Peterborough North

[great northern]

Thank you gentlemen. I shall regard myself as having been suitably advised and chastised. I know that people have said in the past that they haven't noticed things like bookcases till I mentioned them because they were busy looking at the trains, but the problem is that I do notice them, and so I'm reluctant to post stuff which falls below my own standards. In future I will try to strike a balance, and the stuff I decide to bin will not even get a mention.

[great northern]

I second the above, M'Lud.  Although you may get laughed at if you turn up at the golf club with knitted club cosies.

 

Are those tankers new, or are the wagon works getting through the backlog such that they're now visible?

The tankers are sitting there while I decide what to do with them Jonathan. They used to be in one of those things I misguidedly thought to be a goods train, until our dear departed friend Andy told me otherwise. He wasn't able to find any train in which they might be seen, though there was a petrol installation at Huntingdon, and there are photos of tankers sitting in the siding to the North of the station obviously waiting to go somewhere. Having said that, I haven't found a single photo of a goods train at PN with them in the formation.

 

As I said, I'm still pondering, but I think their most likely destination is Classifieds, along with some sand wagons I bought years ago because it seemed like a good idea at the time. It looks as though both Bachmann and Hornby fish vans are imminent, so I shall need funds for a reasonable length rake of those. The cassettes are already waiting....

[micklner]

 

 

Nice to see the Jubilee showing these LNER'ists what a proper loco looks like...

 

Al

Outrageous statement

 

 

 

I also couldnt care less re the backgrounds , as I have said before just keep em coming !!!

[coachmann]

Re photoshopping lattice posts, I wonder if a shaped peice of white card behind the signal post (in the sky area) might assist at the editting stage. It is a very old trick that the railway companies used when producing official photographs of locos and stock.

[gresley]

The tankers are sitting there while I decide what to do with them Jonathan. They used to be in one of those things I misguidedly thought to be a goods train, until our dear departed friend Andy told me otherwise. He wasn't able to find any train in which they might be seen, though there was a petrol installation at Huntingdon, and there are photos of tankers sitting in the siding to the North of the station obviously waiting to go somewhere. Having said that, I haven't found a single photo of a goods train at PN with them in the formation.

 

As I said, I'm still pondering, but I think their most likely destination is Classifieds, along with some sand wagons I bought years ago because it seemed like a good idea at the time. It looks as though both Bachmann and Hornby fish vans are imminent, so I shall need funds for a reasonable length rake of those. The cassettes are already waiting....

Gilbert,

 

Fish vans, yes, but what about all those fruit vans as well ?????

 

gresley

[Mallard60022]

Ah, fruit vans could find a home on the SR layout that will one day appear at 36E

P

[great northern]

Gilbert,

 

Fish vans, yes, but what about all those fruit vans as well ?????

 

gresley

 One of the things that Andy Rush told me was that there was virtually no fruit traffic on the ECML, as London got its fruit from the South and South West. If I have any fruit vans at all, they should be attached to local services. Pity really, as I rather like them.

[tetleys]

I'm sure I've read that specialist and or seasonal vans such as fruit and fish when industrial action forced that traffic on to the roads were absorbed into general traffic, after all it must have been very much more convenient and less labour dependent and more secure to carry general goods under the cover of a roof rather than sheeted down in an open wagon. I again recall reading that certainly later in BR days vans out numbered open (other than mineral) wagons so I don't see the need to off load (pardon the pun) fruit vans and I bet London didn't get all it's spuds from Kent.

 

Keep the fruit vans, keep the tankers which could be returning or going empty to Charles Roberts wagon works at Horbury near Wakefield for the sake of breaking up uniform goods trains, sometimes modelling outside of absolute fidelity looks more attractive and is certainly more interesting than reality.

 

lighten up folks.

 

Laid back of Ancaster.

[gresley]

 One of the things that Andy Rush told me was that there was virtually no fruit traffic on the ECML, as London got its fruit from the South and South West. If I have any fruit vans at all, they should be attached to local services. Pity really, as I rather like them.

Alright Gilbert, so, no Fruit vans.   I see the way things are going.    10 Fruit vans = 1 new loco (mixed traffic).

By the way, there were NO Blue Spot fish vans in 1958, so be careful which ones you acquire.

 

gresley

[great northern]

Here we are then, the first day of the new regime, and the first photos taken. Now I know I promised not to say any more about technical matters, but please allow me just one more comment. I have discovered that the majority of photoshopping time is taken up in trying to make images good enough to be blown up to 100%. I know that some people do like a larger view, but a lot of what I do really can't be made to look good when magnified, so everything in future will be set up to be viewed at normal size. And that is the last thing I'm going to say on the subject. Time for trains.

 

The engine change on the Birmingham - Ely having taken place, Huddersfield Town heads off further into East Anglia. I can just imagine the eternal optimist gazing at the sky and saying " I think its brightening up".

