Returning to Grantham

[Andy W]

Forgive me if I'm wide of the mark here but I haven't seen this issue of Backtrack to view the picture of 61625 but I think the answer to what it is doing there can be summed up in two words - Doncaster Works.

Presuming (from the previous posts) that we are talking about 1952, Yeadon has 61625 at Doncaster undergoing a General between 1/7/52 and 8/8/52. So if the picture is dated late June 1952 and it looks a bit tired, it's on the way there and if it is dated August 1952 and it looks prestine, it's on a trial/running in turn, probably returning to Doncaster.

The reason I say this is that Doncaster were doing similar things with diesels (albeit not to Grantham) a quarter of a century later. The trick for us in the KX Division was to spot what was going on and, if it passed the test run, quickly make arrangements for it to come back to us before someone else nicked it.

[strang steel]

Pure genius Andy.

The photo is captioned August 1952 and the loco looks to be in ex-works condition.

John

[Bryan]

I have just seen an ad in Heritage Rail for a Marsden Rail DVD Kings Cross York
In the features bit it states shots around Grantham and the shed.
Has this been posted before?

[61070]

Thanks Brian, much appreciated - that's another one for the Christmas list. There's a preview at:
http://www.cinerail.com/marsden-rail/ma ... -york.html
Now, harking back to page 16 of this thread and mention of the Lyons Maid 'Zoom' special trains, what do we have at around 00:30 of the promotional clip on the above site? Only 4472 leaving King's Cross on one of these, special headboard and all! I think we may also see the proud owner himself, Mr Pegler, giving a brief wave from the fireman's seat?

[strang steel]

Yes, I bought the Marsden Rail dvd (32) about a week ago, and it does have some good clips of Grantham, plus some footage at Great Ponton. There are also some excellent scenes of Britannias on the KX - Cleethorpes services passing stations between Grimsby and Boston, which is an area that was rarely covered on cine film.

I have only watched it once, so cannot remember much of the details - but I do not think that it will disappoint. Included in the video are some 1930s and 40s b/w footage of trains at various points on the 'journey' which I considered were worth the price of the dvd alone.

[61070]

I’ve been having a few computer gremlins, but all is nearly back to normal.

This is the water crane at the south end of the up main line platform on a July evening in 1964. Its supply came from a 37,000 gallon high level water tank to the east of the station buildings (illustrated in the May 1996 edition of BackTrack (Vol. 10, No.5), p.277).

By this time ‘the Loco’ had closed and the remaining staff of the department were accommodated in the offices behind where the men are standing.

Three of the four men have been identified to me as follows: the man in the cap is Driver Tommy Staples. In front of him, lighting his pipe, is Sid Hart, a Clerk in the general office of the former Grantham mpd. On the right is Mr Tutty, Chief Clerk.

[Boris]

On the subject of Grantham.

Does anyone know of or remember Trevor Mason who transferd there as a fireman from Retford G.N about late 40s or early 50s.

I once visited him there whilst he was living in a hostel or something

[61070]

Re . Rob 237-routes from loco ; I can confirm there were 3 routes . There were three miniature signals to exit the loco , arranged virtically on one post . They must be only just off some of the recent photos . They read "top to the left",as I'm sure most will know . Bottom was to down main , seldom used I think; middle to notts. line , top,I think, to engineers sidings to the west of the notts.line,though I would stand corrected on this. To get to the engine spur you would reverse into it from the notts.line of course. Hope I'm not stating the obvious here ! As for the exact layout-not sure;too long ago I'm afraid .

This is a quote from some weeks back - Sept 25th on page 26 in fact. I've just been looking through some of the pictures and I have noticed that the signal post mentioned by ROY@34F, with three miniature arms governing access from the shed exit road, appears in the photo of 60010 that's attached back on page 9 (posted May 11).

Here are three more pictures from July 1964, taken on the same sunny afternoon as the shot of the water crane; these are from one of the few films I have that remains undated.

