were on the up side, located behind the Yard Box.
Likewise, a dock and platform were sited in the Lincoln bay...primarily for parcels traffic.
Cheers
Robt P.

[ROY@34F]

re. strang steels last trip behind an L1;and 61070's copy of the "journel's" story ; i remember that collision . i think by then we had finished with the L1s to nottingham,as that post indicates of course. indeed in my '63 diary, i have frequent mention of pass. "pilot" , with class 4s ? 2-6-0s.i was on these sometimes with 43090,43111,43159,43087 mentioned. on jan 3rd. i was on shed,then sent pass. to Lincoln to ride 2nd man back on a railcar,what that was all about , i don't know. that's what i've put in my diary.they were just railcars to us.sorry i can't say what type of unit it was!

[ROY@34F]

yes,Andy w's diagrams of goods and pass. pilots is impressive,all those years ago.i agree with 61070,i think they had shrunk somewhat by '63. i do remember down side goods shunt with a J69,as someone mentioned being shedded at grantham. but it was a few years earlier,i'm sure. i was on it a time or two with Joe Dickenson,a driver in the "old man's "link.these were men took off the "main line" mainly for eyesight reasons . they handled shunting turns,a job to the old yard (Ambergate) ,and coal shunt in the loco.

[60129 GUY MANNERING]

61070 said :-

I hadn't realised that there was 'officially' a goods yard on the down side until I saw that was allocated the No.3 pilot duty in your list. I was aware that there was an area alongside 'the loco' with surfacing for road vehicles between the tracks, presumably accessed from Springfield Road.

John it was indeed accessed from Springfield road about 50 yards West of the Main Line and ran to the East of the Engine Shed.
Regards.

[workev]

I have just managed to acquire Colin Walker's book "Trails through Grantham", some fantastic shots and well worth a look.

Unfortunately none of the shots are dated, although most are after 1956/7 up until closure as the BR totem is the last one. There are a couple of shots of L1s and a B1 on locals to Nottingham, plus another shot of an L1 with guards van and two O2s making their way back to the shed from High Dyke.

More A2 shots on shed as well.

Does anybody know if the Yeadons registers have shed allocations? I hope to get into Ian Allan in Manchester and have a look, but would be good to know. If Andy Ws list of 1960 pilots is anything to go by then there were smaller engines at 34F up to 1960 at least, but photographs of pilots at work are few and far between.

Ian

[strang steel]

I dont know the answer to your question Ian, but I use this site:-

http://www.steamsheds.co.uk/about.php

John

[workev]

John,

Yes I use that as well, but the disclaimer talks about locos that may have visited the shed as well as being allocated there, so not sure how accurate it is, although it does seem to match up most of the time.

Might have to wait for my trip to Ian Allan!

Ian

[Flamingo]

Does anybody know if the Yeadons registers have shed allocations? I hope to get into Ian Allan in Manchester and have a look, but would be good to know. If Andy Ws list of 1960 pilots is anything to go by then there were smaller engines at 34F up to 1960 at least, but photographs of pilots at work are few and far between.

Ian

I only have one volume of Yeadons Registers ( Gresley A1/A3) but it does list the shed allocations of the engines. Format and layout not that easy to use though.

[workev]

Does anybody know if the Yeadons registers have shed allocations? I hope to get into Ian Allan in Manchester and have a look, but would be good to know. If Andy Ws list of 1960 pilots is anything to go by then there were smaller engines at 34F up to 1960 at least, but photographs of pilots at work are few and far between.

Ian

I only have one volume of Yeadons Registers ( Gresley A1/A3) but it does list the shed allocations of the engines. Format and layout not that easy to use though.

At least I know! Off to Manchester soon then (my Bank Manager will be pleased!)

Ian

[Flamingo]

Andy Ws list of 1960 pilots is anything to go by then there were smaller engines at 34F up to 1960 at least, but photographs of pilots at work are few and far between.

