RMweb Premium great northern Posted February 5, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted February 5, 2020 3 hours ago, jazzer said: There were certainly some strange train services in 1958 . Who in their right mind would be wanting to travel from Ely to Birmingham back in them days ? A few years after that I travelled from Ely to Peterborough behind a (Green) Brush Type 2 / class 31 towing three wonderful old Gresley coaches apparently deputising for a failed DMU. There was literally nobody else on it apart from me (train spotter) and two other boys apparently going swimming in Peterborough. It only stopped at March where nobody got on or off. There must have been times when it had no passengers at all. Why they needed to pay Dr B.Ching £24 k a year to tell them these services were uneconomic is beyond me . I could have told them that for nothing. A wonderful opportunity to model B17’s in their dying days though.......... Lovely pictures. There was a reasonably frequent service from Birmingham to Leicester anyway, and one from Leicester to Peterborough, so one would expect local traffic to be picked up between those points. To take the service on to Ely would also provide a route from the West Midlands through to East Anglia, with connections to Cambridge and Norwich. Perhaps there wouldn't be many people going the whole way, but the train needs to be looked at as a series of shorter journeys, I think. I believe this train, or something very like it, continued for some years after the end of steam, so there must have been a viable income from it. Wasn't it quite well known as being one of the last loco and carriages trains in the area? A Brush 2 and four or five cars, as I recall? 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Oldddudders Posted February 5, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 5, 2020 In 1969 I certainly caught a mid-afternoon New Street - Norwich service and travelled throughout. But the train didn't serve Ely, cutting straight across to the Norwich line. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gordon s Posted February 5, 2020 Share Posted February 5, 2020 (edited) On 03/02/2020 at 12:01, Clive Mortimore said: She turns up on a Mod's Lambtretta only to go and ride some Rocker's Bantam. I would loved to see her ride her scooter around the wall of death. I remember my dad taking us to the wall of death at Southend, boring. I wanted to go back to Victoria and watch the trains. Hi Gilbert, hope all is well with you. Been a lurker right from the start of PN, but sadly my technical knowledge on stock is limited, so I just watch the trains go by..... However, as a mod back in the 60's, I'm not totally convinced that is a Lambretta...(pedant mode). My first two wheeler was a Lambretta D and then an LD and I can't recall ever seeing a Lambretta with a fixed front mudguard as per the video. My TV175 was later and that was fixed, but not the early ones. Can't put my finger on it and I be way off, but wondered if it was an NSU or similar whose name escapes me.... Someone here will know.... Edit: Could be the rest of the day written off now. Peugeot, BMW, Heinkel or Puch come close, but not exact....... Edited February 5, 2020 by gordon s 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwealleans Posted February 5, 2020 Share Posted February 5, 2020 I travelled from Ely to BNS and return regularly in the early 2000s. It was generally a 2 car 170 or on a bad day a 158 by then. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gordon s Posted February 5, 2020 Share Posted February 5, 2020 (edited) Still searching but the nearest I've got is this pic of a KTM.... https://doyoulikevintage.postx2.com/image/130889691374 Front end looks OK, but the panel vents are different. Either way, it's a very rare beast. Thanks for posting the video, Clive. An enjoyable trawl through a misspent youth... Edited February 5, 2020 by gordon s 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzer Posted February 5, 2020 Share Posted February 5, 2020 4 hours ago, CUTLER2579 said: Jazzer, it was called a service, if Mrs Jazzer needed to attend a hospital appointment in Birmingham,she could get there from her palatial home in Ely. If her next door neighbour wanted to work in Essendine he could get there by train. If Mrs Cutler a resident of Peterborough wanted to visit the "Ship of the Fens" (Ely Cathedral) she could get there by - you've guessed it by CAR. Ah but if Mrs J. had a palatial home in Ely I would never have met here as I only went there once and never went off the station. Therefore I would have had a lot more spare cash so instead of a bit of track in the garage that may one day resemble a model railway, I could have knocked two rooms into one and had my own Peterborough North instead of drooling over someone else's. 2 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
