The LNER Encyclopedia

Here are two photos taken at Grantham on 3rd October 1963. A begrimed 60006 is moving south along the goods loop, past the north end of the station. Two points of interest are:

the coach in the background of the first picture, which is in departmental use a moblle workhop but I believe it is of GCR origin and is these days part of the NRM collection, being on loan to the GCR Rolling Stock Trust folk at Ruddington - is this correct?

in the second picture note the attire of Grantham Driver Ernie Woollatt, who looks like he's dressed for a diesel job but ended up on a dirty A4 instead!

61070 wrote: in the second picture note the attire of Grantham Driver Ernie Woollatt, who looks like he's dressed for a diesel job but ended up on a dirty A4 instead!

Yes, that's what it looks like, the green jacket and diesel cap with yelllow BR lettering? A Kings X man once told me he climbed off a Deltic in Leeds thinking he looked pretty damn smart in his new green clothes, only to be engaged in conversation with some Yorkshireman who turned out to be in the cloth business. The driver was not chuffed to be told that his uniform was made of pretty shoddy cloth.

The green diesel driver's uniform was introduced in C1961 and was fine for men who were on ,say, DMUs all of the time. However, it was less of a good idea for men who were still expected to handle steam on occasions, whether expecting to do so or not. As a result in the north east one saw strange sartorial mismatches of green jackets and blue overalls or blue overalls topped by a green cap. I once, in 1964, saw an immaculately turned out Haymarket driver ,green uniform, crisp collar and tie, gleaming brown brogues, getting a filthy A3 away from Newcastle bound for Edinburgh. By this time Haymarket had finished with steam -or so he mistakenly thought!
In October 1963 ,the time of the photograph Grantham shed was closed and its remaining men were mainly employed on diesel locomotives from other sheds .Obviously, in Driver Woollatt's case something appears to have gone awry in the planning. One does get the impression that for many footplatemen the new uniform was, "an idea before its time".

the coach in the background of the first picture, which is in departmental use a moblle workhop but I believe it is of GCR origin

I am not a rolling stock expert but the coach looks very much like a GCR "Barnum". They were built after a visit to the USA by JG Robinson (I think), and had vertical matchboard sides. A number of other railways built similar vehicles. They were nicknamed Barnums after Barnum & Bailey's Circus which toured the UK at about that time. The GCR had a generous loading gauge and these vehicles were quite commodious for their day. I personally think that the Barnums looked out of place on a British railway but no doubt the passengers were well catered for.

I believe that there are a number still in existence, there is, or was, one on the NYMR. Whether the coach in the photograph still exists I do not know.

I have enjoyed the Grantham photos, keep them coming!

Barnum coach that was based at the NYMR Goathland Station.
Coach number 695 built 1911 at Dukinfield.
Became 5695 then transferred to Civils renumbered DE320528.
Condemmed at East Boldon 6-6-70 arrived at the NYMR Oct 70
Departed 18-12-88
Link to Heritage database type in 5695 in number box.
http://www.heritagerailways.com/coachdb.html

Thanks to all for the information and comments. I've found another picture which shows (just) the ex-GC 'Barnum' departmental coach in about the same location. 60112, well coaled (possibly too well - to the extent of being out of gauge!), is reversing off the shed yard. I don't yet have a date for this one - summer 1962 is the best I can do.

I have other photos of 60112 taken in August 1963, by which time it was fitted with 'proper' smoke deflectors instead of the smokebox-top 'fins' seen here. Does anyone know when it went into works for the repair at which this change of appearance happened? It would maybe identify a 'not later than' date for this picture.

Another query - what's the significance of the single white lamp over the right-hand buffer in this situation?

61070 wrote:Thanks to all for the information and comments. I've found another picture which shows (just) the ex-GC 'Barnum' departmental coach in about the same location. 60112, well coaled (possibly too well - to the extent of being out of gauge!), is reversing off the shed yard. I don't yet have a date for this one - summer 1962 is the best I can do.

I have other photos of 60112 taken in August 1963, by which time it was fitted with 'proper' smoke deflectors instead of the smokebox-top 'fins' seen here. Does anyone know when it went into works for the repair at which this change of appearance happened? It would maybe identify a 'not later than' date for this picture.

Another query - what's the significance of the single white lamp over the right-hand buffer in this situation?

could it be working tender first????

61070 wrote: Another query - what's the significance of the single white lamp over the right-hand buffer in this situation?

