Returning to Grantham

[61962]

I think that confirms all we knew about No.1418

1418 has one other claim to fame. It was in the works in January 1923 and there is a photo (credited to W O Skeat) of it in LOCO Profile No 30 in GN livery but with L&NER in a curve above the 12" high running number on the tender. It also carried 1418 in 6" numerals on the cab side as normal GN practice. According to the text, the livery was not approved by Mr Gresley and it was painted out the same day. 1418 might well have been the last loco in regular service to have been turned out of Doncaster Works in full GNR colours.

Eddie

[workev]

Just to announce that the first catalogue of pictures from the Cedric Clayson Collection is now available at the http://www.returntograntham.wordpress.com Blog. 56 images of Pacifics, some unseen before are available to purchase.

Other catalogues will appear on a rolling basis as we move forward with the project. After a very successful weekend at the Mallard Festival of Speed, our project is gathering momentum and further updates will appear on a much more regular basis.

Remember, we are not in this to make any profit, just to cover the costs of providing an archive of photos, articles and documents of life at Grantham Shed and Station.

If you feel that you can provide us any memories, photos, or artefacts please let us know.

Ian

[61070]

This recently published aerial photo on the Britain From Above (Aerofilms) website shows most of the railway layout at Grantham on 18th Feb 1948. Unfortunately it's all in the somewhat murky background - because the subject of the series of photos was the BMARCo munitions works on Springfield Road in the centre.

http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/image/eaw013401

By registering on the site you can zoom in, leave comments etc.

[grantham8]

Stunning pics of my hometown ---you will not be surprise to hear that almost every scrap of land shown (including the factory) is now housing .

[61070]

Thanks for your information grantham8. So much change has taken place in many former industrial areas of our towns and cities since the Aerofilms pilots and their cameramen were aloft. The pictures fascinate me, and I sometimes spend an hour or so exploring areas of the country that I know, or knew, looking at what lay behind familiar street frontages or the walls of buidings that backed onto railway lines. Seen from the air, factory and works premises that one only saw from outside their boundaries, and at ground level, can be seen to cover vast areas of land. It really does bring home the status of 20th century Britain as a manufacturing nation. The photo of York linked to by Bryan here viewtopic.php?f=15&t=9335 is a further example, and you also cannot fail to be impressed at the extent of the railway works at Crewe and Derby, the hosiery and shoe machinery factories of Leicester, the steelworks of Sheffield, the docks and shipyards on the Clyde, the armaments works on Tyneside, etc. etc. etc. I think English Heritage and their partners have done a brilliant job acquiring them and sharing them through Britain from Above.

[Redrock]

Hi 61070,

I felt I had to join this forum just to let you know how much I enjoyed your pictures of Grantham. Your Dad was a top notch photographer. He has really captured the atmosphere of a busy station in the early 60's. Some of the pictures of railwaymen and passengers are superb studies and deserve to be more widely known. I spent most of yesterday afternoon and evening lost in a time-warp.

The pictures of the bay platform, No 4 ( nowadays 3 ) were especially interesting. I regularly work trains from Notts to Skeg into this bay and it is very odd seeing it with an overall roof, its still instantly recognisable and familiar, but strange at the same time!

My early memories of Grantham are from the 1970s, all Deltics and class 47s, with the occasional 20's & 31's thrown in for variety. I can just remember the old island platform buildings, particularly the wooden huts at the south end, but it was most interesting to see the rest of the buildings as they were.

I don't remember having any problems as a spotter, presumably Mr Scampion had retired, there could be quite a few of us down at the south end sometimes. I can just remember the old Yard Box, not sure exactly when it went, but all the semaphores had gone.

I wonder if you know when the platform canopy on plat 3 ( Now 2 ) was replaced? It looks from the pictures as though it was done sometime in LNER days, I've seen a picture from the 1900's where it was a triangular section canopy similar to the one on Plat. 5 ( now 4 )

Thanks again for sharing some wonderful memories.

Redrock.

[Iron Duke]

Grantham Station Buildings and Infrastructure.

We have just added a set of 80 photographs to our “Station Buildings & Infrastructure” page.

These were all taken before major changes to platform 2 (down side) and the replacement of the footbridge.

Although we are in the process of adding brief captions to all of these images we do need your help in adding further information relating to each picture. In particular we want to get an idea of how the use of these buildings changed over the years.

Maybe you worked at the station or just passed through, or perhaps you were a spotter? Please submit your comments or memories covering any aspect of this section.

As always we really welcome any other information, photographs, anecdotes or memories relating to Grantham Station and the surrounding Yard & Sheds.

http://returntograntham.wordpress.com/

[StevieG]

" .... I can just remember the old Yard Box, not sure exactly when it went, but all the semaphores had gone. .... "

If memory serves correctly, Yard box was the last to be operational, controlling at least the former areas of its own, and South and North boxes (and a little further?) using a switch or control panel operating only colour-, and position-light, signals and everything else, electrically. And I've a feeling that between its lever and panel operation forms, that Yard might have been closed for a week or three for the conversion, while South & North would've kept the show going during what were their last days.
Sorry I can't put any definite dates on these changes, but think that Yard might've gone over to power operation in the early-mid 1970s, and then lasted a few years until control was transferred to the then new Doncaster PSB, - but stand to be corrected on any of this by anyone better informed.

[Mickey]

" .... I can just remember the old Yard Box, not sure exactly when it went, but all the semaphores had gone. .... "

If memory serves correctly, Yard box was the last to be operational, controlling at least the former areas of its own, and South and North boxes (and a little further?) using a switch or control panel operating only colour-, and position-light, signals and everything else, electrically. And I've a feeling that between its lever and panel operation forms, that Yard might have been closed for a week or three for the conversion, while South & North would've kept the show going during what were their last days.
Sorry I can't put any definite dates on these changes, but think that Yard might've gone over to power operation in the early-mid 1970s, and then lasted a few years until control was transferred to the then new Doncaster PSB, - but stand to be corrected on any of this by anyone better informed.