stewartingram Posted February 5, 2020 Share Posted February 5, 2020 I'd like to know just where in Ely there is a palatial home....this is the Fens y'know Stewart 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwealleans Posted February 5, 2020 Share Posted February 5, 2020 What about the Bishop’s Gaff? That looked quite tidy. 2 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzer Posted February 5, 2020 Share Posted February 5, 2020 1 hour ago, great northern said: There was a reasonably frequent service from Birmingham to Leicester anyway, and one from Leicester to Peterborough, so one would expect local traffic to be picked up between those points. To take the service on to Ely would also provide a route from the West Midlands through to East Anglia, with connections to Cambridge and Norwich. Perhaps there wouldn't be many people going the whole way, but the train needs to be looked at as a series of shorter journeys, I think. I believe this train, or something very like it, continued for some years after the end of steam, so there must have been a viable income from it. Wasn't it quite well known as being one of the last loco and carriages trains in the area? A Brush 2 and four or five cars, as I recall? According to the Summer 1960 timetable there were 3 DMU week day services plus a Fridays only DMU between Ely and PN . The first of these were all stations the others called at March only so the stations at Chettisham , Black Bank and Manea seem to have only one train per day. All of those originated at Cambridge, but only one ran through to Birmingham. In addition there was the loco hauled Colchester-Glasgow and two late trains from Liverpool St that reached Peterborough in the early hours. There couple of trains that originated for from places like Hunstanton, and Yarmouth through to Birmingham but these cut out Ely and joined the route at March. I suppose in the pre-motor way era and before the days of widespread car ownership people depended on these routes more than we might imagine today. The Brush 2 hauled train you mention could well have been the1.55pm ex-Cambridge via St Ives, (not Ely) -Birmingham which didn't rumble in to its final destination until 7.5 pm. or a replacement for a failed DMU Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CUTLER2579 Posted February 5, 2020 Share Posted February 5, 2020 1 hour ago, jwealleans said: I travelled from Ely to BNS and return regularly in the early 2000s. It was generally a 2 car 170 or on a bad day a 158 by then. Could have been a 142. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwealleans Posted February 5, 2020 Share Posted February 5, 2020 Quote Could have been a 142. Then I could have claimed compensation. 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
stewartingram Posted February 5, 2020 Share Posted February 5, 2020 3 hours ago, jazzer said: According to the Summer 1960 timetable there were 3 DMU week day services plus a Fridays only DMU between Ely and PN . The first of these were all stations the others called at March only so the stations at Chettisham , Black Bank and Manea seem to have only one train per day. All of those originated at Cambridge, but only one ran through to Birmingham. In addition there was the loco hauled Colchester-Glasgow and two late trains from Liverpool St that reached Peterborough in the early hours. There couple of trains that originated for from places like Hunstanton, and Yarmouth through to Birmingham but these cut out Ely and joined the route at March. I suppose in the pre-motor way era and before the days of widespread car ownership people depended on these routes more than we might imagine today. The Brush 2 hauled train you mention could well have been the1.55pm ex-Cambridge via St Ives, (not Ely) -Birmingham which didn't rumble in to its final destination until 7.5 pm. or a replacement for a failed DMU We moved to Cambridge (when I was 10 in 1959). From memory (and I lived alongside the loop at Milton Road), most Cambridge-March trains went via the St.Ives loop. I seem to recall one journey that we took went via Ely, that seemed very rare and exciting! Trainspotting at Chesterton Junction (the site of the present Cambridge North) seemed to confirm this as most trains on the Ely line were Kings Lynn or Norwich services. Stewart ps most services nowadays on the loop go to St.Ives or Huntingdon, though I saw one last week for Peterborough. I even photted a new electric at St.ives ! (for those not in the know, guided buses....) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium St Enodoc Posted February 5, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 5, 2020 10 hours ago, jazzer said: There were certainly some strange train services in 1958 . Who in their right mind would be wanting to travel from Ely to Birmingham back in them days ? A few years after that I travelled from Ely to Peterborough behind a (Green) Brush Type 2 / class 31 towing three wonderful old Gresley coaches apparently deputising for a failed DMU. There was literally nobody else on it apart from me (train spotter) and two other boys apparently going swimming in Peterborough. It only stopped at March where nobody got on or off. There must have been times when it had no passengers at all. Why they needed to pay Dr B.Ching £24 k a year to tell them these services were uneconomic is beyond me . I could have told them that for nothing. A wonderful opportunity to model B17’s in their dying days though.......... Lovely pictures. "Now Runcorn lay over on one side of stream And Widnes on t'other side stood. And, as nobody wanted to go either place, Well, the trade wasn't any too good." M. Edgar. 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium great northern Posted February 5, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted February 5, 2020 7 hours ago, gordon s said: Hi Gilbert, hope all is well with you. Been a lurker right from the start of PN, but sadly my technical knowledge on stock is limited, so I just watch the trains go by..... However, as a mod back in the 60's, I'm not totally convinced that is a Lambretta...(pedant mode). My first two wheeler was a Lambretta D and then an LD and I can't recall ever seeing a Lambretta with a fixed front mudguard as per the video. My TV175 was later and that was fixed, but not the early ones. Can't put my finger on it and I be way off, but wondered if it was an NSU or similar whose name escapes me.... Someone here will know.... Edit: Could be the rest of the day written off now. Peugeot, BMW, Heinkel or Puch come close, but not exact....... All is as normal Gordon. There is some good golf, and rather more bad. Some trains on PN falll off, others don't. And thank goodness I am free of golf club politics. I have to confess though that I know nothing about scooters. 