"Grantham - The Streamliner Years"

[jwealleans]

We did. It was a special request from our Australian colleague who's currently unable to join us. It's not something I've done before, but it seemed to be quite well received (other than by the very confused pensioner who Skype randomly added to the call) and parts of it were recorded which gives us a different viewpoint on the weekend's activities.

[Chas Levin]

Hooray!
One of my favourite layouts too, very pleased to see it back.

[jwealleans]

Almost 12 months after the last post and Grantham has just completed its last show of 2022 and last for approximately another 12 months, at Fareham. Something of a mixed weekend, with two of the operating team crying off just before the show and a third unable to make it on Saturday due to transport difficulties. The layout also played up in the morning and by the afternoon I think the operators were flagging, despite the relatively relaxed pace we were working at. On Sunday, with a good night's sleep and an extra pair of hands we were back to our ~2 1/2 hour best, or very close to it.





Personally it was an up and down weekend too - i came back with a fault list as long as my arm, although some of them are items I spotted or had forgotten from previous shows. I do like to take something new to every show and had a few extra locos with us this time to test, including the two Hitchin Atlantics. 3272 would not respond at all to the Gaugemaster controllers and is probably in line for a new drivetrain. 3255 on the other hand performed well and went into service for the show. It was not so happy on the depot and will need tender pickups adding to join the full service fleet, but for mainline work it fitted in well.



Here it is in the fiddle yard on Sunday about to take a Lincoln (I think) train into Grantham from the north. Regular or previous operators may recognise the usual detritus.



Here on shed in a posed shot with the previous in the series, 3254, which is a DJH/Tony Wright production.

Another ex-Hitchin loco is O2 3498, now in the custody of Roy Mears. This is the subject of a fairly well known article, Last Tango in Hitchin which covered the build of the loco. Now awaiting refurbishment it had a brief spin round which revealed that it needs some additional sideplay to wind its way through the goods loops.



Around 1937, Grantham acquired a number of very small foreign 0-6-0s, for a purpose which we have yet to discover. For our purposes they're handy for the Ambergate trip (local coal working) among other duties.



J15 7515, here on just that working in the down yard, is nothing more exotic than a renumbered Hornby example.



J21 1806 was one of a number which wandered all over the LNER system. This is another new loco at this show and performed very well. It is from a London Road kit and was originally built by Ron Goult of Little Engines fame. The covering letter to him from the West Coast Kit Centre is still in the box. I acquired it from Tony Wright but had to make a new chassis as the original was built with EM spacers and OO wheels, so there was no sideplay at all.

Last new loco was another C1. This was a lockdown purchase, a DJH kit with a Portescap. Here it is as bought, running on Graham's Shap layout.



It was a decent puller, so with a repaint and some extra weight I had some hopes of it performing like a bigger loco. On Friday night we discovered that the steps I'd had to fabricate to replace the missing ones were out of gauge to the platforms. By Sunday afternoon I'd tweaked them and she ended the weekend of a bit of a high for me, positively galloping round with the 11-car Flying Scotsman set.



Link to video of 3255 and 4432.

I had a stroll along the front of the layout on Sunday morning - I'm always interested to see where my locos have got to as I never see many of them from Friday night to Sunday afternoon.



Roy's Gresley K1 based on a NuCast K2 and some GK resin magic.



LRM 521 series J6 - this build was shown back upthread.



NuCast (possibly Ks) J3. This was tarted up for Barrow Hill and has worked the layout ever since. It recently had lamp irons and after taking this photo I've decided I may treat it to a whistle and a weathering.



3276 on the down Peterborough. This is a DJH model of the loco involved in the famous Grantham accident of 1906. This train departing is one of the first moves in the operating sequence, which we had neatly finished at the end of proceedings on Saturday.



4529 in the pilot spur.



This is a minor mystery. ECJS 12w all 3rd, of a type which I also own a model of. Mine was cut and shut from two Kirk kits with a GK resin roof. This one is metal and Roy doesn't know it's origin. I have since wondered whether the sides are Trevor Charlton as they're too thick to be brass. Nice looking carriage, wherever it came from.



The yard at the side of the Ruston Hornsby works, looking very pristine to my eyes. Great North Road behind and the plate wagons are 51L, I think.



Finally the engine works in the arch under the Harlaxton Road bridge. This is developing into an interesting little cameo scene.

[Chas Levin]

Lovely photos Joanthan, great to see it back in action!

[manna]

G'Day Gents

Thank you for the update, to far away to pop over for a weekend. Don't you love the Atlantics.

manna

[earlswood nob]

Morning all from sunny Surrey

Thanks for the pics. I had intended to visit Fareham, but train problems prevented me doing so. I didn't fancy driving that far by myself.

I do want to see Grantham again, as I love the trainspotting side of watching the layout.

Malcolm

[LNER4479]

Just a quick note to highlight - in case you hadn't picked up on it elsewhere - a last minute invite means that there's another chance to see Grantham in the flesh in the near future.

