Carrington Street Goods Depot

[firbeck 860]

I note that London Road Station is called Ambergate, I know it was on the so called Ambergate Nottingham Boston and Eastern Junction Railway at it's beginnings, but a little way off. Imagine, 'Single to Ambergate please', on arrival, 'Sorry, you'll have to walk across the road and hitch a lift on a canal barge through Butterley Tunnel, it'll only take you a week'.

[notty ash 372]

Though I love train travel, I would happily have done the trip by canal.

If only it were still possible!

The Butterley Tunnel and the aqueduct at Bull Bridge alone would have made it a unique and fascinating experience.

[Merthyr Imp 729]

I think it's just shown as that to indicate it was the Ambergate company's station. When first opened the station was simply called 'Nottingham' before they added 'London Road' to the name.

[firbeck 860]

Though I love train travel, I would happily have done the trip by canal.

If only it were still possible!

The Butterley Tunnel and the aqueduct at Bull Bridge alone would have made it a unique and fascinating experience.

Imagine, crashed out on a pile of coal, wrapped up in a rough woollen blanket at night, a few flagons of the local brew for sustenance, then helping the bargee down the Wollaton flight and walking with the horse along the towpath. A romantic intrusion into a clearly harsh way of life.

[notty ash 372]

Many rides at Goose Fair, Blackpool etc could hardly be called romantic, yet people do genuinely consider the experience worthwhile

I stand by what I said. A ride from Nottingham to Ambergate (or on to Cromford for that matter) by canal would be a unique and fascinating experience. If only it were still possible!

[albert smith 803]

http://s1055.photobucket.com/user/bootneck5/library/I'm not sure of the date of this photo as 1947 & 1952 were bad years! but it does show the Carrington St. goods yard where my father spent his entire working life joining on leaving school aged 13 as a van boy/ 'dray' drivers assistant. Due for a wage increase at age 18 instead he got a weeks notice written in pencil! I never heard him say a 'good' word about the "Salaried Staff", I wonder if that schism between the 'Wages Staff' & the 'others' still exists.

One of his memories was being introduced to the 'demon drink' at Skinner & Rook bottling plant under the Castle rock(?).Refusing a drink from the spillage trough the foreman took him into the storage cave where the Guinness was kept for 21 days before release, I cold drink and he was hooked & Mr Shipstone had a portion of his wages ever after! I don't know who he saw but he started work in that low building, the goods shed, at 4am on the Monday morning chasing about with a 2 wheeled barrow to get the goods into the shops etc. before 8am. Later he moved into the goods yard proper unloading the vans in all weathers and, promotion of a kind, responsibility for checking that the loads were correct for delivery. He always dealt with meat shipments arriving in refrigerated vans en route to 'cold stores', one Sunday morning back in 1943 us 4 kids were treated to breakfast in bed, Dad had checked & double checked & there was a lamb carcass too many!!! it was sawn up on our kitchen table & shared among the team! It was about this time he was offered a Foremans job at Derby but the Lufftwaffe were visiting Derby more often than Nottingham so it was turned down & never offered again. A good working railway man, I've passed on his gold watch to my son with that 'pencilled notice' and other memoriables.

[LizzieM 9,514]

Good post Albert !!

[albert smith 803]

No it's not Lizzie, my fault the photo's not available but on going back to pbucket (careful albert) to try again d----d popups wont let me reinstate the photo!!!

[albert smith 803]

well this looks better fingers xed

[LizzieM 9,514]

Raining cats n dogs ....... just like Nottingham today !

[scab 0]

Going back to the 'Ambergate thing' l was a bus driver for many years and manage to take a pack of visiting Brownies who had just arrived at the station to The Major Oak in Arnold (the pub Rolleston Drive), instead of the Big Tree in Edwinstow!!! Being a Sunday Bank Holiday time table (and many 'gin gag gooley's' later) when they arrived back in slab square Nottingham they hadn't the time left before catching their train home to play Robin Hood and his merry men.

[Bilbraborn 1,594]

That photo was labelled Lincoln and Grantham incorrectly.