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Popular Post great northern Posted February 5, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Popular Post Share Posted February 5, 2020 Another of those "I'm not sure why I took this" photos. and another angle on Sir Nigel. 33 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jukebox Posted February 6, 2020 Share Posted February 6, 2020 (edited) That's a very pleasing 3/4 rear view of 60007, Gilbert; perhaps because it's a trainspotters-eye-view sort of thing, watching it as it goes past? Cheers Scott Edited February 6, 2020 by jukebox typo 2 7 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Popular Post great northern Posted February 6, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Popular Post Share Posted February 6, 2020 9 hours ago, jukebox said: That's a very pleasing 3/4 rear view of 60007, Gilbert; perhaps because it's a trainspotters-eye-view sort of thing, watching it as it goes past? Cheers Scott Well, as it happens, we do have something very similar this morning, though it also includes a rather less graceful locomotive. our photographers seem to have acquired a fixation on 60007. 28 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Popular Post great northern Posted February 6, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Popular Post Share Posted February 6, 2020 The very last look at Sir Nigel, emerging from under the bridge. And the Ely-Birmingham is on its way too. 35 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Popular Post great northern Posted February 7, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Popular Post Share Posted February 7, 2020 Early golf again. I must be mad. Here is Mons Meg on local duty with the 3.58 Grantham. Looks jolly cold out there too, and still dark. 28 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarrMan Posted February 7, 2020 Share Posted February 7, 2020 Seeing the Flying Scotsman reminds me that there used to be a chippy just off the A9 at Bankfoot, who called himself 'The Frying Scotsman'. Lloyd 1 7 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffP Posted February 7, 2020 Share Posted February 7, 2020 Does the V2 standby ever move? Or change for another standby? How about we could have a series of photos where a loco arrives, is failed, a posed crowd of railway men appear, the loco is removed and the standby takes over? 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Clive Mortimore Posted February 7, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 7, 2020 (edited) When Gordon Brown was prime minister there was serious thoughts of naming a locomotive after him. The top civil servant responsible for naming stuff after senior government officials was sent off to York to liaise with the curator. The curator showed the civil servant a pretty little black tank loco and said "That it didn't have a name so would that be OK?" "No" was the answer, "it is too small and doesn't look important enough". The civil servant asked if one with a name could be renamed. The curator replied, "Yes as long as it wasn't an important locomotive". So the civil servant said "What about that big blue one", pointing at Mallard. "Oh , no there would be a world wide outcry if its name was changed". "The red one?" pointing at the Duchess of Hamilton? "It has had its name changed in the past and that is what makes it historically famous". "We are not getting very far are we" commented the civil servant. "How about that dark green one, that looks impressive?" "Oh no not Oliver Cromwell, that was British Railways last working steam locomotive," said the curator. "I can't go back to London without an engine named after the prime minister, what about my pension?" The curator done one of the deep intake of breaths that a car mechanic does just before he says "it will be expensive". He pointed to the bright green locomotive in the corner, "It is for Gordon Brown, I suppose we could always paint out the F". Edited February 12, 2020 by Clive Mortimore 17 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium great northern Posted February 7, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted February 7, 2020 4 hours ago, JeffP said: Does the V2 standby ever move? Or change for another standby? How about we could have a series of photos where a loco arrives, is failed, a posed crowd of railway men appear, the loco is removed and the standby takes over? It changes daily Jeff, but such is the reliability of the works of Gresley, and even those of Thomps*n, that it is very rarely called into action. This did happen during the previous sequence though, and it created a big problem, as New England has a shortage of V2s, which won't be remedied until some blue boxes arrive, hopefully before too long. 2 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Popular Post great northern Posted February 7, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Popular Post Share Posted February 7, 2020 A close up of an A2/2 for you tonight. And another, this time of a 9F running into Platform 6 with another KX-York parcels. 35 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CUTLER2579 Posted February 8, 2020 Share Posted February 8, 2020 Just love those last two photographs Gilbert, superb Regards,Derek. 2 3 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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