Timara Posted March 6, 2012 Share Posted March 6, 2012 Jolly good! I think 60113 is due some time posing on 50A, don't you think? Mmm why not! It'll look nice alongside 'Owen Tudor', not to mention a few other things. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffP Posted March 6, 2012 Share Posted March 6, 2012 Brilliant thread. Amazing how many of the older "spotters" threads like this and Petrborough North are bringing out of the woodwaork. Two or three times we would see a train approaching in the other direction, staying hung out of the window until we could read the smokebox number plate and then quickly recoiling back as we passed at a combined speed of well over one hundred and fifty miles an hour, with the approaching locomotive whistling, perhaps to warn us of impending decapitation? reminds me of returning from a trip to York. On our way back to Doncaster, behind Deltic D9006, "The Fife and Forfar Yeomanry", one of the lads in our compartment opened the sliding top window and threw out a banana skin. Someone mentioned that it could be dangerous if it struck someone standing near the line, the train travelling at 100mph would give it a velocity of 100mph too. Discussion then esnued, as it does with boys, as to whether said banana skin could enter through an open window of a train opassing at 100mph in the OPPOSITE direction. At that age, we found it hilarious to think that someone might be killed by a 200mph banana. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tom F Posted March 6, 2012 Share Posted March 6, 2012 Brilliant thread. Amazing how many of the older "spotters" threads like this and Petrborough North are bringing out of the woodwaork. reminds me of returning from a trip to York. On our way back to Doncaster, behind Deltic D9006, "The Fife and Forfar Yeomanry", one of the lads in our compartment opened the sliding top window and threw out a banana skin. Someone mentioned that it could be dangerous if it struck someone standing near the line, the train travelling at 100mph would give it a velocity of 100mph too. Discussion then esnued, as it does with boys, as to whether said banana skin could enter through an open window of a train opassing at 100mph in the OPPOSITE direction. At that age, we found it hilarious to think that someone might be killed by a 200mph banana. It reminds of the time Dad told me (from our time when we lived in Blackpool) what would happen if you dropped a 2p from the top of Blackpool Tower......OUCH! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tom F Posted March 6, 2012 Share Posted March 6, 2012 Picked up Steam World yesterday...mainly because I noticed on the cover 'Selby in the 1950's'. The article by S.B Clark re-examines his spotters log book from......April 1950! (Perfect) A loco of interest mentioned is 60097 'Humorist' on a Up Train. Rather interesting I would think seeing this loco south of York! Reference is made to the Colchester-Newcastle working....my excuse for having a B17 granted in this case it was being worked by a V2. I do have a lovely photo of Nottingham Forrest under York 'Cenotaph' in what must be 1950. Gleaming paint, and no shedcode, although I know through my Shed by Shed book she was based at March. My question then is...a B17 on the Colchester-Newcastle, would this have come on at Colchester, or somewhere further along? March? Cheers Tom Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tom F Posted March 6, 2012 Share Posted March 6, 2012 I've been having a tinker this evening.....very dangerous thing to do I know On the old layout, all photography was done with my old mobile phone...which has been handed down to my Dad. It's a Nokia with a Carl Zeiss 5 Megapixel camera built in. You know what, I don't think they look half bad at all....see what you gents think. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gresley Posted March 7, 2012 Share Posted March 7, 2012 I've been having a tinker this evening.....very dangerous thing to do I know On the old layout, all photography was done with my old mobile phone...which has been handed down to my Dad. It's a Nokia with a Carl Zeiss 5 Megapixel camera built in. You know what, I don't think they look half bad at all....see what you gents think. Tom, The pics are good. The only criticism is that they are "soft", not "sharp", but that is only to be expected with such specs. However, that's not your fault. I think that they are passable. gresley Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tom F Posted March 7, 2012 Share Posted March 7, 2012 Thanks Gresley I see your point, but I think they are more focused than the ones taken on Dads. I think an upgrade is in order next month regardless....Unless Tim can work wonders with the other camera this weekend! