Bill Jamieson

Dave, Sorry for not getting back to you on that sooner, but what you suggest is basically spot-on. This is what the RCTS "Locomotives of the LNER Part 5" says - "Three mores J27s, which from June 1925 were nominally outside NE Area jurisdiction, were Nos. 790, 829 and 1067 allocated to Carlisle (London Road). Although they became Scottish Area stock from that date, they were not used on the NB section, even despite their later move to Canal shed. They remained on goods workings to Newcastle, but a former NE lodging turn to Newport, which these locos worked, was discontinued. At the end of March 1939, all three were retransferred (sic) to the NE Area, being then allocated to Percy Main shed".It's very tempting to think that one of them must have got onto the Waverley Route at some point but I don't think we'll ever know for sure now! Bill

As a matter of interest, Canal also had an allocation of J27s at one time although, according to the RCTS green book covering the class, they seem to have been confined to working east towards Newcastle and never ventured on to the Waverley Route. Bill

Yes, a J27 through Waverley would have been a bit of an event in BR days, although it seems that Tweedmouth and Percy Main examples turned up in Edinburgh before and during WW2. It appears that St. Margarets even requisitioned a J27 for the Penicuik goods on one occasion but there is no evidence of them having penetrated beyond Edinburgh so it's perhaps unlikely that one could ever have been seen from Princes St. Gardens. Bill

From notes given to me by Ian Bell it will be 44824 which was noted running light at Hawick on 6/1/67. According to the BR Database site that was a Holbeck loco at the time. Bill

Personally I would have said it's just about possible to discern a large Britannia type firebox below the running plate but I certainly wouldn't want to discount the possibility of it being a 9F on the basis of a photograph which, how can I put it, falls some way short of Bruce's usual standard. Bruce, are you absolutely sure about the train being an ECS? - there are a quite a number of documented occasions up until mid 1967 when Britannias substituted for failed diesels on the 09.20, 13.00 and 19.44 departures from Carlisle (not to mention the final appearance of 70022 Tornado on the 19.44 in November 1967 although it's obviously not then). Bill

Yes, a Britannia I would say. Bill

I presume the John Carruthers on row 2 is the same one from Hawick who can still be spotted on the platforms at Carlisle from time to time (see below). Regarding 8F No. 48104. that appears on Kenneth Gray's list and with it not being a Carlisle loco it would have been a one-off event for it to appear on the WR, so I think there's a good chance that the date was recorded - probably mentioned in an RO if someone fancies trawing through them. Will ask KAG if he has any idea. Bill

I don't think this location was ever identified - it's Foxfield on the Furness Railway between Barrow and Millom, Coniston branch to the right. The picture appears in "A Cumbrian Railway Album - from the cameras of Ian and Alan Pearsall". Date is 18th September 1951. Bill

I knew there was a 7 in the number of the A3! Bill

Can't comment on Iain's miieage payments theory but I had thought the main reasons for the NBR (and other pregrouping railways, including the GWR at one time) adopting this policy were (1) so that the driver of the train engine, not the pilot engine, was properly in charge of the train and (2) safety concerns about a bigger loco (very often) 'pushing' a smaller one. The price of coupling the pilot loco inside was, of course, operational inconvenience if the pilot was not required throughout the journey, so that the practice mostly fell by the wayside, but clearly not completely on ex NB lines. I can think of a WJV Anderson shot of an up ECML express near Penmanshiel in BR days where the B1 pilot is coupled inside. By the way, David S. did tell me the identity of the A3 - I think it's 60057 'Ormonde', but it was a couple of months back and I can't be certain now. Bill

And an interesting loco combination too - German smoke-deflectored A3 with Ivatt Class 4 2-6-0 pilot (No. 43011 I understand) coupled inside as per proper NB practice. Bill

I'd forgotten about the 10.44 Blackpool North - Dundee but the EE Type 4 (we never called them class 40s back then) and motley collection of liveries does seem far more likely on that train than on the down Waverley. Consulting the 1968-69 TT I find it would have passed Whitrope about 14.20-25 and the last Saturday it was booked to run in 1968 was 17th August. I'm inclined to think the sun is perhaps a bit far round but there aren't any really distinct shadows to go on and of course it could always have been running late. Bill PS Since posting this I have spoken to Bruce who informs me that the previous slide film which Robin exposed was processed in September 1968 so it seems that this shot must date from September/October 1968 ruling out 1S54.

An interesting point about the reporting number - based on email exchanges with Kenneth Gray a couple of years ago I'm inclined to say that it was definitely 1M10 for the period of the winter 1968/69 TT during which it ran, but may well have been 1M01 in earlier years (which might explain why some crews were still displaying the latter in late 1968). I understand from Kenneth that at one time 01 was a generic train number for workings between Edinburgh and Carlisle via the WR but this certainly wasn't the case at the end - for example the 17.54 from Edinburgh was 1M42 - while class 2 trains over the full route were allocated the generic number 52 (2S52 in the down direction, 2M52 in the up). Perhaps someone with access to a wider range of WTTs can shed more light on it. Bill

This bridge isn't all it seems - the piers were reduced in height and a new deck formed using some of the original girders by Borders Regional Council Planning Dept. I'm not sure exactly when this was done - certainly prior to 1989 - nor why it was lowered (the lowering is obvious in the view taken from the west end) but it was possibly to get a reasonable gradient on the path between the west end of the deck and Wheatlands Road which isn't very far away. Incidentally its replacement will have to be somewhat higher than the original bridge to get a reasonable clearance over Wheatlands Road, which has been raised a bit since 1969. Bill

Yes, that's what I would have thought - the exposure must have been about f2 @ a fortnight. On the last Saturday Robin Barbour managed to capture 1S65 (after a fashion) passing through Riccarton Junction but that was a much brighter day. Bill PS Perhaps Bruce can supply a better version of this shot.

Don, There was a lot of work done in Photoshop to get that result - trying to bring out any more detail in "Shadows and Highlights" just emphasises the grain without bringing up any more detail, which simply isn't there. Actually I'm quite amazed at the result because the negative is extremely thin. It was scanned on a Nikon LS9000 {which will do 120 film although this was a 35mm negative). As Chris says, there is a real dreich day atmosphere about it - and at about 16.30 on a December afternoon it can't have been far off getting dark. Bill

Apologies for inflicting this one on you but it came as a complete surprise to me when scanning earlier today. The date is 11/12/68 and the train is 1S65 with D193 in charge. If you think this is bad, you should see the shot I took of 44767 inside Kingmoor Shed earlier that afternoon! Bill

Roy, That is surely the accommodation bridge at the south end of Bowshank Tunnel (leading to the farm of the same name). Bill

This is very similar to plate 60 in the late Roger Siviter's 'Waverley' album, which was taken by David Gouldthorp. I'm fairly sure he was a member of the MNA so the photographer in this case is likely to be one of that group as well.