Grantham, Thursday 24th May 1962

[61070]

I've just finished scanning and editing a few more photographs taken by my father at Grantham, and thought it would be good to share some on the forum. They are from a sequence taken in the late afternoon or early eveining of 24/5/62, and they are in order of taking.

61303 (50B - Hull Dairycoates) on an up fish train

60003 awaiting departure on a down passenger train

60134 (56C - Copley Hill) accelerating through on an up Pullman

Unfortunately 60134 is not carrying a headboard, so can anyone help me to identify which Pullman service this is, please? As you can see from the photograph, there are two postwar vehicles next to the locomotive (of different types, judging by the window layout) followed by an older vehicle; the fourth carriage is another modern vehicle. Not sure if this helps.

[stembok]

Hello 61070: good to see some more of your Dad's photographs.

B1 61303 on up fish train. This may possibly be a case of a Hull B1 deputising for the King's Cross B1 on the Hull lodging turn - you have a shot of this train in a previous post - the up afternoon fish train from Hull. This did happen from time to time, perhaps due to the 34A B1 encountering trouble.

I take it that the shot of the up Pullman is late afternoon/early evening C18.00 hrs with the sun to the west and also by the number given on the print? Given the 56C Copley Hill A1 at its head it is likely to be the up Queen of Scots Glasgow -King's Cross via Leeds. This was a diesel diagram, but at this particular time steam was frequently substituting on various legs of the journey, due to a shortage of diesel power. At this time the older Pullman cars still made appearances and indeed the older style brakes actually remained in use, despite the introduction of the new stock in 1961.

The A4 falls between the photos of 61303 and 60134, a down service stopping at Grantham , perhaps late afternoon from King's Cross, allowing approximately 110 -120 minutes for the 105 miles to Grantham. This may assist with a time frame. Possibly, (guess here) something like the K/X-York semi-fast, at just after 16.00 from K/X.

Hope this may be of some help.

[61070]

Thanks Stembok. Looking at the shadow of the lamp post on the Foxhunter photo, and taking the orientation of the platforms into account, the sun is approaching due west. That would make the time somewhere between 6pm and 7pm BST. From what I can gather The Queen of Scots Pullman (11:00 ex-Glasgow?) could be the only up Pullman service likely to be passing Grantham at that time.

One of my ambitions is to take a photo of 60163 in full cry at the same spot (does anyone have such a shot that they'd be willing to post on the forum?). That would be subject to being allowed on the platform to take it, of course, though I hear that the staff at Grantham are very reasonable and accommodating. My sister turned up to watch Tornado pass through the station a couple of weeks ago and they kindly announced its approach so that everyone, passengers and enthusiasts, would be ready. She didn't even need to buy a platform ticket.

[manna]

G'Day Gents

Thanks for sharing those photo's with us, I can't add anything about the train workings, love the close up of the gaslamps and water crane and three sorely missed loco's.
manna