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Working to Northampton via the Grantham line, Saxondale Junction and Melton Mowbray

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Hi everyone been a while. But here's a copy of an update i just put on Uk train sim forums . Save me doing it all again. Merry Christmas and a happy new year to all    

We are still plodding along with this project, real life keeps getting in the way of things. I just finished part of the hotel, concentrating on the parts of buildings as seen from the trains.

Misty atmosphere.

I have a photo of the base but that's not much good. During the 60s my friend and I (member - Firbeck as a matter of fact) walked (or cycled) a lot of the closed and derelict railways but never did the branch from Cinderhill Junction to Basford Junction.

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People will now ask what a former LMS 2P 4-4-0 is doing in Victoria Station!

The Midland took over the running of the Vic and the GCR in its later days. There ended up being a lot of Midland loco's there. It must of been a train spotters dream with the mix of Midland and ex Lner Loco's.

Im sure i have photo's of Compounds there . There's was also Royal Scotts, Jubilees ect.

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Working to Northampton via the Grantham line, Saxondale Junction and Melton Mowbray

You're right! There's a photo of a 2P on such a working in the Foxline book mentioned earlier.

Now I look more closely at that photo I can see it's a compound.

I don't remember seeing a photo of a compound at Victoria myself - except maybe of the preserved no. 1000 on a special working. The last compound was withdrawn in 1961, I believe, but there weren't many of them left by then. As for LMS locos through Victoria, the Jubilees and Scots were more towards the end of its life, along with Black 5s and various freight types. In my spotting days on the GC line/Victoria - roughly in the 1960-62 period - you never saw any 'namers' apart from a very occasional named B1 or a Britannia on the fish train. What I'm getting at is, by the time the ex-LMS passenger engines (also including Black 5s) were moved in there were no compounds left.

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I think it was the 2Ps that were on the Northampton trains, but that was mid to late 50s. I spotted at Vic mid 50s till mid 62, and the real Midlandisation hadn't really set in, although there was always the occasional Black 5 . You're right about lack of names, the few V2s put in a rare appearance along with B1s and Directors D11s. Mid 50's there were the A3s and B17's. Great days, then the Midland took a hold mid 60's and the odd ex GW namers appeared.

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I think you are right, having had a look through all the images I have access to they do all seem to be 2P's. We do have a Fowler 2P model available too, as well as B1 and Robinson 04. There is also a N2, did I see an image of one of those at Victoria?

A B12 is being made and there is a promise of other LNER locos in the future.

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B12's occasionally came in from Grantham or Lincoln. A K2 or K3 and B16 would be good. Plus of course a WD Austerity and a 9F.

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Ok The screenshot was more for atmosphere than anything. And now ive looked it is indeed 2P's working Northhampton bound trains. I can't find any photo's of 4p compounds at the vic so my bad lol.

My next screenshot is going to be a HST on the south turntable just get you all going thumbsup

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I think it was the 2Ps that were on the Northampton trains, but that was mid to late 50s. I spotted at Vic mid 50s till mid 62, and the real Midlandisation hadn't really set in, although there was always the occasional Black 5 . You're right about lack of names, the few V2s put in a rare appearance along with B1s and Directors D11s. Mid 50's there were the A3s and B17's. Great days, then the Midland took a hold mid 60's and the odd ex GW namers appeared.

Without being bothered to look it up, I think the Northampton trains finished in 1955.

Even V2s had finished by my time, let alone the A3s, Directors and B17s. To be honest, there was more of interest to be seen at the Midland Station by then (although the Peaks would have started their infiltration by 1961) but I hardly ever went there, mainly because first Victoria and then Perry Road bridge were literally closer to home. And of course the Rat Hole too, being close to school.

Re N2 tanks, they were based at Grantham in the late 1950s so I suppose may have worked in from there. Can't remember for sure seeing a photo of one at Vic'.

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WD and 9F are available but I don't have them yet, it's quite an expensive hobby to be able to have everything

To me the expensive part is having a computer with a graphics capability of running the simulator smoothly! I've more or less given up on this one.

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To me the expensive part is having a computer with a graphics capability of running the simulator smoothly! I've more or less given up on this one.

That is true, I use to be able to run it fairly well on my laptop in the early days, but 3 or 4 upgrades to the simulator means that isn't possible any more.

It was very frustrating until I built a fairly powerful desktop PC last year.

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That is true, I use to be able to run it fairly well on my laptop in the early days, but 3 or 4 upgrades to the simulator means that isn't possible any more.

It was very frustrating until I built a fairly powerful desktop PC last year.

I have a Half decent rig i built myself a couple of years ago. There was a big improvment in regards to stutter with ts2013. The trick with it is to lock your frame rates at 30fps via steam. It runs really smooth for me. If i take the lock off i get alot of stutter. The bigest thing with it is to have a good CPU on a half decent motherboard.

Ive been keeping an eye on my frame rates while building the Vic . Its still planted at 30fps at the minute. Also the Vic is in a hole so we dont need to plant miles of sceanery around it so that a big help too.

It will be interesting when we get out of the tunnels and cuttings at New Basford on to Bullwell as the area is very built up with the line running high on embankments so you can see for miles. see what performance is like then. Same can be said for the run into Derby too, You litraly come down on top of Derby.