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium great northern Posted March 7, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 7, 2012 Picked up Steam World yesterday...mainly because I noticed on the cover 'Selby in the 1950's'. The article by S.B Clark re-examines his spotters log book from......April 1950! (Perfect) A loco of interest mentioned is 60097 'Humorist' on a Up Train. Rather interesting I would think seeing this loco south of York! Reference is made to the Colchester-Newcastle working....my excuse for having a B17 granted in this case it was being worked by a V2. I do have a lovely photo of Nottingham Forrest under York 'Cenotaph' in what must be 1950. Gleaming paint, and no shedcode, although I know through my Shed by Shed book she was based at March. My question then is...a B17 on the Colchester-Newcastle, would this have come on at Colchester, or somewhere further along? March? Cheers Tom Ithink you will find that Humorist was a Kings Cross engine at the time Tom, along with one or two others that later became Haymarket regulars. Haymarket drivers complained about right hand drive engines so there was a block transfer between there and KX. 60064-67 moved down South and 60090/6/7/8 went the other way. This was in July/August 1950. As to the Newcastle- Colchester, I may be about to disappoint you. B17's continued to haul the Harwich- Liverpool boat trian for many years because of the weight limit over Torksey viaduct. The Newcastle - Colchester didn't use that route, so could be rostered to an RA9 engine, and thus was always rostered to a V2. There would have been at least one engine change between Colchester and York, March or Lincoln being most likely. There is no doubt that March B17's did get to York, but not necessarily on the Newcastle- Colchester. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tom F Posted March 7, 2012 Share Posted March 7, 2012 Morning Gilbert. I hadn't realised about 60097 being a K X loco for a time. I should check my books better! Oh well, no Footballer on the Colchester-Newcastle train, but I can live with that! I'm not going to be able to avoid V2s am I....which means going down the horrid Bachmann body route. No choice really unless the reason they have delayed the new models is for a body upgrade!.... Doubtful I know. March B17 suites me Gilbert was there I likely train they would be rostered for? Cheers Tom Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikemeg Posted March 7, 2012 Share Posted March 7, 2012 Trip to York - Part 2 As our train slowed to negotiate the pointwork south of York Station, we passed the standby loco - at least that is what I was told that it was by one of our 'elders' - stood just outside the old Railway Museum. Here, the recollection becomes hazy for all I did was write down the numbers, not exactly where each locomotive was seen. So, looking at the sequence of the numbers in the notebook, it looks as though this loco could have been 60121 - Silurian, though there was obviously another A1 somewhere in the station 60140 - Boswell. Of course, never having been anywhere, on the East Coast Main Line, then each and every one of these Pacifics was new, a 'cop'. Even though this was a Sunday, there were a couple of J72's around the station, presumably station pilots (more information from one of the 'elders' (fourteen?) in our group. There was also a B16/1 - the only reason I remember is because it was the first of these that I ever saw - I think standing in one of the bay platforms at the south end of the station. York station, then, was a magnificent place; indeed it still is and one can only wonder what it must have looked like when it was signalled with semaphores with the largest signal box in the UK standing at the south end. By this time the signals were all colour lights and York Locomotive Yard box had gone to make way for a new track layout in 1950 or 51. I remember being fascinated at how the enormous station roof followed the long sweeping curve of the station, with the elaborate junction at the north end providing access to the Scarborough and Hull lines. And four tracks through the station, two of them not adjoining any platform! So, after a quick breakfast of meat paste sandwiches, washed down with Tizer; this while we sat on one of those old porter's trolleys, it was off to the shed. Out of the station, turn left and then, at the traffic lights, left again, going under the railway in the long road tunnel on Leeman Road. Emerging from the Leeman Road tunnel the shed buildings were straight in front of us with the first challenge being to get to the window of the repair shop to see what was in there. It was only possible to see the first of the tracks in this shop, as any loco there would hide anything behind but I can remember looking through this window and seeing 60138 - Balmoral resplendent in shiny lined green, looking pristine and glorious. Back onto Leeman Road for a few yards, we then came to a small flight of stairs which led down to a door. Through this door and we were into the roundhouse. Apparently York north shed once had four turntables but, at this time, I seem to remember that there was building work going on at the back of the shed and I presume that this was to replace two of the turntables with a new straight shed, leaving only the two turntables in the roundhouse. As we walked to the first turntable I vividly remember just standing there in awe. Every stall, radiating from the turntable held a locomotive, almost all facing towards the turntable. The place was huge and silent; eerily silent with just the sound of pigeons as they flew among the roof beams and quite dark, everything covered in soot and grime. The roof glass was equally dark and stained but, where the glass had broken, an almost solid shaft of sunlight, solid enough to touch, would reach down striking some part of a locomotive and bathing it in light. Some locomotives had parts of their valve gear or coupling or connecting rods dismantled with all manner of spanners and wrenches laid nearby. So we walked around the