Returning to Grantham

[CVR1865]

great photo i would plump for 9375 as the underneath number.

All in all a great set of photos, its like a dayout at Grantham in the 60's.

[Andy W]

These Grantham pictures are cracking! When you blow them up on screen the detail is fantastic - I am still looking at the one of 60047 in another post - the driver with his ciggy in the "correct" lip drooped pose - incredible stuff.

But picture 17 in the current batch has really got me excited tonight. Apart from being a brilliant shot of everyday railway life, just look at what is on the barrow - Kunzle cakes!

The best manufactured cakes that were ever produced - a childs delight if you were ever fortunate to taste a Kunzle "showboat". Not that I was a regular (my mum and my gran were more than competent when it came to cakes) but they really were something else.

Moulded chocolate surrounds, a creamy inside with a small bit of sponge at the bottom. Each one had an almost individual (& delicious) finish on top. Came in different shapes and you could buy them individually or in boxes of 4 or 6 - one of the best tastes of the 1960's. Whatever became of them?

Kids today have really been robbed - the Kunzle was the A4 of cakes. Made jaffas look like the dub dees in those other pics.

[giner]

In the first of the three 'new' additions, I see a London Underground map on the wall. I wonder if there were many London commuters from Grantham in those days.

Commuters don't need Underground maps, they should know where they are going......
Tourists OTOH never know where they are.
Where there many tourists in Grantham in those days?

My 'wondering' about commuters was a separate thought from my noticing the map. A case of the mind being quicker than the fingers - bit unusual that, these days for me.

[61070]

Thanks for the comments, guys. I hadn't picked up on the significance of the Kunzle cakes boxes (the cakes were made in Birmingham, I believe), so that's something to add to my caption for that photo – much appreciated, Andy W.

Well, Kia-Ora orange juice, Lyons individual square fruit pies, Good News chocs and the delectable 'showboat' cakes! Introducing the subject of paint advertising was supposed to have been a distraction from reminiscing about food and drink, but I guess it was always going to be a losing battle!

First photo – these two young men in their smart, matching shirts and ties have finished their cartons of Kia-Ora, and they also seem to be well into a bag of fruit drops. Grandma appears to be keeping an eye on them, while it's Mum (presumably) who's concentrating on her knitting in the left hand aisle seat. 15th August 1963.

The next three kids each have their own straw in a can of coke – how often would you see that today? Mum (presumably), on the left, had no doubt hoped for a quieter journey than she's probably getting - if the lively expression on the young lad's face is anything to go by. 16th August 1962.

Remember the banana promotion about unzipping? (When you haven’t got time to eat, Unzip a banana. When you fancy a fruity treat, Unzip a banana!) The (allegedly) innuendo-ridden advert's at far left of the top row in the background of the third picture, the others being for Huwood Ltd., a Tyneside manufacturer of plant for mining and quarrying (little opportunity for innuendo there!), and the Walpamur advert again. The adverts are bit indistinct because the focus is on the animated group of men gathered around the barrow, who are enjoying a bit of a laugh - about what, we will never know. 18th April 1963.

Next, milk. This external shot of the Refreshment Room (or Buffet, or Dining Room - all three descriptions are indicated by the signage) on the up platform shows, on the right, the kind of vending machine which sold you a 'tetra pak' of milk made from waxed card that was impossible to open or to empty without getting at least some of the contents where you didn't want them. Note also the typical metal round-lidded bin alongside. 18th April 1963.

Finally, just in case we forget that we've come to watch the trains, the Milk Marketing Board's famous slogan is about to be obscured as 92148 of Colwick brings a train of Nottinghamshire coal through Grantham on September 19th 1963.

[61070]

PS On the display cabinet are the BR and LNER totems side by side. Its a wonder GNR isn't there somewhere

Right again stembok - there were indeed still some GNR Refreshment Room relics at Grantham in the 1960s. This dish, made by Mintons, was given to us then in appreciation for prints of some of the pictures. I think it was in use in one of the offices to hold pens. What its original purpose would have been in the 'G.N.R. Refreshment Dept.' I'm not sure though. Suggestions, anyone?

