Chris T's photo archives

[Clive Mortimore]

What, you mean like this?

 

070811 Shenfield Brake van.jpeg

 

Shenfield 11th August 2007

 

Chris Turnbull

Hi Chris

 

Yeah!!! Someone said in John Dutfield's shop last Saturday that the Shenfield Shark was being moved after goodness knows how many years.

 

Can anyone confirm it has at long last been shifted?

[Chris Turnbull]

I am a great lover of "Britain's Railways from the Air" type books and whilst I do not have an aeroplane or helicopter I do like to get as high as possible for my photographs.  I am always trying to seek out new vantage points and new locations, to boldly go where no railway photographer has gone be-.  Sorry, got a bit carried away there.

 

Anyway, these were taken from the roof of the Westfield shopping centre looking down on Stratford station on 7th May 2009.

 

 

Looking towards Liverpool Street

 

 

Looking north towards Norwich

 

 

An unidentified Class 90 glides through with a freight

 

That's all for the time being of the current stuff.  Its into the Tardis and back to the '60s now.

 

Chris Turnbull

Edited May 22, 2022 by Chris Turnbull

[LNERGE]

And finally, Coldhams Lane lever frame.  I wouldn't be at all surprised to find out that someone now has this lever frame in their garage!

 

Chris Turnbull

As far as i know the lever frame was scrapped. What does survive is that Welwyn winder visible on the blockshelf..

[LNERGE]

[Chris Turnbull]

I just knew you'd have something! 

 

Chris Turnbull

[LNERGE]

I just knew you'd have something! 

 

Chris Turnbull

The trouble is i can't use it.. It sits on a shelf upstairs gathering dust as it would be sacrilege to remove it's label.

[Chris Turnbull]

Its 7th September 1968 and a friend and I decided that we would have a trainspotting trip to London.

 

 

Here we are on the "Parliamentary" from Bury St Edmunds to Liverpool Street via Cambridge rounding the sharp curve at Coldhams Common, Cambridge.  The line from Bury originally entered Cambridge station in the middle of Platform 4 more or less in line with the end of the canopy in the second photograph of the 2012 set above and curved away across all the running lines and sidings.  Known as the "Newmarket Curve" this alignment gave rise to many operating conflicts especially as traffic grew such that the line was re-aligned across Coldhams Common in 1896 where it still runs today albeit single track.  English Electric type 3 D6742 provides haulage power around this check-railed curve.   

 

 

Although the "Parly" continued to Liverpool Street we must have changed at Cambridge for a Kings Cross train as I was able to snap another EE type 3, D6962, entering Cambridge with a Down freight.  It is passing the ex-GE goods shed and the ex- GN locomotive shed can be seen behind (see post #21 for details)

 

 

We've arrived at Kings Cross to find Brush type 2 D5607 and "Deltic" D9001 "St Paddy" in the loco yard.  

 

Next stop Finsbury Park depot; how to get there?  Consulting our trusty bible, Ian Allan's BR Shed Directory, we find the following:-

 

Travel by a Cockfosters-bound Piccadilly Line train or Eastern Region local service from Kings Cross to Finsbury Park.  Turn right outside the station and almost immediately right again into Seven Sisters Road, passing under the railway bridge.  Turn left into Isledon Road and left into Tollington Road.  The shed entrance is on the left-hand side.

 

No cinder path for Finsbury Park you'll note!

 

 

Just inside the entrance is BR shunter D3312.  Its probably in very dirty green livery but to me its looks a dingy black - well I did tell you I am colour blind!

 

 

Inside the shed is English Electric type 2 D5907, known to us trainspotters as "Baby Deltics".  I suppose we'd better find the foreman's office and ask if we can have a look round.

 

 

"No" was the answer so we make our way out taking a different route to the way in.  This is the fueling depot with a couple of Brush type 2s and a BR shunter in attendance. 

 

 

And just to prove I was there here I am in front of a Brush type 4, a spotty, stroppy 16 year-old youth.

 

"When I was sixteen my parents didn't know anything.  When I reached twenty-one I was amazed how much they'd learnt in the previous five years."  Winston Churchill

 

That was certainly true!

 

Thanks to Jonny777 as usual.

 

Chris Turnbull

Edited May 22, 2022 by Chris Turnbull

[31A]

Thanks for these photos Chris, they certainly take me back!  Interesting to hear the Ipswich-Liverpool St via Bury called the 'Parliamentary' - I can understand why it would be, but in Cambridge it was often referred to as the 'Bury Fenman' (I think the up train left Cambridge shortly after the 'real' Fenman).  Keep 'em coming!

[Chris Turnbull]

Next stop on our trainspotting trip was Paddington which, if I recall correctly, I found a very difficult station to photograph from.  There didn't seem to be any good vantage points like their were elsewhere.  Anyway, here's a selection.

 

 

North British type 4 "Warship" D843 "Sharpshooter"

 

 

BR type 4 "Western" D1020 "Western Hero"

 

 

North British type 2 D6328 and finally,

 

 

Beyer Peacock (Hymek) D7066.  I'm not sure what the underground train is but I'm sure someone will tell us.

