Leaderboard

This photograph I took of Black Country Blues was inspired by the work of Collin Gifford who captured the dying days of steam in his books ‘Each a Glimpse’ & ‘and gone forever’...

Greetings one and all There is a development concerning the CT scan that I want instead of a colonoscopy. My request has been accepted! In due course I will be offered an appointment. I do realise that if anything dodgy is found I might have to have a colonoscopy as well, but I will worry about that if the need arises. All I can do for now is to thank everyone who has expressed views and concerns, with special thanks again to Twosugars who put the idea in my head. Congratulations to Great Uncle Mick and best wishes to all Chris

A couple of shots of Diesels in the Duchy by Andy York...

Absolutely delighted with mine which arrived late yesterday. Not really had time to examine it in detail - just unwrapped it and bunged it on the track. Performance is absolutely superb. (Mine's the DCC-fitted version, with Zimo decoder.) Starts at a slow crawl on speed step 1 (of 128) which it will maintain at that speed step, light engine or loaded. Runs through all complex pointwork with nary a click or clatter in either direction. Best performance of any loco I've had so far. Soon, if I can drag myself away from the two Slater's toplights currently on the workbench, it'll be receiving new number, lamps, crew, real coal and weathering. I might well re-do the 'Great Western' lettering as well to increase the spacing (though photographic evidence does suggest that this could vary). One very satisfied customer here. Worth the wait. John C.

Good morning all, Frosty here as well and a couple of working neighbours could be heard scraping ice off windscreens earlier. I too am glad I don't have to do that now especially as in the few years before she retired I was up at 4.00am to take The Boss to work. A dry morning is forecast with light rain this afternoon. In normal times around here the metal fairies would have lifted stuff the same day. You would see two or three trucks "patrolling" the neighbourhood each day but since March they seem to have virtually disappeared. A few more decs went up yesterday with one final small push today and then all the empty boxes etc will need to be put back in the loft. Before that I need to go for a walk to the baker for bread only. I was going to get some cakes but The Boss is a making another apple cake so that'll keep me going for a couple of days provided the PBDDs* work. Have a good one, Bob. * PolyBear Detection Devices.

Good moaning. A very nice young man from a healthcare company came yesterday afternoon and fitted Beth up with her machine. Thatvwentvwell and we managed to conduct the whole procedure in French, with one use of the magic book, aka dictionary. Also Beth needed veryblittle translation help. Her French is really improving. I had to assist with getting the thing fitted at bedtime. I will await a report when she arises. A neighbour rang yesterday to say that either the mayor or one of her family have tested positive. We will await further developments. I have to make a trip out today for essential supplies, the vineyard/distillery needs to be visited, along with the builders merchants. Mick, I hope you back improves and good wishes to all those suffering from bust ovens. Regards to all from a sunny Charente. Jamie

Lockdown#2 is seeing a repeat of these. Couple days ago, had a customer asking where his parcel was. I gave him the tracking link saying it had been delivered last Saturday. I asked him to check his "safe place". Return email complaining that he had had another parcel go "missing" on the same day, yet still blamed us....... Day after - apologetic email - they had both been delivered to his neighbour's safe place. The neighbour hadn't checked because said neighbour had never left the house....... And on the same couple of days ago, we had about 8 emails asking where their parcel was. All taking 4-5 days - including 2 through the weekend FFS. I also have suspicion that there has been a nearby sorting office that has had some sort of issue - possibly CV19 related. Next door (semi-detached) has been in isolation as two tested positive for CV-19. He works at an aerospace company with unavoidable contact - he was positive, but feels OK. She is a teaching assistant - tested negative but has spent 3 days in bed (probably more psychosomatic than CV19) 17yo sixth former - negative and OK 15 yo year 11 - positive and pretty much OK. Busy day at work, but: Couldn't decide if it was funny or not when boss' car got a parking ticket......... And for the good news - I am now a great-uncle for the first time. Congratulations to Stephanie and Jon on the arrival of Tobias (already shortened to Toby by SIL/new granny). Mother and Son all doing well. Have a good Friday folks Cheers, Mick

Thinking of Mal the other day put me in mind of this. Another glass to be raised tonight.

