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great northern
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OK I don't always vote, usually because I find it too difficult to chose, but I'll go with Audley End too, as I spent a lot of time working there at the start of my railway career.  Although sadly the Saffron Walden & Bartlow line had long gone by then (I'm not that old!).

 

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3 minutes ago, JamieR4489 said:

Yes to the first and last of those but the one that really irritates me is when ‘the’ is put in front of the locomotive’s name. The most common one is ‘the Flying Scotsman’ when referring to 4472. I think the trend of using ‘the’ for locomotives probably originates from confusion between Flying Scotsman and The Flying Scotsman.

Not as bad as ships though. How many times do we hear  "The HMS Whateveritis".  Clearly haven't got a clue what HMS stands for.

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33 minutes ago, great northern said:

Tonight's locomotive is  WP Allen, and the train is the 1.20pm West Riding express.

 

 

 

He will be waiting for a pilot to buffer up now, as there are 13 coaches behind the tender.

Hi Gilbert

 

Could you explain what you mean about the pilot?  When I read that I was thinking that another loco would be coupled up but then I know that double heading was practically unheard of too, hence my confusion.  Apologies if it is a dumb question that I should already know...

 

Cheers

Tony

 

 

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4 minutes ago, trw1089 said:

Hi Gilbert

 

Could you explain what you mean about the pilot?  When I read that I was thinking that another loco would be coupled up but then I know that double heading was practically unheard of too, hence my confusion.  Apologies if it is a dumb question that I should already know...

 

Cheers

Tony

 

 

All trains loading to 11 or more on the Down Main had to be given a helping hand by one of the pilots giving a shove from behind. The pilot would not be coupled up, and was required to go no further than the North end of the platform. Just an excuse to get more smoke under the roof, I reckon. Seriously, it probably did help the chap at the front to get started onto the dog's leg curve.

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7 hours ago, great northern said:

All trains loading to 11 or more on the Down Main had to be given a helping hand by one of the pilots giving a shove from behind. The pilot would not be coupled up, and was required to go no further than the North end of the platform. Just an excuse to get more smoke under the roof, I reckon. Seriously, it probably did help the chap at the front to get started onto the dog's leg curve.

While the additional loco would indeed be a station pilot, I think I'd refer to this activity as "banking" the train.

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1 hour ago, Oldddudders said:

While the additional loco would indeed be a station pilot, I think I'd refer to this activity as "banking" the train.

Agreed Ian, but some people don't like bankers, do they? I tend to think of banking as something that carries on for further than just the length of a platform, but of course you are far more well versed in this than I.

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Another drawn poll, Audley End 3 Elsenham 3.

 

Now it is time to return to the GN main line, and to consider the wayside stations between London and Peterborough. Finsbury Park is not included, as it is way too big, but any of the rest are OK. Where would you prefer to be? Amidst the bustle of the inner suburban stations, the slightly quieter outer suburban ring, or one of those small places now long gone from the railway map, but which were lovely places just to watch the trains go by? The market towns will be allowed too this time.

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A hard poll this time. Unlike the GE mainline, almost every station on the GN mainline would be interesting.
 

I will go for Welwyn Garden City, in the pre diesel era. It must have been great in those days, with N2s terminating their inner suburban journeys there, L1’s and B1s on the semis fasts and Cambridge expresses, the Big Pacific’s and V2’s whizzing through , and apart from the mass of through Freights there was a decent sized goods yard that also served the Shredded Wheat factory , so I guess there would have been a J50 or something similar shunting  to see when nothing else was going on.

 

It also has a great memory for me. In my first year of Grammar school, aged about 12 an old boy of the school who had done rather well in the Insurance world wanted to take 6 members of the school Railway Society on an expenses paid train spotting trip. So to qualify for this day out we had to give a 5 minute talk and the best 6 got on the trip but we were given random topics drawn from a hat. My topic was Great Western broad gauge which nobody else knew much about , but as I had just been reading about it in my Trains Illustrated Annual I sounded very erudite compared with what everyone else knew so I was the youngest one to get on the trip . So off we went I think to Welwyn North and walked back over the hills ( all in school uniform) watching the trains between the tunnels as we went. He then took us to lunch at the first and probably the only posh restaurant I’ve ever been in ( the sort of place that’s so posh they give you soup before the meal ! ) then it was back to his house where he had this fantastic O gauge layout running round the loft, with all Bassett-Lowke and hand built locos including a special Britannia named “ Lloyd’s “ as he worked in Lloyd’s of London . All absolutely mind blowing for me having come from my 6x4 ft roundy roundy on the living room floor.

It was all part of a magical world which sadly doesn’t exist anymore.:unsure:

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It has to be Offord and Buckden, where I spent my younger days 'spotting - allowed, of course, in the late '50s and early '60s to bicycle the mile or so from Buckden itself.  A simple station, with a coal yard run by Dick, who used to hit the ball many a mile playing for Huntingdon with my older brother.  The joy of standing on the overbridge getting smoked out, all accompanied by the views of Offord D'Arcy church (now sadly redundant) and the River Ouse - aah, happy days, except when a bully known as Spanner scribbled all over my book in which I recorded loco numbers, before underlining them at home.

 

Anthony

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