Peterborough North

[Jon4470]

Sheffield Midland for me too.......my university city.

 

I can still remember arriving for the first time....that station was the gateway to a complete new way of life!

 

Jon

[Clive Mortimore]

4 hours ago, great northern said:

That was a well supported poll, with 14 candidates. Exeter St Davids did best with 4 votes.

 

Today we will look at a route that has gained few if any votes in any poll so far, which is a bit of a shame. So, the Midland main line, from ten miles north of St Pancras as far as Leeds. This should please Clive a lot, though he will agonise over so many choices. In the end though he will no doubt pick the most obscure, as usual.

There is only one choice. Bedford Midland Road.

From Flickr, photo by Kevin Lane

 

Hitchin to the left, London to the right.

[manna]

10 minutes ago, Clive Mortimore said:

There is only one choice. Bedford Midland Road.

From Flickr, photo by Kevin Lane

 

Hitchin to the left, London to the right.

G'Day Folks

 

Bet it doesn't look like that now........mores the pity.

 

manna

[DaveF]

 

Derby for me, even though I lived in and around Nottingham until I was 16.

 

David

Edited July 28, 2020 by DaveF

[Clive Mortimore]

54 minutes ago, manna said:

G'Day Folks

 

Bet it doesn't look like that now........mores the pity.

 

manna

No

 

Photo from Flickr by John Jackson

 

I think the bridge arch on the left of this photo is the same one as in the earlier photo. The building with the yellow top is the train crew mess, the old station was the other side of it.

[2750Papyrus]

1 hour ago, Clive Mortimore said:

There is only one choice. Bedford Midland Road.

From Flickr, photo by Kevin Lane

 

Hitchin to the left, London to the right.

 

Although most of my life has been spent close to the ECML, I did have some years in Didsbury (the station was still open when I first lived there), followed by some years in Luton and Bedford, so the Midland is not totally unknow to me. I was making a mug of tea before viewing RM web and thought "I wonder if Bedford would count - Hitchin branch off the Midland main line and crossing on the Bletchley line on the level".

 

Sitting down with tea, this was almost the first post I looked at, so I will also vote for Bedford Midland.

[great northern]

6 hours ago, LNER4479 said:

Now we're talking!

 

Well, if that includes the Manchester 'branch line' (ha!) then I'd plump for either Millers Dale or Chinley, the former for its dramatic setting, the junction for Buxton.

 

Overall, Chinley just shades it for me, effectively a four-way junction. It had one more platform (6) than Millers Dale (5) and had a small loco yard with turntable. There are a couple of turn-of-the-century pictures showing a Midland spinner heading for the station with a 3-coach through portion from Liverpool which was then attached to the main London express at Chinley, the loco then using the turntable to return back home (presumably with a balanced working in the other direction). (What price that in model form?) The turntable was still in use in the 1950s, turning the locos off the Sheffield-Chinley stopping service. What's not to like?

 

If we're strictly sticking to the 'main line' then I would choose Sheffield Midland. 8 platforms with attractive canopies and remarkably little changed even to this day (unlike - sadly - the above two mentioned examples).

 

Neither are as far north as Leeds, and they were Midland, so they count. As to Millers Dale, I find it quite easy to picture what used to be from what remains, and there is still a distinct atmosphere to the place, which on occasions can even be a bit unsettling.

[great northern]

Here's the rest of Gannet's train, but as an experiment up the other end and from a higher vantage point, in an effort to get more of the formation in each image.

 

 

[mullie]

Will have to abstain on this one, not a part of the country I really know at all apart from going to the grand prix from 1975 to the mid 90s ,is that even in the right place?

 

Martyn

[Clive Mortimore]

40 minutes ago, great northern said:

Neither are as far north as Leeds, and they were Midland, so they count. As to Millers Dale, I find it quite easy to picture what used to be from what remains, and there is still a distinct atmosphere to the place, which on occasions can even be a bit unsettling.

Oh Midland north of Leeds, loads of junctions including Clapham Junction.

 

Well Gilbert did say "In the end though he will no doubt pick the most obscure, as usual."

 

I am still going to stick with Bedford Midland Road.

[great northern]

4 minutes ago, Clive Mortimore said:

Oh Midland north of Leeds, loads of junctions including Clapham Junction.

 

Well Gilbert did say "In the end though he will no doubt pick the most obscure, as usual."

 

I am still going to stick with Bedford Midland Road.

