andyrush

Considerable progress with Photoshopping out the bookcases etc as well.......

I think this is the site referred to as Spital Dock goods station by Clinker's Register and listed as Spital Cattle Docks in the 1912 RCH handbook. It appeared after 1886, by 1901, was formally closed 17.04.1967 and the pens had disappeared by late 1970. The entrance looks as though it was at the junction of Lord Mayors Walk (which crossed the railway at Spital Bridge) and Westwood Street. Mileage of the pens probably about 76m 60ch on the Up side. Any more information (or correction) welcome! Andy

Looks like a bit of the other side of it here: http://www.lostrailw...e%20station.jpg Andy

Excellent view! I echo the comments about the lamps, good luck with attempts to make them look less obtrusive. I don't think the lamps on the prototype are wrong because a Class E could run unbraked provided it was conveying a 'limited' load, according to the June 1956 supplement to the Appendix, anyway. I'm not even sure that the front three wagons are unfitted - we need a wagon expert to tell us what the first two are, the third looks like a minfit.

Glad to have been able to assist with the white ball trauma! In the shot of the O4, the extra leading brake is for the run-round that had to be performed at Tempsford, which included the loco running wrong line down the up main and then a propelling move along the up slow before the tender first move across the fast lines to the down slow through the ladder crossing at the south end of the station. The trains were limited by the sidings at Little Barford which were mostly 30 wagons in length and are an ideal opportunity for your 'unlikely' engines to perform a fill-in turn from New England.

Gilbert Are you sure that some domestic waste trains went to New England? As far as I know they all went to Blackbridge sidings between Ayot and Wheathampstead on the Dunstable line. Unless somebody knows better, I suspect that the Ashburton Grove - New England conveyed mineral empties from Highbury Vale coal depot. Nice to see a sequence with nothing big and green in it anyway! (runs for cover... ) Andy

I managed to teleport into Gilbert's layout room to take this picture, which includes his new signal I had to Photoshop the book shelves, of course Andy

I'll see you and the layout there, then. Spital (NER in P4) is there as well. Andy

Having spent probably an hour off and on in front of the layout when it was exhibited at Utrecht, I can assure you that it doesn't sound anywhere as noisy as this in real life, nor do the point motors. The nine deep crowd that will be in front of it at Alexandra Palace will deaden all the sounds anyway! Andy

Another excellent batch of photos. I've always thought that a train being worked in by a Gateshead A4 and forward by a March B17 was quite exotic! I don't suppose the squaddies on the train thought of it in quite those terms. Another exotic engine change, sadly unphotographable, was a Stratford Britannia to a York V2 on the Thames Wharf - Niddrie at Grassmoor Junction, Whitemoor. I agree about the 'something wrong' with the Crownline B17, but I've always thought it was something about the cab (as with the K1 from the same stable). I expect the Hornby B17 will turn up sometime, and the demos I've seen of that look very good. And it's a for the coal train! Andy

I was only joking about the O4, I guessed it was on some sort of 'test run', and there were (fairly) convincing reasons for the leading brake vans. I am not surprised by the Langwith O4's at 35A, there were several changeover turns between New England and Mansfield Con worked via the old GNR Loop Line route, where Lincoln Control arranged for the Langwith men off an up train to swap footplates with the New England blokes on the down. Photographic evidence (that I have seen, anyway) suggest that all these jobs were worked by Langwith engines - because I've never seen a picture of a 35A loco on Langwith shed (cue for dozens of examples to crop up!). And of course, just because these engines could be seen on New England shed didn't mean they worked south thereof very often! March appears to have had a fairly full complement of cleaners until about 1959 and although I only went there a couple of times in 1959 and 1960, I can remember how clean most of the ones with 31B plates were, in contrast to my native Stratford where only the Britannias got cleaned. The same seemed to be so at Tottenham Hale, whilst there were still steam hauled freight trains. There are also quite a number of pictures of the March O1's on the 'Target' workings to Temple Mills that show these at least to be pretty clean, and there is a well-known photo of a March WD off the road at Stratford that is also pretty smart. Eric Sawford's pictures, however, indicate not all the goods engines were treated this way regularly and March WD's were worked pretty much as common users once they headed north past Cowbit and could be away for days at a time! Keep up the good work Andy

Just trying to redress the balance between the shiny (and not so shiny) green things and the dirty black ones that earned the revenue! Now, let's see, 63653 of Frodingham looking suspiciously clean, having been ex works since March 1957. OK, hows this - it worked up the East Lincs to Whitemoor several days before and failed there. Because March was one of the few depots (the only one?) to clean freight locos the fitters there were unused to working on filthy engines so it got cleaned. It was declared available for traffic at 2.0am with no immediate vacant slot to get it home and no identifiable men to take it light. So the HQ engine controller ordered it to New England to help out with an out and home turn to Ferme Park. So it worked the 5.0am Whitemoor Up Yard to Peterborough Bridge Sidings and then went light to 35A. And here it is on 1135 up with a couple of cattle wagons and a spare brake to be detached at Biggleswade and much later in the day on 1206 down mineral empties with a payment brake van on the engine. No doubt it wound find its way on to a New England - Doncaster Decoy empties later the same night (hopefully with headlamp(s) by then) So you CAN have one, Gilbert! Andy

