Peterborough North

[great northern]

A bright morning here, so hopefully some more trains can roll later. For now, we have Deltic rumbling in with its usual KX-Hull turn.

 

 

Four minutes pass, the rumble increases to a roar, and Deltic departs, but as usual it is but a short time before signals are off again. Our man on Spital Bridge then captures our immaculate KX B1, with fish empties, also bound for Hull.

 

 

[stewartingram]

Is that B1 on the Hull relief, in case the Deltic one is full of trainspotters eager to try out the new fangled diesel?

 

Stewart

[great northern]

1 minute ago, stewartingram said:

Is that B1 on the Hull relief, in case the Deltic one is full of trainspotters eager to try out the new fangled diesel?

 

Stewart

Sounds a bit fishy to me.

[David Bell]

Wishing all on here a great Christmas and a Happy New Year.

I enjoy much on RMWeb but this thread in particular. It is contributed to by some very knowledgeable folk. All the best

David

 

PS,Love the picture of the prototype Deltic

PPS, definition of knowledgeable, intelligent and well informed, maybe not me though , I had to look up how to spell it!

[great northern]

A second look at the fish empties.

 

 

And another B1 comes into view, with the 7.10 Parly from Doncaster. This is one of ours, and  not in Top shed condition.

 

 

[Timara]

On 16/12/2020 at 10:56, great northern said:

It has already been Timmed Tony, but it was one of his earlier jobs. Actually, when I looked at that image, my first thought was that he will now ask if he can have number 7 back for an upgrade! There are still a couple of totally untimmed ones in the queue before we can start thinking about that, though.

 

Gilbert, you're a mind-reader.  Seeing these pictures myself (reading from newest to oldest, as I frequently do) made me say to myself "I do hope that's coming down here soon; it badly needs work doing!".  What's that saying about "great minds" again?

 

For those wondering, it only had, I think, a single coat of Klear on it, which was deemed sufficient at the time.  Nowadays, it just won't do.......

[great northern]

A day excursion to Skeggy has pulled in to Platform 6. It started from East, with Spital Bridge responsible for providing the motive power. A March B17, which wasn't due to go anywhere till late evening, seemed like a good idea, and so Kimbolton Castle was attached, and here it is.

 

 

All was not well on the short journey from East, aka the fiddle yard, though, and it looks like there may have to be a replacement.

[thegreenhowards]

Nice formation on the Skeggy excursion. Is that based on a photo or just an educated guess?

[great northern]

8 minutes ago, thegreenhowards said:

Nice formation on the Skeggy excursion. Is that based on a photo or just an educated guess?

Just a guess Andy. It would be older stock, I think, so Dia115 cars would feature a lot, and four compartment brakes to give more passenger space. A few years earlier there would have been even older stock involved, but having looked through Longworth, it seems that was gone by 1958, or the vast majority of it anyway. That's a shame, as I rather fancied some.

[thegreenhowards]

1 minute ago, great northern said:

Just a guess Andy. It would be older stock, I think, so Dia115 cars would feature a lot, and four compartment brakes to give more passenger space. A few years earlier there would have been even older stock involved, but having looked through Longworth, it seems that was gone by 1958, or the vast majority of it anyway. That's a shame, as I rather fancied some.

I agree. You could always bend your time frame backwards a little - just like you do in the other direction for Deltic. Although I realise that there lies a slippery slope!

 

I really fancy a few GNR non corridor outer suburban coaches - things like the D.183 BCL and D.121 CL. They lasted until the mid fifties and I imagine could easily have worked this sort of excursion. I'm working on Andy Edgson at Isinglass to produce a kit.

 

Andy

[westerner]

I do enjoy a good B&W photo. That could have come out of one of the albums of the time.

[great northern]

25 minutes ago, westerner said:

I do enjoy a good B&W photo. That could have come out of one of the albums of the time.

Thanks Alan. Sometimes I just look at an image and it tells me that it should be B&W! This was one of them.

[great northern]

Still early enough in the day for a 9F to get a run though on the main with empties from Ferme Park.

 

 

No golf tomorrow, as the course is flooded, so a sunny day should allow trains and photos. If it happens. I thought we'd had some pretty bad days lately, but this one capped them all.

[great northern]

Another of our down at heel local B1s sits in the sun, waiting for a slow trip to Grimsby.

 

 

[jazzer]

11 minutes ago, great northern said:

Another of our down at heel local B1s sits in the sun, waiting for a slow trip to Grimsby.

 

 

That really is a lovely picture that captures the appeal of the B1’s. Considering they were built under the strict financial constraints of the War and immediate post-war economy and designed with 100% utility in mind they were brilliant engines for the work they were designed to do and that picture, to my mind sums them up so well

[LNER4479]

Am enjoying this parade of B1s, in their different states of presentation. A bit like Black 5s on the LMS/LMR, I suspect they must have been greeted by the cry of: 'Oh no, not another ...' by the trainspotters of the day yet their 'everyday'-ness is vital to the convincing depiction of the late 1950s ER scene.