A selection from 11 years at Swayfield for today. Swayfield Class 47 up Jan 72 J2810.jpg Swayfield Class 47 up Dec 74 C1837.jpg Swayfield Class 47 down ex pass 13.00 Kings X to Edinburgh Jan 76 C2583.jpg Swayfield 254006 up May 78 J6131.jpg Swayfield Class 254 down Feb 83 J7820.jpg David

And one of my favourite photos taken by Andy York. The stock from Diesels in the Duchy is seen on Black Country Blues. Heading back from the potteries back down south west to St Blazey and beyond...

Morning all A frosty one here. Hoping to get the folding and gkuing bits of card project finished this weekend. Noticed that the local tip now recycles books. So that's another category of stuff from the oaken talk home that can be dealt with. There's a final couple of categories to cope with. First of all Dad's shed where there are tools and detritus going back to my grandfather's day. I've not been 8n the shed for some years now as it was too tricky to think about. Second a bureau full of personal papers, including everything from junior school reports that they kept to newspaper cuttings about my sibling. I'm guessing these will all end up archived chez moi.

Morning, no frost (except a bear of that name) here, it is10c and hissing down - bike club day so of course it is raining. Best wishes to those with new developments and arrivals. MIck, somehow I thought the situation wouldn't have changed with the calls, it really was getting annoying. It has been suggested we were the victim of our own success, usually managing such short delivery times but one would hope that our customers would understand the covid issues - some hope! 'Pah' !! Still, no more, it was good while it lasted! Diseasels are OK, provided they're not those horrid modern ones with scribble on the side. Having looked after large diesel engines in my first career I have an affinity for them too, but I am a steam man at heart.

Foreign wagons completed. This was the first attempt at the bauxite colour which for simplicity I just used Vallejo Beige Brown. Though OK it was a bit bland to my liking with no planking detail. So we went back to paint shop and using a hint of Vallejo Sky Grey weathered the planks a bit by a mixture of dry brushing and washes. To my eye this gave a bit more relief to the sides As you might recall I ordered the wrong fish van as I brought a 1941 version but thanks to help from Paul (Worsdell forever) who sent me some details from his book on LMS wagons I was able alter this an earlier version by the addition of end vents, not strictly correct but near enough for me. The only thing missing for me is the word Fish on the side but I don't have any and not quite sure where it would go, my gut feeling is that it would be above the LMS in small font, going to leave for now. One odd thing that was highlighted with these two models where the transfers, so here is a little moan. These are Parkside Models by Peco and are sold as LMS versions with transfers included, then why then are the transfers for the BR (ex LMS) version! I can see no mention of this on the packaging and had assumed they would be be for the LMS model, surely these kits should be sold as a BR (ex LMS) model or at least some mention that the transfers are for another era. So come on Peco make it a bit clearer, that aside they are lovely, well moulded kits and a pleasure to build.

' morning all from red dragon land. No sign of frost here: 10C. It is, supposedly, drying up around lunch time with dark cloud still hanging around. Since I will not be venturing out further than the recycle bins outside the front door this afternoon, no worries. First sign of the *C* word arrived yesterday - a pair of (his n hers:) divine chocolate Advent Calendars: dark for me, milk for him. So, all set for December Day 1. Lots of little jobs to get started/done so I had better get a move on. Fitt n Elfie* working up to the big day...slowly, they tell me. Take care and play safe. _________ Best wishes Polly * Was it me seeing things or the system gremlins that mixed up these little fellas, yesterday?

Think about local care homes if appropriate - there's a lot of bored people who have been through their libraries a number of times and may appreciate something new.

Couple of 0-6-0s - 4F and 2251 Collett Goods sitting in Dewchurch Loco yard.

Got to go for a hearing test, with expensive new aids in prospect. Apparently the new type only last about five years, and mine are within three months of that. Can't manage without them though. The 6.06 FO Bradford- KX is our featured train, Hermit having the job.