perimeter of the turntable to see a profusion of locomotive types. V2's, more A1's and an A2, B1's, B16's, D49's and a solitary J27. Every locomotive, except one (and that one was a B1) was new to me. Many of the classes were new to me. The second turntable was just the same with a profusion of locomotives of all sorts of types. Now I had (mistakenly) assumed that all locos fitted with smoke deflectors were express passenger locos; that was until I saw smoke deflector fitted locos with ten driving wheels and black - filthy black. My first sight of 9F's. To this day, I still think the 9F's were the most impressive of the BR standards. More (for Part 2) later; things to do! Mike Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffP Posted March 7, 2012 Share Posted March 7, 2012 Liking your "visit to York". it puts me in mind to do one about my own vsits to Doncaster to go round the Plant and the local shed. If anyone is interested? Or ought we to have a new thread? Mods? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tom F Posted March 7, 2012 Share Posted March 7, 2012 Mike, another fantastic tale from York. I enjoy your way of writing, as it sort of lets me as the reader imagine I'm seeing it to. Very descriptive. Keep them coming Mike! Tom Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
devondynosoar118 Posted March 7, 2012 Share Posted March 7, 2012 A spotters tales thread would be great for those of us who missed working BR steam in all it's grimy glory. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tom F Posted March 7, 2012 Share Posted March 7, 2012 Just to make it clear. I'm quite happy for Mike to continue his documentary of his time spotting at 50A in this thread. If anything it's helping me (being only in my mid 20s) get a feeling of what exactly 50A was like to be around, and if I can reflect a glimmer of that feeling in the layout, I'll be a happy man. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikemeg Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 Mike, another fantastic tale from York. I enjoy your way of writing, as it sort of lets me as the reader imagine I'm seeing it to. Very descriptive. Keep them coming Mike! Tom Thanks Tom and JeffP, What I have tried to do, here, is to describe those first impressions of this place; impressions which would, and have, stayed with me for over fifty years. So this is not, nor will it be, a list of loco numbers - there are other places where this can be done. I have always likened these places, especially the largest of them, to cathedrals. Likened in the sense of their immensity and in the incredible light effects which these places could produce. It is this contrast of light and shade and, especially on a Sunday, the incredible quietness of these places - almost serene in their silence - which was and is my abiding memory of 50A and of all of those great edifices which were locomotive sheds. Perhaps it is the artist, which lurks deep within, which saw this place and scores more like it, which writes of those long ago days; who knows? It is my own 'land of lost content'; happy days and highways which we can never come to again; thanks to A E Houseman for those immortal lines. Cheers Mike Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikemeg Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 A spotters tales thread would be great for those of us who missed working BR steam in all it's grimy glory. Long name which I can't possibly reference accurately (devon........) Those days of working BR steam were indeed, latterly, characterised by grimy, unkempt and oft times utterly forlorn locomotives but when they were clean, newly painted or just cherished, as was the custom of Top Shed or Haymarket, they were an unforgettable sight. To walk into these places; to see a gallery of the engineering artistry of Sir Vincent Raven, J G Robinson, Sir Nigel Gresley, Edward Thompson, A H Peppercorn, Sir William Stanier and a score of others (just look how many of these guys were knighted) was to see British engineering at its absolute best. These things were, and are, just design essays in metal; they were, and are, just aesthetically intrinsically 'right' in every sense; they could not be bettered. We are so lucky that so many have survived, brought back from their graveyards to live and work again and to thrill whole new generations who never saw them in their heyday. Who could ever have imagined, back in their final days in 1968, that so many would survive, much less that new ones would be built continuing the tradition of the great CME's and their work. It is one of the miracles of our time! Cheers Mike Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tom F Posted April 1, 2012 Share Posted April 1, 2012 Afternoon all. A very brief update. I have in my collection two J39's which have sat around with very little purpose. I realise that that York in 1950 didn't have any J39s, but surrounding sheds did. In particular Starbeck and Doncaster. The only issue is that the NE J39s didn't have the tenders that Bachmann provide (Group standard 4200). I have the choice of older North Eastern type tenders, or Group Standard 3500. The group standard 3500 can wait. In the meantime I've ordered from Alexander Models, the NER self trimming 4125 gallon type, one of which went behind a Starbeck J39. This particular tender had belonged to one of the Raven A2 Pacifics. Question is Araldite Rapid or low melt solder.... So thats the main thing on the agenda, a J39 with NE tender. With one with a 3500 tender to follow, gives me an extra two 0-6-0 tender locos. Plus a NE 0-6-0 tender engine to follow in a few weeks.....more on that one later Finally I picked a couple of British Railway Maps of ebay. One was a 1958 map of Great Britian showing the entire network. The second seen below is from 1948 and shows the Eastern and North Eastern Regions. That will be going up above the layout! