Peterborough North

[Oldddudders]

2 minutes ago, great northern said:

The K1 got its portrait took. I'd have got a clip round the ear if I'd said that at home when I was a kid. 

And a good thing too. Your use of English is often better than mine, and I appreciate that. 

[great northern]

30 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

And a good thing too. Your use of English is often better than mine, and I appreciate that. 

Well, having a mother and a favourite aunt who were both teachers, I suppose you could say that I had the advantage of being brung up proper like.

[thegreenhowards]

4 minutes ago, great northern said:

Well, having a mother and a favourite aunt who were both teachers, I suppose you could say that I had the advantage of being brung up proper like.

A legal career no doubt re-emphasised the need for good unambiguous English, albeit with Random capital Letters thrown in for Good measure just like my iPad insists on doing!

Edited November 21, 2020 by thegreenhowards

[great northern]

12 minutes ago, thegreenhowards said:

A legal career no doubt re-emphasised the need for good unambiguous English, albeit with Random capital Letters thrown in for Good measure just like my iPad insists on doing!

I know it is very old fashioned, but I happen to think that the English language is a glorious thing when properly used. I despair when I use a descriptive word and a young person asks "what does that mean?"  Even more so, when I try to think of a simpler synonym, and get asked "why didn't you say that in the first place"?  "Cool" cannot describe every positive emotion known to humanity, whatever most younger people seem to think. And am I one of the last alive who cringes at the notice that tells me that something is closed " Due to.......whatever it is?

[St Enodoc]

1 hour ago, great northern said:

The K1 got its portrait took. I'd have got a clip round the ear if I'd said that at home when I was a kid.

And in certain parts of RMweb too.

 

Oops, I know that one should never start a sentence with "and".

 

Or "but".

 

But not always.

 

And I know that those are not proper sentences coz they ain't got no verbs...

Edited November 21, 2020 by St Enodoc

[David Bell]

2 hours ago, great northern said:

I know it is very old fashioned, but I happen to think that the English language is a glorious thing when properly used. I despair when I use a descriptive word and a young person asks "what does that mean?"  Even more so, when I try to think of a simpler synonym, and get asked "why didn't you say that in the first place"?  "Cool" cannot describe every positive emotion known to humanity, whatever most younger people seem to think. And am I one of the last alive who cringes at the notice that tells me that something is closed " Due to.......whatever it is?

I agree wholeheartedly. I have spent a lifetime as a lawyer writing and negotiating contracts in the oil industry and recall arguing with a very nice gentlemen from a big oil company over the effect of the placement of one comma. There was a mere $87million at stake. The use of precise language is not always just of academic interest. There is something rather elegant in something well written.

[2750Papyrus]

2 hours ago, thegreenhowards said:

A legal career no doubt re-emphasised the need for good unambiguous English

 

but an absence of punctuation?

[Oldddudders]

1 minute ago, David Bell said:

I agree wholeheartedly. I have spent a lifetime as a lawyer writing and negotiating contracts in the oil industry and recall arguing with a very nice gentlemen from a big oil company over the effect of the placement of one comma. There was a mere $87million at stake. The use of precise language is not always just of academic interest. There is something rather elegant in something well written.

It was my cynical belief that legals were distinctly parsimonious with commas, precisely so that differences in interpretation could prolong dialogue and keep everyone in fees!

[great northern]

4 minutes ago, 2750Papyrus said:

 

but an absence of punctuation?

I can see an argument for the placement of one comma, but other than that I'm happy with it as one continuous statement.

[Clive Mortimore]

Cor blimey theres me finking english lessons were a thing on sirs thread.

[FarrMan]

4 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Oops, I know that one should never start a sentence with "and".

 

But then Gilbert will surely be an expert on sentences, whether consecutive or concurrent!

 

Lloyd

[great northern]

56 minutes ago, Clive Mortimore said:

Cor blimey theres me finking english lessons were a thing on sirs thread.

Not a lesson, Clive, just a discussion. An expression of preferences. Anyway, you have an exemption sustifficate.

[great northern]

OK, before we get too serious, here we have...just a plonk at twilight.

 

 

Not an area with great architectural merit, but you see the layout warts and all. Sorry about the detritus. I like that word.

 

 

 

[LNER4479]

2 hours ago, great northern said:

I can see an argument for the placement of one comma, but other than that I'm happy with it as one continuous statement.

Just to play devil's advocate, I might use the enigmatic semi-colon as an alternative, thus:

 

'I can see an argument for the placement of one comma; but other than that I'm happy with it as one continuous statement.'

 

The deeds to our 1870's former methodist chapel are a glorious example of the solicitor's art - one huge long sentence, littered with 'and's and not a single piece of punctuation in sight.

 

As you say - back to the trains ...

[great northern]

1 minute ago, LNER4479 said:

Just to play devil's advocate, I might use the enigmatic semi-colon as an alternative, thus:

 

'I can see an argument for the placement of one comma; but other than that I'm happy with it as one continuous statement.'

 

The deeds to our 1870's former methodist chapel are a glorious example of the solicitor's art - one huge long sentence, littered with 'and's and not a single piece of punctuation in sight.

 

As you say - back to the trains ...

I might have known you would try to introduce a semi into the discussion.

[Welly]

I thought commas are avoided by lawyers writing documents in case they disappear from copies of said documents?

[figworthy]

9 hours ago, great northern said:

"Cool" cannot describe every positive emotion known to humanity, whatever most younger people seem to think.

 

Many years ago, I had a fresh faced graduate inflicted upon me at work.  He would regularly respond to an idea as "cool".  I never succeeded in stopping him from doing so, but asking him to describe how the idea had a temperature did reduce the frequency.

 

Adrian

[manna]

G'Day Folks

 

Cool dude.........