Moaning all from the boring borough. Crabtree is off this morning. It is Friday. Thank fork. Only 21 working days left in the year for me. And now a poem. Roses are red, toilets are white. Take Milk of Magnesia and you'll be on one all night. Amazing how one can remember useless crap like that from childhood but not what I did last week. D'oh. A tad frosty outside. The shed roof is white. This is a good thing as it shows the new insultation is doing what it is supposed to as the inside temp is about 10c at the moment. More Hermes woes. Turns out one package from the missing trio was marked as delayed but will be delivered yesterday. It wasn't. Seems as though all the tracking information on Hermes website has vanished apart from the orange "delayed" message. However, the original tracking from Hermes relayed via Post NL is still visible. There is definitely something hinky happening at the Dartford depot. Little else to report. Unlike Tony, I BBQ all year round in all sorts of weather. I believe they call it character building stupidity. Tomorrow will be a 10 hour low and slow pair of pork shoulders for pulling. (shred for those not familiar with pulled pork) enjoy the day.

No problem, just so long as it's green. If it's blue (or even worse, some garish explosion in a paint factory colour scheme) then the only hope is a repaint.... Panic over.... In Essex that shouldn't be a problem. Might be fun running a book to see how quickly. Put Bear down for "under 24 hours" The timing is fairly fortunate though, as many sellers have started the dreaded "black friday" early (AO being one, I believe) Funny, definitely funny. In other news: Bear had a bit of a lie in this morning. I heard the neighbour scraping his windscreen at seven, which is the first time this winter I've heard it. A real bonus of being retired - I'll not miss that game one bit. In a bit of flaky groove at the moment - I tend to do a bit on the kitchen in the morning but afternoon progress is usually zilch, though I'm often researching etc. via Google. Must get my little fluffy ar5e into gear otherwise I'll still be doing this next November.

Good evening everyone I managed to get the fireplace finished today, it took a to more effort than I initially thought it would! All that needs doing now is to give the back a clean, which I’ll do with a wire brush fitted to my drill, outside on a warm, sunny wind free day, as it will create a lot of rusty coloured dust! My attention will now turn back to stripping the paint from the cellar walls, deep joy. But like I said a few days ago, if I want the cellar (which will be my model railway room) to be dry, then it’s got to be done.

When I started my ECML layout a few years back I made a decision to use Kirk kits for the Gresley coaches and add some more details and flush glaze them. Other options were Hornby RTR and brass kits. Kirks basically won on price (even just a couple of years back you could get them for around a tenner on ebay - not any more). Also the variety of diagrams available is far more than RTR and the shape, I think, is better than the Hornby ones. To be honest once I have added detailing parts and metal wheels the price difference, even picking up the kit cheap is not that great so looking back I am not sure I made the right choice. I am happy with them though and have enough in the to do pile to keep me going. If starting now I think I would put brass sides on secondhand Hornby coaches as the optimum way to get a variety of coaches that look good at a reasonable price. In terms of value I did make use of the old too short Hornby Gresleys that happen to be just the right length for GNR coaches and can be picked up for next to nothing. These have sides cut myself on a Silhouette machine. They don't stand up to super close inspection but it gives me something a little different.

post office visited. A lot quieter out and about today. Her indoors has been attacking the hedge between us and next door as our next door neighbour moves out next week. Her indoors 1 Hedge 0.. she can g et vicious with a pair of hedge clippers! Time for a mugadecaff methinks..... Baz

Ey up! Bit chilly here this morning up in the North West Leeds Highlands. We had a similar oven problem a good few years ago. We bought a large convi oven (which we didn't use pn the 25th December) and it is still in use microwaving items on demand.. apart from the dqy youngest Herbert switched it to oven setting and melted the bacon container.. what a banana! I have a couple of parcels to prepare and post but other than that my "things to do for the house" list is empty..at the moment!! Nedt door has left some metal items outside.. but our metal fairies have yet to collect them. @BSW01.. noce work on the fire place! When we moved in only 1 original fire place remained..we cleaned the paint of it and it has really nice blue tiles down either side of the surround..yes it is still in place! Of for my mugatea. Stay safe! Positive thoughts to all ERs, hope the CT goes well @chrisf. baz

TCP, Germolene, Savlon, Milk of Magnesia, Disprin and assorted Elastoplast seemed to lurk in many medicine cabinets. When I lived in Canterbury my landlady seemed very fond of Dettol. Her dog bit me once and before I could say no she had poured Dettol over the bite. Now it seems I am a bit sensitive to Dettol and my wrist swelled up and had something like giant nettle rash blisters. My landlady wasn’t totally amused when I said it looked as if her dog had rabies.