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tom F Posted April 2, 2012 Share Posted April 2, 2012 To follow on from my last post, I have a couple of questions that I'm hoping some on here maybe able to answer. I'm looking at the large 4-6-2 North Eastern Tank Engines. The A6 I would certainly like, and as my books and as mikemeg have pointed out...a very likely contender on stopping passenger trains into York. I'm looking at the other large tank engines, in particular the A7 and that there was a large allocation at Dairycoates and a couple at Springhead in 1950. So this has had been thinking about the fact that Hull had three locomotive sheds. Was the work spread between the sheds....or did one shed focus on passenger while the others on freight? Cheers Tom Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium great northern Posted April 2, 2012 RMweb Premium Share Posted April 2, 2012 To follow on from my last post, I have a couple of questions that I'm hoping some on here maybe able to answer. I'm looking at the large 4-6-2 North Eastern Tank Engines. The A6 I would certainly like, and as my books and as mikemeg have pointed out...a very likely contender on stopping passenger trains into York. I'm looking at the other large tank engines, in particular the A7 and that there was a large allocation at Dairycoates and a couple at Springhead in 1950. So this has had been thinking about the fact that Hull had three locomotive sheds. Was the work spread between the sheds....or did one shed focus on passenger while the others on freight? Cheers Tom Botanic Gardens was the main passenger shed Tom. Dairycoates mainly freight, and 53C( cant remember the name off hand) local shunting engines for the docks. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tom F Posted April 2, 2012 Share Posted April 2, 2012 Botanic Gardens was the main passenger shed Tom. Dairycoates mainly freight, and 53C( cant remember the name off hand) local shunting engines for the docks. Thanks Gilbert. That would make sense and works in my favour...Cheers! Tom Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tom F Posted April 17, 2012 Share Posted April 17, 2012 Evening all! Well, I can finally write the post I have been impatient to write for several months! From 2.30 this afternoon... LEAMAN ROAD IS OPERATIONAL :yahoo: :yahoo: Overjoyed I think is putting it mildly! Tim, bless him, has been beavering under the baseboards for the past several days and today it all paid off. In all seriousness, I can't thank Tim enough for the past 3 visits. Not only does the wiring work....it is professionally done, and looks very neat underneath. Leaman Road is now operated by a DCC NCE Power Pro system, thanks to 'great northern'. Very simple to use and all locos appear happy with the point work. Tonight it's a case of cleaning the wheels up as they aren't as clean as they should be thanks to me not sorting them out after weathering sessions! This isn't the end of course, there are a couple of points at the fiddle yard end that will be wired in when Tim is next up in the summer. The turntable isn't wired yet, another job for the summer. Also there will be a large turntable in the fiddle yard we have decided on, mainly thanks to Silverlinks article about Haymarket Cross in this months Hornby Mag. A turntable will certainly open the options to having a large area to store the ever growing fleet of locomotives. It's been a grand day in the Dales today I can tell thee!! Time for a methinks! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tom F Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 As promised, footage of Leaman Road in action. Big thanks to Tim once again, because without his hard work this week (and the past 2 visits), we wouldn't have an operational layout, and I wouldn't know where to start wiring wise. Enjoy P.S Thanks to a very kind RMweb member, you may recognise the engine shed....top of the class to first to identify it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgXzPJ5FZRk Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidw Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 Mising nameplates off 60005 Tom - been nicked have they! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
67A Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 Hi Tom, Looks like a great project, just love loco shed layouts. A2 SUN CHARIOT looks as I remember it at Glasgow Polmadie shed,memories eh! Cheers Mike Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tom F Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 Mising nameplates off 60005 Tom - been nicked have they! They are on order David This is 1950...a perfect world where there was no crime, and the Railways were looking towards a new bright future where steam was supreme.....well that's how I like to think about it! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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