Mystery Photograph

[Malcolm]

Even though I am an ardent NER enthusiast, I still love the history of railways in general and regularly browse other historical sites.
A good one is the London and North Western Railway Society at:

http://www.lnwrs.org.uk/index.php

I especially enjoy the 'Mystery Photographs' section.
Anyway, I was just browsing through it again tonight and came across this:
08-May-2007 No 55.
A further mystery from John Alsop.
John says that the LNW Royal Train delivered Edward and Alexandra to this large station in about 1906, but where is it?
There have been many attempts in the past, but recently someone nailed it. Turns out that it was Newcastle Central in 1906.
I have attached the mystery photo, and the image from Science and Society Picture Library (with ref. no.)

Science and Society Picture Library
Description
King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra dismount at Newcastle upon Tyne Station, September 1906. (NRM_90_80)./n/n
Image Ref.
10548715
The King and Queen visited Newcastle and Gateshead in July 1906 to open the King Edward rail bridge over the Tyne at the south of Newcastle Central Station on July 10th 1906 and the next day they opened the Royal Victoria Hospital in Newcastle Upon Tyne.

Just goes to show what you can find if you cast your net wide enough. (I can recommend this site as great)

Malcolm

[Mickey]

Yes i agree Malcolm thats a good site the L.N.W.R. site. I am not a member of there forum but i liked L.N.W.R. signalling but didn't go much on there locos although i like the L.M.S. and there locomotives especially those of (sir) William Stanier perhaps even over (sir) Nigel Gresley's world famous locomotives?.

[giner]

Just had a quick butchers at the LNWR site (well out of my normal territory). Very nice. I don't know why it is, but that moniker "The Premier Line" manages to irk me every time - comes with being a GN man, I suppose. Another thing I notice, the webmaster is referred to as 'Webb'master, for obvious reasons no doubt.

[strang steel]

Here is something for those who like to scrutinise photos with no date or location listed on a slide mount. I purchased this on Ebay, but I know very little about it except that it is 60524 hauling a 3 coach Stanier set comprising what appears to me to be 2 BSKs and a CK.

Herringbone was a York engine until 1962, then it moved to Scotland - although I dont know if that is a help or not.

It seems to be rather excessive power for a stopping service. Could it be somewhere on the Waverley route?

The image itself does seem to be of good quality, and I wonder if it could be a commercial duplicate, but there are no copyright or other names on the slide mount, just the loco number written in ink.

[strang steel]

And this black and white scan seems to suggest Lincolnshire to me, but the small signalbox on the right hand side must be familiar to someone.

[manna]

G'Day Gents

A pair of interesting photo's, I cannot help with either, but in the second pic, There's an awful lot of telephone wires on the pole (main line somewhere) also an interesting headcode on the loco 1X01 was the used on the Royal train 2X01 was used on the empty Royal train (Eastern Region) so I'm wondering if this picture was taken off of the Eastern Region !!

manna

[61070]

An interesting thing about the pole route is that approximately half the wires coming from the left (the lower ones) appear to be connected into the wooden hut (or maybe to something behind it), while the upper half of the wires continue to the pole in the right distance, which has a correspondingly lower number of spars. Could there be some kind of telephone exchange by the house??

[strang steel]

G'Day Gents

A pair of interesting photo's, I cannot help with either, but in the second pic, There's an awful lot of telephone wires on the pole (main line somewhere) also an interesting headcode on the loco 1X01 was the used on the Royal train 2X01 was used on the empty Royal train (Eastern Region) so I'm wondering if this picture was taken off of the Eastern Region !!

manna

Sorry Manna, but the headcode on the loco is 1X41.

It just doesn't look like a 'real' main line to me. The nearest track is still bullhead rail, which in the era of the Brush Type 2s is unlikely I would have thought.

[Bryan]

The near track is also a recently plain lined turnout into a siding / yard.

Looking at the state of the headshunt at right I would suggest it was a closure of the facility rather than a temporary fix of a worn out / broken crossing.

[manna]

G'Day Gents

1X41, it may be but the Eastern Region reserved X for the Royal Train......................so is it on the Eastern Region, if so why is it using the 'X' code, if it is a ER special it should have a 'G' headcode.

The only other explanation is in the very early days of headcodes, they were a bit of a mess, and tended to use just one or two digits.

manna

[strang steel]

I am not sure which era you are referring to Manna, but I can assure you that when I was an enthusiast, 1X-- headcodes were used quite regularly. Maybe not quite as frequently as 1Z-- and we spotters could never understand the difference.

For instance, on 2nd July 1961 arrivals at Cleethorpes included 1X29 from Nottingham, 1X28 from Derby and 1Z60 from Kings Cross.

http://www.railbrit.co.uk/imageenlarge/ ... p?id=29061

Similarly on 10th April 1967 I saw a goods train with the headcode 7X72, and a few days later near Sleaford, one with 8Z00.

I dont think there is anything sinister to be read into the 1X41 headcode of that train, but elsewhere someone suggested that the gate box is an LSWR design, which widens the mystery somewhat.

[Solario]

Regarding the headcodes (1X.. etc), there was quite a bit of information posted when I asked about them on a thread of mine about a year ago.

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=5107&hilit=+log

There was no complete explanation of the 1X.. other than it was used for Royal trains and specials.

I suspect (this is just my hypothesis) that 1X was used for inter-regional excursions when all the 1Z..s had been used up. I certainly logged a few 1Xs and they were all inter-regional excursions.

[manna]

G'Day Gents

The mystery deepens

manna

[strang steel]

Well, if the gate box is LSWR as suggested, that would make sense for an inter regional special from the Eastern Region.

It would also explain the ex-Derby and Nottingham headcodes at Cleethorpes, if the trains started from the Midland stations.

According to this site,

http://www.2d53.co.uk/Headcode/Headcode45.htm

1X00, 01, 02 and 03 were used exclusively for royal/VIP trains.

[Boris]

The wires coming from the post and appearing to go to the small wooden hut are in fact side stays to stop the post moving in high winds with the amount of wires in the bed.