Absolutely. It was always produced by mother from the medicine cabinet if we complained of stomach aches as children. Just as Vicks was always produced when we complained of stuffy noses. I employed some of the latter last night to assist sleeping after a day of intense de-snottification and it seemed to do the trick. Should I tempt fate and discuss ovens? Ours was replaced two years ago after the glass door shattered mid-roast. Very fortunately it was the outer layer of glass which went not the inner meaning the roast was still enjoyable though took a little longer to cook than I had planned. I turned the temperature down a bit just in case. The dribbly nose has abated significantly - not quite completely - and all seems to be well in that department. I suspect it was an irritant of some kind rather than a common cold as I had not felt unwell at all. Precautions taken were hourly temperature checks, regular taste checks and consuming copious amounts of water. SWMBO offered me the precaution of a large kebab with chips, delivered to the door beautifully hot and fresh and enjoyed with a beer from the bedroom "cellar". Official paperworks were attended to yesterday to meet today's deadlines. Today is therefore me-time until 17 o'clock when Friday Drinks will be declared. I sall shee youZALL L8er

It appears my earlier posting got lost out there somewhere.. so some of this is a repeat. A very good night's sleep, of nearly seven hours with a few wake ups but I was comfortable so no need to roll over.. Ben then let me get nearly an hour more sleep on the sofa before demanding out.. it's somewhat frosty out there, so a heater will be required in the garage where first efforts will be keeping more of the heat in the workshop area. The keel will then have to be moved, I've decided that there is a better position for the radio.. if there is room. This will need a slight change to the routing of the wiring. Time to put on the padded insulated overalls.

Good morning everyone I think we had a little overnight rain, as it’s damp outside but no puddles! It’s Friday so that means I’ll shortly be heading off to the butchers to collect the weekly meat rations and hopefully a pastie for dinner. Once I’ve packed away all the rations I’ll have a second muggertea before heading off to the Trafford Centre. After dinner I’ll finish making the fruit tea loaf I left soaking overnight, that should the kitchen smell nice for a couple of hours! After that, there are no firm plans, probably reading or doing some research. The fireplace in last nights post is hopefully the last one I’ll ever need to do! I’ve stripped and either polished or painted all the fireplaces in the house and this one makes it 8! Yes that’s correct 8, one in each bedroom (4) one each in the living room, dining room and finally one in the big cellar room, that will need a little bit of work doing to it, thankfully not stripping. Stay safe, stay sane, enjoy whatever you have planned for the day, back later. Brian

Frosty? There's a word we don't use very much in Somerset. It's cloudy and raining here - nothing unusual really. Did you know that approx 10 to the power 45 photons are emitted from the Sun every second? Some of them on their way to make contact with the rods and cones in the back of your eyes. Lockdown is certainly allowing me to learn about stuff.

A lovely morning, so I got the old Anglia out again and had a run down to Seven Mills Sidings and found 37183 in the Yard.

Replaced ours last Friday 13th I managed to hurt my back juggling the microwave that sits above it... Lugged the old one outside and phoned the metal fairy and it was collected Monday morning. Night awl.

Well what a morning, went to order a new oven, Currys site crashed(apparently due to demand for the new playstation(whatever one of those is), finally got it ordered, arrives next Tuesday, so a weekend with no grill or oven. Been sat in front of the fire toasting bagels for SWMBO lunch, took me right back to the 1950/1960's during the frequent power cuts when we made toast on the fire. Used to do jacket tatties in there too, might give that a go. Tonight's dinner will be something ending with a "ding". Mr Bear the the BRCW is indeed of the green and small yellow bits variety, so can be weathered with some soot from an adjacent steam loco to make it look a proper job.

Still sipping down, but we put the world to rights at the club, so all is well. Ish. A little shopping done, moolah out of the pressybank, and that's me in for the day I think. No incentive to go down to the garage when it is so miserable, it is quite windy now so heating it is a waste of fuel. Its OK on a reasonably still day, I use a kerosene fired fan heater, works quite well and economical to run. it also has built in CO detector etc so is safe, they use these in Japan a lot for domestic heating. It is a Japanese product.

