Returning to Grantham

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Iron Duke
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Re: Returning to Grantham

Post by Iron Duke »

The http://www.tracksthroughgrantham.uk team are currently undertaking a new photographic survey of the station.
The original B&W survey (which can be viewed on the site) was carried out in the late 1970's.

During a recent visit a few metal plates were found on the remaining interior wall of the old goods shed.
Can anyone identify what they are?
Attachments
Grantham Plate 1.JPG
Last edited by Iron Duke on Sun Nov 26, 2017 1:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Iron Duke
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Location: Twixt Grantham & Lincoln

Re: Returning to Grantham

Post by Iron Duke »

I have posted this again due to an error, but have added more images for clarity.

The http://www.tracksthroughgrantham.uk team are currently undertaking a new photographic survey of the station.
The original B&W survey (which can be viewed on the site) was carried out in the late 1970's.

During a recent visit a few metal plates were found on the remaining interior wall of the old goods shed.
Can anyone identify what they are?
Attachments
Grantham Plates.JPG
Grantham Plate 1.JPG
Grantham Plate 2.JPG
Last edited by Iron Duke on Sun Nov 26, 2017 1:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
60129 GUY MANNERING
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Re: Returning to Grantham

Post by 60129 GUY MANNERING »

A post for John really, but any help appreciated. On page 14 of this topic a photograph appears of 60112 St Simon on Grantham Shed with ten members of railway staff. A local news website for Grantham called, not surprisingly "Grantham Matters" is running an item called Going Loco and shows this photograph ( I am certain ) with the acknowledgement of sent in by Mrs Shirley Robinson.
The photograph according to John C was taken on Thursday !st August 1963 but I am at a loss to remember it's significance. The name Robinson makes me think of Foreman or even Shedmaster but Senility rules I regret to say and I am stuck.
Thanking you all in anticipation.
Regards,Derek.
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ROY@34F
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Re: Returning to Grantham

Post by ROY@34F »

60129 GUY MANNERING wrote:A post for John really, but any help appreciated. On page 14 of this topic a photograph appears of 60112 St Simon on Grantham Shed with ten members of railway staff. A local news website for Grantham called, not surprisingly "Grantham Matters" is running an item called Going Loco and shows this photograph ( I am certain ) with the acknowledgement of sent in by Mrs Shirley Robinson.
The photograph according to John C was taken on Thursday !st August 1963 but I am at a loss to remember it's significance. The name Robinson makes me think of Foreman or even Shedmaster but Senility rules I regret to say and I am stuck.
Thanking you all in anticipation.
Regards,Derek.

Derek,
Unless someone comes up with a better idea, and I'm sure John won't mind me commenting; the photo was taken by John's father I believe, and the man 2nd. from left is Stan Robinson, a passed fireman at the time (spare driver, and driving almost always). Maybe Mrs Shirley Robinson is related somehow to him ?
I well remember Stan, I went on my first trip as fireman "on the road" with him, albeit only up to Highdyke ,with iron ore empties, having relieved the train crew on the up slow at the south box, which was of course a common enough job for shed crews.
Regards, Roy
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61070
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Re: Returning to Grantham

Post by 61070 »

Hello Derek and Roy,

The photo is indeed one of my Dad's and it was taken on 1st August 1963. Roy Veasey invited us over from the platform to the 'Loco', where he had brought together several of his mates for the photo. I will always remember that day because of the excitement of crossing all those tracks, as anything on the railway beyond the platform was normally completely off limits for me (at 9 years and nearly-a-fortnight!).

That's a good connection with Stan Robinson you've made there Roy and you may well be right as I expect the families of all the people in that photo have a copy of it tucked away somewhere. To add to the mix I have a note that a Shirley Robinson - presumably the same lady as has sent in the photo - came to our 'stand' at the Mallard Festival at Grantham last September. The note we made hurriedly on the day says that she has some connection with a family called Bainbridge, of which I seem to remember being told that there were several employed on the railway at Grantham. However, our note doesn't tell us what that association is/was. Members of the Bainbridge family have certainly been identified in some of my Dad's photos.

