Peterborough North

[Clive Mortimore]

Some snaps from the visit to Peterborough North the other day.

"Oh no its the Doncaster woman again" thinks our porter. "I say young man, despite telling me the train that had Doncaster on it was really going to Derby, I found you were the only helpful person on this station. While I have been waiting I have seen a train called mallard, one called sea gull and another called curlew. Well I am reporting this to the RSPB, you cannot have trains running around with trophies of what they have killed. Do you think the RSPB would be interested in the train that killed the flying scotsman, I don't think he is a bird".

 

Phil telling me I need to take two photos of this corner of the fiddle yard.

 

I think this is a strike day as not much is going on.

 

Steve and Gilbert working out how to derail the train but it defied them. 

 

 

 

[Clive Mortimore]

Gilbert has stated that he is changing from 4 ft cassettes to smaller 2 ft ones. 

Before

 

and after.

[Clive Mortimore]

I know he looks happy in the last photo, and there is nothing wrong in looking and being happy, but does he need help with his loco lift fetish? 

 

 

This is only a snap shot of problem.

[great northern]

Oh lord, Clive's developed his photos! I'll deal with that later. First though, the morning photos. I do enjoy looking at single chimney A3s, especially when they have been Timmed, so here is 60061 again.

At platform 2 is the 1.23 to Broad Street,

 

[St Enodoc]

22 minutes ago, great northern said:

Oh lord, Clive's developed his photos!

He must've been to see the lady in Boots again.

[jwealleans]

Has she never heard of Restraining Orders?

[Oldddudders]

52 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

He must've been to see the lady in Boots again.

Some men have a fetish for ladies in boots. 

[Mallard60022]

26 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

Some men have a fetish for ladies in boots. 

There is also a very crude joke about not getting 'something' in Boots...

Oi, Clive, I was suggesting that it was the Frog V wot was causing the Bogies to wibble .........on the 3 Way Point.

 

I just remembered it was Peter Townend at Top Shed wot assembled his Gang of Polish workers. He told me he advertised for Polish Men to make his Engines gleam, (as you could do in those times) and a load of ex Polish Army lads applied and turned out to be Polish Polish experts. That's as true as I am stood here.

P  

[great northern]

13 hours ago, davidw said:

As late as 61 for a double chimney? I thought the last two so fitted were Fairway and Sandwich.I can't find info on the small A2/2 style deflectors.... I'm confused.

61 relates to the loco's number. It entered works on 2/9/58 and emerged with double chimney on 23/10/58. The small  deflectors were fitted in November 1959.

[great northern]

13 hours ago, Clive Mortimore said:

I know he looks happy in the last photo, and there is nothing wrong in looking and being happy, but does he need help with his loco lift fetish? 

 

 

This is only a snap shot of problem.

Old news. I have since acquired another 15, for the ridiculous price of a quid each, and even that will still leave a few locos without one. They avoid having to deal with floppy bogies when trying to get things on track, and excessive handling, of course. Anyway, how can a man who has a fetish about ladies in boots point fingers at me?

[great northern]

13 hours ago, Clive Mortimore said:

Some snaps from the visit to Peterborough North the other day.

"Oh no its the Doncaster woman again" thinks our porter. "I say young man, despite telling me the train that had Doncaster on it was really going to Derby, I found you were the only helpful person on this station. While I have been waiting I have seen a train called mallard, one called sea gull and another called curlew. Well I am reporting this to the RSPB, you cannot have trains running around with trophies of what they have killed. Do you think the RSPB would be interested in the train that killed the flying scotsman, I don't think he is a bird".

 

Phil telling me I need to take two photos of this corner of the fiddle yard.

 

I think this is a strike day as not much is going on.

 

Steve and Gilbert working out how to derail the train but it defied them. 

 

 

 

I think that was taken before I threatened it with the hammer.

[Clive Mortimore]

2 minutes ago, great northern said:

I think that was taken before I threatened it with the hammer.

Don't tell Gilbert, I saw her laying around, so picked her up took the photo and put her back again. 🤫

[great northern]

1 hour ago, jwealleans said:

Has she never heard of Restraining Orders?

Few people have, Jonathan, and as she is from deepest darkest Lincolnshire, she wouldn't be one of them. Before that, she lived at Tetleys Mills.