I vaguely recall passing through Gratham station on an express on a few occasions on a ride out from Kings Cross to Doncaster and return to Kings Cross sometime around 1970/71 and both Grantham south & north boxes were still there working but the semaphore signals at the Yard box were missing?.

I believe Grantham Yard & High Dyke boxes were still there working in the summer of 1975 although i have a vague feeling that Stoke box the other side of the tunnel had closed by then although i could be wrong?.

[61070]

Hi 61070,

I felt I had to join this forum just to let you know how much I enjoyed your pictures of Grantham. Your Dad was a top notch photographer. He has really captured the atmosphere of a busy station in the early 60's. Some of the pictures of railwaymen and passengers are superb studies and deserve to be more widely known. I spent most of yesterday afternoon and evening lost in a time-warp.

The pictures of the bay platform, No 4 ( nowadays 3 ) were especially interesting. I regularly work trains from Notts to Skeg into this bay and it is very odd seeing it with an overall roof, its still instantly recognisable and familiar, but strange at the same time!

My early memories of Grantham are from the 1970s, all Deltics and class 47s, with the occasional 20's & 31's thrown in for variety. I can just remember the old island platform buildings, particularly the wooden huts at the south end, but it was most interesting to see the rest of the buildings as they were.

I don't remember having any problems as a spotter, presumably Mr Scampion had retired, there could be quite a few of us down at the south end sometimes. I can just remember the old Yard Box, not sure exactly when it went, but all the semaphores had gone.

I wonder if you know when the platform canopy on plat 3 ( Now 2 ) was replaced? It looks from the pictures as though it was done sometime in LNER days, I've seen a picture from the 1900's where it was a triangular section canopy similar to the one on Plat. 5 ( now 4 )

Thanks again for sharing some wonderful memories.

Redrock.

Hello Redrock,

Welcome to 'Returning to Grantham' and thank you for your very kind remarks. I believe that this thread has, in truth, been brought alive by the many contributions from other members of the forum who've shared their experiences, their knowledge and their insights. The post-1960s history of the railway and railway people at Grantham, right up to the present day, deserves as much study and recording as the steam-age infrastructure and community that I knew at the end of their days. So it's good to have you on board with memories of the 1970s and your experiences of working into the station today. Please continue to contribute - it will be great to stimulate interest in this later period.

Yard Box - StevieG and Micky are spot on, but before I provide the dates I must give all credit the Great Northern Railway Society as the provider of the information; the change from local mechanical signalling to remote PSB operation from Doncaster was well outside my knowledge. We are very fortunate that there is a really excellent series of articles by Don Anderson called The Layout Development of the Grantham Area in Great Northern News published by the GNR Society. This is a fascinating and very comprehensive piece of research which describes the history of the railway layout between High Dyke and Barkston in admirable detail.

So from GN News No. 187 (Jan/Feb 2013), page 187.19:
w/e 18-19 April 1970: Grantham Yard signal box ceases to signal the down main line.
Sun 27 June 1971: Grantham Yard signal box taken out of use until further notice; Grantham South and Grantham North operate the station layout and its approaches between them.
w/e 19-20 Feb 1972: Grantham North and Grantham South closed; Grantham Yard, now equipped with a switch panel, reopened as 'Grantham' signal box; end of semaphore signalling at Grantham.
w/e 2-3 Feb 1980: Grantham (formerly Yard) signal box abolished and control of the Grantham area transferred to Doncaster.

The GNR Society is well worth joining - they are a very helpful bunch of guys and GN News is fully indexed, with backnumbers available at modest cost.

Buildings on the down platform (2/3/4, formerly 3/4/5). I’ll be interested to see the Edwardian photo that you mention. There are some of that era taken by Rev. Parley which I’ve seen in publications. They appear to show a flat-roofed canopy for the length of the station buildings of the then platform 3. Beyond the buildings at the north end there’s a sloping-topped awning fixed to the side of the overall roof of the bay platform, continuing the protection of platform 3 for the length of the bay platform roof.
As you may be well aware, all the buildings on these platforms today are 'new'. The old buildings and remaining canopies were demolished and new structures built to replace them, I believe in the run-up to electrification. I don't know exactly when this was, though I've seen a photo of their demolition under way (which I can't find right now). Edit - the photo's dated September 1985 (thanks Iron Duke), so that's when the former GNR down side buildings were demolished. A selection of photographs taken before then can be seen on our blog here: http://returntograntham.wordpress.com/s ... structure/

[Barrowby]

I took this photo of the remains of the yard box on 18/11/1981. I had gone hoping to see it before demolition but was too late by about a week or so. I don't know the exact date of its demise but I think it was in place 4 weeks before. The water tower was taken from Queen Street on the same day. The station buildings are in the background.

[img]

[Barrowby]

water tower

[Barrowby]

Gordon Highlander on same day

[Iron Duke]

Can anyone provide information on the two mobile cranes shown in this view (Grantham Goods Shed area)
Who did they belong to and what were they used for? Note the scallop in the roof line.
This photograph is part of a set recently added to http://returntograntham.wordpress.com/
If you can help with this or you have any information about the station buildings please let me know.

[Mickey]

I took this photo of the remains of the yard box on 18/11/1981. I had gone hoping to see it before demolition but was too late by about a week or so. I don't know the exact date of its demise but I think it was in place 4 weeks before.

An unusual visitor or was it a 'toffee apple' Brush type 2 non-headcode box off the G.E. section. Did that thing work a freight train down from Whitemoor yard?.