Hopefully ours will be quite simple. I did fit the current one and the original one in 1990. Aditi is going to insist in helping with the lifting even though I have done this task by myself before. Your phone call mention has reminded me, I think a near neighbour has a metal fairy contact number.

Our oven has died. We really liked it but the manufacturer no longer manufactures. We have replaced a few bits in the past but had decided if anything went we had identified a replacement. Of course we didn’t expect it to happen during a lockdown. However a replacement is scheduled to arrive in 10 days. Some functions like the grill still work so it won’t be too awkward. I suppose we could even make cakes in the combination microwave oven. Tony

Ahh yes, PBDD's.... Sometimes employed by skullduggerous individuals in the mistaken belief that they will deny poor Poly of his spoils. Poly got wise to such dirty lowdown tricks many moons ago and developed PBDD Jamming Devices, which not only render such gadgets useless they also give those wielding them a severe case of the galloping trots. Game on.

Also hospitals and churches as well. They will be glad of things like books for sales etc. Once we've all been vaccinated of course.

Ginger wine works for me for a sore froat cure - one of the few sweet things I allow myself now, when needed. The mention of golden syrup and custard (preferably with sponge pudding) makes me cry....my favourite, now banned. Howling wind out again now, but at least the rain has stopped.

I suspect a bear would encourage/allow some other woodland creature to lick the jam and then eat the unsuspecting ready sweetened creature.

Afternoon all, Congratulations to Mick and the proud parents. No frost here today and none forecast overnight so I doubt I shall hear the GD scraping her car windscreen just after 06.00 preparatory to setting off to work and i see that she has helped herself to one of the cans of de-icer that I keep kept in the hall ready for easy access when needed. No need to bother with clearing the editor today but instead I can moan about the dumbcluck idle git of a milkman who decided the best place to leave our milk was in the middle of the drive just inside the gate. Clearly he was too effin lazy to open the front gate and walk 25 feet to our front porch - I blieve herself has maf de hos management aware of her displeasure. Talking of shifts I must admit to always being rather fond of late turns - morning free to do whatever without getting up too early and money saved because one could hardly go to the pub especially if your job didn't give you a chance to nip across the road for a swift half etc. Early starts I have never liked one bit although at one stage when I was covering three jobs in the course of a rather long day it worked out that I was actually being paid night rate for lying in bed as the site of my Home Station required me to rise pretty early to catch an 05.15 ECS train to my first job of the day whereas said job was actually a brisk 10 minute walk from home so I didn't get up until after 06.00 I didn't mind nights either and definitely preferred them if I was working 12 hour shifts as they avoided the need to get up early. I am commanded to createa fire in the wid burning stove so I had better head that way. Enjoy the rest of your day and stay safe.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Up a bit late this morning, overslept a bit. The sore ankle kept me awake until I took a brace of co-codamols then I went out like a light. Good news is that the post has finally arrived, no nasty surprises and the only bumph was trying to get me to sign up for a mobile phone. I already have five mobile phones, thing is they are in the same condition as Monty Pythons parrot, dead! Thats because I used them so little so I've concluded that I don't need one. A visit to Tess Coes is in order otherwise I'm on a severe diet over the weekend. Last time I was there they had a special offer on their 'finest' mince tarts, they are really very good as those that I purchased early in the week have gone.

Came home this afternoon after a day out on the hill to find a parcel - something I'd been waiting for four years. Well. Robin has shown you his over on ANTB, so I'll show you mine. Only had time so far to take it up to the loft, extract from packaging, bung on the track and fire up the Prodigy. It looks pretty damned good, though I've had no time to examine the detail, but the immediate revelation was the performance. (I'd ordered the DCC-fitted one - Zimo chip I believe). I've never had such a smooth, responsive and well behaved loco before. It starts at a crawl on speed step 1, which it will maintain, light engine or loaded, and runs through all complex pointwork with nary a click or clatter. Top speed is way OTT but that can be altered or not used. Looking forward to getting to know it better. Next time you see it it won't look so pristine! John C.

Where does the time go, Six years already. We’ve lost a few over the years. Don was one of the exceptional ones.

Butter and sugar was always Gran’s go to for most things. These days I prefer whisky and Crabbie’s. You can feel it cutting it’s way through on the way down.

