Peterborough North

[jazzer]

10 hours ago, great northern said:

So, off to bed with that song in my mind resulted in the best night's sleep I've had in ages. Now I have a golf lesson to wind me up again, if I allow it so to do. Apologies, I still find it very hard to split infinitives.

 

Let us have some photigraffs. Here is Mons Meg again, sizzling away gently, and looking as ungainly as only the creations of Thompson can.

 

 

 

Meg has gone on her way. 91 minutes for 76 miles with only six on shouldn't be too taxing. She will shortly be replaced at Platform 2 by another Leicester- East local, which brings the increasingly rare sight of a Compound in steam. From what I've read, most of the survivors were in store by this time.

 

 

 

 

 

The detail of your comments always fascinate me, Gilbert. Why on earth would Mons Meg take 91 minutes to KX even including a stop at Huntingdon I think, with only 6 on when quite heavy trains were doing it in 80 minutes or so ?  It seems in those days there was very little consistency in the timings of certain trains. If I remember rightly I think 90 minutes would have been. B1 timing ?

 Or were Thompson Pacifics really that bad ? 

[Grafarman]

The Manager of the Music College at which I studied and taught counted as her two best friends - from school days apparently - Helen Mirren and Dave Gilmour. We played Floyd's albums as background music in the college and often performed them in workshops with the students (they loved the long guitar solos too...!)  I met the wonderful Ms Mirren once but Mr G remained an enigma; the weekend parties at his country home were, however,  legendary, and our Manager was frequently missing on Mondays...

 

Shine on...

 

David 

[Peter Kazmierczak]

22 hours ago, great northern said:

An evening with the headphones on, finishing with Floyd's wondrous Up and Down is very good preparation for a quiet night's sleep, or at least I hope so. I don't mind if that tune lingers in my head all night.

 

Here's some pictures while I play back the saxaphone solo in my mind. For some reason, the chappie took another very similar picture of Nottingham Forest, but then it is a very nice sight.

 

 

 

Then we have the 4.40 Up Doncaster, just six cars except on Fridays, when it loaded to ten or more including eight Mk1 TSOs. I don't have that many lying loose, so it isn't Friday. That means another very light load for an A2/2, but Mons Meg is used to that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[manna]

G'Day Folks

 

I don't mind listening to music when in the railway room, anything from Enya, to Queen, to War of the Worlds, and Mike Oldfield, but some of the old loco's seem to drown them out, on occasion !

 

As for Mr 'Flying Duck's' preference for creaking shiny leather, I'm not sure whether his music taste's move onto Jim Morrison or Suzi Q ??????

 

manna

[great northern]

2 hours ago, jazzer said:

The detail of your comments always fascinate me, Gilbert. Why on earth would Mons Meg take 91 minutes to KX even including a stop at Huntingdon I think, with only 6 on when quite heavy trains were doing it in 80 minutes or so ?  It seems in those days there was very little consistency in the timings of certain trains. If I remember rightly I think 90 minutes would have been. B1 timing ?

 Or were Thompson Pacifics really that bad ? 

The 91 minutes included  8 minutes recovery time south of Hatfield, in case the poor thing ran out of breath, but seriously, it wasn't a very quick railway back then. The preceding express was the White Rose which was allowed 84 minutes from passing PN, and before that the Up Glasgow was allowed all but 90. Admittedly both had eleven on, but even so it wasn't a challenging schedule. Again the White Rose had 8 minutes recovery time, and the Glasgow no less than 11. Little incentive or need for crews to exert themselves much.

[great northern]

The Compound is on its way down to East, and is allowed 5 minutes for the one mile journey. Mind you it had to start, cross the main line, and then go round the sharp chord to get down there.

 

 

 

Then the 4.19 from KX arrives, bringing another of our local A2/2s. 131 minutes schedule here, though there were six stops, and a spell on the goods line between Arlesey and Sandy.

 

 

[Martin S-C]

Any 4-4-0 gets a thumbs up from me. Very attractive engines. Add a single axle pony truck to make an Atlantic and I'm putty in your hands. Any more axles (and six driven wheels) is overkill!

[billy_anorak59]

Have you seen this one Gilbert? One to reproduce?

I looked at it and thought 'I've seen that before somewhere...'

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/rgadsdon/6788951320/in/album-72157624322947536/

 

Just shows how accurate your layout is!

[great northern]

The usual shopping and golf today, so quick images before I go. Thane of Fife has come to a halt at Platform 6.

 

 

[great northern]

I got that wrong, as I'd forgotten to crop the image, so the cursor was in the wrong place, and refused to cooperate. What I meant to do was to show that by moving slightly to the left, the photographer could also get this view. He had to lean over a bit though.

 

 

[FarrMan]

14 hours ago, great northern said:

The 91 minutes included  8 minutes recovery time south of Hatfield, in case the poor thing ran out of breath, but seriously, it wasn't a very quick railway back then. The preceding express was the White Rose which was allowed 84 minutes from passing PN, and before that the Up Glasgow was allowed all but 90. Admittedly both had eleven on, but even so it wasn't a challenging schedule. Again the White Rose had 8 minutes recovery time, and the Glasgow no less than 11. Little incentive or need for crews to exert themselves much.

my memory is that it was normally about 90 minutes Peterborough to Kings Cross in the early 1960's. First time I came back up the East Coast Main Line on a 125, I got a shock when we were passing Peterborough in 45 minutes!

