Peterborough North

[Alister_G]

I'm sure I've seen a photo on a thread on RMWeb somewhere, of the coach sidings of a seaside resort - from memory one of the southern coast resorts - which was taken on a Saturday, and shows the sidings absolutely packed with rolling stock from all over the country.

 

I keep searching, but haven't found it yet.

 

Edit:

 

Ha! Found it:

 

http://www.davidheyscollection.com/userimages/000001-er-morten-southport-oct-1953.jpg

Edited December 12, 2014 by acg_mr

[gwrrob]

I'm sure I've seen a photo on a thread on RMWeb somewhere, of the coach sidings of a seaside resort - from memory one of the southern coast resorts - which was taken on a Saturday, and shows the sidings absolutely packed with rolling stock from all over the country.

 

I keep searching, but haven't found it yet.

 

The sidings of Happy Valley at Goodrington Sands were packed like that on Summer Saturdays.

[The Stationmaster]

It is very easy to forget (assuming one knew in the first place) just what vast acreages of carriage sidings the railway network used to have.  dotted around in all sorts of unlikely places as well as the more obvious ones and often crammed with stock that only turned a revenue earning wheel on a few weekends every year.  My local branch terminus had 5 of its carriage sidings which remained full with about 10 or 12 vehicles in each siding for the winter and then only completely emptied on a few weekends in the summer.  The good Doctor swept all of that away as masses of older vehicles which barely earnt their keep were despatched and the sidings which held them were removed and by the late 1960s many nests of sidings had vanished, throughout BR.

 

Incidentally as far as freight flows at Peterborough are concerned I'm sure Andy will have given Gilbert details which are relevant to the time period of the Peterborough portrayed in this thread.  Andy (a former colleague on the big railway)  knew more than enough about freight working in that part of the world at that time to create an accurate picture.  Like those vanishing carriage sidings it is easy to forget that patterns of freight traffic changed over the years as industry changed and as transport similarly changed - what might be right in, say, a Pre-War or even early 1950s view could be different from what was to be seen only a decade later especially as traffic losses really began to bite after the 1955 strike.

[figworthy]

I'm sure I've seen a photo on a thread on RMWeb somewhere, of the coach sidings of a seaside resort - from memory one of the southern coast resorts - which was taken on a Saturday, and shows the sidings absolutely packed with rolling stock from all over the country.

 

I keep searching, but haven't found it yet.

 

Edit:

 

Ha! Found it:

 

http://www.davidheyscollection.com/userimages/000001-er-morten-southport-oct-1953.jpg

 

What are the carriages closest to the camera ?  They appear to have the door ways extending into the roof.

 

 

Adrian

[bbishop]

What are the carriages closest to the camera ?  They appear to have the door ways extending into the roof.

 

 

Adrian

Electric stock?

 

Bill

[stewartingram]

 

Southport 503s I guess.

Stewart

[Sam*45110*SVR]

Happened across this video from the cab of the prototype deltic today, briefly showing peterborough north and other parts of the ECML from KX to Doncaster in the brief 4 mins, definitely worth a watch !

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9JLTFVgC6s

 

Sam

[great northern]

Only a few images today, as by 2.00pm the light had gone. Only a week to the shortest day though.   The featured train is the 6.45pm from Grantham, and the loco is a B1 on permanent loan from Wakefield shed. As I only managed to get these three shots, I've gone a bit over the top and photoshopped all those lattice posts. I've also messed around a bit with the sky, though none of my efforts is quite what is needed. I also discovered, too late as usual, that the big bloke who visited a while back had not been very careful where he put his feet. Sorry. All is now back as it should be.

Doesn't that latest addition to the District Engineer's complex make a difference?

It is worth the time putting a sky in, I reckon, as this part of the layout is really pleasing me now.

[bigwordsmith]

@Sam 45110 

 

Interesting vid - Eeeh she were a rest noisy Booger!

[great northern]

@Sam 45110 

 

Interesting vid - Eeeh she were a rest noisy Booger!

Sorry,I got sidetracked by the smell of succulent roasting duck drifting from the kitchen.   What I noticed was that either the cameraman was jumping up and down, or the loco rode very badly, or the track was pretty rough. Or perhaps all three?  And why yet again didn't it show the view leaving Peterborough for the North?   Very nostalgic though.