An old driver friend of mine related something which happened years ago. There was a shunter at Nottingham yard many years ago who was partial to a drop of ale after work. He regularly shunted the cattle dock at Wilford Road where three wagons were unloaded then three more shunted onto the dock and so on. It was getting near closing time one day when there was a delay. He went to investigate and found that there was a stubborn bull lying down in one of the cattle trucks. They pushed and shoved but it remained where it was. The shunter looked at his watch then had a plan. He went to fetch his brake stick ( a wooden implement not unlike a baseball bat used to lever the handbrakes on goods wagons while the securing pin was inserted). Stand back everyone he said as he swung the brake stick round and walloped the bull on his wedding tackle. The bull gave a mighty bellow, stood up and crashed through the fencing on the cattle dock. It galloped across the yard and disappeared down Wilford Road into the Meadows. It took them all afternoon to get that bull back and the shunter never got his drink.

Freight shunters were a sturdy lot and those at Nottingham Yard were the salt of the earth. Yard East and Yard west met end on and a goods brake was always shunter down each road to make a dead end. Yard North was better known as 'Spike'. Why? I do not know but the three yards between them were very busy in the fifties and sixties making up coal trains for the home counties from trains arriving from the Leen Valley coal mines. Each road had a number but the shunters always had unique names for them. I was never a freight shunter, I shunted passenger trains in the late 70s and early 80s at Nottingham Carriage Sidings. When Nottingham Yard closed in the early 80s, a lot of the shunters transferred to work with us at Nottm CS. Others went to London Road parcels depot. I picked up a lot of stories from these men, many of whom have long departed this world. Another life, another era never to return, but happy days.

[Bilbraborn 1,594]

Another little tale from the railway at Nottingham. In the early 80s, the Harwich boat train did its journey via Nottingham. It came in during the afternoon from Harwich crossing over from the up main to the down to go into platform one or platform three. It was at that time composed of mark 2a or 2b coaches some of which had dual heating (Electric Train Heat or steam heat). Some also had dual braking (air or vacuum). Unfortunately, the air pipe connection between the carriages were not long enough to survive the sharp cross-over between the main lines. The air brake pipe couplings were designed to part company if they were lifted up. Also, the air brakes were designed so that if the carriages parted, the pipes disconnected and due to sudden reduction in air pressure, the brakes went on. When the train went over the sharp crossover, the pipes lifted and parted causing the brakes to go on, thus the train stopped over the crossover blocking most main lines. When it first happened, it took us a while to realise what had happened. Because of this an incoming Lincoln and a departing Grantham trains were delayed.

Once we caught on what had happened, one of the shunters quickly re-connected the pipes and the train was able to continue into its platform. Thereafter, we made sure a shunter was handy to re-connect every time it happened again. It was handy that the crossover was right next to the operations cabin. I think they eventually re-platformed the schedule so that it didn't have to cross over again.

[firbeck 860]

I remember the Harwich Boat Train very well! From early 1975 through to late 1976, before I moved permanently to Essex, I used to catch it nearly every Friday night changing at Ely and catching a train to either Bishops Stortford or Cambridge where my then fiancee used to pick me up in her car. Now I'm hopeless at remembering the platform numbers at Midland but I recall it used to enter the left hand side of the right hand main island platform, would that have been platform 4? It used to leave at about 17:30 and I don't recall it ever being particularly late, I used to have to hurry down to the station from my office at Castle Place after work and usually bought a weekend return which I seem to remember was about £6:00. The formation in those days consisted entirely of side corridor BR Mk1's still in maroon with the added bonus of a 1930's ex LNER maroon painted teak buffet car, which I believe has since been preserved as one of the last in service. I tended to sit in that as, despite having lost it's chromium Art Deco furnishings, it was equiped with bucket seats that weren't screwed down so you could adjust your angle of repose at your leisure, besides, I used to enjoy a few Double Diamonds on the way down there.