I know of no regular flow of ore southbound from Highdyke, there has been nothing in any of the WTT's I've looked at, and the question would arise - where would iron ore be destined for in that direction? As New England was the district shed before 1958, maybe they carried out some of the heavier repairs for their sub shed of Grantham and certainly there would then be occasions when they would 'borrow' them off repairs. Fluctuations in the ore traffic could also render some of the 35B O2's temporarily surplus and 35A would then have call on them. These fluctuations continued into diesel days, when all of a sudden Immingham tablet catching 31's used to start appearing up the Joint Line at Whitemoor, with strict instructions not to nick them! Doncaster and Retford O2's were diagrammed to work to New England and the usual cut and thrust of coal working would ensure that they failed to make their booked back workings sometimes, and got used on Ferme Park jobs on an out and home basis until they could be slotted back into appropriate workings homeward. The same sort of situation would apply to WD's from Doncaster, Colwick and Langwith Junction and O4's from the latter two sheds as well as Mexborough (off trains from Wath), all of which were booked to work to New England at some stages of the 1950's. So I reckon all you've got to do is pick one of those scenarios and challenge anybody to prove you wrong! You can tell that I'm campaigning for more mineral trains, can't you...? Regards Andy

OK, it looks like we can let you off - there must have been some cancellations on the Highdyke ore workings! The RCTS Green Book records that the whole class was shared between Doncaster, Retford and Grantham by the end of 1955, so in the normal course of things they would have been rare beasts south of New England after then, I think. However, the same publication refers to a Retford and a Doncaster engine being extensively used on New England - Ferme Park workings in Autumn 1955. Then there is always the final justification: imagine that Retford had turned an O2 off light to Worksop for a routine coal train to New England, but that when it got 'wired on' at departure, it was found that all the traffic was for Ferme Park. Any controller worth his salt would look to 'reman' such a train after a water and C&W stop at New England and give the incoming Retford men some unbalanced engine for their return empties. And if the Retford engine had failed on the up road at Grantham, a 35B O2 would have been the only thing big enough to pull the train. All very convoluted I know, but just the thing that used to happen (in diesel days from personal experience and in steam days by repute). Half the fun of using improbable engines comes from thinking up plausible railwaylike reasons for their use! Happy operating Andy

Naughty, naughty! Stealing a Grantham engine to go to London.... A 'Please Explain' will follow in the post! Great pictures, though. Andy

Brilliant work. If you improve on Utrecht, you will be doing well. It might not be as easy to see at Ally Pally of course, but I will certainly be trying! Regards Andy

And this is how I saw you! Every time I saw it the layout was operating really well. It was interesting watching the locals goggling at the technology. The best layout in a pretty good show. And there's some splendid beer houses in Utrecht! Regards Andy

I'll see you at the show! Andy

SNIPPED As most of the passengers on the Glasgow - Colchester were squaddies, I don't think anyone had their comfort in mind. In the early 1950's there were paths in the GE area WTT's for it to run in three sections so presumably business was brisk when there were regimental changeovers in the BAOR. As another aside, I'm told that the train was diagrammed forward from March to Ipswich with a Stockton (51E) B1 off an overnight freight to Whitemoor for a short period, but I've got no actual dates. From the documentary and photographic evidence I've seen, Colchester B17's were rare birds in the March area. It won't be a hardship to have another March B17, surely! Andy

Speaking as a frequent visitor in the off moments from operating on Spital, I can attest to the steady improvement in the operation of the layout over the two days. But as has already been said, it is a wonderful layout to look at even with nothing running. Good luck in the future. And I didn't find any of your loco lamps on the floor either! Andy

Gilbert Just let me know if you're ever short of operators! I'll be there.... Regards Andy

BR/OPC Collection at the National Railway Museum References 26290, 26291 and 26292 Hth Andy

90045 was never allocated to March, as far as I know. Give me a date and I'll tell you which ones were there. And I presume you've strengthened quite a number of bridges to allow an 8F to access your part of the world Andy

I don't run in the snow, but I do take photos. One usually ends up on my Christmas Card. The first one has had the trees in the background deleted. The second has had some 'snow' added to the left of the railcar. All the best for Christmes and the New Year. Andy

The Up Goods Departure line was still in use as such in 1971. A scan of part of Signalling Notice No.22 for alterations commencing 21.03.1971 is attached Andy