Still south of Leeds at present Clive. The north will have its turn, don't worry.

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Whilst the Great Northern ended-up in a ploughed field just past Doncaster, the Midland mainline reached as far as Carlisle.

 

[Clive Mortimore]

4 minutes ago, Peter Kazmierczak said:

Whilst the Great Northern ended-up in a ploughed field just past Doncaster, the Midland mainline reached as far as Carlisle.

 

I still have series of articles on the Midland Railway and how wonderful it was from the Model Railway Constructor.

[Peter Kazmierczak]

"The Best Way" Clive.

Having said that, I've just finished reading Grinling's History of the GN, which (in my humble opinion), is one of the finest railway history books I've read.

Highly recommended.

[great northern]

35 minutes ago, Peter Kazmierczak said:

Whilst the Great Northern ended-up in a ploughed field just past Doncaster, the Midland mainline reached as far as Carlisle.

 

Agreed, but we are doing things in stages. The same will apply when we get to the ECML.

[Clive Mortimore]

2 hours ago, great northern said:

Still south of Leeds at present Clive. The north will have its turn, don't worry.

Clapham is only a wee bit North of Leeds, not as far north a as My first wife junction* Hawes Junction. 

 

*I suppose that was a little unfair on the professional ladies as my first wife done it as a hobby. 

[LNER4479]

2 hours ago, Peter Kazmierczak said:

Whilst the Great Northern ended-up in a ploughed field just past Doncaster, the Midland mainline reached as far as Carlisle.

 

Some might argue that it ended up at Leeds - right alongside the Midland - but I see where you're coming from.

 

The Midland did originally use GNR metals south of Grantham to reach London ... or was it the GNR that used Midland metals to reach Manchester? All part of the enduring fascination of the pre-grouping era.

[simontaylor484]

35 minutes ago, LNER4479 said:

Some might argue that it ended up at Leeds - right alongside the Midland - but I see where you're coming from.

 

The Midland did originally use GNR metals south of Grantham to reach London ... or was it the GNR that used Midland metals to reach Manchester? All part of the enduring fascination of the pre-grouping era.

Wasn't it Askern or somewhere equally unimportant where they eventually ran out of cash

[New Haven Neil]

Chinley for me too, spent a holiday there when I was ickle.  

Edited July 28, 2020 by New Haven Neil

[great northern]

Another day winds down. Another A3 appears, Hermit this time, with the FO Bradford. Ignore the idiot who told you a preceding train was the Bradford, that one was actually from Dundee.

 

 

Soon afterwards Hermit is seen, rather distantly, beneath the roof.

 

 

Please note that quite a lot of the detritus on the platform has been removed. I couldn't quite reach the rest.

[manna]

43 minutes ago, simontaylor484 said:

Wasn't it Askern or somewhere equally unimportant where they eventually ran out of cash

G'Day Folks

 

I don't think they ran out of money, it was where the North Eastern Railway agreed to join there systems together.

 

manna

[simontaylor484]

I thought it was somewhere round there it's not too far from where I live. My Grandparents used to take me and my bruv shopping there sometimes from the little village they lived in

[Herbert Nigel]

6 hours ago, Peter Kazmierczak said:Whilst the Great Northern ended-up in a ploughed field just past Doncaster, the Midland mainline reached as far as Carlisle.

The GNR main line toward Scotland may have made an “end on” junction with the NER main line in that area but some would argue that the West Riding of Yorkshire was the destination of the GN “Main line” which actually got as far North as Keighley, where they had a little used junction with the MR, a company who only eventually built their railway to Carlisle because Parliament forced them to (Shouldn’t play politics with politicians).

Thank heaven for that, or we wouldn’t have the S & C route.

Anyway, Normanton gets my best junction station vote. On the Midland, end of the L&Y’s eastward route and Hudson’s westward route and a fabulous station in it’s heyday.

[great northern]

Hermit a bit closer but still in the gloom is first up this morning.

 

 

It was followed by a rare sighting of a K2. None left at New England, so this Boston to East goods is one of the best chances to see one.

 

 

[great northern]

Interesting discussions, but not quite as many votes in this poll. Derby won with 4, more than 25% of the total vote.

 

I don't want to see the old GC miss out, so major junction stations on those lines today. London- Manchester obviously, but I think we could include Manchester-Cleethorpes as well. I suspect I may have missed something, but I'm sure you will remind me if I have.