HullBotanic Gardens-50B

[50C]

In skipness's post on 61215 William Henton Carver he mentioned living in Park Street in Hull near to the lines leading into Paragon Station.This reminded me of the days when I left school in 1963. I lived in Selby and joined the Blackburn Aircraft Company (later it became part of Hawker Siddeley) at Brough about 10 miles from Hull. I travelled daily by train (DMU's by then). In my first year I travelled on to Hull College of Technology for two evenings at night school classes. I used to catch the 5pm workmen's special from Brough, there were two of these as the factory was a very big employer in the area. The trains were normally hauled by V1 tanks but sometimes by LMS 4MT's. These trains must have been the last regular steam passenger workings in the Hull area except maybe for the Hull Pullman. Does anyone know when these 'workmens' changed to DMU's?

From 1964 to 1967 I went to Hull Tech full time but still travelled daily from Selby by train. As we passed through Hessle there was the massive Hull marshalling yard on the left and a few lines on the right and then the wide expanse of the river Humber - I believe the area on the right is now the Clive Sullivan Way. The main line then climbed an embankment and passed over a girder bridge which straddled some exH&B tracks. At this point to the right was the coaling plant for Hull Dairycoats and in the distance towards the Humber was the loco shed(53A). It was by the coaling plant that the locos began to arrive for Drapers scrapyard so it was interesting to see what turned up each morning as we passed-by. I seem to remember plenty of LMS locos(8Fs,4Fs) and WD's. The saddest sight, however was the arrival of the pacifics - does anyone have a list of these? (mainly A1s I think) and when did the first loco and last loco's arrive for cutting up, how many locos were cut up and how many different classes were processed? Do the lines still pass under the girder bridge? I remember seeing, (I think), the now preserved 43106 heading West light engine through Hessle in 1967 at atime when there was virtually no steam around Hull. Had it delivered a batch of locos for scrapping and what was the last official steam duty in Hull?

Anyway back to the reason for this Post. Hull tech college had an annex in Park street for day release students but they did a great cheap meat pie for lunch so being a skint student I used to walk down there occasionally to eat. I realised that from train trips to Hornsea in the1950.s that Botanic Gardens shed couldn't be far away so I had a walk down the road and soon found it. To my surprise there was a row of the WR D95XX locos in the yard. Does anyone know when they arrived, how many, what were they used for and when and where did they go to after leaving Hull? Is Botanic Gardens still in use today?

Sorry about going on a bit but once I started typing all the great memories came flooding back so I had to ask a few questions to confirm old age is not starting to play tricks on me.
Just two more questions for all you Hull Kingstonians out there. There was a wonderful fish and chip stall in the market, best I have ever tasted in my life, and it was called Carvers. Could this be a distant relation to Sir William Henton Carver? and also is that great fish and chip restaurant ,The Gainsborough, still going?. They were both going strong when I left the Hull area in 1975 to join the BR Research Technical Center in Derby to work on the structural parts of the APT and first Leyland Railbus. Any answers to the above questions would be very much appreciated.

50C

[stembok]

50B: Pacifics scrapped by Draper of Hull with dates sold for scrapping.The actual date to Draper's may be slightly later than some of these dates. There were also numerous members of other classes scrapped here.
Hope that I have not missed any.

A3s 60036(1/65)60045 (1/65) 60070(7/64)60071(12/64)60080(12/64) 60085(12/64) 60091(12/64) 60092(12/64)

A1s 60124(5/66) 60126(3/65)60128(2/65)60140(3/65)60141(12/64)60143(7/64)60145(8/66)60147(11/64)60150(12/64)60157(2/65)

[61070]

The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust historic photo website has pix of some of the A1s being demolished at Draper's - see http://a1slt.fotopic.net/c1411227_169.html

[52D]

reffering to the enquiry on Western locos I wonder if they were in store prior to being sold to the NCB in the North East.

[soupdragon]

Botanic Gardens shed is now the Train Care depot for Northern Rail in the Hull area.

Bob Carvers chippie is still near to the market in Trinity House Lane and they have opened a new shop nearer to to station as well..

Its a crying shame to report that the Gainsborough is now longer a fish and chip restaraunt, its now an Indian restaraunt and takeaway

[Bryan]

If you can find a copy of British Railways Past and Preent 25 East Yorkshire.
ISBN 1-85895-079-1
There are a lot of photos of the Hull area especially the siding areas from Hessle to Hull and some of BG depot.
The line under bridge 5a still is there and is the link to the Stone terminal served from Grassington near Skipton on a daily basis.

[md644]

50C

Slightly off topic, but some fine photos of Brough station on here which may bring back memories:

http://www.53amodels.karoo.net/main.htm

(I have no link to this site, just enjoyed the photos).

The Brough workmen's trains to Hull finished in 1989 (IIRC), the tracks to the bay platforms were finally lifted.

[bricam5]

Soupdragon wrote:

Its a crying shame to report that the Gainsborough is now longer a fish and chip restaraunt, its now an Indian restaraunt and takeaway

Now that has ruined my day!

[M&D]

Great pictures of the Hull & Barnsley railway being lifted! Every time I drive through South cave, I wonder what it would have been like if the railway was still there! It is so sad to see no portion of East Yorkshire railways were saved! ...I just hope something comes of the Yorkshire Wolds railway near Sledmere. East Yorkshire is such a great rural county, it surely deserves something!

[Solario]

These trains must have been the last regular steam passenger workings in the Hull area except maybe for the Hull Pullman. Does anyone know when these 'workmens' changed to DMU's?

I am not sure when the Brough workmens trains changed to DMUs but on the Beverley line there was a hiccup in 1963. The bad frosts that winter cracked the cylinder blocks of quite a few DMUs stabled at Botanic and for a few weeks the V1/V3s were used, especially on the Armstrongs workmens (& work ladies?), trains to Beverley. It was quite an experience for a young lad to travel on one of these trains, alone in a carriage with dozens of ladies (I use the term advisedly), I still shudder at the thought. I would guess that the Brough trains would also have been affected.

I also remember the canteen at Park Street, they did marvelous chips as did the Gainsborough. In my days at Hull Tech, you could get a meal at the Gainsborough consisting of haddock, chips, a round of bread & butter plus a cup of tea for about 1/9 (less than 9p), patties and mushy peas were each a few pence more.

I very much doubt whether Carver's fish shop had anything to do with William Henton & family, who were very much of the country gent set whereas the fish shop was very down to earth run by typical Hull folk.

[Bryan]

It was quite an experience for a young lad to travel on one of these trains, alone in a carriage with dozens of ladies

It must be something about the women of the Hull area but I used to have the same problem when working around the school kitchens in Hull in 83 especially the larger kitchens.

[lincolnian]

It was quite an experience for a young lad to travel on one of these trains, alone in a carriage with dozens of ladies

It must be something about the women of the Hull area but I used to have the same problem when working around the school kitchens in Hull in 83 especially the larger kitchens.

Maybe it's a 'Eastern' thing - I worked at a frozen chicken factory in Lincoln at holidaytime (not far from Doddington Road level crossing) in my last couple of years at school ... the regular women were very scary (the things they threatened to do with their knives are not repeatable!).