 

From a new, and rather dangerous, vantage point, we see an Ivatt 4 setting off for Yarmouth Beach.

 

Followed by a rare sight in 1958, as a Britannia rolls in with the second Up Cleethorpes express.

Rudyard Kipling waits for the right away during its four minute scheduled stop.

 

And was fortuitiously captured also by a photographer on Crescent Bridge.

 

Just out of sight in Platform 6 is the stock for the 1130 train to Edinburgh, and here is the loco to haul it. Having come in via the engine line from New England, it is now crossing to the Down side before backing onto its train. Schoolboys back then were a mendacious lot - how many times were we assured ******** is on shed, though it never appeared if it was. Hope springs eternal as usual, the train is off to Edinburgh, so there may be a rare Scottish engine to haul it. Someone reckons that it says in the Railway Observer that there was a 64A V2 on it only days ago. On the other hand, it could be Dante again....and it is.

[61379mayflower]

I'm sure the Brits weren't at Immingham shed in 1958. As a train-spotterI  think they arrived in the early 60's.

 

Thanks for the photos

 

Keith

[Theakerr]

Re fruit vans, I know that strawberries (especially), raspberries and apples were shipped from the east lincs flatlands (Tetney and on to the east of Louth) and other areas down to London on the Grimsby Boston line.  I dont know if they went through Peterborough though.  

[Pilgrim in France]

I'm sure the Brits weren't at Immingham shed in 1958. As a train-spotterI  think they arrived in the early 60's.

 

Thanks for the photos

 

Keith

Brits (39,40 and 41) first appeared on the Cleethorpes express right at the end of 1960, with Rudyard Kipling not until the Autumn of 1961

[micklner]

Has Dante (Loco only) been rear ended ? The front buffers look like they have been on steroids too ??

 

Excellent picture of the lattice signals.

[great northern]

Brits (39,40 and 41) first appeared on the Cleethorpes express right at the end of 1960, with Rudyard Kipling not until the Autumn of 1961

 

I'm sure the Brits weren't at Immingham shed in 1958. As a train-spotterI  think they arrived in the early 60's.

 

Thanks for the photos

 

Keith

Ah yes, I'm glad you spotted that.   I do admit that occasionally I give way to temptation, and the Hornby Brit is so nice I had to have one. By 1958 the ER engines were being overhauled at Doncaster, and Railway Observer and Trains Illustrated both report a number of sightings at the South end of the ECML during August. Rudyard Kipling though was at that time a March engine. I know that as it came through Lincoln every weekday for months on the Colchester- Newcastle through train. For that reason there has been one of my occasional warpings of history, as indeed there was with the Jubilee recently featured. Having said that, I may use 70035 on the kind of services mentioned in the magazines at least some of the time. 34A did borrow March V2's regularly at times of maximum need, so the same might have happened with Rudyard, mightn't it?

[coachmann]

The red headed boy stood beside 'Dante' looks to be involved in intellectualizing with a group of boys......."Actually chaps, I particularly like the sweeping lines of the 'Tompy' A2's. A running plate that is raised above the drivers sans fussy splashers and drops discreetly to reveal a hint of extended smokebox elegantly veiled by neo-Britanic deflectors. The cylinders are in the finest Great Western tradition (cough) exposing a dominant front end and raw paternal energy, the whole cunjuring a mean machine exuding sheer power.........................But don't tell me dad I said that or he'll have to kill me !!!"   

Edited October 4, 2013 by coachmann

[great northern]

I'm sure I've read that specialist and or seasonal vans such as fruit and fish when industrial action forced that traffic on to the roads were absorbed into general traffic, after all it must have been very much more convenient and less labour dependent and more secure to carry general goods under the cover of a roof rather than sheeted down in an open wagon. I again recall reading that certainly later in BR days vans out numbered open (other than mineral) wagons so I don't see the need to off load (pardon the pun) fruit vans and I bet London didn't get all it's spuds from Kent.

 

Keep the fruit vans, keep the tankers which could be returning or going empty to Charles Roberts wagon works at Horbury near Wakefield for the sake of breaking up uniform goods trains, sometimes modelling outside of absolute fidelity looks more attractive and is certainly more interesting than reality.

 

lighten up folks.

 

Laid back of Ancaster.

   There are entries on this page alone which show that I'm quite capable of moving the goalposts when it suits me Dave, but in general terms I'd like to keep it as accurate as possible. That applies even more with goods stock, as Andy Rush took so much time to help me with it, so to honour his memory I want to do as he suggested. we don't want him looking down and getting all stressed out, do we?  As it happens, I only have one fruit van, so that doesn't cause much of a problem. Still not sure about the tank wagons though.

