Returning to Grantham

[workev]

61070 More great photos, love the composition of them.

Getting a little further in my research and hope to be able to post stuff soon. The great news is that Xpress Publishing are working on a book for the GN mainline (including Grantham) and this will look at the trains and their operation (including engine changes). Not sure of a date, but will be a must buy for me, having already got some of their other books, including the York-Newcastle one!

It looks like 8Fs and Britannias were rare, but I have an excuse to run these now at least!

Grantham library have also been helpful, and looking to get some material from them soon.

Thanks once again to 61070 and others for their help. I will get around to posting some of my photos soon!

Ian

[workev]

I have acquired some WTTs for 1956/7, and it has dawned on me that I really need to get the locomotive diagrams (probably closely linked to the drivers' links) in order to assess the trains that had engine changes.

Anybody know where there may be some information on these? Given that I have books that say the Northumbrian had a loco change at Grantham (bringing Gateshead engines to the shed), I could also do with locomotive diagrams for KX, Gateshead and maybe even Haymarket.

All ideas and suggestions would as always be gratefully received

Ian

[strang steel]

I hope this is not too previous, but would not the WTT show an engine change?

The ones that I have seem to indicate that an L between the hours and minutes of the time at a particular point, indicates a loco change there.

The ECML WTTs ought to have this indicated.

John

[workev]

John,

Yes they do, but maybe in 1956 they had stopped all engine changes at Grantham as there are no L against any Grantham times. The thing is why keep a healthy allocation of pacifics if that was the case? Looking at the Peterborough times they do not show any changes either. I am sure I have seen photos showing a Gateshead A4 off the Northumbrian at Grantham shed and I am sure it is post 1957. I will check! I know that changes still took place in 1955, so does anybody have access to a 1955 timetable to check?

I suspect that not all changes were shown at all times. Does anybody have a definitive date when changes stopped at Grantham and Peterborough?

Ian

[rob237]

...but maybe in 1956 they had stopped all engine changes at Grantham...

Not so...clearly recall seeing changes up to late '58, effectively my last 'steam' visit.

61070's picture of 60017 (page 16) suggests being 'coaled up' for an engine change up to KX, as late as '62!. Strong impression it has worked off shed, not running through...

Cheers
Robt P.

Additionally:
Recall reading recently of an early 60's SO Bradford-KX working which produced Ardsley B1 61011 Waterbuck as far as Grantham, from where it immediately returned home light engine...
This train was booked for B1 haulage, and clearly involved a Grantham engine change...

[workev]

Looking through my Irwell Press Pacifics books there are a few photos of non-Grantham locos on shed having changed engines, and some are in the 60s. I will try to build up a list as and when I find them of what I can fathom out from these, and other books.

Maybe 61070 has some info from his contacts?

The hardest one will be the freight links I guess.

Will try and post things as and when I find them. I cannot imagine that with the shed not closing until 1963 that changes did occur right up until closure.

Ian

[strang steel]

We have a Grantham driver on here, he is ROY@34F, who ought to be able to give us some marvellous info.

He does not seem to appear on a regular basis, but I did ask him to read this thread (via the Kings Cross thread) and comment on it.

However, because this thread has now grown to 18 pages, maybe he is still being blown away with the photos submitted by 61070.

John

[workev]

John, I will send him a PM and get him to look at Page 17/18!

Ian

[strang steel]

Thanks Ian,

Can you make the point that however trivial the memories, they are wonderful to us because they are all we have?

John

[rob237]

Oh dear...

Do I hear the violins of the Kesteven Philarmonic Orchestra drifting around the Barrowby curve?

Cheers
Robt P.

[strang steel]

Oh dear...

Do I hear the violins of the Kesteven Philarmonic Orchestra drifting around the Barrowby curve?

Cheers
Robt P.

Oh, so that is where the locals (who got us swedies from the sticks ejected from the station) went?

It may have been a regular 'fun' day for you, but a trip to Grantham was at least two weeks pocket money for me.

John

[rob237]

Same here...A8/L1 from Nottingham Vic'...

We weren't exempt from Mr Campion throwing us off the platforms in the 50's, either!

Usually about tuppence left by the time we got back to the Vic'...often had to walk the 3 miles home from there, but worth it when we had seen Sun Chariot & William Whitelaw!

Cheers
Robt P.

[60129 GUY MANNERING]

Not just Mr Scampion,but Ted Burgoine was a past master at ejecting us desplte me being in the prescence of his son Dennis.When the spotters were kicked off he made no exceptions not even for his son.A fair man it must be said.
Regards.

[ROY@34F]

thanks for flattery of me,strangsteel..i did'nt reach the heights of driver..promotion at grantham was very slow..fieman,yes,but not even "passed fireman",and,as i have said,a lot of you guys learn me more than i knew at the time,let alone can remember..a lot of engine changes ceased at grantham when kx men started the lodge turns to newcstle and leeds,in the late fifties,which i'm sure a lot of you will tell me the exact date.i'm sure there were still quite a number of changes though,but not the "crack"named trains anymore. we did,of course,have the 8.35,or thereabouts ,grantham to kx.,but it was(in my time)a kx engine and men return working,though a grantham engine on the down train ex kx..i know 'cos i've been on it with driver pumfrey of kx ;only my second trip on the main line!!and only then because the rostered fireman was a bit "under the weather"the return engine was none other than "sir nigel" i well remember! we also had the "newark bus"..tender first with the train to newark, then ,of course, set off back to kx..there were probably other jobs for grantham a3's,of course, but it may well be there were'nt many,if any,engine changes,as such..we had sunday jobs that changed engines at grantham,certainly..again i know ,'cos i've been on them..i.e..to kx,.leeds,.york...it would however be very interesting if anyone comes up with engine diagrams of the time,or even footplate diagrams,which would show weather you leave the loco with an engine,or relieve on train. sorry i can't enlighten you much..regards,roy.

[61070]

Thanks ROY@34F, and please continue to tell us what it was like to actually do the job on the railway at Grantham. Many us on here were just standing around watching! I do believe that one of the best things about this forum is the mix of contributors – from those with a store of practical experience in the railway industry through to interested observers, like me.

I've just bought a book called 'Steam: the Mystic Harmony'. It has many evocative and previously unpublished pictures of LNER interest from the 1950s/early '60s, including 12 colour shots taken at Grantham. While I wouldn't go so far as to recommend anyone to buy the book without seeing it beforehand, as I do have a few reservations about it (e.g. there are one or two pretty basic errors, such as 61819 on the back cover being described as a V2; and I'm sure some of the colour reproduction could have been better), for me it is certainly a 'must have'. It helped that I saw it in WH Smith's when I just happened to have with me one of their '£5 off' tokens from a previous week's visit - and it was still valid. I usually leave these things at home, or I forget to use them before they expire (I expect they depend on most of us doing that most of the time). So I only paid £12.99, instead of a rather costly £17.99.

By the way, I hope no one minds if I point out that the (apparently) fearsome Station Master's name was Harold Scampion. There's a description of his career, drawn from the local paper's coverage of his retirement, on page 7 of this thread.

Some more pictures soon...