Anyone remember.........

[Ashley 288]

some good photos here http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=nottingham+suburban

[barclaycon 569]

Compo.

Got that book that you mentioned.

Some great photo's in there.

Do you know if the other volumes (2 & 3) are worth getting ?

[Manversboy 35]

I was warned off those houses by parents. They said there were unexploded munitions in there.

As someone else said, these were used by the Civil Defence for training. My dad worked for the East Midlands Electricity Board and like a lot of the nationalised industries the EMEB had CD teams. I went on an exercise with my dad once as a 10 or 12 year old and remember all these very bloody "casualities" moaning and lying about in the ruins of those houses. With an amazing disregard for HSE the search team members were randomly given small radioactive metal buttons to conceal on their bodies and I was given the job of scanning the returning teams with a geiger counter!

Mind you, the real CD aspect was brought home to me when I saw a map of Nottingham showing areas destroyed or burnt out by a ten-megaton strike on Derby. Lord knows what was left of Derby!

Manversboy

[Ashley 288]

What you've not been to Derby since it happened?

[Manversboy 35]

What you've not been to Derby since it happened?

Sort of flat, black and glowing in the dark? I thought that was normal!

MB

[FLY2 10,108]

Hi barclaycon, I've got both the two books currently published, and eagerly await the third which should bring us up to the end of the lines life. Vol 2 is crammed with info, photos, maps and diagrams. Well worth getting for cold winters reading.

For Christmas, I got two more books by the Great Central Railway Society stalwart Ken Grainger "South From Chesterfield, and Forward to Nottingham Victoria" . Both published by Book Law Publications of Carlton Hill.

I am currently reading "The Friargate Line" the story of Derby and the Great Northern Railway. This describes the line from Friargate to Burton on Trent and Stafford etc. This links up nicely with the two Suburban Line books and Henshaws vol 1 of "The Great Northern in the East Midlands". However, this only takes us up to Basford & Bulwell, so we need a book from there to Derby Friargate.(Anyone know of one?).

PS, the Great Central Railway Society is only about £14 per year membership, and for this you get their quarterly mag "Forward". I've been a member for about 20 years and have learned an immense amount of info. Of course, the Notts Vic, Bulwell Common and Annesley area was only a tiny part of the GC, so a lot in the mag is new to me.

[barclaycon 569]

Ah. You're referring to the Suburban Railway books that David Birch did.

I was actually talking about 'The Rise and Fall of Nottingham's Railway Network' which Compo recommended and which ran to 3 volumes. I recently bought the first one and wondered what the other volumes were like.

I'll be looking forward to the last Suburban Railway book to come out. David Birch has done a good job of tracking down photo's of this line. I managed to get The British Railways Journal no.14 (1986) which has some fantastic stuff.

Lots of photo's from when the line was built.

'The Friargate Line'. The one Mark Higginson did?

Nicely done, but like you say, not that much about the Nottingham end. I've been trying for a long time to find some internal pictures of London Road when it was the terminus. Most pictures are of the outside.

[Ashley 288]

As I mentioned somewhere on here (Nottstalgia) am getting together as many photos of Nottingham Stations and features in the steam days era around such as I can purely for my own enjoyment and interest, pass the time etc, And as I lived in Basford till 18 have started with there, and funnily enough the oldest line and the one still surviving is the one with least photos! unless of course you want pictures of the Robin Hood Line era c/w with "bus stops" I recall when that was first talked of with BR upper management guy I then knew saying "it'll never happen" then seeing test trains running on the rusty rails back and forth to Newstead and finally going that first open day on it, not that long ago, but now in the tram era seems fogotten?

I guess with it being for years just a coal line with no stations there was little interest, and also before that wasn't a Main Line of course but bet still an interesting route in LMS days with it's 5 stations up to Hucknall plus various juctions, pit branch lines etc, level crossings and later bridges and have found some interesting photos I'd not seen before,

Likewise The GNR route thought by us trainspotters of the 1950's as a backwater line (even backward line) seeing photos of it there were some some right junctions sidings and features inc a viaduct on it, 5 stations and at one time 216 trains a day, which even if running at same rate throughout the night 24 hrs a day meant a train every 6 minutes on average so god knows how many at peak times, in fact during world war 2 it became the only line far as I know to have an extra track added locally, the slow goods loop making 3 running lines on a section between Basford & Bulwell Station and Daybrook requiring the extention of 2 road over bridges

[notty ash 371]

I've been trying for a long time to find some internal pictures of London Road when it was the terminus. Most pictures are of the outside.

There are a couple of plans available - one in the book about Great Northern Loco Sheds (Vol 2). The other I know of is a drawing available from the Midland & Great Northern Railway Circle, http://www.mgncircle.org.uk/html/drawings_list.html, which has elevations and plans. I think the latter was drawn when the station was converted into a fitness centre, so may be slightly speculative. The interior was probably changed several times anyway, with several extensions and then the conversion into a parcels depot.

[Merthyr Imp 729]

Pre-tram days - here's 156414 at Bulwell in 1994 the year the station re-opened.

[Merthyr Imp 729]

I was actually talking about 'The Rise and Fall of Nottingham's Railway Network' which Compo recommended and which ran to 3 volumes. I recently bought the first one and wondered what the other volumes were like.

Volume 2 - 'Beyond the City Limits' - covers the line to Trent, 'From Basford to Bennerley', Radford to Trowell, Pye Bridge to Kirkby, the GNR Derbyshire Extension from Basford North to Bennerley, the Pinxton line, Nottm to Lincoln, the three lines up the Leen Valley, the Robin Hood Line, the Grantham line as far as Bottesford, the Midland line to Melton, and the Great Central south of the Trent.

Loads of interesting photos.

Volume 3 - 'Off the Beaten Track' - is full of oddments: 'Tramways and Private Sidings - includes lines at and to collieries, e.g. Gedling, Cinderhill, Hucknall. Also the Kingston on Soar line with 'Lady Angela', the brickworks in Nottingham - e.g. Mapperley, etc, Boots at Beeston, Colwick Estates, and various others.

There's a section on preservation, and a look at surviving remains such as the inside of the Victoria Station tunnels and lots of other locations. Also tramway remains.

There are also sections on special train workings - i.e. various enthusiast specials, and a lot about the new tramway and its infrastructure and construction.

Both books well worth having.

[Compo 10,328]

Barclaycon #77: I have not seen the other editions. Try getting them from the library and see what like

[Compo 10,328]

Should've read all the messages before replying to the email! i see your question (#77) has been answered

[barclaycon 569]

Thanks very much for all those comments.

I could spend a fortune on books !