[great northern]

Re fruit vans, I know that strawberries (especially), raspberries and apples were shipped from the east lincs flatlands (Tetney and on to the east of Louth) and other areas down to London on the Grimsby Boston line.  I dont know if they went through Peterborough though.  

 I think they would have gone to Whitemoor and then down the GE Jim. The policy in the mid/late '50's was to move as much as possible from Peterborough to March purely because the yards at Peterborough were so scattered and difficult and time consuming to work.

[great northern]

Alright Gilbert, so, no Fruit vans.   I see the way things are going.    10 Fruit vans = 1 new loco (mixed traffic).

By the way, there were NO Blue Spot fish vans in 1958, so be careful which ones you acquire.

 

gresley

 Hmmm..... Hornby's vans are I think to Dia 1/800, and that diagram was introduced in the early '50's. BR decided in 1957?? to fit some with roller bearings, and it was those vans that were marked with the blue spot. How long did it take then for the policy to be implemented? I must say I thought there were blue spot vans by my period. Can our expert JWealleans help? Or any other knowledgeable reader who happens by for that matter.

 

So far as new locos are concerned, I know I'm not going to be believed given my past record, but I really have now got to the stage where there are very few on my wanted list. It is coaches, parcels vans and goods stock that I have to concentrate on now.  A 25 van fish train is enough to worry about for a start.

[great northern]

Has Dante (Loco only) been rear ended ? The front buffers look like they have been on steroids too ??

 

Excellent picture of the lattice signals.

It is camera angle and lens distortion again Mick - the loco is OK. It is however a bit of an antique, as Tony Wright built it back in the '70's and offered it to me some years back when he built DJH kits to replace his earier efforts. Like Wolf of Badenoch which has a similar pedigree, it isn't up to modern standards, but it is still a good representation, and I wouldn't want to part with either of them.

[great northern]

The red headed boy stood beside 'Dante' looks to be involved in intellectualizing with a group of boys......."Actually chaps, I particularly like the sweeping lines of the 'Tompy' A2's. A running plate that is raised above the drivers sans fussy splashers and drops discreetly to reveal a hint of extended smokebox elegantly veiled by neo-Britanic deflectors. The cylinders are in the finest Great Western tradition (cough) exposing a dominant front end and raw paternal energy, the whole cunjuring a mean machine exuding sheer power.........................But don't tell me dad I said that or he'll have to kill me !!!"   

Intellectuals at Peterborough North Larry?   I think they'd be more likely to be comparing varieties of Lyons fruit pie, or even more likely, threatening to push each other under the next passing train. And shouting "scrap it" of course.

[manna]

G'day Gents

 

A point to remember, A fair sized lump of Kings Cross goods yard was taken up by the potato market, in busy periods, Littleworth, between P'bro and Spalding, could send 200-400 wagons a DAY to KX, all bagged in open wagons

 

manna

[great northern]

G'day Gents

 

A point to remember, A fair sized lump of Kings Cross goods yard was taken up by the potato market, in busy periods, Littleworth, between P'bro and Spalding, could send 200-400 wagons a DAY to KX, all bagged in open wagons

 

manna

Wow! now that is very interesting indeed. So the humble spud didn't merit covered and weatherproof accomodation. I'd better start modelling a lot of sacks of potatos. Do you have any more great bits of information like that please? It is such a help to hear from people who were actually there at the time.

[BMacdermott]

Hello Gillbert

 

I have extracted the following from some BR Circulars of 1958. It looks to me as though you are perfectly OK to run Blue Spots in 1958.

 

Brian

 

4 Jan 1958       

Fish Vans E87000-E87274 urgently required by C&WE, Doncaster for equipping with roller bearing axleboxes and lettering “To work between Aberdeen and King’s Cross only”.

 

15 Mar  1958

Fish Vans E87000 to 87274 not bearing the Blue Spot identification are still required at Doncaster

 

2 Aug 1958

Aberdeen – London Fish Vans still sought:

E87086, E87114, E87131, E87161, E87179.

 

23 Aug 1958

Aberdeen-London Fish Trains. E87179 still sought by C&WE Doncaster.

[Clive Mortimore]

Wow! now that is very interesting indeed. So the humble spud didn't merit covered and weatherproof accomodation. I'd better start modelling a lot of sacks of potatos. Do you have any more great bits of information like that please? It is such a help to hear from people who were actually there at the time.

Hi Gilbert

 

I have a video clip of the potato shed at Kings Cross, showing the unloading of the sacks of spuds, and the 13 ton open wagons being shunted by capstan. Trouble is I cannot remember which one it is on and owing to my technophobia cannot work out how to connect and get working our old VHS machine with SWMBO new telly system to find out. Anyone out there got the same video and knows which one it is on?

 

As for fruit trains, were there no workings from East Anglia to the Midlands or the north which would have been routed via Peterborough? 

Edited October 5, 2013 by Clive Mortimore