The dates for your diary are:
Friday March 10th and Saturday March 11th and the event is Model Rail 2023 https://www.theeventsoffice.com/ at the Great Yorks. showground, Harrogate.

From what I understand, this is a long-established Model ENGINEERING exhibition, previously held in York, to which a model railway element is being added. Looks like it’ll be a good show so hope to see you there if you can make it.

[jwealleans]

Viewers on another channel may have seen that Grantham has been up in a temporary home for some attention and we took the opportunity for a running day while it was available. There was also some photography with a view to future publication and some of mine which most definitely isn't.



1125 was a new arrival for Harrogate show, but I didn't manage to photograph it there. Here it has just brought in a steel set to platform 5. This is an SEF kit paired with a Bachmann tender.



Just to the right of 1125, 3276 (DJH) waiting to go off shed.



3523 (LRM) about to roll onto the turntable.



4151 for once not taking a freight to Peterborough. This is a Ks kit, still with the incorrect tender. One day I'll build a Stirling one for it.



Speaking of Stirling tenders, 4040 (LRM) further down the shed.



706 (DJH) awaiting a return north next to a very mucky 17. 17 is a Bachmann body and tender on an SEF chassis which was built by Tony Wright.



2372 right at the extremity of the shed and about to set forward. This is another Tony Wright build whihc was painted by Ian Rathbone.



From beyond the shed, Graeme King's 5008 (O4/5 by Bill Bedford) with a northbound High Dyke working.

We were joined last Friday by Dave of this parish and some of his exquisite wagons, which we were happy to run.







The leading Quint here is converted from a Parkside Quad kit. He also brought his Stores train:





as well as the work in progress Pooley van.



Then, as quickly as it had gone up, it was gone again.

[Dave]

A delay in posting these action shots of Grantham when it was at Jonathans as I've been away visiting Scotland and Germany, the Hatz railway.
We had a very good time that day.
My V2 is on holiday at Jonathans so it can work the Scotch goods when Grantham goes to Newcastle show. I assume I will get her back after the layout does York show next Easter.
Thanks you took some great pics Jonathan.

[Atlantic 3279]

I vote for the (worryingly) plastic Foden cab Dave.

[jwealleans]

I'll have some lovely new containers ready for it at Newcastle. Shame you can't see Mr King and I oscillating in these still shots.

[Danby Wiske]

Shame you can't see Mr King and I oscillating in these still shots.

chuckles.gif (429.48 KiB) Viewed 9072 times

[jwealleans]

Time for some photos from York. I didn't take too many, being busy fiddling round the back, but here are a few of mine, then some borrowed (I hope he doesn't mind) from the excellent selection posted on Flickr by Chris H (Gilbert on RMWeb) which can be found here.

All very calm before the punters (and operators) turned up.

Locked and loaded round the back, but not quite in starting position: the Stirling Single should be on the down ramp out of the Nottingham fiddle yard, the 1938 Scotsman set should be on the main line and someone's put a loco on the Leeds which needs to come off (the train includes the Cinema Car and is too long to allow the preceding Junior Scotsman to pass if fully made up. The actual loco and cinema car are in Road 9, beside the Coronation and will couple up after the Junior Scotsman has left).

Some things, unfortunately, don't change, just get worse...

I blame the Convict for leaving his Beaver behind when he visited and then encouraging me to get it out and play with it.

[jwealleans]

Some action shots from Chris H on Day One at York:

Perhaps Steve and Graham can tell us what they're so intent on here. It's not the A4 either coming onto or going off shed: an errant road vehicle or misbehaving signal?

Steve and Graham have moved, but the A4 hasn't. We can now see that it's Union of South Africa. Shedmaster Adam doesn't look too perturbed by its immobility. The North End pilot (J54) has moved out of its usual berth into Platform 4 - that probably tells someone who takes more notice than me exactly what move we're on. I appear to be completely AWOL here, which seems to be the case in an alarming number of layout photographs.

I'm back and the A4 has made it right down to the far end of the depot. The Quint set hasn't set off for Nottingham from Platform 5 yet, though.

There's a J3 leaving the old shed to go off on some duty or other (possibly the Up goods Tom is shunting in the background), but more importantly in the background, Graham has just remembered he left the iron on.

[jwealleans]

We were honoured and very pleased to be loaned some locos for York by Eric Fry, series editor of the RCTS Green books and something of an LNER legend. I took time on Monday to make sure we recorded them:

C1 4433, one of the four allocated to Leeds Copley Hill specifically for this working, on the up Queen of Scots.

This glorious pair of B16s - 2372 is also in my collection, but I was very happy to concede the place for the weekend.

.. and this equally beautiful D20. A more duplicitous photographer would have photoshopped that bogie wheel. I'll just say that I had to move the loco so I could get the perspex screens out of shot and clearly I wasn't paying enough attention.

If I can find out any more about the origins of the models I'll update this post.