Returning to Grantham

[61070]

Excellent and speedy service from Sheffield Local Studies Library (they had initially replied to say that that enquiries can take 'up to four weeks' to process):

I have checked our newspaper collection, and can confirm that the newspaper in the photograph was indeed The Star edition of Thursday 12 July 1962!

Yours faithfully

Mrs Pat Dallman
Local Studies Library

Well done guys for focussing in on that newspaper being from Sheffield - it hadn't occurred to me. I'm sure I would never have got near a solution, but the combined brains of the forum soon cracked the case.

It'll be tough to keep up this level of challenge!

[52D]

Ive just been in said library today and was pleased to find a nice picture of Cock of the North crossing the Royal Border Bridge in 1939 just before the war started. She was on her way home light engine after a visit to the works. The picture was in the book power of the A2s and i am determined to track down a copy of the picture. What intrigued me was she was returning light surely she would have been run in locally at the works, why didnt they send her home working rather than LE?

[stembok]

61070: well done! It appears -from Tommy's information- that 60008 may therefore have been working 1E12 13.00 Harrogate -K/X, (C13.45 off Leeds )which I saw several 34A A4s on that summer.

[stembok]

52D: Pre-1939 Scottish based Pacifics after repair at Doncaster were - in the main- worked back light engine to Scotland. Crews fron Haymarket No 6 senior spare link would go to Doncaster on the 'cushions', lodge and work home next day. Norman McKillop - aka Toram Beg - relates in an article C1956 going to Doncaster to bring 2001 'Cock O' The North' back when new. The practice fell into disuse during the war and post- war engines were returned as convenient. I've seen Scottish Pacifics returning home on freight, occasionally passenger, or light engine.

[52D]

Stembok thanks for that snippet another off topic mystery solved. I wondered what a waste of a brand new engine returning light still a good extra running in turn.

[StevieG]

Hello Firbeck - and welcome back. Hope you get on board again properly soon, so we can see more of your classic pictures.

That's a great story about standing inside the little hut. I never thought the photo of the footplatemen would create so much interest and information. You'd never have guessed, though, but there are two pictures of this scene taken a few moments apart, and the second one - well, look what you can see written on the door! (In the first picture it's hidden by the head of one of the men.)

Who'd have though I'd be in touch with someone who remembers a tiny detail like that?

Another example of fantastic detail in your photos.
Note that 'her majesty' and the 'royal highnesses' presumably could manage without the missing latch of their Royal Box's door being replaced!

[strang steel]

Wow! is all I can say having read through this thread this afternoon. So many wonderful photos and memories.

Thankyou all for such excellent detailed images and discussions.

I too was kicked off Grantham station in the 60s although I had a return ticket to Sleaford, and had to resort to watching the activity from some vantage point near a tunnel under the tracks.

The later alternative was cycle to Barkston Junc, or if I was really in luck, to get my Dad to drive me there.

I thought that I would build a model of the station in Boston based on a track plan from the Railway Modeller - those wonderful overhead views. Of course when I got there, all the track had been ripped up and practically everything except the station building had gone. Still, the journey back via Lincoln and Doncaster made the trip worthwhile.

I suppose the Boston service was all diesel multiple in 1962. Looking forward to the next postings,

Peter

Yes, the local services through Boston were all in the hands of Derby and Cravens 2-car units in 1962, but the through services from Cleethorpes/Grimsby (via Spalding) to Kings Cross were loco and carriages, mainly B1s or occasional Britannias.

If you could stretch the time of your layout to Jan 1963, the diesel units were frozen due to the extreme cold and many of the Grantham-Lincoln-Boston services were worked by Flying Pigs (Ivatt 4MTs) and 3 non corridor coaches for a week or two. However, you might have to find a way to model a foot of snow on the ground everywhere.

John

[PGBerrie]

The layout was back in the last millenium, 1994, the visit to Boston in 1986. I actually got the track laid, then joined a module group and started building modules. This was followed by a house move and Boston was scrapped - but this is model railways, not the real thing. We are enjoying Grantham in Summer 1962!

[61070]

Here are some more photos taken on showery 18th April 1963, during the same visit as some pictures that I posted previously (page 3).

1. A study of a young man waiting on platform 2. His lapel badge shows that he’s a member of The Boys’ Brigade.
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2. From the number passengers gathering on the platform and the loaded platform trolleys it looks like an up train is due to call any minute. There's some jacking and packing in progress, between trains, on the down main line at the connection from the down slow, just beyond the far end of the platform.
Can you spot the policeman? And (harder) the case and feet of the lad in the previous picture? …and I think that's my left arm at bottom right, and the spotting notebook of the time which, alas, I no longer have.
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3. This young passenger is almost certainly aboard the train hauled by 60021 featured in one of the photographs on page 3.
The train is gathering speed out of the station, because the windows in the building behind the train are blurred in the direction of travel. The shot has been ‘panned’ so as to keep the carriage window with the smartly dressed boy in sharp focus.
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4. This is rather a lengthy caption, the result of some research I carried out a year or two ago. I hope it's all accurate, but corrections, comments or elaboration will be gratefully (and graciously) received. I'd be surprised if there are not folk on the forum who had some kind of involvement with this experiment, and who maybe know more of the inside story…

This southbound express freight special test train working ('special test train' identified by the ‘Z’ character in the second position of the headcode) is headed by Brush Type 4 diesel electric locomotive D1516.

This happens to be a particularly interesting train, as it is evidence of one of the railways’ attempts, in the 1960s, to develop an inter-modal freight system (today it would probably be termed an ‘integrated logistics solution’ - ugh!). The idea, conceived on the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad in the USA, sought to combine the advantages of rail for long-haul freight transport with the convenience of road for local collection and distribution.