1. 92183 drifts through with coal from Nottinghamshire

2. Minoru is probably on its way back to New England. Note that the Nottingham bay is by now roofless, but I think the removal of the canopy may have been quite recent because what appears to be temporary platform lighting is still in place. The Nottingham bay canopy was referred to in recent discussion (page 28) on the YouTube clip which shows the collapsed state of the up-side canopy in 1947.

3. Two of Grantham's C&W Examiners, carrying the 'tools of the trade'.

[60129 GUY MANNERING]

Gentlemen,
Todays the the day 61070 is at Grantham Museum,if your in the locality why not pop along and have a interesting couple of hours in the prescence of some very knowledgeable people.
Regards.

[strang steel]

Hmmm, a sunny Thursday afternoon in July 1964.

We have five to choose from - 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd and 30th.

July 1964 was quite a decent month weatherwise, so I cant narrow it down that much. However, it is certainly not the 9th as that was cloudy, windy and rather wet. I dont think it is the 30th either because there was quite a Westerly wind that day and the 9Fs smoke seems to be just drifting back along the train.

That leaves the 2nd, 16th and 23rd. Personally, I would make an educated guess at the 16th because there was very little wind that day, and the east coast sea breeze doesn't reach the Grantham area until after 5p.m. and the shadows suggest to me that it is earlier than that.

[61070]

strang steel - many thanks for your thoughts on the weather on Thursdays in July 1964. For the moment I have no further clues which can definitely settle the matter, but eliminating 9th certainly moves us on.

The only spotting notes I have for July 1964 show that I was at Grantham on 30th July and that I did record 92183 on that occasion. However, my note indicates that it was seen on a class 5 train, while the photo shows it with class 7 lamps; also, there is no sign of 60062 in my record of that day. That, and your suggestion that 30th would have been windier than the 92183 picture suggests, reinforces the notion that - while not completely discounting 30th - I should keep all the other options open. On the same film, before the Grantham shots, there are some pictures taken on our family holiday at Sheringham. This would have been during the second half of June, however, so it remains possible that the pictures were taken in early or mid July. School holidays, of course, didn't commence until the end of July, but it's quite possible that Dad went to Grantham by himself on one of the earlier July Thursday afternoons and took these pictures, and that we also went together on 30th - when 92183 passed through again, but on a class 5 train as indicated in my notes.

So thanks again for your interest. This is the last b/w film with Grantham shots which remains uncertain as to date.

[workev]

Folks,

I was at Warley exhibition on Saturday and picked up a copy of the new Keith Pirt portfolio book of Grantham by Booklaw.

Whilst I am a little disappounted in some of the reproduction, there are some interesting shots within and well worth the buy.

Picking up some of info in this topic he has photos of N2s, A5 and L1 on shed and on local services as well as a J6! He also shows an O4 on an iron ore train, although number unknown. I think I am pretty sure this would be a Retford engine, as a Retford O2 is shown on shed as well. All photos were taken between 1959 and 1962.

Lots of A1s and A4s, a few V2s and A2s, B1s etc.

I was hoping for more shots the of the station and shed, but the photos are brilliant for weathering of locos and passenger stock for my model.

Finally, I think 61070's on this thread are actually more interesting than Keith Pirts, either that or Nick Piggot has missed the point of havin a book about Grantham!

Ian

[strang steel]

I agree with that sentiment Workev, because with the photos that 61070 has posted comes much more detail and a more human aspect that we rarely get in published photo albums.

[52D]

Yes although Grantham is outside my normal area of interest i do follow 61070s postings with extreme pleasure and i have had the pleasure of corresponding with him on several other LNER related matters. I for one feel there is a book waiting to get out of this thread as the offerings from publishers definitely lack the concise and measured detail that the author and contributors to this thread have brought to the fore.
I am sure fellow readers of the thread would join me in encouraging 61070 to go to print.

[mr B]

I agree with 52D on this one, however its seems the cat has been let out of the bag, if only they'd have been put in a book be fore been shown to the world, then offered on sale, instead of the photo's sailing around the web for all to see.

mr B