[Alister_G]

That last image nails it Gilbert, absolutely spot on. Wish I could give more "likes".

[jwealleans]

You've spotted that ground signal, Gilbert?

[Donington Road]

Only a few images today, as by 2.00pm the light had gone. Only a week to the shortest day though.   The featured train is the 6.45pm from Grantham, and the loco is a B1 on permanent loan from Wakefield shed. As I only managed to get these three shots, I've gone a bit over the top and photoshopped all those lattice posts. I've also messed around a bit with the sky, though none of my efforts is quite what is needed. I also discovered, too late as usual, that the big bloke who visited a while back had not been very careful where he put his feet. Sorry. All is now back as it should be.

1023 1.jpg

 

Nice photo, you have put a lot of effort into doing the sky around all that lattice work.  The sky looks familiar though

It is the bit under Spital Bridge that gives it away

[Coldgunner]

Over the past few months, what little remained of the old Peterborough North has disappeared. The new shops have demolished the old GNR walls, the area has been almost totally redeveloped now. The bay platform is still there, but I can't see it being long before its filled in and built upon in the coming years.

 

I hope no-one minds me posting this here. A short while ago I put together a brief film about Peterborough and its railways, I hope you can enjoy it!

[great northern]

And to prove it, here she is emerging into daylight at the other end.   And passing a paragon of aesthetic design......  

The station name board isn't that good, surely?

[great northern]

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "loads of holiday extras from 'foreign parts'.  Are you referring to summer dated timetabled services, or the non-timetabled excursion trains?

 

If it is the latter, as a random example the excursions arriving at Cleethorpes on Tuesday Aug 5th 1958 were:-

 

2 from Sheffield

2 from Doncaster

2 from Leeds

Nottingham

Gainsborough

Lincoln

2 from Wadsley Bridge

Castleford

Woodhouse

Staveley

 

and they all went back that evening.

That is quite intriguing actually. That was the day after Bank Holiday Monday, so back then, one would have expected people to be back at work. I know it is fairly normal now for people to take the rest of a Bank holiday week off, but I don't think that happened 50+ years ago?  They originate from different areas too, so it wasn't a "wakes week" sort of thing. That's a lot of day excursions to be running on an "ordinary" Tuesday.

[great northern]

It is very easy to forget (assuming one knew in the first place) just what vast acreages of carriage sidings the railway network used to have.  dotted around in all sorts of unlikely places as well as the more obvious ones and often crammed with stock that only turned a revenue earning wheel on a few weekends every year.  My local branch terminus had 5 of its carriage sidings which remained full with about 10 or 12 vehicles in each siding for the winter and then only completely emptied on a few weekends in the summer.  The good Doctor swept all of that away as masses of older vehicles which barely earnt their keep were despatched and the sidings which held them were removed and by the late 1960s many nests of sidings had vanished, throughout BR.

 

Incidentally as far as freight flows at Peterborough are concerned I'm sure Andy will have given Gilbert details which are relevant to the time period of the Peterborough portrayed in this thread.  Andy (a former colleague on the big railway)  knew more than enough about freight working in that part of the world at that time to create an accurate picture.  Like those vanishing carriage sidings it is easy to forget that patterns of freight traffic changed over the years as industry changed and as transport similarly changed - what might be right in, say, a Pre-War or even early 1950s view could be different from what was to be seen only a decade later especially as traffic losses really began to bite after the 1955 strike.

Did those older vehicles still need to earn their keep though, Mike. I'm sure that i read somewhere that their value had already been written off from an accountancy point of view, and presumably they received the minimum attention necessary when the time came to give them their two weeks of use. No doubt it was a very good illustration of profligacy and waste when it came to cooking the books though.

 

Andy was just down the road in the control office at March in 1958, so his knowledge and imput was invaluable. I won't forget the first time he visited me, when he surveyed the fiddle yard, looked at me with that twinkle in his eye that i came to know well, and asked,"Would you like me to tell you what is wrong with your goods trains?"  "Yes please", said I. The response took quite a long time. I'm sure the very detailed information he sent me soon after must have taken even longer to prepare. At least he was with us long enough to see that I did take notice and do as he suggested.