[stembok]

Three straws in a coke can and three lively youngsters should produce some interesting results on equitable sharing. It reminds me of the old -ancient- Englishman ,Scotsman and Irishman joke and their joint purchase of a bottle of lemonade. I imagine this picture was taken prior to the introduction of the ring pull can.The coke in cans had in many places replaced the classic bottle, and you had a small metal key with a V shaped head to puncture it. All well and good as long as you remembered the key! A half - house brick did eventually work for me, but inevitably I lost a lot of the contents.
In your photos there seems to be a blitz of advertising for the Sunday Telegraph, the same as at my local station at the time -early 1960s. The Sunday Telegraph was a new paper (1961) at the time and was no doubt trying to build up market share.

[Flamingo]

G'Day Gents
Did you think I would miss out on these wonderful photo's, no way! Filthy dirty WD's, they were all like that we'r'nt they, can't remember a clean one, we had plenty coming through Wood Green, all day every day! seemed like every 10 minutes, in each direction, loved that clank! a great time in railway history, and we lived through it
manna

On the subject of WDs. does anyone else remember the time when 90445 of 54C Borough Gardens turned up on Hornsey shed? Summer 1957 I think it was, and surely a most unlikely visitor that far south. They even parked it in the yard close to the turntable where the Hornsey Bridge boys could see it without needing to bunk the shed. How on earth a WD from Tyneside managed to find its way to London is still a mystery to me. It must have come through Grantham and many other places where engines of the same class could have replaced it, but somehow 90445 just kept going and presumably ended up working a coal train up from New England. Anyone got any ideas or explanations?

[manna]

G'Day Gents
Certainly reminds you of your childhood, dirty hands, skinned knees and with ash and soot in your hair from spending to much time standing on the footbridge at Wood Green on a sunny Saturday afternoon, drink provided in a gaudy plastic canteen, that you bought for a shilling and five tokens from the Beano or Dandy, food on that glorious day a 'wagonwheel' or a yard of licorice (or two) or maybe a return ticket to Hornsey for 3d, then a wander over to Palace Gates to see if anything was happening, (usually not) then a walk along the tracks to Noel Park station, but climbing over the fence just before the station and off home to be greeted by mum and a cold flannel, 'Your not coming in the house looking like that' Wonderful days
manna
ps 'Granthem men'-------- Unzip a Bannana!!

[Mallard]

Interrupting our admiration of the art of advertising, another grimy Colwick WD clanks through on 1st August 1963. Looking carefully at the 'clean' area around the cabside number, evidence of old layers of paint can be seen - including at least one former number which cannot be 90510. It's slightly larger than the BR numerals and seems to end in '75'. I noticed this only when I was 'cleaning up' the photo today. Is there a list anywhere of earlier numbers borne by these engines?[/quote]
Might have been a 'cab' swap at some time? It is not it's original WD number!
REALLY evocative pics by the way. How many of us ever bothered to turn our precious film on such everyday stuff?
Just as an aside. I knowingly saw my first WD at Laira in about 1959 (when I was a nipper and hadn't been spotting for long); it was off Canton or Southall I seem to remember and they were rare visitors. I envy you guys from the ECML in steam days, but then you probably would have quite liked to have seen a few 'copper tops' or 'spam cans' from down Devon way? (No offence meant).
36E

[Flamingo]

Interrupting our admiration of the art of advertising, another grimy Colwick WD clanks through on 1st August 1963. Looking carefully at the 'clean' area around the cabside number, evidence of old layers of paint can be seen - including at least one former number which cannot be 90510. It's slightly larger than the BR numerals and seems to end in '75'. I noticed this only when I was 'cleaning up' the photo today. Is there a list anywhere of earlier numbers borne by these engines?

Might have been a 'cab' swap at some time? It is not it's original WD number!
REALLY evocative pics by the way. How many of us ever bothered to turn our precious film on such everyday stuff?
Just as an aside. I knowingly saw my first WD at Laira in about 1959 (when I was a nipper and hadn't been spotting for long); it was off Canton or Southall I seem to remember and they were rare visitors. I envy you guys from the ECML in steam days, but then you probably would have quite liked to have seen a few 'copper tops' or 'spam cans' from down Devon way? (No offence meant).
36E[/quote]

I would say that cab on 90510 has been swapped with another WD at some stage during a works overhaul. That sort of thing was not uncommon.

As to their earlier numbers, I think the first batch of WDs which were bought by the LNER after the war were classified either O6 or O7 ( one of those classes was the Stanier 8Fs) and got numbers in the 631XX range.