If I find out any more I'll come back to this. Meantime I have a little query about route indicators...see next post.
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61070
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Re: Returning to Grantham

Post by 61070 »

Route indicators at Grantham.

I'm working on a history of Grantham North box.

In the 1950s/60s several of the box's semaphore signals had route indicator boxes. The question I have is, did any of these boxes provide an indication for entry to 'the Loco' and, if they did, which ones were they and what was/were the code letter(s)?

By way of a reminder I have seen a diagram for the North Box which gives the code letters capable of being shown by the route indicator boxes of these signals as at about 1964, ie after the Loco closed. The two most likely signals involved and the code letters they could each show at the period of the diagram are:

Up Nottingham line signal:
o DB – Down Bay
o W – Western Platform
o C – Carriage Sidings (miniature arm only)
o UG – Up Goods line
o S – Shunt line (miniature arm only)

Up Goods line signal:
o C – Carriage Sidings (miniature arm only)
o UG – Up Goods line
o S – Shunt line (miniature arm only)

Any ideas?
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61070
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Re: Returning to Grantham

Post by 61070 »

Iron Duke wrote:I have posted this again due to an error, but have added more images for clarity.

The http://www.returntograntham.wordpress.com team are currently undertaking a new photographic survey of the station.
The original B&W survey (which can be viewed on the site) was carried out in the late 1970's.

During a recent visit a few metal plates were found on the remaining interior wall of the old goods shed.
Can anyone identify what they are?
Those plates are a bit of a mystery aren’t they? Certainly they appear to be in an Edwardian script, or maybe earlier. Presumably they used to be inside a building on an inside wall that's become an outside wall through the demolition of the Goods Shed? From their appearance I’d say they’ve been blasted (nearly) clean along with the wall at some fairly recent time. No rust though. So what metal are they? Zinc?

I expect you noticed that the plates’ numbering covers 5 numbers inclusive each (e.g. ‘984 TO 988’ [‘989 TO 993’ presumably missing due to the new downcomer recess] ‘994 TO 998’ etc. until ‘1019 TO 1023’, and they give a numerical run of 40. So what was the beginning and end of the sequence? And why break at 3/4 and 8/9? If that’s the complete sequence for the Grantham Goods Shed, what were there 40 of at Grantham Goods Shed (and presumably at least 983 of elsewhere)? It's a bit of a tough one isn't it?
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61070
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Re: Returning to Grantham

Post by 61070 »

As long-established readers and contributors will know, an offshoot of this thread is the Return to Grantham blog/website.

The blog/website has recently moved to a new home: http://returntograntham.co.uk/, where there is more scope for developing themes and ideas. If you are still accessing the old site (http://returntograntham.wordpress.com/) please 'retune' your browser as it's no longer being maintained.

The new site includes much recently added material, including growing coverage of Signalling and Signal Boxes at Grantham (much of it, including photographs, contributed by people who worked in the boxes); a lively account, written by Doncaster fireman Alan Mitchell, of what it was like to be on the footplate of southbound express freight trains thundering through Grantham station at speed and gathering momentum for the climb to Stoke; more on the development of Grantham Station, Yard and 'The Loco' in 2mm finescale, and a reflection on one young Nottingham spotter's first 'solo' trip to Grantham station.

If you would like to purchase, or to publish elsewhere, the photographs taken by my father at Grantham some of which can be found on this thread there's a new venture, Lineside Photographics, which facilitates the purchase of prints, in a wide range of formats and media, and is also able to deal with requests for their reproduction. There's a link at http://returntograntham.co.uk/photographs/ . The catalogue contains 'new' photographs which have not been posted on this thread.

This may come across as a bit of a 'commercial', so I'd like to explain that the Return to Grantham research and publication project, and sales of my photographs through Lineside Photographics, are both operated on a 'not-for-profit' basis. Any proceeds that may accrue from photograph sales will be put towards the occasional out-of-pocket expenses incurred running and developing the Return to Grantham project.