The motive power was always a Class 37 with the occasional Brush Type 2 or Class 31, which used to struggle a bit. The train used to be quite empty at Nottingham but always filled up at Grantham and also at Peterborough North where it called in on the far platform in order to get on to the Ely line. I think that the only other stop was at March, a big station very run down and generally deserted. The timings were pretty generous, it used to potter along to Grantham then put in a spurt down Stoke Bank. Once past Peterborough the train used to just amble along, I didn't mind that as it was always interesting to see the Fens from a different perspective, there was also a fascinating vehicle scrapyard near Whittlesey, the stuff piled against the railway fence and innaccessible from the yard, had lorries dating from the 1920's, I wonder what happened to them.
You'd get some interesting cross country passengers, I recall one day the train was packed and I sat next to the door to the corridor. A girl got in the compartment at Grantham, boy, was she paralytic. She was travelling down from Edinburgh to see her soldier boy boyfriend at Thetford, considering the state of her, I bet he was well p#ssed off when or if, she managed to arrive. She informed us in a broad Scottish accent that she'd already drunk a bottle of whisky ( it showed ) and proceeded to lash into another one, everyone else buried their heads into books or newspapers, me, I couldn't stop laughing. Unfortunately, she had a complete infatuation about the Bay City Rollers and wouldn't shut up going on about how brilliant they were at the top of her voice. In the end even I had enough and bogged off to the Gresley buffet, unfortunately she wanted to come with me, but luckily was too p#ssed to get out of her seat, I don't know what happened to her, probably ended up on the ferry at Harwich.
Incidentally, Mel, while catching the train at Midland one Friday evening, I bumped into John Smith with his mum and dad, he recognised me but said nothing and they got on the train right up the platform while I got straight into the Gresley buffet, I had a look for him later but couldn't find him anywhere, they must have got off at Grantham.

[StephenFord 866]

In October 1981 my wife and I set off on our honeymoon on the Harwich boat train. My best man (who is now GM of the North Yorkshire Moors Railway) was a BR manager in those days, and having accompanied us to Midland, he had a quick word with one of his colleagues, who arranged for congratulations to be broadcast over the loudspeaker.

Some years later we moved to Lincolnshire, and I was commuting each day from Grantham to Derby. The return trip was by a through Crewe - Skegness service, which ran into platform 1 at Nottingham. Provided it was punctual, there was time to nip across to what by that time had become "The European" - Mark 2 air conditioned stock, from Glasgow/Edinburgh, via Carlisle, Preston, Manchester, Sheffield. I think it was about a 3 minute connection, and it saved quite a bit of time, because the Skegness train waited for several minutes at Nottingham, and then of course, called at all stations to Grantham.

Then for a year it became the Mark 2 non-airconditioned Rhinelander, and finally disappeared with the arrival of Class 156 DMUs.

[Bilbraborn 1,594]

When I first worked at Nottingham the Harwich boat train was class 37 hauled but during my time there the motive power changed to class 47. I have a photo somewhere.

[FLY2 10,109]

Usually a Stratford one with a white roof.

[Merthyr Imp 729]

I've still got a BR timetable for 1974/75, and at that time the Harwich-bound train left Manchester Piccadilly at 1515, Sheffield at 1623 and Nottingham 1723. Then it was due in Grantham at 1757, Peterborough 1820, March 1858 and eventually arrived at Harwich at 2106.

It would likely have been either platform 1 or 3 at Nottingham but I can't remember for sure.

Northbound, it left Harwich at 0728, departing Grantham at 1026 to arrive in Nottingham at 1100. As far as I remember it always used platform 4. It departed Nottm at 1102 for Sheffield, arriving in Manchester at 1317.

I think timings did tend to vary over the years, but were always within about 15 minutes either way of those times.

Of course the boat train had only started running via Nottingham a few years previously. I'm open to correction here, but I think it was the closure of the electrified former Great Central Woodhead route from Manchester to Sheffield Victoria in 1970 that caused the train to be re-routed through Nottingham. Certainly it had previously run from Sheffield to Lincoln and down the Great Northern/Great Eastern Joint Line through Sleaford to get to Peterborough. It used to be one of the main trains of the day at Lincoln Central when I was trainspotting there in the early 1960s.

