jonny777

Love those steps, they look almost real.

And, using what little logic I possess, this could be the outskirts of Braintree? The smokebox number is difficult to read but looks like 67217.

Thanks to you both. That location makes a lot more sense.

My immediate thought was this might be Stamford, but that would be some way away from the usual E Anglian haunts.

Thanks Roy. I really should try not to jump to obvious conclusions.

I was sure that the name on the signalbox read Wickham Market, but looking at the old maps the station there was much bigger than this.

Ah, yes I see. Silly me. I will doze off again now.

I may be having a senior moment, so hesitate to mention this - but shouldn't the brickwork be on the inside of the pits?

Not a lot to go on with this photo, but a nice image of a D16.

Thanks Russ. I think you are right. I have yet to find another photo from that location, but this seems to be from the opposite direction. http://www.railuk.info/gallery/notes/watermark_no.php?id=2195&file_name=meltonconstableshed01.jpg&type=td

This one is a gem for detail. Any ideas on location?

Was there timber from Boston Docks? I know there was in the 1960s but don't know how long it continued.

This photo is the one which looks most similar.

I can have a look, but I only recognise the modern scene; so I can only post them all over time.

Hopefully, someone might recognise this location....

No, I just don't appreciate the implication that my idea of a rare event was actually a regular occurrence without (so far) providing one iota of evidence to support the claim.

I have emptied the whole box onto the table and sifted through them, found them all from this location and.... saints be praised, a couple have a faint spidery pencil description on the reverse. The location is Shenfield and the year 1953. Unfortunately, the one that interests me the most is the camera-shake image. 61649 Sheffield United with a Felixstowe train 5th July 1953. 61104 with a service from Walton on the Naze 5th July 1953 61363 70042 Lord Roberts 3rd August 1953 70037 Hereward The Wake 6th September 1963 64876 on a ballast train 5th July 1953.

Couldn't you have waited until after you produced the links or book/magazine examples of A4s on them as 'quite a regular occurrence'?

The earliest one I have identified in the box is 1955, but most are 1956-8. The EE4s took over after that.

Is this now about locos on *any* Cemflo service or about the Cliffe-Uddingston trains along the ECML which did not run after 1968?

I have rummaged in the box and discovered this one which shows the entire unit. I believe that the transition from light to dark is not sharp enough to be a paint job.

Yes, you could be right. I will have to look more closely at the original, but it is quite convincing at first.

This is interesting, even if poor quality and under-exposed. Prints like this probably get chucked in a bin bag by the thousand every year, by non-enthusiast relatives; but although it is a Britannia on the GE somewhere with electrification under way or finishing at that point, it was the emus (presumably class306s) in the background which caught my eye. What livery is the nearest one painted in? Crimson and cream maybe? I thought electric units from the mid-50s era wore green livery.

Wonderful. Thanks very much, and might I hazard a guess this next one is Fambridge?

This photo was taken from a dmu, possibly a Derby lightweight. I suspect that it is somewhere in Suffolk or Essex, but does anyone recognise it?