Peterborough North

[chaz]

And so to the last two pictures from last week's shoot, which reminds me that I had better go and take some more.

2613 on train.JPG

62613 is now ready for its one mile journey.

C12.JPG

While the C12 sits in the other Up bay,waiting for something to do.

 

The shot of the Claud is terrific. The loco' with its working grime, the clutter on the platform, the view through the train shed with the tantalising glimpse of the layout at the far end - all make it so convincing.

 

But, oh dear, that SR BG (?) is just too damn clean. Many of them got so dirty you couldn't tell what colour they were painted. As it seems to be a permanent fixture in that bay could it not be given a coat of grime?

 

Chaz

[Clive Mortimore]

Wot!   Skinheads   Not having any of them on my layout, threatening and upsetting the passengers.

Now then Mr B, your Brush type 2 was not a proper skinhead, that was a name given to them by lazy trainspotters who couldn't think of an original name from them. Your real skinheads were Sulzer Bo-Bos (class 24s), well that's what we called them circa 1970. If you look at a class 31 it has what looks like a little quiff on top, making it look more like a rockabilly than a skinhead. 

[stewartingram]

REAL Brush 2's were class 30, before they were messed about with.

 

Stewart

[Oldddudders]

Sorry, chaps, but TOPS nomenclature has no place in 1958. 

[stewartingram]

Sorry, chaps, but TOPS nomenclature has no place in 1958. 

 

Agreed, but I only quoted it to appease the young whippersnappers!

 

Stewart

[Clive Mortimore]

REAL Brush 2's were class 30, before they were messed about with.

 

Stewart

Ah Stewart

 

They had become 31s by the time someone called them skin'eads.

[great northern]

The shot of the Claud is terrific. The loco' with its working grime, the clutter on the platform, the view through the train shed with the tantalising glimpse of the layout at the far end - all make it so convincing.

 

But, oh dear, that SR BG (?) is just too damn clean. Many of them got so dirty you couldn't tell what colour they were painted. As it seems to be a permanent fixture in that bay could it not be given a coat of grime?

 

Chaz

 You are absolutely correct, and grimy it, and its neighbour, shall become. I have done the new ones which live up the other end.

[Mallard60022]

Chaz, it is a CCT not a BG.

That's why Gilbert hasn't weathered it yet.

Willy Maunsell

Edited July 26, 2016 by Mallard60022

[great northern]

 

Lucky, then, that they are out of period for your layout!   Didn't the early batch of 20 pilot scheme machines go the GE section in late '57? So you are safe - the production series locos were delivered from '59 to the GN (I believe). Of course it does rather depend on how strict you are about time....

 

I never like 'em much when I was a spotter but I do like my 7mm model....

 

 

...so I invoked Rule One.....

 

Chaz

As I recall, the first batch, D5500-19, went first to Stratford., but by Feb 1959 up to 5526 had been delivered and  were at Stratford Ipswich and March. The next 40 all went to the GE section as well. I do actually have D5519, a March engine, but it has succumbed to the dreaded chassis rot, and I can't be ar&ed, as Phil would say, to send it back.

 

I do remember going to March on an official visit, complete with permit, and finding lines of both D50XX and D55XX stored by the coal road. This was May 1960 - I can be sure of that as two of the last three B17s were there and in steam, 61657/64, and were withdrawn three weeks later. I was old enough by that time to wonder why brand new diesels were not working, and asked the guide, who said they were being delivered faster than men could be trained up to drive them. We certainly didn't seem to see many of them round our way for the first year or two.

[New Haven Neil]

Gilbert, I thought you said the Thompson Pacifics were starting to grow on You. .

(Ted sneaks off to naughty corner)!!

 

That was me.  The damn things are getting under my skin......

[chaz]

Chaz, it is a CCT not a BG.

That's why Gilbert hasn't weathered it yet.

Willy Maunsell

 

And had I have looked more carefully at the photo' I would have spotted the hinges of the end doors which are a give-away......DOH!

 

(Doesn't alter the fact that it's too bl00dy clean though.)

 

Chaz

Edited July 26, 2016 by chaz

[chaz]

REAL Brush 2's were class 30, before they were messed about with.

 

Stewart

 

I think you mean improved.....?

[great northern]

Tonight the featured engine is yet another from 52A. 60538 is first seen moving across from Up to Down line, having come up the engine road.

I must remember to dust these locos before photographing them.

and is now backing into number 4 bay to await the arrival of the Northumbrian.

[chaz]

Tonight the featured engine is yet another from 52A. 60538 is first seen moving across from Up to Down line, having come up the engine road.

538 1.JPG

I must remember to dust these locos before photographing them.

538 2.JPG

and is now backing into number 4 bay to await the arrival of the Northumbrian.

 

No need to dust them if this is the result. It looks like a fresh ash deposit to me. I always thought that class looked very compact and powerful, unlike Mr Thompson's galloping sausages! In my spotting days I only ever saw Happy Knight which I believe was a New England loco?

 

Chaz

[manna]

G'day Gents

 

The early, 'Skinheads' were never called that by loco staff, they were always called 'Toffee Apples' as the had a control leaver that worked in a fore-aft position, it had a large brass knob on it that looked like a Toffee apple.

