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Oh no ! Back to school on the upload, for the above post.

Watch this space......

Smiffy

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David - if you are at Mallaig, then you ARE a long way from Nottingham. BUT if you were to visit Compo by train (assuming trains still stopped at his station), you'd be even farther away. By my reckon

Sorry about the break, I hope the pics, the panoramic view of Harringworth Viaduct! So around a long bend and there it is, over a mile of dead straight track across the top of 90ft. high viaduct, fla

On the Antique Roadshow recently a man showed part of his 242 piece collection of what to me are rather insignificant items of railwayana, namely the builders name plate usually fixed to the driving w

Maybe as an ex-railwayman I see more danger. I remember shunting on number 8 road at Nottingham sidings around 1983. We were making a train up and had stopped the move while we discussed tactics. Then round the back of the train came a woman with her son aged around 8 years. God! If we had not stopped to talk.... Don't even go there. My mate had a go at the silly woman. What did she say? 'As a taxpayer I am entitled to bring my son to see these trains which are public property'. God help us!!

Firbeck, I have photos of you in the cab of 8Fs at Colwick (on the scrap line I think), while train crews continued to water and coal their engines. Also that photo you took of the USA tank at Eastleigh with drivers in the background prepping an engine.

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Picture at #103.

An explanation.

It was the early 1980's and "Flying Scotsman" was due to travel up the East Coast Main Line.

Thousands descended on the railway line to get a glimpse, some closer than reason or sanity would expect.

I arrived at this particular bridge with my camera expecting the bridge to be crowded with onlookers.

How wrong I was, most had decided to go onto the land at the side of the tracks, some onto the tracks !

If you look closely under the bridge in the distance you will see the back end of train that at just passed at near on 100 mph !

The idiots just took a step back to let it pass....

I have the photograph of the F.S. somewhere, it came along about half an hour later.

People just drifted away and the railway returned to some sort of normality.

Smiffy

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Smiffy, what a coincidence, I was going to ask where you took that picture and relate my experience of what must have been the the same Scotsman tour in the early 80's. My friend Mick Soppitt, that Bilbraborn knew well, lived ( still does ) in Market Deeping at the time. My ex and I went up to stay at his place for the weekend, mainly to see Scotsman as mainline steam specials were a rarity in those days. I'm sure they ran it on a Sunday and we went over to that dreaded 6 track level crossing on the Deeping to Stamford road to see it pass South in the dark the previous night ( Mick used to get the timings from the signalman that he knew). There was nobody about then and I managed to get an atmospheric picture of it with my powerful flash, not quite O Winston Link, but it came out. The next morning we went for a recce and settled for the overbridge next to the remains of Essendine station where the ECML is four track and there are wide vistas. When we went back to watch Scotsman pass we couldn't believe it, the bridge was practically empty because the hundreds that turned up to see it were swarming all over the tracks, there were HST's passing all the time at 100+, I don't know how nobody was killed. I took about half a film on colour slides that day, wherever they are in the loft and at the moment impossible to upload on here until I get my slide converter set up. I know they show all these idiots all over the track, including kids who must have been taken there by their parents as the place is fairly remote. I remember the teak, open balconied carriage right at the rear of the train with the lucky few leaning on the rail observing these idiots with a death wish, was it McAlpine that owned Scotsman at the time as I'm sure it was his own private carriage.

By the way, I notice the kids in the foreground of your picture with their little Union Flags, it's a wonder the HST didn't rip them out their hands.

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Sorry Bilbraborn but my Photobucket store needs sorting out and new items added, our house is in chaos at the moment as we've just had three days of central heating installation and if I don't start putting things straight today my missus will kill me, I shall be at the bike centre for most of next week as it's half term, I'll try and sort out some more of my pics later and take them into work to scan and post if I've got time, meanwhile I'm being repetitive:-

If you've got a photo of me in the cab at Colwick, I don't recall it, any chance of posting, meanwhile, this must have been the same day, I know you've seen it before, very severe haircut my friend, is that the thick corduroy jacket that my mother always hated, she thought it made you look 'common', one of her familiar expressions, bless her.

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This must be the USA at Eastleigh you refer to, I've got shots of another one taken inside the shed, great rarities, a small number used only for shunting in Southampton Docks because of their small wheelbase. As you know they were brought over in WW2 by the US Army not only for use in the UK but to be taken over to Europe as it was thought that Allied bombing would have seriously wrecked the railway systems over the Channel.

