The LNER Encyclopedia

I have obtained a collection of photos all taken in the 1930’s and early 1940’s of locos of the big 4

These photos are of Gresley’s P2 Cock O’ The North, late 1930’s unknown location, but with all the photos i have received it will be the Southern end of the Ecml
anyone any ideas of date & location please?

2001 Cock O’ The North
http://railway-photography.smugmug.com/ ... /i-4PH7cWX

Neil

The third picture where it is in rebuilt form as 60700 is in Kings Cross station throat.

The steel mineral wagons visible just forward of the front buffers are in the passenger loco yard.

Alan

Yes, Kings Cross on that one. Photo 2, though, I don't think is anywhere south of, say, Grantham.

Is photo 2 just off the Border Bridge?

That was my gut feel. The stock would seem to indicate a NER/NBR train.

Is the loco (phot 2) not...ahem...10000 (Hush-Hush) not Cock o' the North at all?

I have to say, I gasped when I opened that first photo of 2001.

These things are so subjective, and maybe it's because I never saw it, but I think it really is the ultimate in British steam locomotive aesthetics - it just oozes grace and power.

Leaving aside the question of whether it actually performed in terms of an efficient, economic traction unit, I don't know, but my goodness, it has to be up there in the top ten best lookers in the world.

(Nobody recognise the location? Looks GN to me, certainly doesn't make me think of Edinburgh - Aberdeen, but there again, I don't really know that road. )

Photo 2 is indeed the Hush Hush taken from a damaged glass negative. Howard Sprenger removed a lot of the scratches from it and I have speculated in other places that the Original was either by Sanderson or Romanes. The location is whats known locally as the Sea Cutting or Pipers quarry on old maps. The train is a southbound Edinburgh Newcastle relief which has just passed Tweedmouth shed and is fast Approaching Spittal Crossing. An old Porter at Alnmouth once told me that when the buzz got around that this loco was running the staff would try to get in a position to see it and any locos in the shed yard would give it a whistle as it passed such was the enthusiasm for this new machine.

Fully agree, Midland Excursion. And that's the stuff of legend, 52D.

Pic 1 might be on the southern part of the GN.I can only think of three stations that had that track arrangement with the down main in the middle (up main to the left of pic, down hatfield to right) and they are Harringay, Hornsey and Wood Green. If anyone has Peter Costers book on the GN ,vols 1 and 2 they might be able to narrow it down. Wood Green can be ruled out ,but its that bridge in the background that puzzles me. Should have an update this evening as No.1 son has borrowed them

pic 4
There is a photo (Fig 119) between pages 140 and 141in Part 6B of the RCTS Green series taken from near the same locoation, i thought it was the same one it is that similar . No name given in the acknowledgements
Pic 5
On Page 161 of same it mentions that 2393 was at New Barnet exhb on 5/6 June 1937

Photo 4 does look like the approach to Potter's Bar with an Up train on the slow line. Booster removed so after April 1937.

John

I have studied photo 1 and thought silverfox was correct, but none of the layouts quite match the inner suburban stations mentioned.

Somewhere that does however, is Essendine, the loco being on the Up fast line. Any thoughts?

John

Could be, John, but unless the alignment has changed since then, I don't think there's any curvature through Essendine as evidenced at the far end of the train in the photo, slight though the curve appears to be.

Essendine station was definitely on a gentle curve.

A Google search and a view of an old map, via nls maps, will confirm this.

John

John,
Peter Coster 'The Book of the Great Northern' Vol 2 has a pic of Essendine station on P147
The foot crossing and the 'object' (drain?) in the 6ft are in the same position in both photos. However the layout is the reverse of the inner London stations in that the UP main is the middle line
So confirmed beyond doubt Essendine