Peterborough North

[great northern]

More B1s tonight. 61098 with the second Down Cleethorpes.

 

 

 

And then in to Platform 6 comes Spital Bridge's 61204 with the last local of the day along the Midland to Leicester.

 

 

[manna]

G'Day Folks

 

Gotta be the Cross..............First visited around 1958, Magic.

 

manna

 

 

[Market65]

I’m keeping things local in this poll with Hull Paragon. Just many memories from being a little boy to the present day. 
 

Rob.

[Clive Mortimore]

Oh I haven't selected a terminus. Bath Queen's Square, Bristol St Philip's, Liverpool Central, Manchester Central, Moorcombe, St Enoch (the GSWR was really the MR north of the border), Leeds Wellington, Bradford Foster Square, Tillbury Riverside, Shoeburyness and St Pancras are all in the running. I could even go for Northampton St Johns (again), so I will.

 

Northampton St Johns.

[David Bell]

Glasgow Queen Street for me, unsurprisingly! The atmosphere in steam days would have been incredible and noisy with banker locos in full cry on leaving trains.

[great northern]

This morning we have another 02 getting a run through on the main with a mixed goods from Letchworth.

 

 

and on the Up, another A1 approaches.

 

 

[great northern]

Kings Cross comfortably won the poll with 6 votes. No more than 2 for anything else.

 

We are nearly done with termini now, but I think we should look for what you consider to be the ultimate BLT. Not holiday resorts, we've done those. So, what is your favourite/ most evocative station, and what makes it stand out from the other candidates?  Quite a prestigious title, this one.

[LNER4479]

Trouble is, Gilbert, I'm too young to remember or have experienced many of the bucolic branchlines so I can only go off pictures etc as to what it might have been like. Many of the existing ones are little more than bus shelters, with the former goods yard a car park or supermarket ...

 

HOWEVER

 

I'll nominate one that I did research as an abortive project and which was still 'alive' when I was born (albeit just a DMU into a rationalised station). Classic trackplan, with run round loop, goods yard and its own loco shed, nestled in the foothills of some truly spectacular scenery. LNER(ER) operated within LMS(LMR) territory just to add further interest:

 

Hayfield

(info here for any not familiar http://www.hayfield.info/Railway.html)

 

 

Edited July 25, 2020 by LNER4479

[FarrMan]

It has to be Hemyock again. curious small terminus with all the usual facilities plus a creamery, at the end of a branch so slow and with such tight curves that only very limited stock could use it. Also a lovely bucolic setting.

 

For future polls, what about stretches of line - e.g. most scenic, most variety of views, most variety of motive power, most ugly, etc. ?

 

Lloyd

[Market65]

Well, for this poll, I’ve seen plenty of pictures, etc., and I recall a video from maybe YouTube, and it’s of the delightful Ashburton, so that’s my candidate. Ashburton. A lovely, most bucolic BLT. 
 

Rob.

[Oldddudders]

14 minutes ago, FarrMan said:

It has to be Hemyock again. curious small terminus with all the usual facilities plus a creamery, at the end of a branch so slow and with such tight curves that only very limited stock could use it. Also a lovely bucolic setting.

I once knew a man who'd been SM there. The Stationmaster of this parish told me he had latterly become Mayor of Reading. 

[David Bell]

I am going to go with Moffat, for no other reason than I like the look of it.

[great northern]

Played golf badly, and got wet. Now home and dry, so here is a picture of that A1 we saw in the distance, now revealed to be Curlew, with a FO train from Bradford.

 

 

[jazzer]

On 24/07/2020 at 15:07, great northern said:

Ermmm, it seems that I have 20. Not sure how that happened.

Only another 58 to go then!  I would still guess it’s probably the largest collection of A3 models in private hands. A candidate for the Guinness Book of Records I would say.

However, the ultimate BLT, North Woolwich is my vote because:

a ) I started my illustrious train spotting career there

b) It is at the end of a proper branch line, not some spur off the mainline. 
c) There are plenty of bucolic branchlines that are all variations on two themes, but NW is the only one of its type in an industrial/dock land setting, with three platforms, and a substantial goods yard. 
d) Anything could turn up in the front of a train , mostly N7’s , but on the odd occasion F5’s or J69’s , but more likely N7’s  and later L1’s, Standards class 4 tanks and a Standard class 4 2-6-0. Wonderful Gresley suburban sets

e) plenty of unobstructed views of the locos.

f) I like it.