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. The bright sunshine this morning has been replaced by wet and wind. Just as well that one of my neighbours was having his TV aerial replaced as I went out to Tess Coes. I decided to have a little flutter on the Euromillions, 116 of them tonight so fingers crossed. They are called jamming devices because they use jam. Not any old jam though, its the stickiest most glutinous jam that its possible to find. The idea is that it is concealed within a cake but in such a way that as soon as a bite is taken it squirts out in all directions together with other cake contents such as cream. It also sticks like sh!t to Polybear fur so that he twists himself into knots trying to lick it off. We now have to devise a similar deterrent to prevent hippo's from decimating cake supplies.

One from this afternoon, only 5 boxes northbound today, got it all next week too, loos to be a busier week

Afternoon Awl, Very chilly in workshop garage, heater on, so I set about filling gaps between the corrugated roof and the partition walls I've built. That foam I've been bring from work came in useful again, cut into triangles and squeezed into each ripple. The pedestrian door to the outside world also had some gaps sealed by frame adjustment, there is more to do. Any aircraft landing with no damage to aircraft or persons is a good one.. The same applies to getting a keel off of the bench..it wasn't elegant, nor as easy as I'd hoped. But it it was achieved without damage to me or anything else. The bench is now sighing in relief, having unloaded it, the dip under the weight, it has slowly risen up .. The keel is now standing up the right way on its own. The rest of the bench was cleared, and the wall round the window boxed in. The area where the radio was fitted is now clear, it's an obvious place for wall storage, but it's a long reach, so what to put there? The radio is now mounted on the shelf above the chair, , it required modification to one vertical of the shelving unit, by shifting just the top, to the right by 2 inches. A double socket was inserted into the ring main at a suitable point for the radio. Reception isn't fabulous, but I noticed it's got a socket for a 300ohm aerial so one has been ordered. Then two cross beams were cut and fitted to the roof main beams for the future lifting point. Two small sections of ceiling panel were fitted.. We have outside 4 failed tumble dryers or washing machines , awaiting end of covid, for me to take them and some batteries to the scrappy. A raptor has decided it's a good place to sit and eat.....rats It on its second one in three days.. we're happy for it to keep on eating..

POETS, again, works for me... Yesterday the Long Island client confirmed their Financial Statement for October was correct/finalized, so they essentially seem to have gone and hidden in a bunker! Nothing else happening here, the evening saw a very complicated (think 40+ people, many in an age demographic AND techo demographic that means they are clueless - but lovely people) Zoom attempt to get the choir together for a "party". Nice to see folks I've not seen for almost 9 months or more now. Heartwarming, but also sad as we all LOVE singing together and that's looking like we won't be together as a choir until mid-2021 at the earliest Self-isolating means we've nothing planned for the weekend other than a couple of Zoom meetings with friends and family. Grocery delivery today between 2-4Pm, yay. -2 first thing, +5 and overcast the forecast. Hope the weekend starts well for everyone.

Hughes-Fowler 2-6-0 no.42790. Bromsgrove. South-bound. 2 March 1963 by ricsrailpics, on Flickr 3 at Nechells Power Station on 14.11.70. Loco RSH 7537 built 1949. (DPH A.656) by Dave Hill, on Flickr 3 at Nechells Power Station on 14.11.70. Loco RSH 7537 built 1949. (DPH A.653) by Dave Hill, on Flickr 7 on the Littleton Colliery line on 18.02.77 (DPH S.391) by Dave Hill, on Flickr

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Missed a meeting tonight, forgot all about it, an illustrated talk by one of the SEERS members. Not to worry as it wasn't a subject that I'm terribly interested in. Ovens breaking down, as I mentioned I haven't used the oven for ages, I'm not even sure if it does work. I won't be using it, not even to cook C*******s dinner as I will be using the grill for the meat, the dry fryer as a mini fan oven for the roast veg and the micro for the green veg. I recall Christmases when I was a nipper. Us youngsters were in the living room opening and playing with our pressies with mum or dad or a visiting grandparent putting their head around the door on occasion to check that we were behaving ourselves. Mum and dad, with any visiting grandparent were busying themselves in the kitchen preparing Christmas dinner which always seemed to take all of the morning. One Christmas day we had both pairs of grandparents visiting and us (3) kids had to sit at a small side table to eat our Christmas dinner. That was my thought but the main Bahnhoff appears to have survived more or less intact except for some modern fast food outlets who's garish signs seem out of place. It is also the largest railway station in Germany.