 

Thanks to Jonny777 again.

 

Chris Turnbull

Edited May 22, 2022 by Chris Turnbull

[The Stationmaster]

I don't think Platform 1 at Paddington (from where those pics were taken) is a very good vantage point Chris - you really needed to be further over to get a better angle although at certain times of day that would mean problems with the sun.

[caradoc]

Wonderful pictures Chris, many thanks for posting.

[leopardml2341]

Hi Chris,

 

Underground stock is CO/CP stock IIRC.

Rgds,

 

Andy

[lmsforever]

We could still listen to Radio Caroline the ship is at Harwich so perhaps a whipround could put it back on air,thanks for the photos.

[Chris Turnbull]

On to Waterloo, a station that offered better vantage points than Paddington and one at which I always enjoyed trainspotting.

 

 

Here's Birmingham R.C. & W. Co. type 3 D6538 entering Waerloo.  I'll bet that LNERGE doesn't have that shunting signal!

 

 

And here's the same train running into the platform.  I remember being taken up the Shell Tower in the background by my parents when it was first built to the public viewing platform at the top.  The lifts were high-speed and left your stomach behind.  My parents didn't like them, I thought they were great!

 

 

If it was a sunny day this spot always got the sun by the early afternoon.  My notes say this was the parcels bay but whether that was correct I don't know.  I'm sure someone will, though.

 

 

And just to show how things had changed in two years, here's Standard class 5 73065 passing the same signal on 30th May 1967.  This was the last main-line London terminus to be dieselised (just after this photograph was taken I think) and for that reason was a station I always had a soft spot for.  

 

 

In the "parcels bay" on the same day, this is Standard class 4 tank 80085 in the sorry state in which steam locomotives were kept in in their final days.

 

Thanks to Jonny777 again.

 

Chris Turnbull 

Edited May 22, 2022 by Chris Turnbull

[jonny777]

I think that the class 73 photo is one of the best I have ever seen for showing the livery as initially applied to many of the class. 

 

Also the 33+4TC combo does illustrate the slight variation in the appearance of the blue shades between the locomotive and electric units, although not as dramatic a difference as some discussion groups would lead you to believe.

[leopardml2341]

The paint 'shade' discrepancy is more probably associated with the method of application.

 

IIRC MU and carriage stock were being 'airless' sprayed around this time, whilst the loco had probably been brush painted sometime earlier.

 

Spraying paint tends to electrostatically charge the particles which then 'lay' on the surface in a different way to brushed paint. the paint then reflects light differently and so appears to be a different colour.

 

Look at a partially resprayed red car under orange street lights to really emphasise what I am trying to say.

 

Rgds,

 

Andy

[Rivercider]

Lovely photos of Waterloo, my dad took me and my brother on day trips each year from Exeter to London starting about 1965.

I remember standing at the head of the platform watching a Bulleid pacific blowing off steam waiting to depart.

Also sitting by the Embankment eating our sandwiches which had been packed in a biscuit tin.

 

Later in the 1970s when trainspotting I was always excited to see what locos might be stabled in the parcels bay,

 

thanks for posting

 

cheers 

[corneliuslundie]

I think there has been mention of the fate of the Shenfield vehicle on another thread here recently.

[Shadow]

Apparently the Shenfield Shark was still there on the 4th October 2014

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EzLPPiQdXI#t=40

 

copied from this post "Essex Express" post 180

 

 http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/76218-essex-express/?p=1619409

Edited November 4, 2014 by Shadow

[corneliuslundie]

Found it. According to Baby Deltic in the "Ghosts in the machine thread" it was moved last weekend. (sorry I don't know how to paste links to other threads):

 

"I understand the Shenfield Shark was removed last weekend. It was jacked up on skates and I think it was taken to Chelmsford for removal by road, no doubt from the old Royal Mail siding. Its destination was the Epping Ongar Railway."

[Chris Turnbull]

The afternoon's drawing on now and we are at the last two stations, Euston and St Pancras

 

 

This is English Electric type 1 D8014 on what I guess are station pilot duties, although I stand to be corrected.

 

 

Here's AL5 E3061 awaiting departure at a very narrow platform...

 

 

... and here's a couple of AL6s E3165 and E3173.  This shows the harsh functional architecture that was and still is Euston station, very similar to Manchester Piccadilly, that epitomised the "brave new world" of the 1960s.  What will future generations think of today's architecture? 

 

 

Here we see BR type 2 D5224 leaving St Pancras.  This now lies under the new extension to the trainshed and I suppose that if I were to stand in the same spot today I would be run over by a Eurostar. 

 

 

Lastly this is BR type 4 "Peak" D19 passing St Pancras signalbox, all now gone but, I have to say, replaced with something far better and of which I feel we can be proud.

 

Thanks to Jonny777 as usual.