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Re #68 (but nothing to do with Victoria!) I think that in the late 1950s, Midland could give a pretty good spread of types. There were Jubilees, Patriots (rebuilt and unrebuilt), Black 5s, Crabs, Standard 5s (73xxx) and 4s (75xxx), Ivatt 4s (Pigs), Ivatt 2s (Mickey Mouse), Stanier, Fairburn and Fowler 2-6-4 and Stanier 2-6-2 tanks, 2Ps and Compounds; a lesser number of Royal Scots and Britannias. Many 9Fs, 8Fs, Austerities, 4Fs, and rather less 3Fs and 2Fs, plus the ubiquitous Jintys, But in addition there was a sprinkling of LNER B1s, D11s and A5 tanks from Lincoln and a few K3s. I think the old LTS 4-4-2 tanks had gone by then, and probably the Midland 0-4-4 tanks used on the Southwell branch as well. But on the whole that's a fairly respectable range of classes. Now - have I missed anything (not one-offs, only types that were quite often seen)?

Now, what about Victoria - I wasn't so familiar with it. But from memory V2s and B1s on most passenger workings (plus a few A3s for a while). Locals to Grantham were mainly L1s. There were certainly also K2 (Ragtimers) and K3s plus GN 0-6-0s whose exact class I can't remember. The freight was for many years O1s and O4s, with lots of 9Fs and Austerities too. Oh, and of course the Derby Friargate locals were latterly Ivatt Pigs (displaced from the M&GN route if IIRC), by which time Black 5s were also monopolising the remaining Marylebone (so-called) "expresses". Jubilees and GW Halls and Granges were, in the main only seen in later years on the Summer Saturday relief Bradford - Poole service. There might have been a few more unusual visitors during the night (after dieselisation I remember setting off on the York - Swindon (about 01.15) behind a Hymek, so I guess there might have been some earlier steam equivalent working.)

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It's a long time ago now Stephen and my memory is a bit flakey, but I agree with much you said. Some were not around at the same time, the Stanier 2-6-2T replaced the LTS 4-4-2T on the Mansfield/Worksop trains. I never saw an A5 or K3 in the Midland but the D11's at Lincoln were replaced by D16's. I never saw an Austerity in the Midland but did see a couple of Garratts (not at the same time). Also Standard 78xxx.

On the LNER lines I remember that the D11's displaced from Lincoln went to Sheffield and appeared on the GCR locals. in the early 1950's the 0-6-0's were classes J1, J2, J5, J6, J11, & J39. At different times the locals to Derby, Pinxton & Grantham produced N1 & N2 0-6-2T which didn't last long, A5's and L1's I think the Ivatt 2-6-0's were the last (they did come from the M&GNJR). There was a regular working from Burton-on-Trent to York that produced a B16 and I did see a LNWR 0-8-0 in Leen Valley Sidings that had worked up from Northampton via the joint line (I presume it was a regular working). Also C12 67363 & N7's on the Annesley Dido. Brittanias also on the GCR.

One offs were a A1 at Bulwell Common when there was a rail strike, an A4 on a special, City of Nottingham at the Vic (I was on the train), and most spectacular of all gas turbine GT3 at Bulwell Common (it was tested on the GCR).

Thanks for helping to bring back memories, they were happy days.

Brian

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Yes Brian, I think it was either J6s or J11s I was thinking of - seem to remember my dad taking me to Victoria one Saturday morning about 1953 - I would be 4 then. The driver invited us onto the footplate - but then the safety valve burst into noisy life and frightened the living daylights out of me!

A5s prevailed on two particular trains on the Midland, around 1958. One was the 3.5 pm Lincoln - Derby which, unusually, was a semi-fast (I think it stopped at Collingham, Newark, Rolleston Jcn, Nottingham, Trent and Sawley Jcn.). The other was the Tamworth mail. When DMUs came in (March 1958 from memory) the 3.5 continued to be steam (along with the 4.54 Nottingham - Darley Dale, which was the return working of the 6.35 Darley Dale - Nottingham, always the same set of 7 non-corridor coaches). When I was at Long Eaton Grammar School, on games afternoons I often walked (well, mostly ran) down the black path at the side of Clays wagon repairs, to catch the 3.5 from Trent (about 4.15) back home to Sawley Junction - all of 4 minutes! By then the A5s had gone, and it was usually a Crab.

I regarded the K3 as unusual at the time when it turned up at Sawley Junction on the 9.6 am Nottingham - Liverpool. (Myself and a couple of friends were hiking in Derbyshire, and we had that all the way to Bakewell). That working was quite often a K3 (possibly the same one) for a while afterwards.

Well, we'd better pipe down now, or we'll be accused of hi-jacking the thread !

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Re #70 well done there Stephen, I have consulted several books and found reference to ex GE B12 and D16 and K1 2-6-0s.

I have also got a picture of a D49 4-4-0 at Vic and a Q4 at Annesley .

Vic was definitely my favourite local spotting area between 55 and 62. Also the best cup of tea on BR was at Vic .

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There were also instances of Standard class 4 2-6-0 number 76xxx

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No, don't pipe down Stephen, that's why we are here, to listen to all these facts and memories from people who were there, keep them coming please :) We will try our best to promote discussion by occasionally placing the wrong locos on the route or putting buildings in the wrong place. ;)

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