The Elizabethen Express

[61962]

The loco in the photograph is almost certainly 60013 as it is ATC fitted (from 1952) - see the conduit along the footplate and the junction box under the cab. 60011/12 didn't receive AWS, as it had it became known, until the late 50's.

Eddie

[sandwhich]

The Elizabethan was before my time on the railway. I was told a true story of one occasion when the London crew boarded the train in Edinburgh to travel on the cushions to the half way point the Fireman decided to return to the concourse to buy a bar of chocolate, but he cut it too fine and was not allowed to pass the barrier as the whistles blew and the train left without him, he reported the matter and the train had to stop at Newcastle to pick up a fireman. The non-stop stopped which was considered almost treason. Needless to say he received a telling off. I was also told that whenever this train stopped as it did on several other occasions for various reasons all hell broke lose as to the reasons why. This service as far as can recall ceased to run after the summer of 1961.

[Deepol]

The fastest doing the honours blasting out of Kings Cross.

[StevieG]

The fastest doing the honours blasting out of Kings Cross.

...On the Down Fast, just about passing Belle Isle Up signal box, out of shot to the left : Very nice.
Thanks v.m.

[Blink Bonny]

Ay up!

Nice piccie, very nice!

[giner]

Nice shot. Oh yeah, got the bit between her teeth, there.

[Boris]

Poor old Mr Thompson.

How many of you that malign him actually fired or drove one of his built or rebuilt loc0's

The B1 was a a minstay of Darnall passenger work and in the early days of The Master Cutler which was worked from that depot B1s did all the work, and they were cleaned for that particular job.

Didn't have any V2s or A3s, didn't need them.

O1s were all at Annersley, but we loved it when we got one of them instead of O4,[which were good at pulling and steaming but u/s in winter with the more or less open cab, and by God with an East wind behind you, you needed some protection] or the hated O2 up the bank to Dunford.

Look at the others he built or rebuilt and basically standadised the whole caboodle.

Did you work in the stores?, did you drive them.? did you fire them?.

Have you ever read anywhere that locomen hated Thompson ?, I havn't.

Bets now that some non driver, non fireman will critisize this post.

[Blink Bonny]

Ay up, Boris!

The B1s - a super engine by anyone's lights. The 1948 Exchanges showed them, I believe, to have a higher cylinder efficiency than a Black 5! The O1s? Made a good engine better with a better steam circuit and better steam distribution.

The L1s? Dodgy ground here - powerful, free running engines that knocked themselves to bits. Possibly if the Pacifics had been more aesthetically designed and he had not chosen 4470 to rebuild, history may have looked on him more kindly. After all, the Peppercorn Pacifics were really only the Thompson ones with the front end redesigned.

[hq1hitchin]

Was with a bloke yesterday who was a Top Shed fireman in the lodge links - was there more than one? - and he reckoned being marked to the Non Stop was a lovely job, great in all respects. Asked him what the worst turn was and he said the first mail, which would have been about 7.20pm up from Newcastle and due KX just before 3am in those days, calling at virtually every principal station. Mentioned the evening when Gateshead turned out an engine with just a level tender of coal. They didn't like the look of that at all and reckoned that wouldn't get them to London. At Donny, they requested a fresh engine at P'boro. The controller said that the engine was shown through to London but the driver said there wasn't enough coal left in the tender for that. They did get, and need, that fresh engine. Odd, really, I had always imagined the overnights were steady numbers.

[Hermit 109]

Hi, hq1hitchin. There were two lodge links at top shed during the early 60's. No1 link lodged at Haymarket (till 1961), Newcastle and York. No2 link lodged at Leeds and Hull.
In my time at King's Cross I lodged at a B&B at York on a freight turn from King's Cross Goods to York Yard South where we were relieved. Then at Leeds, in an ex nurses home in Domestic Street, that was on the evening Yorkshire Pullman & corresponding up working the next day. The lodge at Newcastle was the County Hotel in the centre of town, but when that closed a rather grotty hotel was found in an area being re-developed up the Westmorland road, that was still in use when I left King's Cross in 1974. The Hull lodge, which I never visited, was on a freight turn from King's Cross Goods and worked throughout with a Thompson B1. The firemen I knew who worked that turn reckoned it to be pretty arduous and it was a favourite turn for drivers to swap and give to new passed firemen for "experience".
The lodge at Leeds in Domestic Street was shared by Midland Crews and also the pullman staff.

[JeffB]

Hi Hermit 109. I was also in the lodge links at Kings Cross, between 1962 and 1966, we had two lodge turns at York in a B & B near the race course. The old dear that ran it had spent a small fortune on doing it up, then John Hill, union rep, decided it wasnt quite good enough and the old dear went nuts over it. What the outcome was I dont know because by then I had moved into No.1 Link. and the County Hotel.
At Leeds we lodged in a dormitory at Farnley Junction engine shed, along with guys from Carlisle, Birmingham, Kentish Town. It was in the middle of a triangle, freezing cold in the winter and you had to take your own food. I hated the place. We would work the Pullman into Leeds Central and then catch a bus out to Farnley, getting of the bus near Leeds football ground. I have a picture of it somewhere, will have to try and find it. Laurie Goddard was my mate then.

[silverlink]

Thought you might like this shot which as a young teenager I took using my dads 35mm camera at York in 1961. Note the nameplate colour!

silverlink

[kimballthurlow]

Hi silverlink,
Great shot, love the bronzed buffers?

regards
Kimball

[60027Merlin]

Lovely shot of Golden Plover in 1961. Here is one, in model form, of number 27 a year earlier in it's record breaking 76 appearances that year.

[harvester]

60031 name plate must have been painted when loco returned to Haymarket. I remember being hauled by it on a running in turn twix Doncaster and Leeds when it was ex works with black nameplate. Shortly after photo was taken I believed it was transfered to St Rolox