 

Chris Turnbull 

Edited May 22, 2022 by Chris Turnbull

[beast66606]

Found it. According to Baby Deltic in the "Ghosts in the machine thread" it was moved last weekend. (sorry I don't know how to paste links to other threads):

 

"I understand the Shenfield Shark was removed last weekend. It was jacked up on skates and I think it was taken to Chelmsford for removal by road, no doubt from the old Royal Mail siding. Its destination was the Epping Ongar Railway."

 

I believe it was cut up on site.

[Chris Turnbull]

"Shadow" has very kindly put together a GIF file of the Flying Scotsman at Bury St Edmunds photographs.  I think it's great and I hope you do as well.

 

 

 

Well done Shadow

 

Chris Turnbull

Edited May 22, 2022 by Chris Turnbull

[Chris Turnbull]

Sometime in the latter half of the ‘60s I thought it might be an idea to see if I could acquire some plans of local stations.  I wrote to the Divisional Civil Engineer at Norwich who informed me that they would cost 7/6d each.  This isn’t much today, just 37½p, but back then it was a fortune.  At least it was to a schoolboy who had to rely on subsistence pocket money and the occasional holiday job.  I decided I could afford three so I ordered Bury St Edmunds, Thurston and Haughley Junction.  Thinking that Thurston might make a good subject for a model, on 24th September 1970 I took the opportunity of a spell of good weather to cycle to Thurston and take as many photographs as I could and this is a selection:   

 

 

Taken from the Up platform looking towards Bury St Edmunds

 

 

Looking in the opposite direction towards Elmswell.  There was once a station building on the Up platform that matched that on the Down but it had been demolished in the early '60s to be replaced by a hideous but cheap bus shelter.  There also used to be a goods shed just behind the hut on the Down side but this, too, had gone by 1970.

 

 

Standing more or less on the site of the goods shed looking towards Elmswell

 

 

Harold Clarke & Co. Corn and Agricultural Merchants establishment at Thurston.  The then owner, Roy Clarke, was a great railway modeller whose layout I once had the privilege of visiting.  He was of the pre-war generation who had to make everything oneself, including motors, and to a young lad it was awe-inspiring.

 

 

The road underbridge on the Bury side of the station with the Fox and Hounds behind.

 

 

A view of the Up platform from road level.  The foundations of the erstwhile Up platform building can be seen in the trees to the right.  Note how the platform is built on a framing formed by lengths of rail.

 

 

At the Elmswell end of the goods yard looking back towards the station.

 

 

This is the road bridge at the Elmswell end.  Note the Great Eastern rail-built buffer stop this side and the concrete buffer stop the other.

 

 

This is the view from that bridge looking towards the station and Bury St Edmunds

 

 

And finally this is the view from that bridge looking towards Elmswell

 

Some years later in the early ‘90s, the Ely MRC was casting around for ideas for a new layout.  I presented the club with a copy of the track plan and gave a slide show which persuaded the others that Thurston was the way to go.  Since then Thurston has won many awards and been featured in the model press quite extensively.  Full details may be found by following these links:-

 

http://www.elymrc.org.uk/thurston.html

 

http://www.elymrc.org.uk/history%20of%20thurston.html

 

Check out the links to YouTube on the first link above, unmissable!

 

Thanks to Jonny777 again.

 

Chris Turnbull

Edited May 22, 2022 by Chris Turnbull

[Chris Turnbull]

This evening, I thought we might travel through Bury St Edmunds from east to west.

 

 

Taken from Hollow Road bridge to the east of Bury St Edmunds looking west on 24th September 1970, here we see the rail connection to the sugar beet factory.  At one time this handled vast quantities of freight, not just sugar beet in mineral wagons but lime in covered vans as well.  Although the sugar beet factory has vastly expanded all the freight now goes by road and the rail connection is no more.

 

 

This is Brush type 2 D5528 at the Down platform headed east towards Ipswich on 23rd April 1968.  Bury St Edmunds is well-known for its towers which underwent restoration a few years ago by Network Rail. 

 

 

At the other end of the station on the same day BR shunter D2009 is pottering about in the yard.  Note the co-acting Up starter.

 

 

Brush type 2 D5679 departs westwards in the evening sunshine on 28th May 1968.  There was a goods train that ran daily from Bury yard leaving just after 6.00 p.m. and I believe that this was that train.  The photograph is taken from what us trainspotters called "The Chalks" which was a chalk bank that gave a good vantage point over the yard and in earlier times of the locomotive shed (31E).  The only disadvantage was that it faced south which could give a problem with the sun.

 

 

On the same day another Brush type 2 D5638 leaves the station headed for either Cambridge or Ely.  This shot is taken from what was then called Beetons footpath which used to be an unmetalled track that crossed the railway by a wooden crossing with wicket gates each side.  It is now a main artery called "Beetons Way" and through the field to the left runs the A14 dual carriageway.

 

 

Yet another Brush type 2 D5661 (well they were very common) emerging from underneath what was then the A45 west of Bury St Edmunds on 28th May 1968.  The bridge is still there but the field behind the locomotive now carries the A14.  

 

Thanks to Jonny777 as usual.

 

Chris Turnbull

Edited May 22, 2022 by Chris Turnbull