At or about the same time the railways also took many WDs on loan, and those still had WD numbers in the 70XXX or 77XXX ranges. I can remember seeing 77XXX WDs in my early spotting days 1948/49. Eventually all the numbers were collected by BR and ran from 90000 to 90732. I'm sure there is a list of these changes published somewhere.

[61070]

Thanks very much for the discussion on 90510's overpainted number. I hadn't thought of a 'cab swap', presuming that the '75' was the last part of a WD or an LNER number.

Mallard's comment about his first WD sighting and reference to GW locos has reminded me of my earliest 'disaster' as a young spotter, probably also around 1959 or '60. It was the sight of my first ever GW loco - a Hall - on the GC just north of Leicester station crossing the bridge over the river. It was so filthy that, from where I was standing below, and against the light, I could read neither its number nor its name. How I cursed the GW for its cast numberplates. I was inconsolable for days!

I'll put up some more photos from Grantham in the next day or two.

[Mallard]

I would say that cab on 90510 has been swapped with another WD at some stage during a works overhaul. That sort of thing was not uncommon.
As to their earlier numbers, I think the first batch of WDs which were bought by the LNER after the war were classified either O6 or O7 ( one of those classes was the Stanier 8Fs) and got numbers in the 631XX range.
At or about the same time the railways also took many WDs on loan, and those still had WD numbers in the 70XXX or 77XXX ranges. I can remember seeing 77XXX WDs in my early spotting days 1948/49. Eventually all the numbers were collected by BR and ran from 90000 to 90732. I'm sure there is a list of these changes published somewhere.[/quote]


OPC British Railway locomotives 1948 - 1968 has a good listing and great info on loads of stuff.
36E

[61070]

Mention of The Sunday Telegraph, The Beano and The Dandy means that we ought to stop off to browse Grantham station's bookstall, near the entrance on platform 2.

Titles available then but no longer published include The Daily Herald, Tit Bits, Beezer, Valiant, Lion and Jackie. There are loads more titles to spot. A pop magazine offers a ‘Fab Beatles Pendant’. A Scripto ball pen cost 1/-, and a Scriptomatic 2/6. Using average earnings data these are equivalent to a cost of approx. £1.60 and £4 respectively today, demonstrating that many items have become, relatively speaking, more affordable. April 16th 1964.

My father took the next, colour photograph of the rather portly gent because he thought he recognised the man as Dr. Richard Beeching. I'm sure it's not him - for one thing, this man appears to have less hair than Beeching does on photographs of him from this period. 12th July 1962.

The bookstall manager is standing on the boarded crossing to collect a delivery of newspapers from the down side main line platform. In his right hand is a package containing 15 copies of The Stock Exchange Gazette consigned from King’s Cross to the proprietor, C.E. Eaton & Son of Grantham, presumably the local franchisee of W.H. Smith & Son. A showery April 18th 1963.

Unloading newspapers consigned to Lincoln from a northbound train on platform 3. April 9th 1964.

This copy of The Daily Mail has fulfilled its mission. Carriage & Wagon Examiner Tom Bellamy reads the racing pages at the desk in the Examiners' cabin at the south end of platform 3. 22nd August 1963.

[giner]

Superb again, 61070!

I can claim a couple of tenuous links to a couple of things in the photos. Seeing the sign advertising 'The Lady' (at 10d. in the first pic, and 9d. in the second), and the billboard for 'The Statist' in the second pic, took me back to my apprenticeship days as a Compositor at the Garden City Press in Letchworth where I worked on both of those publications. And if there were any Mills & Boon romance novels among the paperbacks on sale, I most likely put some of them together, too.

Again, in the second photo, I wonder who the 'mystery footballer' was whose top end is obscured by the stall frontage. George Best, perhaps?

I noticed a 'Private Eye' on the rack as well. Didn't work on that one, but always got a good laugh from it - still do online these days.

[Flamingo]

Mid-1962 might be a bit too early for Bestie as the mystery footballer, he would only have been about 16 at that time. I remember seeing George a couple of years later though at White Hart Lane and at 18 he was running rings round what at that time was still a strong Spurs side. My guess for the headless footballer would be Jim Baxter of Rangers ( though the shirt doesn't look the right colour).

These really are great pictures. Hardly anyone took photographs of this kind when they went to a railway station. What we can see here is social history, a slice of life as it was in the 1960s. And what about the display of Matchbox Toys on the left of the top picture - collectors items of considerable value nowadays.