That would appear to be a tail lamp, probably on the front there would be one lamp bottom centre denoting light engine. Loco headlamps were also used as tail lamps, they had a red shade which was rotated to show a red light. You say it was backing off shed (it is in reverse gear), did it depart in the opposite direction?

Acoording to the greeny deflectors were fitted in October 1962.

Maybe it's in the eye of this beholder, but didn't SNG design the most handsome locomotives in the country? Lovely proportions.

I hope someone closed that open cap on the water tank. Otherwise, some unsuspecting folk in the leading coach would have been in for a soaking at the next troughs.

Acording to Yeadon 60112 entered Doncaster Works for a general repair 18/7/62 and was released 5/10/62. As well as 60112, nos 60048/55/61 had the wing deflectors. Why, I've no idea, as they had been shown to be ineffective on the Thompson A2/2s, trapping too little air to be of any real value in deflecting the exhaust. The tender of 60112 is well coaled, though not as bad as I've seen. A big tump of coal served as a self -feeding hopper and eased the fireman's work on a long trip and some of the K/X men liked it as it helped ,so they said ,to keep the draught off their backs! The danger was coal falling off ,as any one who has seen the grenade like fragmentation as a lump hits the ground or a platform at speed will know.

Thanks 52A - I didn't know that locomotive headlamps with a clear lens had a red shade inside so that they could be used as a tail lamp (or maybe I had forgotten - I'm getting to the stage of life when sometimes I can't even remember what I've forgotten, if you see what I mean). Sorry, I don't know in which direction 60112 went after leaving the shed yard.

Stembok - thanks for the info about 60112's general repair commencing 18th July 1962. It's not only narrowed down the date of that photo, but also of several others.

Re your comment about the open tender tank lid, giner, near the departing end of each main line platform at Grantham there were always lying around a few of the wooden screens that were used to close off the open end of the corridor gangway of a leading coach. Until I was talking to a retired Grantham Passenger Shunter a few months ago I didn't appreciate that they were fitted to prevent (or, perhaps more likely, to limit!) the potential influx of water when refilling the locomotive's tender on troughs. I can't say I've ever been aboard a train when water was taken from troughs, though I do remember travelling over them.

LOL! Having spent most of my youth spotting beside Langley troughs, I've had many a laugh at glimpses of frantic passengers scrambling for window handles/straps as the water cascaded in from a four-foot fountain of water gushing from an open tank lid. A3's always seemed to produce the best "chunks" of water and on northbound trains the "chunk" would hit the arch of Norton Green Lane bridge as the train sped beneath thereby sending water smashing high into the air - a glorious sight, and a refreshing shower for us lads on a warm summer day. Memories are made of this.

stembok wrote:The green diesel driver's uniform was introduced in C1961 and was fine for men who were on ,say, DMUs all of the time ".

An anecdote from my scribblings about Newcastle and Gateshead!

A Driver, wearing his nice new green uniform jacket, was sat in the cab of a DMU waiting for the off to Carlisle reading his newspaper. Platform Supervisor walking past and not recognising him says in a rather high handed manner “what are you doing in there, get out”, so Driver obliges and sits on platform seat. Signal clears, start bell rings, train doesn’t move and a few minutes later our Supervisor returns and finds no Driver. As he is looking round he spots our man, still sitting on the seat reading his newspaper, and says “are you the Driver of this train”? Driver agrees that he is and Supervisor starts shouting at him “why are you sitting here and not on your train”? You just told me to get out mate, make your bloody mind up!

A friend's father was a driver at Canklow in the Rotherham area. He hated the new uniform caps -not the green version - but the one which followed and continued wearing his 'grease top'. By now it was extremely disreputable, with the actual 'grease top' leaning over somewhere by his left ear. After several warnings and long long after steam had disappeared he was issued with a firm directive to 'get rid of it', much to his annoyance. Another obviously very fashion conscious young fireman at Carlisle in the 60s had extensively 'modified' his 'grease top' the sides clipped down to the band and the front raised up above the peak, in the fashion of German Wehrmacht officers in WW2. Best of all was a fireman on an A4 on the Glasgow - Aberdeens .He wore a spotless white linen handkerchief knotted at the four corners at Buchanan Street station. A rain shower began, whereupon he produced a piece of polythene, knotted it at the four corners as a transparent, waterproof cover for his hanky! Eccentric ,or just extremely practical?

Shoddy cloth!!At least in Yorkshire you get the truth!!