great northern

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.

Camera on tripod, had to put it down somewhere, then looked in view finder, thought it looked nice, so here's a plonk. I do not know why this happens. This thing wouldn't let me type any more, so I closed it off, intending to do another post. But then it put up the image I wanted next, but wouldn't let me type a caption. So, edit, and here's the Hull fish empties.

Always try not to be too black and white. There is a duty of care owed by an employer, but also a duty to take care on the part of an employee. How many times was over confidence and/or over familiarity involved? Quite a lot, I suspect. The "men were men" in the caption above and "only themselves to blame" is totally inappropriate, because there shouldn't be so many hazards, but that doesn't mean they should be ignored by those who encountered them. I have just acquired a car which has all sorts of helpful functions. It will automatically make a severe brake application when it senses an emergency, or warn me if I drift out of my lane, and if I take no notice it will steer the car back to where it thinks it should be. There follows paragraph after paragraph in the manual giving circumstances where either a warning may not be given, or may be false. Why? My lawyer hat tells me that is to avoid liability wherever possible, but it is also to cater for numbskulls who will think that the car will do everything for them, so they can just drive like idiots.

That's the problem, I think. There is always over compensation before things settle down. It is very difficult to start from a low and to stop at just the right point.

8.19am at PN, and that 9F is waiting for the road. I decided to leave this as the camera saw it, but would it have been better cropped? The lovely shiny V2 is having a ten minute rest at Platform 6, and lurching from one extreme to the other, I reckon I over cropped it.

V2 heaven for some people, as another appears. This one is a Top Shed engine, and so much better kept than most you have seen so far. It has the 5.50 KX-Grantham, and is seen from on high, about to pass under the bridge. and again, moments later and on its way into Platform 6.

But 60005 was always a double chimney engine, wasn't it? I took that into account, but missed the AWS. Of course 1963 makes sense, as that would be why there was such a thick layer of grime to take off.

You may well be right. 1952 and 1955 they were there.

Unfortunately my offer of £37 nine shillings and sixpence was not considered to be acceptable, so its all off.

One 9F follows another along the Down slow. Past the box and under the bridge..... and then along the straight and past Platform 6.

I could say it wasn't very clean before they started, but I won't. All generalisations are somewhat dodgy, and I'm sure that not all Gateshead engines were always filthy, but once there is a reputation it tends to stick. I have certainly read that when 52A got more through workings to KX the locos were generally well turned out.

The 9F has a clear run through, and will soon be safely in the yards and out of the way. Victor Wild has also got under way, and is London bound.

On the Down slow, a 9F with empties that left Ferme Park in the small hours in order to be out of the way before the mass exodus from KX begins. A close up of an impressive and handsome beast. Then up on the bridge to see the A3 waiting and the 9F trudging along the slow. This is a bit ragged in parts, but it took three attempts to get it even this passable, and I wasn't prepared to have a fourth. I have to magnify this sort of image when shopping, so there are large areas which I can't see, and the sneaky thing will look for areas of similar colour and erase them as well. It only needs a very thin connecting line, sometimes almost imperceptible, and it shoots along like a kind of lightning strike and gleefully removes something it shouldn't. This, of course, does not become apparent until I reduce magnification and look at the whole image again. It can be somewhat irritating.

More of Victor Wild running in for just a three minute stop.

The first Leicester of the day arrives at Platform 6, a very easy job for a nearly new Standard 4. Another familiar train approaches from the North. The 7.30 Grantham-KX, with one of that shed's less well kept A3s.

At 7.25 am, 60875 is on its way to London. and ten minutes later, 60853 sets off towards Doncaster. Both will stop at a number of stations which will cease to cater for passengers very soon. Whoops! Forgot to photoshop this. Doesn't look too bad, I hope.

Computer has been playing silly games again, I wondered why I hadn't taken a photo of the B17 leaving, and now I have found out. Apparently the thing randomly decided that 9 came after 11, and put the image right at the end of the page, where I failed to notice it. Anyway, here it is. So there we are, now we can look again at the V2, and everything is back in correct order, until the next time this thing decides otherwise.

60867 swings under the bridge and away. Gayton Hall then left, but we didn't get a shot of that. It did leave platform 2 free, so we have yet another 34E V2, which as sneaked down the engine road, backed on to the stock for the 7.25 KX, and is now bringing it into the platform.

Next comes a Nddrie to KX Goods Class C. It has another local V2, and although it has to be routed via the Up slow, as the platform is occupied, it will be allowed to run through. And here it is starting to move back to the Up, under clear signals, or at least it would be if they were there. The Glasgow-Colchester will not be inconvenienced, as it will, of course be branching off at Crescent Junction, and down to East.

60070 has uncoupled, and will cross to the Down and to New England. Shortly afterwards 61641 has taken its place, and will soon be on its way.

Thank you again. I did like that scenic section, and have always regretted not having room for one on PN. 61641 was indeed the first, and is still very much a treasured locomotive.

That's very kind of you Tony. Here's a photo. And a fireman who couldn't get the lamps on properly, or the headboard straight. Looks black on yellow to me, what do you think?

I run the train, though not with a Tourist BSO, and without headboard, as I can't find a source for one. As to the hut, Peter Leyland's is much more realistic. It looks to have been renovated when compared with earlier images, which probably means that it was demolished soon afterwards.

I'd say the first two are definitely Leicester bound. There was an evening train which was stated in Railway Observer to be regularly double headed, and indeed was seen one on occasion triple headed! After Spital Bridge closed, some of these duties passed to March, so I agree these are 60s images. By 1963 Britannias were being used. The minerals most likely on the way back to Colwick, I think.

These are rather later, I suspect, looking at the condition of the locos. Even the Immingham locos on Class A duties are well below the usual standard. I particularly like the images of 61114 and 61144, which show I'm not the only one who fails to get lamps properly seated.