Ian

According to my Summer 1960 Locoshed Book there were 4 N2s allocated to
Grantham in May of that year, they were nos. 69505/16/60/61. Also nos. 69531/49/80/83 were transferred in from the London area after May 1960, presumably as replacements for withdrawn engines.

Would these N2s have been used as the yard pilots or did they have other duties?

[61070]

Perhaps ROY@34F will know something of the N2s' duties? Interestingly, though, page 103 of 'Steam - The Mystic Harmony' (the book mentioned earlier) has a colour photo of 69549 in the Nottingham bay, which is captioned: Saddened by the loss of the pretty, usually well-kept GNR 'C12' 4-4-2T station pilot, I was not a little aggrieved by the terrible external neglect of her replacement, 'N2' 0-6-2T No. 69549. She certainly performed adequately, at times fighting with great lengths of stock across sharp curves in the carriage sidings, making quite a smoke-churning racket...

It's not clear from the photo whether 69549 is about to set off for Nottingham or is dealing with empty stock, though the caption implies the latter.

The pictures in the book are not dated, but clearly this one must have been taken after May 1960.

Here's 61162 rattling through on mineral wagon empties on 9th April 1964.

[60129 GUY MANNERING]

John,
not wishing to nit pick ,but you mean 69549.

Perhaps ROY@34F will know something of the N2s' duties? Interestingly, though, page 103 of 'Steam - The Mystic Harmony' (the book mentioned earlier) has a colour photo of 65949 in the Nottingham bay, which is captioned: Saddened by the loss of the pretty, usually well-kept GNR 'C12' 4-4-2T station pilot, I was not a little aggrieved by the terrible external neglect of her replacement, 'N2' 0-6-2T No. 65949. She certainly performed adequately, at times fighting with great lengths of stock across sharp curves in the carriage sidings, making quite a smoke-churning racket...

It's not clear from the photo whether 65949 is about to set off for Nottingham or is dealing with empty stock, though the caption implies the latter.

Kind Regards,Derek

[Flamingo]

69549 was transferred to Grantham sometime after May 1960 and it was withdrawn in September 1961 from 34E New England, so its stay must have been fairly brief.

[61070]

John,
not wishing to nit pick ,but you mean 69549
Kind Regards,Derek

Sorry, a dsylexia momnet! I will amend.

[workev]

Blimey, all this detective work is wearing me out, and shows that Books, the internet and forums throw up differences of opinion (or fact?)

My Jim Grindlay allocations book does not show N2 69549 as allocated to 34F at all (and neither does http://www.steamsheds.co.uk) so I assume Yeadons may throw more light on its allocation history.

Looking at the Jim Grindlay book, and checking against the website, I have looked at the non-pacific allocations for 1955,1959,1960 and 1962.

1955 yields some surprises to me, as 34F had an allocation of 7 B12s, most of which were withdrawn in 1957/58 but not sure whether Grantham was their last shed. In addition to the stable group of O2s there were 3 J6s, 2 C12s (as refererred to by 61070's post above), 2 J52s and again a surprise to me 2 A5s.

It seems that by 1959 the C12s and J52s had gone, replaced by 2 N2s, 2 J69s, 2 B1s and the first of the L1s. This seems to back up the 1960 need for 6 pilot duties around the station area (and maybe High Dyke?). In 1960 3 L1s and 4 N2s seem to be ruling the show, and by 1962 all duties were rostered for L1s, with the only other none-pacific/O2 engines being 4 B1s.

It seems that by 1962/63 when 61070 made most visits to Grantham the pilots were fewer, I assume mainly due to the influx of DMUs and the move to Diesels on the ECML mainline duties.

I will look at the pacifics next, as well as try to list some of the engine changes on services.

Please note this may not be definitive, but gives a good idea of the changes in engines to reflect changes in required duties.

Would be good to get an idea from ROY@34F on these locos!

Ian