[Clive Mortimore]

15 minutes ago, great northern said:

Old news. I have since acquired another 15, for the ridiculous price of a quid each, and even that will still leave a few locos without one. They avoid having to deal with floppy bogies when trying to get things on track, and excessive handling, of course. Anyway, how can a man who has a fetish about ladies in boots point fingers at me?

I never mentioned the lady in Boots. That Sainty bloke in the Botany Bay penal colony, you know the perverted one who likes the Great Western who stated talking about the lady in Boots.

Edited November 20, 2022 by Clive Mortimore

[jazzer]

17 hours ago, Mallard60022 said:

IIRC Top Shed had a 'specialist' team of Polish Cleaners especially employed by the Shed Foreman in the late 50s and early 60s.

They are the unsung heroes.

In mid 1960, although it was just one visit, I did not see a dirty Brit at Liverpool Street. Probably cleaned at their Shed at Norwich?

If that’s correct about Polish cleaners it would answer some questions. From what I have read promotion was slow at KX because being a big shed train crews would often transfer from smaller sheds and as promotion was strictly on seniority so a man with 10 years service at who-knows-where could jump the queue ahead of someone with 9years 11 months service entirely at Top shed.  I can’t imagine many wanting to spend years as a cleaner while others jumped ahead of them so it’s logical that immigrants from the then Communist Poland, perhaps not speaking very good English may have thought they had a good job ! 
You obviously didn’t see 70001 Lord Hurcomb then !  On the one occasion I saw it, it was so filthy I genuinely thought it had been painted black until I got up close. According to Richard Hardy all the Brits were based at Norwich towards the end of steam so you are probably right, about their condition improving .I think regular steam finished in Liverpool St in November 1960.

[Clive Mortimore]

24 minutes ago, jazzer said:

If that’s correct about Polish cleaners it would answer some questions. From what I have read promotion was slow at KX because being a big shed train crews would often transfer from smaller sheds and as promotion was strictly on seniority so a man with 10 years service at who-knows-where could jump the queue ahead of someone with 9years 11 months service entirely at Top shed.  I can’t imagine many wanting to spend years as a cleaner while others jumped ahead of them so it’s logical that immigrants from the then Communist Poland, perhaps not speaking very good English may have thought they had a good job ! 
You obviously didn’t see 70001 Lord Hurcomb then !  On the one occasion I saw it, it was so filthy I genuinely thought it had been painted black until I got up close. According to Richard Hardy all the Brits were based at Norwich towards the end of steam so you are probably right, about their condition improving .I think regular steam finished in Liverpool St in November 1960.

In the 1950s when they were recruited, there is a good chance they would have been Polish refugees from Nazi Germany and Communist Soviet Union. Many would have been members of the Polish Army fighting as part of the British forces in Italy and North West Europe and faced imprisonment on return to Poland. Some might have been ex POWs conscripted as  Volksdeutsche into the German army and were considered traitors by the Polish Communist so couldn't go home. Not immigrants but people displaced by an horrific war. There were over 40 Polish resettlement camps around the UK, the last one was Ilford Park at Newton Abbot, today it is a residential home for elderly Poles.

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Indeed, Clive. And I wouldn't have been here today!

 

One cannot imagine the horrors many went through. My dad was up against a firing squad at one point, but then the officer in charge decided they'd had enough that day. He escaped (twice) and was in the second wave after D-Day.

He never went back to Poland after the war because of the communist regime. He wasn't all that enamoured with Churchill either. 

 

Anyway I digress. Back to railways...

[jazzer]

1 hour ago, Clive Mortimore said:

In the 1950s when they were recruited, there is a good chance they would have been Polish refugees from Nazi Germany and Communist Soviet Union. Many would have been members of the Polish Army fighting as part of the British forces in Italy and North West Europe and faced imprisonment on return to Poland. Some might have been ex POWs conscripted as  Volksdeutsche into the German army and were considered traitors by the Polish Communist so couldn't go home. Not immigrants but people displaced by an horrific war. There were over 40 Polish resettlement camps around the UK, the last one was Ilford Park at Newton Abbot, today it is a residential home for elderly Poles.

Well, the things we learn on RM web, all because someone asked about shabby engines at Gateshead ! I’ve done a bit of background research as I find these things interesting insofar as they relate to Railway history.