[firbeck 860]

I don't think that the original Harwich Boat trains via Lincoln went through Peterborough, I'm sure they used the Sleaford, Spalding, March, direct route that should never have been closed as it would have now made a very useful alternative freight link, especially now that the brand new Northern spur has just been opened at Ipswich to serve the ever expanding docks at Felixtowe.

Incidentally, I think that the reason Stratford painted their Class 47 roofs white was related to the painting white of the cab roofs of Royal train engines, particularly Britannias, when used to take Royalty up to Sandringham. I know the Royal Station at Wolferton closed about 50 years ago, wether Royal trains were or are run into Kings Lynn, I wouldn't know, having plenty of white roofed Class 47's at Stratford would resolve any motive power issues though.

Stratford sheds and works, what a massive place that used to be, wiped off the face of the earth by the former Olympic Park. One good piece of news though, featured on BBC East news this morning, the station at Kings Lynn has been restored to it's former Victorian glory and is being officially 'opened' today, I must say it looks rather smart, hopefully more about it on the 6:30 news tonight.

[Merthyr Imp 729]

I don't think that the original Harwich Boat trains via Lincoln went through Peterborough, I'm sure they used the Sleaford, Spalding, March, direct route that should never have been closed

That's true, yes - I was forgetting.

[Bilbraborn 1,594]

#42. Yes you're right about that. The only regular loco-hauled that went past the sidings during that time. Of course there were the Skeggy specials in the summers usually hauled by a pair of class 20s in multiple with eleven mark 1 coaches.

[firbeck 860]

I mentioned Kings Lynn station, it was officially 'opened' by Michael Portillo yesterday and there was a good report on it on the 18:30 BBC Look East news bulletin. I think it looks magnificent, a shabby station restored back to it's 1950's condition complete with British Railways signage and totems, other station refurbishment schemes should take note. Of course, on reading the articles in their local paper, it seems that the locals don't like it very much, they don't understand why the modern corporate railway company logos have been removed, 'What's British Railways got to do with it', they winge, how sad is that, history is clearly bunk in carrot crunching Norfolk.

Just one little comment, I wondered whether the Royal family used the station in order to get to Sandringham, apparently they do, no doubt it had a 'little bit' of influence in justifying spending £2m on doing the place up!

By the way, don't you just love the timetable poster printed in the 50's style, I think it's a real bit of attention to detail.

[Merthyr Imp 729]

The train looks happy to be in the station too.

[rexyrex 19]

At St Pancras if you look at the base of each archway you will see a cast iron maker's plaque. The Butterley Company, Derbyshire 1866 (or close). When I was a pupil at Trent College in 1964 - 67 we were told that the company had been effectively owned by the then Duke of Devonshire who was the main patron of the school. They said that the building of the school was funded by the profit of building the station.

Presumably the iron and steel was trundled down the railway line before it had a finished terminus.

[albert smith 803]

Sorry to correct you Bilbraborn #37 but all the Leen valley coalpits had their own 'trip numbered' engines, class4F 0-6-0, who would start off the Loco early morning go to Beeston down sidings for 40-50 empty wagons & take them to the designated pit. Due to the steep gradient up to Annesley the wagons would be taken to the upper end of the sidings and then 'gravity' fed through the loading chutes and into the loaded end using the 'breaksticks' mentioned in your first paragraph. Assembling the train wasn't easy as the sidings each only held some 15- 20 wagons so the engine lowered the first half out onto the main line followed by the guard and his 'trusty' breakstick with the remainder, the guards van was already outside and, as gravity ruled, was soon attached and the train set off for Beeston sidings but a fresh crew waited at Lenton South junction to repeat the whole operation & were themselves relieved for a third trip before the engine returned to the shed. Some wagons of coal did return to Nottm. yard destined for coal merchants in various local yards, Basford, Lowdham Widmerpool etc.

Beeston to Nielsons Sidings at Wellingboro' was the norm for Nottm. crews with a Class 8 F and a load equal to 67 standard wagons and we ' lodged' ( a minimum of 9 hours off duty) returning the same night or the following morning depending on which duty turn we were on! Happy Days? ask the Wife!