 

manna

[The Blue Streak]

"Velocity" Now that's a proper name for a Pacific.

[trw1089]

"Velocity" Now that's a proper name for a Pacific.

Couldn't agree more - unlike real life as depicted on PN, mine is kept a little cleaner:

 

[great northern]

No need to dust them if this is the result. It looks like a fresh ash deposit to me. I always thought that class looked very compact and powerful, unlike Mr Thompson's galloping sausages! In my spotting days I only ever saw Happy Knight which I believe was a New England loco?

 

Chaz

Happy Knight was the only one allocated to the ER, and did spend quite a lot of time at New England, but it didn't half get shifted around.15 moves between sheds in its relatively brief existence if memory serves me. Summmer of 1958 it even got to Top shed, and of course they cleaned it.

[Oldddudders]

Happy Knight was the only one allocated to the ER, and did spend quite a lot of time at New England, but it didn't half get shifted around.15 moves between sheds in its relatively brief existence if memory serves me. Summmer of 1958 it even got to Top shed, and of course they cleaned it.

 

I must infer from this that I am lucky that I saw three - Dante, Chamossaire and Sun Castle - despite never going north of Finsbury Park until steam was long gone?

[chaz]

Happy Knight was the only one allocated to the ER, and did spend quite a lot of time at New England, but it didn't half get shifted around.15 moves between sheds in its relatively brief existence if memory serves me. Summmer of 1958 it even got to Top shed, and of course they cleaned it.

 

Thanks for the info'.

 

Mr Townend's cleaning gang at 34A were legendary and fully capable of turning out mirror finishes. You must have heard the tale about no 16 which turned up at "the Cross" and was scheduled to go back north on a Pullman. The cleaning gang did such a good job on removing Gateshead's "standard livery" from Silver King that shortly after it left there was a phone call to the shed to enquire if it had been reallocated.....

[chaz]

I must infer from this that I am lucky that I saw three - Dante, Chamossaire and Sun Castle - despite never going north of Finsbury Park until steam was long gone?

 

The three locos you name were Thompson's design of 6' 2" Pacific, not the later, superior, Peppercorn one. Blame the LNER for grouping these various designs all under the classification A2....

 

All the Peppercorn A2s except Happy Knight were "up north" and not seen south of Finsbury Park. In fact it's something of a mystery why the Knight wasn't so allocated - what work was it intended for?

 

Incidentally it is said that the cockney's at 34A had a less flattering, more fundimental (!) version of Sun Castle's name, which gave an idea of what they thought of those engines.

 

Chaz

Edited July 27, 2016 by chaz

[great northern]

An arrival from the South, but it isn't the Northumbrian, just a  KX-Doncaster relief, with a 36A A1 in charge.

Seen again during its scheduled stop, with Velocity waiting patiently in the background.

[great northern]

The three locos you name were Thompson's design of 6' 2" Pacific, not the later, superior, Peppercorn one. Blame the LNER for grouping these various designs all under the classification A2....

 

All the Peppercorn A2s except Happy Knight were "up north" and not seen south of Finsbury Park. In fact it's something of a mystery why the Knight wasn't so allocated - what work was it intended for?

 

Incidentally it is said that the cockney's at 34A had a less flattering, more fundimental (!) version of Sun Castle's name, which gave an idea of what they thought of those engines.

 

Chaz

 Don't let us get too embroiled yet again in the Thompson Pacific debate, or we shall find a lengthy missive from Simon A C Martin awaiting us.   From what I've read, perhaps the A2/3's don.'t deserve to be lumped in with the rest. Peter Townend recounts an incident when he had to borrow one from New England as a top link A4 was out of action, and had to plead with its regular driver to give it a try. The result was that the driver said he was quite happy to keep it until his own engine was ready. The A2/2s though transformed locos which, whatever their perceived faults, could haul anything you hooked up behind them into a beast which slipped hopelessly at every opportunity, rode very rough, and constantly required attention for a variety of faults. Annual mileages as low as 18,000 for the New England engines surely tell their own story?

 

My own recollection is that I saw quite a lot of A2/3s on express work, but the A2/2s only at the height of summer when anything that could turn a wheel was pressed into service. The only ER A2/1 was quite a regular sight too, though as Chaz says, as with Happy Knight, why just one was kept down South with the rest nowhere South of York, goodness knows.

[Flood]

Just for the record, two of the A2/2s outlasted all of the A2/1s and every Pacific design had a propensity to slip. Whenever a loco slips it is not the engine's fault, it is the person driving it. Different levels of torque between locomotives mean that different styles of driving are required. Whilst all the Thompson Pacifics have been described as rough riders compared to the Gresley designs they were probably no worse than some of the other designs from rival railway companies - again, opinion was down to day to day driving experiences.

 

Obviously they were not held in high regard at the time or they would not have been allocated to New England where the opportunity for high mileage diagrams did not exist.

[landscapes]

Tonight the featured engine is yet another from 52A. 60538 is first seen moving across from Up to Down line, having come up the engine road.

538 1.JPG

I must remember to dust these locos before photographing them.

538 2.JPG

and is now backing into number 4 bay to await the arrival of the Northumbrian.

Hi Gilbert

 

Love that first photo of 60538, nice angle keep them coming.

 

Regards

 

David