Wartime accident No3 Musselburgh NBR section

[v3man]

Musselburgh Museum have replied to my query but they only have the same report as I have from the Scotsman newspaper and the small clip of film which appears on their website. So we are no further forward yet and the mystery deepens.

I wonder if anyone has the Yeadons volume for the D11 class which might show one of the Scottish Directors in for repairs in Jan/Feb 1941?

[Andy W]

Please see my previous post - there were too many Directors going in and out of works at that time to identify which one and WBY didn't have the "dates in" either.

[v3man]

Success re the locomotive involved!! An enquiry to the Railway Correspondence and Travel Society has brought the following reply (together with a plug for the RCTS which I think is fair enough when he has been good enough to come up with the answer!) .

"A search of the Adobe Acrobat 1941 R.O.CD-ROM file reveals, in the index that there is a reference on page 35 of the February 1941 R.O., which reads:
"The engine involved in the accident at Musselburgh on 1/1/41 was 6390 Hobbie Elliot"
This was indeed a D11/2 later (6)2683, withdrawn 9/1958.

No further mention in R.O.

Perhaps in return you might like to mention to the forum:
1) The RCTS has produced professionally scanned copies of many of the bound volumes of the Railway Observer. 1932-1954/8/68 and directly form DTP versions for 2008/9, these include the contemporary Stock Books and other supplements.
There is also an Index compendium CD which contains the Published Indexes 1928-2009, with also a database of a separate index to the earlier R.O.s.
Full details are available for download from the society's web site:
www.rcts.org.uk.

I do also have sale copies of some of the out of print parts of RCTS' Locos of LNER series.
Enquiries with wants list to me at librarian@rcts.org.uk, the CD-ROMs can also be ordered directly from me.

Regards
Terry Silcock, Librarian"

[52D]

Thanks for your perseverance another part has fitted into the jigsaw. Where was Hobbie Elliot shedded at the time?

[60041]

Thanks for your perseverance another part has fitted into the jigsaw. Where was Hobbie Elliot shedded at the time?

Haymarket for its whole working life. Info here:
http://brdatabase.atbhost.net/locoqry.p ... &loco=2683

62683 also appears in the Railway Magazine list of stationary boilers as in use at Haymarket for about 6 months after withdrawal. The works plate still exists and was sold at a Sheffield Railwayana auction about 3 years ago

[52D]

Thanks for sharing above site its a new one to me. It only shows allocations from 1948 onwards so i will have to dig a little deeper.

[v3man]

It's back to Yeadon's then if anyone has a copy.

[Andy W]

6390 (2683), according to Yeadon 40, was allocated to St Margarets from new until 3/4/43 when it went to Haymarket.

WBY also has the ex-works date from Cowlairs as 8/2/41.

[52D]

Its all coming together quite nicely now but i have realised i havent got the timings and duty for the train. Although it was wartime the Scots had New Years Day as a bank holiday, I wonder if this train was a special or just an ordinary timetabled one with the Tweedmouth crew rostered to take it as far as their home depot for a crew/engine change.
As has been remarked earlier an unusual choice of loco for a freight on the ECML at the time. Depending on the class of train, V2/K3 being the fast freight choices and numerous J classes from both pre grouping companies plus LNER J39s would have been more usual power.

Andy above-38 days seems to be quite a long time in the shops, when the loco involved at Soham was back in service within 3 weeks.

[Andy W]

I was actually surprised at how little time the repair took considering it went in "head first" and there must have been some damage to the front end. However, Cowlairs, as previously mentioned, had a lot of the class in for repair in early 1941 so presumably there were plenty of spares about and it was "just" a matter of straightening a few bits out!

They were obviously quite solid machines.

[Chamossaire]

Thanks for sharing above site its a new one to me. It only shows allocations from 1948 onwards so i will have to dig a little deeper.

All in good time!

[v3man]

There is colour film of the Musselburgh accident at http://ssa.nls.uk/film/4497 which is additional to what i have seen before.

[v3man]

I now see that the film clip i referred to in my last post was already mentioned on the site in February 2011 - I must have missed that one!

[Saint Johnstoun]

As a passenger train was not involved, it is probably unlikely that due to the constraints of War, that the Ministry of Transport didn't get involved in a full enquiry. I've also checked and there does not seem to be any MOT report on this incident!

[52D]

Thanks St J im still digging for more.