 

It's gradually dawning on me that I'm going to need a couple or five for Carlisle - almost every non-DMU Carlisle-Newcastle working clocked so far seems to have been a B1 and there was a local allocation at the city's Canal shed.

[Bazza]

Hi Gilbert, just a short line to thank you for all you have done this year to help us keep our sanity. Your thrice daily showing of the procession of trains through Peterborough interspersed with asides about golf, the weather, duvet wrestling and the occasional diversions into the nitty gritty of the models and details of the real thing have both entertained and informed. Thank you for sharing Peterborough North and your life with us all.

I hope you have a good Christmas, and my very best wishes for 2021 - it should be a better year than 2020 and I very much hope it will be.

[great northern]

2 hours ago, LNER4479 said:

Am enjoying this parade of B1s, in their different states of presentation. A bit like Black 5s on the LMS/LMR, I suspect they must have been greeted by the cry of: 'Oh no, not another ...' by the trainspotters of the day yet their 'everyday'-ness is vital to the convincing depiction of the late 1950s ER scene.

 

It's gradually dawning on me that I'm going to need a couple or five for Carlisle - almost every non-DMU Carlisle-Newcastle working clocked so far seems to have been a B1 and there was a local allocation at the city's Canal shed.

I always liked B1s, even the ones I saw very often. They had a GN heritage that I must have recognised even then.

 

Black fives were a different matter. When we had more or less exhausted the possibility of cops on the ECML, we tried Nottingham and Derby, not realising that the incidence of green and named engines was much smaller there. It seemed that even the few expresses that should have brought a Jubilee always had a black 5 instead, so we didn't like them much. Then there was the period of double headed Metrovicks at Derby. That didn't last long. As age and pocket money increased we were allowed to venture as far as Crewe. Plenty of green, red, and named locos there, but too many were EE type 4s. The times were definitely changing, though we hadn't really cottoned on yet.

[Woodcock29]

Merry Christmas Gilbert and all contributors to this thread.  I do so enjoy the continual line-up ECML and other locos and coaches we see on here.

I trust we all have a better 2021.

Andrew

[great northern]

Many thanks for the kind and generous comments above. Anything that works well has to have benefits on both sides, and there are plenty for me, as well as those that work for you. I've made many friends, and met some of them too. This thread also gives me what I sometimes need rather badly, which is an incentive to get on with things. That helps to keep the trains running, and the pictures appearing. Would I have got back into photography if there was no PN? I doubt it, and I certainly wouldn't have gained a new skill in photoshopping at my increasingly advanced age.

 

I suspect that few of us are going to have the Christmas we expected and hoped for, but I do hope that all will enjoy what they have. Stay safe and stay healthy everyone. Here is a Christmas plonk, not very Christmassy, but there could just be a bit of snow in those clouds.

 

 

[mullie]

Do like a festive 'plonk,' Stay safe and have a good Christmas Gilbert. Thank you for the daily postings, still very much appreciated and inspirational.

 

Martyn

[great northern]

Tonight is Tango time.

 

 

 

 

[thegreenhowards]

I do love a tango. Great photos.

[robmcg]

Extremely nice photos of the recent 9F, Tango and plonk, much appreciated.

 

I had wondered how often and how many Tangos, RODS, 01s, O4s and any other freight engines used to add to congestion at PN in the 50s...  so will ask now, given that I have been photographing an ex-WD 2-8-0.

 

As to spotting in various locations, I am a tad younger than you being born in late 1950 in NZ but even here we were surprised by the speed of change from steam to diesel, not too much different to the UK, finishing in the North Island in 1968,a fraction later in the south, but somehow even in 1960 it seemed as if it would last forever.

 

Thanks Gilbert for the window on PN in 1958. Beautiful stuff.

 

edit; my most treasured possession from Christmas day 1959 when I was 8 yrs old was 'The Observer's Book of Railway Locomotives of Britain' by H.C.Casserley, 1958 edition, which in spite of all the odds, house moves, motorbike crashes and more,  I still own and enjoy.   Clearly 1958 was an important year in the progress of mankind.

Edited December 25, 2020 by robmcg

[great northern]

Good morning, and the compliments of the season to all. Bright but cold here today, but at PN it is still August 58, and probably around 59f. We didn't do Celcius then.

 

The Fair Maid is our featured train,  with one of the best named A4s, Wild Swan, leading the way.

 

 

Further on, we have a crowded scene, as 60021 passes the B1 in the bay, and the 02 which has suffered a slight signal check, and is just getting moving again.