Peterborough North

[great northern]

1 hour ago, Clive Mortimore said:

No the Condor ran on the Midland.

We haven't had a prize for deliberate misunderstanding for quite a while. Anyway, it only ran on the Midland when those funny diesel things didn't conk out.

[great northern]

38 minutes ago, CUTLER2579 said:

Very GOOD s Clive.  

 

 

By the way :-

 

Perhaps it was a Hattie Jacques - Bless Her.

She would have taken out the whole loco though, wouldn't she?

[jwealleans]

She could have repaired it, though - she was a shipyard welder during the war.

 

 

Here she is with my late father (right) and his band, the Skyliners, in 1962.

Edited April 2, 2020 by jwealleans
Add photo.

[great northern]

Lots of images still in store, so here is another one of Pommern, dodgy headboard and all.

 

 

Notice how I have left the front of the loco quite dark so it isn't so obvious though.

[gordon s]

Must be a new set of golf clubs then.......

[great northern]

2 minutes ago, gordon s said:

Must be a new set of golf clubs then.......

I've played so little in the last five months that I hardly miss it at all Gordon. Certainly not worth spending any more money  on that as things stand. Its the railway that is keeping me occupied, and there is plenty to do up there without having to spend any money at all. Which doesn't mean I won't.

[jazzer]

2 hours ago, jwealleans said:

She could have repaired it, though - she was a shipyard welder during the war.

 

 

Here she is with my late father (right) and his band, the Skyliners, in 1962.

 

How did Tony Blair creep in to the left of the picture ?

[jazzer]

22 hours ago, great northern said:

  I'm one of those who felt that the deflectors ruined a lovely locomotive, so no, not that either.

 

To be fair, I am probably the only one who thinks they were an improvement. Perhaps because in my formative years anything with “blinkers “ as we then called them was regarded as something special, without really knowing why !

[Joseph_Pestell]

47 minutes ago, jazzer said:

 

How did Tony Blair creep in to the left of the picture ?

 

He would have been 8 in 1962. Maybe it's his dad.

[great northern]

1 hour ago, jazzer said:

 

To be fair, I am probably the only one who thinks they were an improvement. Perhaps because in my formative years anything with “blinkers “ as we then called them was regarded as something special, without really knowing why !

I know several people who think they improved the appearance, so you are definitely not alone

[great northern]

49 minutes ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

 

He would have been 8 in 1962. Maybe it's his dad.

It is certainly easy to see which one is Jonathan's dad, without even being told.

[great northern]

One more shot of Pommern, and from a more sensible angle, though the wonky headboard still can't be totally disguised.

 

 

Meanwhile at Platform 6 the 9.42 to Norwich stands, Cambridge B12 61558 on duty.

 

 

[thegreenhowards]

Gilbert,

 

If it’s any consolation, when running the sequence on Gereskley Jn, I fLund my headboards often slipped and I generally didn’t spot it until looking at the photos. Sometimes, I reran and rephotographed the train but it wasn’t always possible. What do you use too attach them? I find black tac best, but getting a big enough ‘blob’ to hold it on, but not so big as to be visible is a difficult balance.

 

Andy

[great northern]

10 minutes ago, thegreenhowards said:

Gilbert,

 

If it’s any consolation, when running the sequence on Gereskley Jn, I fLund my headboards often slipped and I generally didn’t spot it until looking at the photos. Sometimes, I reran and rephotographed the train but it wasn’t always possible. What do you use too attach them? I find black tac best, but getting a big enough ‘blob’ to hold it on, but not so big as to be visible is a difficult balance.

 

Andy

I've tried black tac, but, as you say, getting enough to hold firmly but not visibly is not easy. I also try tacky wax, less visible, but often not tacky enough. Mainly though it is my eyes that are at fault, not the means of attachment.

[St Enodoc]

15 hours ago, great northern said:

Bird strike Clive, but it must have been a very big one.

Probably not a duck then.

[great northern]

5 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Probably not a duck then.

Absolutely not. Particularly at Retford.

[great northern]

Two more looks at that lovely well cleaned B12, as it sets off towards Norwich. Actually, I am now quite intrigued. What route would it take to get there? My public timetable is for 1957, and the train is not shown as running that year. The 1958 WTT only takes me as far as East.

 

 

 

 

[31A]

2 hours ago, great northern said:

Two more looks at that lovely well cleaned B12, as it sets off towards Norwich. Actually, I am now quite intrigued. What route would it take to get there? My public timetable is for 1957, and the train is not shown as running that year. The 1958 WTT only takes me as far as East.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can only think of one logical way to Norwich leaving Peterborough southbound; via March Ely & Thetford, the same as now.  The only question would be whether it would use the Ely avoiding line, or go into Ely station and reverse (run round or more likely change engines).

 

[great northern]

29 minutes ago, 31A said:

 

I can only think of one logical way to Norwich leaving Peterborough southbound; via March Ely & Thetford, the same as now.  The only question would be whether it would use the Ely avoiding line, or go into Ely station and reverse (run round or more likely change engines).

 

Thanks Steve. That makes sense. For some reason I had Cambridge in my mind, but that doesn't make sense at all. In 1957 it seems you couldn't get from Peterborough to Norwich without changing at Ely anyway, so a reversal and engine change there may be the most likely answer. In 1958 summer though, there was this one through train.