OK, nothing on telly, so here goes. Day trip to Grantham, early summer 1957. A mid week day in what must have been the Whit holiday saw three 12 year old boys at Lincoln Central station, having been permitted to go to Grantham train spotting. The 1957 timetable tells me we would have left at either 8.35 or 1030, I suspect it was the latter. The train was at one of the bay platforms, and was definitely a DMU, probably a Derby lightweight, and yes, we would have gone to the front, hoping to sit right behind the cab, and that the driver hadn't closed the blinds. Through Waddington Harmston Navenby Leadenham Caythorpe and Honington we went, finally joining the ECML at Barkston Junction, where the station had closed two years before. On through Peascliffe tunnel, hoping for a down express to pass us, but my recollection is that nothing ever did. Arrival at Grantham Platform 1 was at 1117, and I remember clearly that things were very quiet when we got off the train. That's why i'm sure it was mid week. Normally, spotters were turfed off the station double quick, but this time we were told we could stay, provided we behaved. We would have been straight across the footbridge to the island platform, from which at least some of the locos on shed could be identified. My notebooks are long gone, thrown out by my mum when I was at Law School, as she thought I had " grown out of them", but I do have a few specific memories, two of which I am sure were of this particular day. I'll come to those shortly. The great attraction of Grantham was that view of the shed, and the fact that many trains changed engines there, so we got two for the price of one. In addition to the main line trains there were quite a few local services, but almost all by this time were DMUs, which we ignored. The Nottingham and Derby trains, which ran to and from the outer face of the island platform were still steam hauled though, and they ran frequently. Motive power for those was very varied. A5, B1, J6, J11, J39, K2, L1were all to be seen. The station pilot was still a lovely little C12, and I always enjoyed looking at that. Of course it was the main line we had come to see though, as Pacifics were not seen at Lincoln except on occasional diversion days, usually a Sunday. In summer 57 four A4s were sent from Kings Cross to Grantham for a few months, 60003/8/10 and 30 being the numbers. I do vividly remember seeing 60030 come off shed and run slowly past us to wait in the loco spur by the Yard box to take over an Up train. What else happened? Expresses came and went, most stopped but some came flying through. The speed limit was 60mph, but it felt a lot faster to a small boy. For some reason, V2s seemed to be travelling faster than anything else. I'd like to tell you that we saw a rare Scottish engine, but we didn't, and the Elizabethan hadn't started running yet. I bet though that we did see WP Allan HA Ivatt Kestrel and Osprey, plus plenty of the Grantham A3s, and the occasional A4. My memory insists though that there were never many of them to be seen, and that when a streak did appear it was often 60700. Even at 12 we had seen most of the Pacifics shedded at or south of Doncaster, and all of the ones at Copley Hill, so cops were rare. There was one for me that day though, as 60050 appeared from the line down to the turning triangle. It had been shedded on the GC for some years, and only just been transferred to Grantham, so it was new to me. Even at my age, Persimmon seemed a strange name for a very large engine. It was a nice sunny day, and I still remember how quiet it was. There must have been a fair number of people getting on and off trains, but this is my abiding memory. So we ate our Lyons Individual fruit pies, apricot in my case, drank our fizzy whatever it was, got some chocolate out of the machines, and didn't have to put on our Pacamacs. The train back was at 6.20, arriving Lincoln at 7.04, then a bus home, where I don't remember getting anything else to eat. Just a normal day, well, not quite, because we were allowed to stay on the platforms. Perhaps that's why it has stayed so strong in my memory. Of course we thought it would all carry on for ever, but just six years later steam was gone, and the Lincoln- Grantham line soon followed it. The engine shed site is now a housing estate, and just the bare bones of the trackwork are still there. The Lincoln bay has been filled in, and when I go there now, which isn't often, there is an air of melancholy. I cannot and will not believe that it really was 63 years ago though. Over to you. Would anyone else like to tell us about memories of a favourite place? And if you still have your spotter's note books that would be even better.