Peterborough North

[great northern]

Some very interesting replies to the poll. We shall see what tomorrow brings. Will votes from down under tip the scales?

 

A Claud heading in towards Platform 6 is going to give us the usual photo opportunity.

 

 

This one is done on the macro setting, which I had forgotten was available. That is a very elegant old lady.

 

While she simmers there, the Elizabethan is passing through on the main, and again our man decides to try to capture 60012 contre jour.

 

 

Not particularly successful, and those are not the best wagons to have in view either.

[St Enodoc]

10 hours ago, TrevorP1 said:

Time travels. An interesting one but for sheer enthusiast interest there is but one choice. I would climb into my personal Tardis and set it for Whiteball signal box on 27 July 1957, the first day of the school holidays. The day is related in the classic volume 'Summer Saturdays in the West' and is said to be the peak of railway usage for family holidays in the West Country.

Good idea Trevor! One of my "Desert Island" books. I think I'd set the same date but head a little further West, probably to Plymouth North Road or possibly even to Par...

[Woodcock29]

No doubts for me, 1937 about July, so I had long daylight hours. I'd start at Potters Bar where I lived, spend 30mins on the platform watching. Perfection would be seeing a P1 come through. Catch the next train (quadarts no doubt) to Kings Cross. Spend one hour there roaming around. Then the underground to Marylebone.  Then an express stopping at Nottingham Vic. Spend an hour or so there. Train to Grantham, articulated Howldens behind a D2? Spend an hour or two at Grantham then train to Lincoln. What a day that would be - ex GN and ex GC. The only thing, I'd want to take my DSLR with me but probably not allowed? Also possibly I can only watch trains not travel on them in which case it would have to be Grantham. August 1937

Andrew

 

Edited June 5, 2020 by Woodcock29
Clarification

[great northern]

A bit of rain here this morning for a change, and certainly a lot cooler. Poll result shortly, as usual, but first we record the arrival of the Birmingham - Ely, Leicester having provided one of their nearly new STD 4s this morning.

 

 

The next one is another product of having just plonked the camera down somewhere, and then liked what I saw in the viewing screen. It means shooting into the light again, and black and white, but it does show what I think is quite a nice view to the North.

 

 

 

 

 

[great northern]

Well, I enjoyed that poll. Good to see reasons for choices, rather than just a class number. Where did you want to go? A majority, 8 in all, settled for the 30s, 6 for the 50s, and three for the Edwardian era. Unsurprisingly, no-one wanted to go to the 1940s, or to the 80s or 90s. Too recent in memory, perhaps?

 

Today we will travel even further back in time, and to the 19th century. Anywhere from the dawn of the railway age to 1899 folks. I think we can say with certainty that these will be decades that no-one has ever actually experienced. Again, where as well as when would be interesting.

[thegreenhowards]

Well I’m no expert on Victorian railways, but the Races to the North would have been worth seeing. So I’ll go for Kinnaber Jn signal Box in 1895.

 

 

[JamieR4489]

1820s Stockton and Darlington Railway. I don’t mind where on that railway, I’d just like to see some of the pioneering engines working.

[St Enodoc]

20 - 23 May 1892 in Cornwall, watching the final conversion of broad to standard gauge.

[Bazza]

I think I would like to see the GWR broad gauge in its heyday.

Bazza

[Woodcock29]

1890s York, a variety of companies and colours

[St Enodoc]

3 hours ago, Woodcock29 said:

No doubts for me, 1937 about July, so I had long daylight hours. I'd start at Potters Bar where I lived, spend 30mins on the platform watching. Perfection would be seeing a P1 come through. Catch the next train (quadarts no doubt) to Kings Cross. Spend one hour there roaming around. Then the underground to Marylebone.  Then an express stopping at Nottingham Vic. Spend an hour or so there. Train to Grantham, articulated Howldens behind a D2? Spend an hour or two at Grantham then train to Lincoln. What a day that would be - ex GN and ex GC. The only thing, I'd want to take my DSLR with me but probably not allowed? Also possibly I can only watch trains not travel on them in which case it would have to be Grantham. August 1937

Andrew

 

 

2 minutes ago, Woodcock29 said:

1890s York, a variety of companies and colours

Oi, how many goes do you want?

[Oldddudders]

3 minutes ago, Woodcock29 said:

1890s York, a variety of companies and colours

Still true today......

[TrevorP1]

Back to see the broad gauge for me as well. If I could I would like to see the single wheelers as well as the atmospheric. 

[great northern]

With our cup of tea this morning, one more look at that Standard 4, before it comes off and heads to Spital Bridge shed.

 

 

[jwealleans]

1 hour ago, JamieR4489 said:

1820s Stockton and Darlington Railway. I don’t mind where on that railway, I’d just like to see some of the pioneering engines working.

 

Have you been to Beamish and ridden the Pockerley Waggonway?

 

I'm with Andrew here - York in the 1890s.  was it served by 7 different companies?   The Old Station would still have been in use too.

 

 

[Metropolitan H]

For me it would be the mid 1880s at Reading - so that I could see both Broad and Standard gauge GWR trains at the General Station and SER and LSWR trains across the road at the adjacent Southern Station.

 

But there are lots of other interesting locations.

 

Regards

Chris H

[Clive Mortimore]

Anywhere on the Midland main line in the 1890s, all those beautiful Johnson locos in their splendid Crimson Lake, hauling those superb Clayton coaches in matching Crimson Lake. 

[Market65]

For myself, it would be the 4th October, 1847, for the very first train to run from York to Market Weighton by The York & North Midland Railway. Apparently there was a big feast on arrival at M. Weighton. It must have been quite a day. 
 

Best regards,

 

 Rob.

[JamieR4489]

48 minutes ago, jwealleans said:

Have you been to Beamish and ridden the Pockerley Waggonway?

No but Beamish is on my list of places to visit. I could have gone there a few years ago as part of a rail tour but chose to see 2007 PoW instead.

[David Bell]

I will go for 1829 at Rainhill for the trials

[jwealleans]

 

1 hour ago, JamieR4489 said:

I could have gone there a few years ago as part of a rail tour

 

You'd have been very frustrated by a short visit.   You need two days to do Beamish properly these days.

 

[CUTLER2579]

The 1950' on a Saturday with all the visiting Locomotives on Neasden Shed for a sporting event @ Wembley.

Hall's, School's,Patriot's  and even some Britt's not to mention the Eastern Region locomotives, both visiting and shedded there.

[great northern]

This afternoon brings the 9.40 KX- Newcastle, one of Grantham's more prestigious duties. 60111 has the job.

 

 

[mullie]

I would love to have seen all the different railways in action between Weymouth and Portland early in the 20th century, the line to Easton had just been opened, the station building had already burnt down. The Merchants Railway was still sending lumps of stone down cable worked inclines and the quarries had narrow gauge lines a plenty running through them.

 

Martyn

[great northern]

It is rather cold, almost cold enough to put some heating on, and yet a couple of days ago it was a little too hot. Something is definitely going on.

 

The summer of 1958 was apparently rather disappointing, but it always seems to be fine at PN.It is bright again today, but it may not be that warm. It is in the cab of 60111 though, now coasting through under the roof.

 

 

We get another look as the A3 approaches the bridge on which the photographer is standing.

 

 

When I first took this, I thought the camera wobbled slightly, so I took another. I was right, and the first one took ages to get anything like presentable. Then of course I moved on to the second one, which as you can see is lovely and sharp, and the first one got binned. Why didn't I bin the first one earlier? That's what I'm supposed to do now, but I forgot. Again.