 

Lloyd

[CUTLER2579]

Saturday afternoons out of the cross were a nightmare. We used to catch a train at around 2.00 for Grantham  and were often sat on board waiting for a Locomotive. We once waited for a V2 that had arrived in London from the North at the head of a pigeon train. Quickly turned , coaled  & water, then sent to the cross to return North.  Happy days all the same.

[jazzer]

17 hours ago, great northern said:

The 91 minutes included  8 minutes recovery time south of Hatfield, in case the poor thing ran out of breath, but seriously, it wasn't a very quick railway back then. The preceding express was the White Rose which was allowed 84 minutes from passing PN, and before that the Up Glasgow was allowed all but 90. Admittedly both had eleven on, but even so it wasn't a challenging schedule. Again the White Rose had 8 minutes recovery time, and the Glasgow no less than 11. Little incentive or need for crews to exert themselves much.

Thanks for that clarification . I only have a 1960 public timetable, which obviously don't include those details. The up run always seems to have been allowed a few extra minutes than the down journey which I always assumed was perhaps due to congestion or the general need to ease approaching the Capital . Interestingly by 1960 times had speeded up a little with plenty of trains being allowed 80 min on the Down journey  but the 4.40 pm up from Doncaster that we have mentioned had been extended to 93 minutes ! 

[great northern]

The Up Queen of Scots is our next visitor, Kittiwake on duty again.

 

 

 

As the driver begins to open the regulator again, we also get a look at a B12 running in with an arrival from Cambridge.

 

 

 

 

 

[great northern]

That clean B12 has arrived at Platform 6, but our man found his usual view blocked by empty minerals on the slow line. He was not to be denied though, and used initiative to obtain this view.

 

 

 

On the Down main, the last of the evening Pullmans appears. 60030 has the Yorkshire Pullman today.

 

 

 

 

 

[New Haven Neil]

Ooooh, the B12 and N5 in one post!  That B12 is almost as nice as the Claude, Gilbert.

[Clive Mortimore]

1 hour ago, New Haven Neil said:

Ooooh, the B12 and N5 in one post!  That B12 is almost as nice as the Claude, Gilbert.

Hi Gilbert,

 

Can you please be a bit more thoughtful. Poor Mrs Three legged Neil has to clean up the mess he is in after such photos.

[great northern]

Golden Fleece continues its stately progress northwards.

 

 

 

and not much further on, it's pampered clients may have suffered an olfactory assault, as the Hull fish passed close by, before making its way through the station.

 

 

 

Quite a good programme on Hornby just finished on BBC4, but do we always have to have the false jeopardy every time?

[great northern]

Our man thought that the B1 was perhaps just a little too far away when he took his first photo, so he decided to do a closer one as well.

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, another Class C was approaching from the south, this one being a KX Goods- Dringhouses working, and headed by an immaculate Top Shed V2.

 

 

 

 

 

[Mallard60022]

11 hours ago, great northern said:

Golden Fleece continues its stately progress northwards.

 

 

 

and not much further on, it's pampered clients may have suffered an olfactory assault, as the Hull fish passed close by, before making its way through the station.

 

 

 

Quite a good programme on Hornby just finished on BBC4, but do we always have to have the false jeopardy every time?

Just loved that bloke doing the Airfix build....what a star. 00 Gauge Society layout……. best left unsaid. Other interesting characters were available......

Such fun.

P

[great northern]

Horrid day today, windy and wet, so we agreed to forego our golf. I don't seem to have done much else though. The V2 is 60854, and we can have another look from the bridge.

 

 

 

and yet another from up the far end.

 

 

 

This gave me a surfeit of lattices, but was not fatal. I have a vistor tomorrow, and goodies are expected.

[Martin S-C]

I can't get enough of your superb trackwork, its just perfect. More windy-wet weather to cancel your golf plans and oblige you to take pics of your trains please!

[great northern]

11 hours ago, Martin S-C said:

I can't get enough of your superb trackwork, its just perfect. More windy-wet weather to cancel your golf plans and oblige you to take pics of your trains please!

That didn't work Martin. I didn't take any. It was very dark though.

[great northern]

Time now for the Friday evening Catterick camp leave train. Happy Knight is seen from the bridge.

 

 

 

Spotting a break in the traffic, our chap ran across the road, leaned out somewhat perilously, and took this.

 

 

 

Apologies for the bits I haven't tidied up. Paint.Net is teasing me something rotten at the moment. The bits round the signal weren't visble even when I blew the image up to 300%. Now I shall await goodies.

[great northern]

Today was a Tim day, and Tim days always mean goodies. Here is the first. One cannot have too many B1s, and here is the latest addition to Immingham's stud. Not long out from a general, and we have photos of it in August and September 1958, so expect to see it on the Cleethorpes- KX turns.

 

 

 

 

 

Subtly different from those Tim has done before, and as always an improvement of an already fine model from Hornby.