This thread will, I hope, continue to discuss 'all things Grantham' from the railway perspective. It's the foundation on which the project has been built and it's a vital part of the project as it develops, a place where questions are posed and constructively discussed, and photographs, experiences, knowledge and informed opinions shared. All contributions continue to be welcome!
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strang steel
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Re: Returning to Grantham

Post by strang steel »

I don't know if anyone involved with the Grantham website has a copy, but while researching something un-connected I came across an article in the Railway Observer titled "Grantham - The Rise And Decline Of A Railway Centre" by John F Clay.
John. My spotting log website is now at https://spottinglogs.co.uk/spotting-rec ... s-70s-80s/
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61070
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Re: Returning to Grantham

Post by 61070 »

Thanks very much for letting us know, because I don't think we've seen that article - it's marvellous how informative items still keep cropping up. I believe that John F Clay taught in Grantham. As well as being a photographer of the railway scene himself I believe that he knew the likes of TG Hepburn and AC Cawston.
As it happens we're having a project meeting at the NRM tomorrow, so if you could possibly send a note of the issue of the RO in which it appears, and we pick it up in time, we'll have a look for it while we're there.
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strang steel
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Re: Returning to Grantham

Post by strang steel »

I don't mind transcribing it for you from my copy, as it is about the only effort that I can contribute - not having any personal photographs or nostalgic memories of the station to share, but the problem is that at the end of the article, it says (to be continued......).

I am yet to find any continuation.

The first part is in Vol36 No448, the June 1966 edition, but I have looked through July to December and found nothing so far. I will rummage for my 1967 collection next.
John. My spotting log website is now at https://spottinglogs.co.uk/spotting-rec ... s-70s-80s/
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61070
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Re: Returning to Grantham

Post by 61070 »

That's great thanks - we're in Search Engine now and have just found the article...
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strang steel
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Re: Returning to Grantham

Post by strang steel »

I don't know if you found any other parts to that article. I looked through 1967, but found nothing there either.
John. My spotting log website is now at https://spottinglogs.co.uk/spotting-rec ... s-70s-80s/
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61070
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Re: Returning to Grantham

Post by 61070 »

Thanks very much John. We looked through 1967, and I think 1968 too, but found no follow-up. I'm very grateful for your offer to transcribe the article. I was able to photograph it very well so hopefully I can print it out and then scan it with OCR.

While I'm on, it seems appropriate here to say I'd be interested to know whether there is a biography/obituary for John F. Clay published anywhere. John F. Clay wrote the Foreword of AC Cawston's LNER Steam at Grantham in which he says that, as a schoolboy photographer, he met Cawston in the 1930s on the Grantham platforms. Then Cawston, in his Introduction, tells us that John Clay was 'for many years a schoolmaster at Grantham'. I'm aware that John F. Clay is author or joint author of a number of historical railway works, and I've seen photographs taken by him published and credited over the years. I'm compiling biographical notes, for publication on our site, of photographers, film makers and sound recordists of the railway scene at Grantham and John F. Clay certainly deserves to be among them. Is anyone able to direct me to a source of more complete information about him please?
MidlandExcursion
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Re: Returning to Grantham

Post by MidlandExcursion »

61070 wrote:Thanks Brian, much appreciated - that's another one for the Christmas list. There's a preview at:
http://www.cinerail.com/marsden-rail/ma ... -york.html
Now, harking back to page 16 of this thread and mention of the Lyons Maid 'Zoom' special trains, what do we have at around 00:30 of the promotional clip on the above site? Only 4472 leaving King's Cross on one of these, special headboard and all! I think we may also see the proud owner himself, Mr Pegler, giving a brief wave from the fireman's seat?
If Zoom specials are your thing :) - Steam Railway, latest issue (at least for a few more days) number 439 has a six-page feature on the competition and these trains.

Good LNER content - the article opens with a "where are they now" shot on Waverley station with a class of kids in short trousers in front of 60009 (is there anyone from this group in the photo?) , and inside is a shot of 4472 arriving at Kings Cross at the end of its run to York.
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