Apparently there was something called the Polish Resettlement Act 1947, which was the first ever  legislation dealing with mass immigration and without going too much into the politics of it on a model railway thread , it gave Poles a country of refuge when they were being appallingly treated by Stalin, in their homeland. Apparently they initially settled around Swindon before large numbers settled in London , forming the Polish- British community.

 

So , now we seem to have the full picture. Had it not been for the Polish Resettlement Act we might well have seen hopelessly filthy Pacific’s on the crack expresses from Kings Cross. Curious how these quirks of history work out isn’t it ?

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Crumbs, I didn't realise that Clive was so rich as to be able to afford colour film. I had to make do with black/white...

[Mallard60022]

In 1969 my last Summer job as a student was on a Building Site on the outskirts of Plymouth. Light Industrial Units. I was a Bricky's Labourer and Dogs Body. My lovely Bricky was a Polish chap; Stan... Stanislav I suspect. Believe it or not he was the first 'foreign' person I had met and worked alongside. He was super fast and demanded top rate 'muck'. He showed me the exact mix he wanted and we had a great 7 or eight weeks in which he must have laid thousands of Bricks and some really large Copings along the Roof Edges. 

I regret not chatting with him more than just the few words exchanged during work. 8 hour shifts and half day Saturdays; he rarely stopped, except for a cuppa and quick snap around mid day. One of my best jobs ever.

Apologies for OT rambling,  but I too learn many things during the slightly rambling posts away from the railway topics.

Phil 

[Tankerman]

1 hour ago, jazzer said:

Well, the things we learn on RM web, all because someone asked about shabby engines at Gateshead ! I’ve done a bit of background research as I find these things interesting insofar as they relate to Railway history.

Apparently there was something called the Polish Resettlement Act 1947, which was the first ever  legislation dealing with mass immigration and without going too much into the politics of it on a model railway thread , it gave Poles a country of refuge when they were being appallingly treated by Stalin, in their homeland. Apparently they initially settled around Swindon before large numbers settled in London , forming the Polish- British community.

 

So , now we seem to have the full picture. Had it not been for the Polish Resettlement Act we might well have seen hopelessly filthy Pacific’s on the crack expresses from Kings Cross. Curious how these quirks of history work out isn’t it ?

There were also quite a few around Acton, west London. I believe that the original population was formed from those stationed at Northolt airfield. There was also a Polish Information Centre/Bookshop there which is where I first found out about the Katyn massacre  where over 25,000 polish officers and intellectuals were murdered by the Russians.

 

I got to know a few of them quite well as I carried out power press inspections at two metal press shops around Acton. I remember asking one of the foremen, who had been conscripted as slave labour by the Germans and lived under the Russians after the war before escaping to the UK. I asked him which of them was the worse, his reply was the Russians, as the Germans only wanted his body, but the Russians wanted his soul.

[Leander]

Many Polish escaped from the Russians towards the end of, or shortly after WW2. I met a chap in hospital in Chesterfield a few years ago who had escaped from the USSR on foot, ending up in Iran, from whence he was shipped to the UK,. After the nationalisation of the UK coal mining industry in 1967, many newly arrived Polish men were offered work as miners. He had worked in the pits in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, married and raised a family here.

 

There was a further influx of Polish men women and children after the  1956 Poznań protests, also known as Poznań June (Polish: Poznański Czerwiec), were the first of several massive protests against the communist government of the Polish People's Republic. Demonstrations by workers demanding better working conditions began on 28 June 1956 at Poznań's Cegielski Factories and were met with violent repression (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1956_Poznań_protests).

 

To return to model railway interest, the Nottingham (Bulwell) club, organisers of the East Midlands Model Railway Society, held its Saturday evening social at the Polish White Eagle club on Shewood Rise for a number of years. Bitter hatred of all things German (in particular) still resounded at the turn of this century.

Edited November 22, 2022 by Leander
Typos

[Leander]

Duplicated post.

Edited November 20, 2022 by Leander
Duplicated post.

[great northern]

What an interesting day. Many thanks for all the contributions. Mine is another look at Pretty Polly, with B17 Milton passing by on the Up slow. The B17 has come from New England, unusual as they always seem to have been serviced at Spital Bridge.

 

 

A short while later, 60061 is on its way.

 

[New Haven Neil]

I recall sending an awful lot of Peco Locolifts to a certain address in the past!