great northern

I visited Retford in 1958 soon after the D11s which had been stored at Trafford Park were dusted down and allocated to Darnall. We saw just about all of them that same day, plus some of the familiar ones. They were on Manchester- Cleethorpes and Sheffield- Cleethorpes duties. At the end of the summer timetable they disappeared, and we thought we'd seen the last of them. But in the summer of 59 nearly all of them were back at work on the same duties. That really was the last hurrah though.

The last image I have on file is of 61142 passing North box. However, I have a couple more that have not been processed yet, and I have thought of a way to get some more.It will be a slow process, but I think it can be done, if I am prepared to enter every single point number manually for every movement.

Good, innit? As to the PSR, just one of the delightful oddities of PN. Severe dog's leg curves at both ends, so everything on the ECML had to slow to a crawl.

Clive may polish his halo, as I have discovered neither buses or diesels where they should not be. That's the good news. However.....☹️ the sun shone, I went up to run trains and found that all the macros that Timara did on Wednesday are now empty. I tried to reprogramme some, and got all kinds of strange happenings. It seems likely that the new Power Pro is faulty. I am not sure what I have done to deserve this. TMC are sending me another one, as by great good fortune they have not sold out completely, and Timara is coming again on Tuesday to hopefully get things put right. It does mean though that there will almost certainly be a day or two when I have nothing to show you. If all else fails we can reinstate the old unit, and I will have to put up with the occasional glitch.

Some sunshine is forecast for this morning, so hopefully rationing can cease. Still only one image now though. 61142 is working the 8.59 Grimsby-KX, another train that we see every day of the week. Things will soon start to change though.

For a while this morning I was very worried. As Steve and I were on our way back from Newark, he found that he had had a call from Clive. It turned out that he had arrived rather early, and my cleaning lady had let him in. Well, I had visions of buses everywhere, as he had enough time to run riot. When we arrived, there he sat with his butter wouldn't melt expression, but denied any wrongdoing. He only had one bus, he said, which was in his pocket. Later he produced that, one which he intends to turn into a Lincoln Corporation Leyland for me, as I remember it from my pre teen days. So, far, I have not discovered any more, and we had a very nice day. Phil is off to Kent, and so couldn't join us. Oh yes, your evening image, which is Tagalie from under the bridge.

Another busy day to come, and an eye out for what Clive is up to as well. 60064 is having its three minute rest.

Timara duly arrived, and installed the new unit. All now works much better. She also reinstalled all the route settings, and in ridiculously short time, really. So that is a good day indeed, though the weather was grey and horrid. Still with 60064 for your photo of the evening.

Back to one image, as I have no time to run trains or take photos till Friday. Today, Timara is here to install my replacement NCE Powerpro, after which we have to reprogramme lots of macros. Tomorrow Steve@31A is visiting and bringing a goodie. Clive will probably be here too, so I must get on with installing the bus detector. Back in 1958, Tagalie is making preparations fot its three minute stop.

As usual, I worried about nothing. The guy knew exactly what he was doing, and there was no problem at all. A head on shot of Marne is the first tonight. It soon moved off, as the Gainsborough Lea Road-KX was due. It appeared behind Doncaster A3 Tagalie.

Little light yesterday, but I opened all the blinds and hoped for the best. As soon as I did that a weak sun appeared, enough to make some parts very light, but also to make walls and corners very dark. I did my best. Here is D11 Marne with the early stopper from Grimsby. Immingham had lots of B1s, but even so I bet it was hard pressed to find enough on a Saturday, given all the extras both on the E.Lincs and the old GC main line to Sheffield and Manchester. Marne was a Sheffield Darnall engine by this time, and has been borrowed during a lie over having arrived from there. I am having work done today which entails the unplugging of all my electrical stuff downstairs. I am assured all will be well when it is plugged back in again, but looking at the mass of wires involved I'm not entirely confident. If you don't hear from me for a while, you will know why.

Oh dear! So busy photoshopping that I forgot your evening image. Better late than not at all, 61630 again from above, with those lovely coaches behind.

The rest of the stock behind the B17. All Gresley, CK first.. then an SK... and finally a BCK. Cloudy again, but I will have to take more photos, otherwise I shall run out and there will be a day or more of no PN images. I can't remember the last time that happened.

Still not enough light. If it doesn't improve tomorrow morning I shall have to switch the lights on. So that there are at least locomotives to look at, here is a high level look at the old engine shed yard.

I doubt it Brian. We haven't even had a sniff of full length end door coach yet, despite there having been hundreds of them. Rather too niche, I think, and of course they are not G*R.

Well, there are going to be some happy people this morning then, as the next coach behind the BSK is...... a shortie SK. Both of these are the work of Steve@ 31A, who will get the job if I'm ever tempted by more. They are very nice....

Short of light, and so short of images again. Just the one tonight, I have photographed the whole rake behind the B17, but it will be one at a time till I can get some more taken. Who needs more than a lovely Gresley shortie BSK anyway?

More high level experimentation, featuring 43108, waiting to take its ECS down to Nene sidings.

Those who have been paying attention😉 will know that at the same time as the arrival from Kings Lynn, there is also an arrival from March. and here it is. Tottenham Hotspur, in its last month of life, has been allocated this easy duty.

The last look at 60854 is from Spital Bridge. For the time being, you might think you are still seeing the midweek sequence, as next in is the 8.35 arrival from Kings Lynn.

Running a bit late this evening. We start with another plonk. But then our hovering cameraman spots movement, and captures 60854 on its way to Grantham.

More plonks this morning, hovering around the District Engineer's domain.

They won't read it, but they will find out about it. As to the manufacturers, I think we need to take into account the case in which a lady who had bought one of those large camper van type things, read that it had cruise control and so when she got out of town set it, and walked off to make herself a drink. Following the inevitable crash, she sued the manufacturer because they hadn't spelled out exactly what cruise control allowed. And the result? Jury found in her favour and gave her lots of money. Where did this happen, USA of course, where else? Andof course all manuals are multinational now, so we get the lot too. I still like to think that decision would never be made in the UK, and the fact that we don't have juries in civil cases should make sure it doesn't. For once, pity the poor manufacturer though.

Another plonk. I put the camera down for a moment, and saw this. I am seriously beginning to wonder whether the extension and completion of Station Road is the best idea I have had in the 10+ years of designing the layout. Fish and V2 on high. This should make Andy The Green Howards rather happy. I suppose the only better thing might be a V2 hauling a fish train.

Still from on high, we follow the progress of the fish empties, and their immaculate KX B1, as they rattle through the south end approach to the station.