[The Stationmaster]

Did those older vehicles still need to earn their keep though, Mike. I'm sure that i read somewhere that their value had already been written off from an accountancy point of view, and presumably they received the minimum attention necessary when the time came to give them their two weeks of use. No doubt it was a very good illustration of profligacy and waste when it came to cooking the books though.

 

 

I think the Beeching attitude was that they needed to be earning money to justify their retention, and of course they still needed maintenance and servicing even if it was just keeping the pads oiled while they stood still for months.  But it was also the costs of everything which went with keeping them, which also needed to be maintained to at least usable level, even if only rarely replaced or renewed.

 

And as all these things went so costs were reduced - possibly not by as much as the bean counters had decided but certainly savings as jobs vanished along with the coaches and sidings which had held them together with a reduction in the empty train mileage of taking them to & from their places of storage, and that was real money too.  and of course by the time teh Doctor came along the private car was making real inroads into seasonal traffic anyway so things needed to change I think.

[jwealleans]

That was the day after Bank Holiday Monday, so back then, one would have expected people to be back at work.

Isn't that works shutdown fortnight? When I was a kid and my dad worked to the rhythm of the Teesside iron industry we always had the last week of July and first week of August away. Day excursions during that period make sense.

[stewartingram]

I think the Beeching attitude was that they needed to be earning money to justify their retention, and of course they still needed maintenance and servicing even if it was just keeping the pads oiled while they stood still for months.  But it was also the costs of everything which went with keeping them, which also needed to be maintained to at least usable level, even if only rarely replaced or renewed.

 

And as all these things went so costs were reduced - possibly not by as much as the bean counters had decided but certainly savings as jobs vanished along with the coaches and sidings which had held them together with a reduction in the empty train mileage of taking them to & from their places of storage, and that was real money too.  and of course by the time teh Doctor came along the private car was making real inroads into seasonal traffic anyway so things needed to change I think.

At one of the Cambridge Railway Circle meetings many years ago a point was raised about carriages that were stored in a siding at Linton, on the Colchester branch some miles from Cambridge. Apparently this rake of coaches was stored there all year, being used once annually for an excursion from Cambridge.

 

Stewart

[Mallard60022]

Isn't that works shutdown fortnight? When I was a kid and my dad worked to the rhythm of the Teesside iron industry we always had the last week of July and first week of August away. Day excursions during that period make sense.

That too is a good point. However, I wouldn't know about that as those traditional holidays didn't seem happen so much down in the south west or perhaps people were already in a holiday place?

Back then it would appear that many women didn't work and I suspect quite a few of these trains could have been filled with grandparents, kids and women. Maybe it was the time when they were actually 'allowed by the man' to escape for a day or two? Social history might tell us this and coincidentally, the most interesting bit of railway history I have heard this year is actually the social affect of the railway as it arrived in an area and then the ongoing effects and influence it had. This from a short series of excellent talks through the WEA in Retford.

Quackers.

Edited December 15, 2014 by Mallard60022

[Mallard60022]

Happened across this video from the cab of the prototype deltic today, briefly showing peterborough north and other parts of the ECML from KX to Doncaster in the brief 4 mins, definitely worth a watch !

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9JLTFVgC6s

 

Sam

Retford is almost unrecognisable and yet Donny is not that different. Next time I go there I'll imagine that blue thing sitting in the up bay.

Scrooby troughs I think it was where water was taken.

Quite a few places recognised on that short clip.....I'd like to see the whole trip.

P

"....a steamy Peterborough........", ummmmmm!

[Mallard60022]

Over the past few months, what little remained of the old Peterborough North has disappeared. The new shops have demolished the old GNR walls, the area has been almost totally redeveloped now. The bay platform is still there, but I can't see it being long before its filled in and built upon in the coming years.

 

I hope no-one minds me posting this here. A short while ago I put together a brief film about Peterborough and its railways, I hope you can enjoy it!

 

Most enjoyable. There is even a bus on the bridge.

Phil

[great northern]

Most enjoyable. There is even a bus on the bridge.

Phil

Vindicated.

[great northern]

You've spotted that ground signal, Gilbert?

Oh yes, but not till later of course. I have no excuse at all for there even being a possibility of this happening, as I have had these

for a considerable time now. There are eight in fact, it is just a matter of getting round to it. Sorry about the blurry image.