 

manna

[2750Papyrus]

8 hours ago, great northern said:

I can see an argument for the placement of one comma, but other than that I'm happy with it as one continuous statement.

 

As in "Have you eaten Grandma"?

[great northern]

8 minutes ago, 2750Papyrus said:

 

As in "Have you eaten Grandma"?

Well yes, lack of a comma can change the meaning of that dramatically, but I don't think the same can be said of Andy's sentence?

[great northern]

Back to trains, and another angle on the K2 as it approaches the bridge.

 

 

[great northern]

This bright morning, we have a close up of a WD in typical New England condition.

 

 

[2750Papyrus]

That's how I remember them at Ferme Park and Harringay West.  I once saw one derailed on the approach to the flyover.

[trw1089]

What a lovely evening I have had catching up on all things PN.  I’ve been in a bit of low modelling mojo of late after finishing my last project, so coming back on here and going through several pages of goodness have got me all inspired again.  Thanks Gilbert, for both your lovely layout and the excellent pictures you continue to put on here for all of us.

 

Cheers 

Tony

[ikks]

On 20/11/2020 at 08:05, great northern said:

OK, nothing on telly, so here goes.

 

Day trip to Grantham, early summer 1957.

 

A mid week day in what must have been the Whit holiday saw three 12 year old boys at Lincoln Central station, having been permitted to go to Grantham train spotting. The 1957 timetable tells me we would have left at either 8.35 or 1030, I suspect it was the latter. The train was at one of the bay platforms, and was definitely a DMU, probably a Derby lightweight, and yes, we would have gone to the front, hoping to sit right behind the cab, and that the driver hadn't closed the blinds. Through Waddington Harmston Navenby Leadenham Caythorpe and Honington we went, finally joining the ECML at Barkston Junction, where the station had closed two years before. On through Peascliffe tunnel, hoping for a down express to pass us, but my recollection is that nothing ever did. Arrival at Grantham Platform 1 was at 1117, and I remember clearly that things were very quiet when we got off the train. That's why i'm sure it was mid week.

 

 Normally, spotters were turfed off the station double quick, but this time we were told we could stay, provided we behaved. We would have been straight across the footbridge to the island platform, from which at least some of the locos on shed could be identified. My notebooks are long gone, thrown out by my mum when I was at Law School, as she thought I had " grown out of them", but I do have a few specific memories, two of which I am sure were of this particular day. I'll come to those shortly.

 

The great attraction of Grantham was that view of the shed, and the fact that many trains changed engines there, so we got two for the price of one. In addition to the main line trains there were quite a few local services, but almost all by this time were DMUs, which we ignored. The Nottingham and Derby trains, which ran to and from the outer face of the island platform were still steam hauled though, and they ran frequently. Motive power for those was very varied. A5, B1, J6, J11, J39, K2, L1were all to be seen. The station pilot was still a lovely little C12, and I always enjoyed looking at that.

 

Of course it was the main line we had come to see though, as Pacifics were not seen at Lincoln except on occasional diversion days, usually a Sunday. In summer 57 four A4s were sent from Kings Cross to Grantham for a few months, 60003/8/10 and 30 being the numbers. I do vividly remember seeing 60030 come off shed and run slowly past us to wait in the loco spur by the Yard box to take over an Up train.

 

What else happened? Expresses came and went, most stopped but some came flying through. The speed limit was 60mph, but it felt a lot faster to a small boy. For some reason, V2s seemed to be travelling faster than anything else. I'd like to tell you that we saw a rare Scottish engine, but we didn't, and the Elizabethan hadn't started running yet. I bet though that we did see WP Allan HA Ivatt Kestrel and Osprey, plus plenty of the Grantham A3s, and the occasional A4. My memory insists though that there were never many of them to be seen, and that when a streak did appear it was often 60700. Even at 12 we had seen most of the Pacifics shedded at or south of Doncaster, and all of the ones at Copley Hill, so cops were rare. There was one for me that day though, as 60050 appeared from the line down to the turning triangle. It had been shedded on the GC for some years, and only just been transferred to Grantham, so it was new to me. Even at my age, Persimmon seemed a strange name for a very large engine.

 

It was a nice sunny day, and I still remember how quiet it was. There must have been a fair number of people getting on and off trains, but this is my abiding memory. So we ate our Lyons Individual fruit pies, apricot in my case, drank our fizzy whatever it was, got some chocolate out of the machines, and didn't have to put on our Pacamacs. The train back was at 6.20, arriving Lincoln at 7.04, then a bus home, where I don't remember getting anything else to eat. Just a normal day, well, not quite, because we were allowed to stay on the platforms. Perhaps that's why it has stayed so strong in my memory. Of course we thought it would all carry on for ever, but just six years later steam was gone, and the Lincoln- Grantham line soon followed it.

 

The engine shed site is now a housing estate, and just the bare bones of the trackwork are still there. The Lincoln bay has been filled in, and when I go there now, which isn't often, there is an air of melancholy. I cannot and will not believe that it really was 63 years ago though.

 

Over to you. Would anyone else like to tell us about memories of a favourite place? And if you still have your spotter's note books that would be even better.

I visited Grantham three times between 1959 and 1961, travelling from Derby Friargate, a painful journey which seemed to take an age, I went, really to see the streaks, first visit not one!!, second visit, eleven,  almost one third of the class, third visit was memorable, we saw the first production Deltics but silly me, I thought that that they would supplement the steam fleet!!

On the first and second visit we were chucked on to a Nottingham/Derby train about 4 pm.  

On the third, we left the station, went through the subway under the main lines, past the shed and sat on the road bridge until around 6 pm., when we got back on the station, we were given a right bollocking, asked where we had been and were ordered to catch the next train home........or else!!!

Mike