[great northern]

18 minutes ago, jazzer said:

Only another 58 to go then!  I would still guess it’s probably the largest collection of A3 models in private hands. A candidate for the Guinness Book of Records I would say.

However, the ultimate BLT, North Woolwich is my vote because:

a ) I started my illustrious train spotting career there

b) It is at the end of a proper branch line, not some spur off the mainline. 
c) There are plenty of bucolic branchlines that are all variations on two themes, but NW is the only one of its type in an industrial/dock land setting, with three platforms, and a substantial goods yard. 
d) Anything could turn up in the front of a train , mostly N7’s , but on the odd occasion F5’s or J69’s , but more likely N7’s  and later L1’s, Standards class 4 tanks and a Standard class 4 2-6-0. Wonderful Gresley suburban sets

e) plenty of unobstructed views of the locos.

f) I like it.

No, there must be someone with more than that, surely.

[JamieR4489]

Doesn't Mark Allat have all the A1/3s as they were on 3.7.1938 (just to pick a date at random)?

 

For this poll I'll go for North Woolwich as well, purely for the motive power.

[DaveF]

 

I'm going for Tetbury for these reasons.

 

First, Dad built  an 00 gauge model of the station in the late 1950 in his shed.

 

Second on visits on the way to holidays in Devon (in the family car) I saw both the railbus and a 16xx working passenger trains.

The 16xx was after the branch had become the home of a railbus but one day the 16xx and about 3 coaches was turned out to cover the extra traffic when the local boarding school broke up for the summer holidays.

The visit that day was made more interesting by seeing the loco uncouple, draw forward, points change and then set off to run round the train.  Sadly the loco had stopped with the train a few feet beyond the fouling point, so as the loco ran round it removed a large amount of the beading from the leading Gresley coach (which was a surprise to see on an ex GWR branch line).

 

David

[great northern]

Fish from New Clee tonight.

 

 

Followed by more 9F hauled coal.

 

 

[Clive Mortimore]

St Albans Abbey Station today. I was going to go for Dunstable as it was a double ended branch terminus but St Albans Abbey was in its heyday a proper terminus shared by the Great Northern and the London North Western Railways. 

 

I am quite surprised with all the GNR fans on this thread and number of times Gilbert has asked to vote of various terminus stations no one has mentioned Leicester Belgrave Road. I don't think you are real GNR fans but just like Gresley locos.

[mullie]

I will vote for Ongar this time.

 

Martyn

[31A]

38 minutes ago, Clive Mortimore said:

St Albans Abbey Station today. I was going to go for Dunstable as it was a double ended branch terminus but St Albans Abbey was in its heyday a proper terminus shared by the Great Northern and the London North Western Railways. 

 

I am quite surprised with all the GNR fans on this thread and number of times Gilbert has asked to vote of various terminus stations no one has mentioned Leicester Belgrave Road. I don't think you are real GNR fans but just like Gresley locos.

Leicester Belgrave Road would make a nice model, but you'd have to run a more intensive service than it had in reality!  If ever there was a case of over provision .... 

 

[31A]

I have voted for High Barnet before, but will do so again.

[manna]

G'Day Folks

 

A few more for Gilbert, small medium and large 'Through' stations.

 

I'm thinking of 'Tiptree' and the wonderful 'Jam' trains.

 

manna

 

 

 

 

 

[LNER4479]

3 hours ago, great northern said:

No, there must be someone with more than that, surely.

I know someone who has 58 more (59 if you count 4470 before Mr Thompson got his hands on it)

 

2 hours ago, JamieR4489 said:

Doesn't Mark Allat have all the A1/3s as they were on 3.7.1938 (just to pick a date at random)?

 

QED

 

He threatened to run them all on Grantham; I reckoned that would take about four days of prototypical operating time - it was bad enough trying to do all the A4s the first time we were out with the layout.

[St Enodoc]

Bodmin General, for the unusual junction-terminus configuration and the mix of Western and Southern trains.