 

As it happens though, I've just seen a photo this morning of B17 Sunderland on Spital Bridge shed. It was then a Norwich engine, and I also have one of Liverpool there with late crest. Vic Fincham's caption says 1958, but the dates on his photos are notoriously unreliable. 61664 was at Yarmouth from 1955 to early 1960, save for one two month period June to August 1959, when it was at Norwich, so I reckon summer 59 is much more likely. Could it be then that Norwich engines did work this train, and that they did run round at Ely. Everyone was used to much more relaxed schedules back then, so it could well be the case.

 

That could mean another B17 opportunity for me, but Sunderland is absolutely filthy in every late picure I have seen of it, and I wouldn't want to do that to a handsome loco.

[ikks]

22 hours ago, jwealleans said:

She could have repaired it, though - she was a shipyard welder during the war.

 

 

Here she is with my late father (right) and his band, the Skyliners, in 1962.

Great lady, loved her with Eric.

 

Mike

[bigwordsmith]

22 minutes ago, great northern said:

Thanks Steve. That makes sense. For some reason I had Cambridge in my mind, but that doesn't make sense at all. In 1957 it seems you couldn't get from Peterborough to Norwich without changing at Ely anyway, so a reversal and engine change there may be the most likely answer. In 1958 summer though, there was this one through train.

 

As it happens though, I've just seen a photo this morning of B17 Sunderland on Spital Bridge shed. It was then a Norwich engine, and I also have one of Liverpool there with late crest. Vic Fincham's caption says 1958, but the dates on his photos are notoriously unreliable. 61664 was at Yarmouth from 1955 to early 1960, save for one two month period June to August 1959, when it was at Norwich, so I reckon summer 59 is much more likely. Could it be then that Norwich engines did work this train, and that they did run round at Ely. Everyone was used to much more relaxed schedules back then, so it could well be the case.

 

That could mean another B17 opportunity for me, but Sunderland is absolutely filthy in every late picure I have seen of it, and I wouldn't want to do that to a handsome loco.

 

I think I must have seen some of those pics of Sunderland, because many years ago when I was re-liverying a B17 from LNER colours to BR Greens, I saw these and decided to try  my hand at weathering. 

 

MY late father got very excited about the final product, he even went as far as to say he thought it remained too clean - judge for yourself!

[great northern]

23 minutes ago, bigwordsmith said:

 

I think I must have seen some of those pics of Sunderland, because many years ago when I was re-liverying a B17 from LNER colours to BR Greens, I saw these and decided to try  my hand at weathering. 

 

MY late father got very excited about the final product, he even went as far as to say he thought it remained too clean - judge for yourself!

Yours is more end of steam condition Peter, when all pretence at anything but essential maintenance had been abandoned. In the 50s I can't remember seeing much in the way of rust and other stuff of that sort. It was just a gradual accumulation of coats of grime, and that's what the photos of Sunderland and many other engines show. Some had streaks of limescale from priming too, but that's about all.

[31A]

1 hour ago, great northern said:

Thanks Steve. That makes sense. For some reason I had Cambridge in my mind, but that doesn't make sense at all. In 1957 it seems you couldn't get from Peterborough to Norwich without changing at Ely anyway, so a reversal and engine change there may be the most likely answer. In 1958 summer though, there was this one through train.

 

As it happens though, I've just seen a photo this morning of B17 Sunderland on Spital Bridge shed. It was then a Norwich engine, and I also have one of Liverpool there with late crest. Vic Fincham's caption says 1958, but the dates on his photos are notoriously unreliable. 61664 was at Yarmouth from 1955 to early 1960, save for one two month period June to August 1959, when it was at Norwich, so I reckon summer 59 is much more likely. Could it be then that Norwich engines did work this train, and that they did run round at Ely. Everyone was used to much more relaxed schedules back then, so it could well be the case.

 

That could mean another B17 opportunity for me, but Sunderland is absolutely filthy in every late picure I have seen of it, and I wouldn't want to do that to a handsome loco.

 

For a very long time and until recently, trains between Peterborough and Norwich via March & Thetford would avoid having to reverse in Ely station by using the 'West Curve' avoiding line (Ely West Junction to Ely North Junction); this particularly applied to Yarmouth trains and especially Summer Saturday ones.  It may have become more used in that way after the M&GN closed, so at the time you're interested there may have been relatively few trains to Norwich via March.

 

It's not so relevant nowadays with multiple units where the driver and guard just swap ends during the station stop, and Ely station itself is an important traffic objective in itself, but in the days of loco hauled trains they would at least have needed to run round (if diesel hauled) or if steam hauled the loco would need to be turned as well, or a fresh one provided.

 

There was until recently, and there might still be, one passenger train a day which used the West Curve, I think mainly for route knowledge retention purposes as it is occasionally used as a diversionary route as well as by freight from the Midlands towards Norwich and King's Lynn.

[Oldddudders]

I contrived to use that West Curve in 1970, finding that the train I was on from Birmingham, which would obviously drop me off at Ely, didn't. As a result I ended up rather late at night at Norwich, with no hope of getting to London before last trains home to Surrey. So I was a mite bedraggled the next day when my mate Peter (d 1974) and I went to Bognor Regis in his Morgan. Wind in my hair did help!

[bigwordsmith]

That makes sense Gilbert- my timeline for that layout was early 1960’s allowing steam and diesel mixes. Amazingly some whole classes of diesel had been scrapped by ‘62, the target year for the model