Returning to Grantham

[AndyRush]

Apologies, I didn't make myself clear - I was meaning the sweep & scope of change in a particular area rather than the individual trains.

What isn't at all well documented is the effect all the changes had on train crew establishments and how these reduced throughout the 1960's, especially as the freight volumes started to steadily disappear.

Grantham was particularly affected by these changes, with the diversion of most conventional goods trains to the Joint Line and Whitemoor under the National Freight Train Plan, produced as a result of 'The Development of the Major Railway Trunk Routes' published in February 1965. After the finish of the Highdyke workings, there were no locos there at all except for briefly within a diagram. Certainly, main line drivers got the message fairly quickly and realised it was no good whistling for a fresh engine there as there wasn't likely to be one!

[Iron Duke]

The report can be read here http://www.railwaysarchive.co.uk/docsum ... p?docID=14
Click the PDF logo to download - interesting reading as it looks ahead (from 1965) to 1984....

[61070]

I can't add to the very interesting discussion on the introduction of the Brush Type 4s (as they were then known), but it's a cue for a couple more photos which I haven't posted so far. They were taken at the north end of platform 3 on 15th August 1963. I can't identify the locomotive, but from my notes and photos of the day it has to be D1511, D1515, D1524, D1525 or D1528. Given its gleaming condition (even the edge of the door is sparkling!) I expect it was D1524/25/28, introduced to traffic on 14/6/63 (D1524/25) and 5/7/63 (D1528). D1511 and D1515 would have been in traffic for 6 and 5 months respectively and I don't expect they would have looked quite so fresh.

I've show these pictures to Grantham footplatemen and no one recognised anyone, so it could be that these were Finsbury Park / King's Cross men (all five locos were then based at 34G).

[hq1hitchin]

Have circulated the lower pic amongst those 34A men still about and who have internet access and two of them reckon it's Charlie Putnam. Sorry I can't be definite 61070 but, as you know, it's all a long time ago now. Great pictures though

[StevieG]

Once again, many thanks to 61070 for these latest images, and to him and all others who've previously
posted photos to this excellent thread.
As opposed to so many usual loco and train photos (and even those of signals and customary views of stations), they illustrate a much broader view and could easily form the pictorial core of a work on something like 'Everday real life at a busy steam age railway station'.

[61070]

Thanks very much for circulating the photo hq1. If the gentleman is Charlie Putnam, and if anyone's in touch with his family, I'll be delighted if the photo can be passed forward.

StevieG: thank you - your comments are warmly appreciated, by me certainly but also, I'm sure, by the many contributors of photos, information, opinions, queries etc.

One of my aspirations in starting the thread was to become better informed about the pictures, and to learn more about their context in relation to the railway industry and community. People's response to the pictures both on and off the forum has been both generous and rewarding. It's a delight to me that people have sometimes recognised a member of their family, or perhaps a former workmate, going about their 'ordinary' working life in an industry/community that has been 'in the blood' for many who worked in it. A Grantham man who appears in one of the photos as a young fireman, but who left the railway in his early 20s for the engineering industry when 'the loco' (mpd) closed, told me that he is far more often recognised in the town by one of his former railway 'mates' from his youth than by anyone from the many more years he spent working in manufacturing. And, just last month, I received a letter from the daughter of one of the Grantham railwaymen who 'looked after' us during our visits to the station in the 1960s. Sadly her father, who'd been a passenger shunter, passed away in January and she was kind enough not only to drop me a line, but also to say how the photos that my dad took of him at the station are treasured by the family.

The suggestion of an 'everyday life and times on the railway at Grantham' work of some kind is encouraging, and such a thing happens to be in mind. Whether it would be a traditional printed book, or maybe something web-based/digital (with advantages such as flexibility, interactivity and the ability to use sound/movies/graphics), is a challenge which I'm sure people of my dad's generation would find absolutely fascinating!

[Iron Duke]

What's the story behind this?

[strang steel]

Presumably, it is a wet day in Grantham.

An A4 on The Capitals Limited is passing an Ivatt 4MT on a Lincoln service which has arrived in the bay, or possibly one from Boston, before the introduction of Derby built dmus?

That is the best I can do.

[Iron Duke]

Thanks John,

Never had a wet day during my visits to Grantham, must have been very lucky in that respect!
What I meant in my (vague) post was, what is the sequence of events with the loco in the bay after main line traffic was clear?

ID

[manna]

G'Day Gents

Are my eyes deceiving me, or is the Ivatt hooked onto a articulated set, prototype for everything department

manna

[strang steel]

Thanks John,

Never had a wet day during my visits to Grantham, must have been very lucky in that respect!
What I meant in my (vague) post was, what is the sequence of events with the loco in the bay after main line traffic was clear?

ID

I'm afraid that by the time I was old enough to visit Grantham, the DMUs were fully in control.

We have tried to get an answer to this question before, but without much success. Maybe no one here was at Grantham in a professional capacity during the mid-50s, and maybe the spotters never really paid much attention to the local services?

However, there was a temporary return to Ivatts and non-gangwayed coaches (although I have no idea where the carriages came from at short notice) for about a week during the coldest part of the 62/63 winter (3rd week of January 1963), when the DMUs froze up. However, I was at school during the time and had no chance to study the details of the workings, and any notes that I made of the locos and carriage numbers were 'lost' after I left home.

I live in hope that one day someone will reveal the answers to these questions. Maybe the pilot engine drew the coaches out into the headshunt to allow the train engine to reverse out onto the main line, and then cross over the down main to get to the loco yard?

Yes, manna, they are articulated coaches. All manner of vintage stock could be seen in the county during the immediate post war years, or so I am told. It is just that few people thought to take photographs of them.

[Iron Duke]

This is a scan taken from a very old 127 roll film negative.
Although of poor quality I think it captures the excitement of a typical day for loco spotters at Grantham.
The bay on the right is just visible.
Would anyone like to try and identify the year?
I don't know who the lad in the picture is, do you recognise yourself?

[60129 GUY MANNERING]

I think it could be a New England A2/2 and more specifically 60504 Mons Meg which was withdrawn in April 1961,therefore as the lad is wearing only a shirt as opposed to coat, gloves, scarf etc I will plump for the summer of 1960.If its not an A2/2, then I think its one of four A3's with the small winged deflectors and will be 60048,60055,60061 or 60112 and then its harder as 60112 kept them until 1962 from memory although the rest got German type deflectors earlier.
If it turns out that it is 60504 & 1960 I will be backing Seabass to win the National on Saturday as my luck is clearly in.If not I will save my money.

Regards,Derek.

[ROY@34F]

Get that bet on Derek , I reckon your first thought sounds about right .

Roy .

[strang steel]

I think it could be a New England A2/2 and more specifically 60504 Mons Meg which was withdrawn in April 1961,therefore as the lad is wearing only a shirt as opposed to coat, gloves, scarf etc I will plump for the summer of 1960.If its not an A2/2, then I think its one of four A3's with the small winged deflectors and will be 60048,60055,60061 or 60112 and then its harder as 60112 kept them until 1962 from memory although the rest got German type deflectors earlier.
If it turns out that it is 60504 & 1960 I will be backing Seabass to win the National on Saturday as my luck is clearly in.If not I will save my money.

Regards,Derek.

I think you could be right Derek, although I would be more inclined to plump for 1959 - mainly because it was a far hotter summer than 1960 (and it needs almost Saharan temperatures to sit comfortably on Grantham station in a shirt), but also because there appears to be a few more crimson/cream liveried coaches in the train than might be the case a year later.

However, my eyes may be deceiving me and the photo does pixellate rather, when blown up.