The vehicles are experimental ‘RoadRailer’ vans, which were able to travel both by road and by rail. Each van had a set of flanged steel wheels for travelling by rail and another set of wheels, with pneumatic rubber tyres, for the road. Either set of wheels was lowered as required. When on the road each van was a 'semi-trailer', the front being supported by an articulated truck. On the rails each van supported the front of the van behind it. The front of the van immediately behind the locomotive is carried by a special four-wheeled wagon coupled to the locomotive. The vans’ road wheels can be seen in the photograph.

This system had an advantage over transferable containers because the infrastructure required at interchange depots was minimal, whereas container traffic required large gantry cranes. Depots could thus be more numerous and widely distributed, reducing further the proportion of road haulage.

In September 1960 two prototype vehicles were demonstrated at Marylebone Parcels Depot in London, one of which was afterwards displayed at the Commercial Motor Show. The two sets of wheels were raised or lowered by compressed air from a mobile compressor unit. These vehicles are described and illustrated in a short feature 'The Roadrailer – The answer to transhipment?' (British Railways Magazine (BR staff magazine) Vol.11, No.19 October 1960, pp.302-303).

A fleet of RoadRailer vans was built by the Pressed Steel Company at Linwood, near Paisley, and they were being operated on trials at the time this photograph was taken. Apparently the trials were not a success and the vans were never brought into general use; alternative systems involving intermediate 4-wheeled bogies when on rail were more successful. With hindsight, it can be seen that the forthcoming motorway construction programme was to undermine many of the advantages of the rail element of such a system. Also, the system was not readily compatible with transport by ship. In the event British Rail adopted the standard ISO (International Organization for Standardization) container system for inter-modal freight traffic.

The June 1963 edition of Modern Railways has a news item (on p366) about a test run of these RoadRailer vans, with a photo of D1516 showing the same 4Z93 headcode taken on April 18th 1963. It is this that has aided the identification of the date of the photographs on this film. There is also an illustration of these vehicles in The Eastern Since 1948 by G. Freeman Allen (1981, Ian Allan ISBN 0 7110 1106 0) on page 132, and of this very train, further south near St. Neots, in The Eastern Yesterday and Today by G. Freeman Allen (1982, Ian Allan ISBN 0 7110 1185 0) on page 44.

The locomotive was practically brand new when this picture was taken, having entered traffic on April 10th. It was one of the pilot order of 20 locomotives (D1500 to D1519) of a class of which eventually more than 500 examples were built.

Amazingly, D1516 still exists, being preserved at the Midland Railway Centre, Butterley in Derbyshire by The 47401 Project / 47401 Diesel Locomotive Ltd. (see http://www.47401project.co.uk/).
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more to follow...

[61070]

5. A northbound express freight train hauled by 60125 Scottish Union of Doncaster (36A). On the left is a diesel multiple unit train at platform 1 forming a service to Lincoln and Boston.
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6. Station Master Harold Scampion (on the right, without hat) and Station Inspector Phil Craft in conversation on platform 2.
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7 & 8. Acknowledging a warning from the driver of an approaching DMU, the Look-Out is probably working with the p. way men seen in the distance just beyond the station in the earlier photograph (No.2 above), having moved their attention to a location a few rail joints further north, between the platforms. These two photos immediately precede the 'WD in the shower' (90180) picture on page 3, so the men were probably glad to gain shelter while its ironstone train passed through.

[stembok]

D1516 4Z93: Z in this case a special test train. There were rumours at the time that there had been some "disappointments" ie "incidents" re: the roadrailers. Little appears to have leaked out, but this was not unusual on BR as there were numerous attempts at cloaking potentially embarassing information during this period. The roadrailer concept had some success in the US but of course we are speaking of a different geographical perspective and -as you say - we were on the verge of the container revolution in freight handling and shipment.

[PGBerrie]

I see that the boy's case has a frame with wheels strapped to it. I seem to remember that most of us lugged our cases around in those days - or sent them advanced luggage. And the driver and fireman(?) of D1516 are wearing hats, jackets and ties - very formal. Nice photos again,

Peter

[StevieG]

Roadrailers : I have more than once, had sight of a photo of a complete (&very clean) road-railer train, headed by a Brush 4, on the Down line near Cuffley's advanced starting signal.
It looked to me like an 'official' view, quite possibly with the train stationary.
Wouldn't like to hazard an attempt at remembering any displayed headcode or quoted date though.

[61070]

Five more from 18th April 1963:

9. A northbound passenger train at the south end of platform 3, hauled by a ‘Peak’. Two questions here. I haven't been able to find what train service 1A47 would have been at this date. Can someone help? Also, the locomotive bears Class 1 headlamps as well as a headcode. Is this duplication, or was there an operational requirement to display both?
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10. The bookstall on platform 2. The manager appears to be serving me with something – perhaps the latest Ian Allan abc!?

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11. & 12. A northbound train, probably for Leeds, has stopped at platform 3. A box on the barrow contains goods which were ‘Made by Ruston, Lincoln, England’. The evidently somewhat leaky canopy over this section of platform 3 and the inner end of the Nottingham bay was removed in 1964.
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13. This shot of three formidable-looking women on the up platform has always amused me. Where are they off to? Who's going to have the pleasure of their company? Are there three husbands communing at some bar in Grantham, planning an adventure while their wives are away for a few days?

[52D]

I note on the WHS kiosk display one of the newspapers is the Daily Herald, this was the paper that was taken over and renamed The Sun.