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Eastleigh, 'Blackmore Vale', then the last streamlined WC in service.

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Just noticed, streamlined Bullied Pacifics were fitted with permanent electric lights on the front rather than interchangeable oil lamps. When overhead electric wires became more abundant, the top headlight fitting was removed from the top of the boiler to the smokebox, this was to protect engine crews from flashovers when swapping lamps about.I notice BV has such an oil lamp fitting and lamp fitted to the smokebox, perhaps they didn't trust the electric lights.

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A very clean Standard 2-6-4 at Eastleigh, just like my Hornby Dublo model, I've got more shots at Eastleigh, I'll have to dig them out 'The Box'.

scan0033-3.jpg

Now thats got three lamp brackets on the smokebox including one at the top.

This is what we saw when we climbed through the wall at Holbeck roundhouse, it was right in front of us, I've got some more pics taken in there including what must have been one of the last surviving Fowler 2-6-4 tanks.

hol1.jpg

Only one lamp fitting on the smokebox, it must have been a confusing time for where you put on yer lamps.

I'd better go and clean up now!!

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I can't think of a route used by SR Pacific's when they would ever travel travel 'under the wires', but I suppose it was standard practice on all steam locos to remove the top lamp bracket just in case, even if they had fixed electric lights.

The diagonal yellow line on the cab related to the chimney height in relation to the overhead wires, those with the stripe were banned, this rule didn't appear till about 1964. There was much confusion over what should or shouldn't be banned, some 4F's were banned, but not all, the same went for 8F's. I couldn't work out that there was much height difference between the banned Jubilees or classes like Britannias and Black 5's that never carried stripes.

It's interesting that the former 'yellow stripers' are now allowed to take mainline specials under the wires without any problems, so what has changed over the past 50 years to allow this.

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I was under the impression the "under the wires" ban only applied south of Crewe.?

Southern Pacific's under the wires I would say only on specials ?

They were banned south of Crewe but that was because it was the northern extent of the WCML electrification at the time, just outside Crewe the electrified lines branched off to Manchester Piccadily and Liverpool Lime Street, the main route to the north was not electrified until after the end of steam. When I used to visit my uncle in Morecambe during the end of the steam years there were still some regular steam hauled London expresses that stopped at Crewe to change engines for electric power and vice versa, I saw the Royal Scot relief a few times at Lancaster and Carnforth and it was always pulled by a Britannia Pacific to and from Crewe. I recall catching the Barrow-Euston a couple of times from Carnforth, the first time pulled by 70027, the next time the Brit failed and was replaced by a Class 5 that ran non stop to Crewe at a hell of a speed to make up time, it was a bit strange to come to a stop at the all electric Crewe station behind a somewhat grimy Class 5, definately a stranger in a strange land, the shiny Class E3XXX waiting to take over.

But then as I was saying, some 8F's were banned from under the wires, others weren't, I dug up this rubbish photo I took of an 8F and E3XXX side by side at Nuneaton station after the south of Crewe steam ban in 1965. Oh and by the way Bilbraborn, it was Nuneaton shed the drivers let us round, not Stafford, my mistake, it's written on the back of the photo.

nun1.jpg

Incidentally, the only other overhead electrified main line out of London was the GE which ran as far as Colchester in those days, I'm sure that all steam was banned from that route in the early 60's.

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Smiffy, with regard to the Flying Scotsman trip, I haven't attempted to look for my slides but to my amazement I found some photos in a packet that were taken by my ex with her little compact camera. These are a couple of them taken off the bridge at Essendine, the quality isn't good, and there's a black out on the left of the shots caused, I recall, by a sticking shutter. The quality of this scanner I've just used at work isn't too great either, still, it's better than nowt.

I'll pm you about the other stuff later, sounds interesting.

fs1.jpg

fs1001-1.jpg

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That's the one at Eastleigh Pete. As for my haircut - you know what my mum was like. Short back and sides, if I was lucky she allowed a Boston. And no it wasn't that cord jacket. I know the one you mean. God I cringe when I think of some of the stuff I used to wear. My grand-daughter Caprice, a fashion freak herself - would disown me God bless her.

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Bilbraborn, some more photos taken at Eastleigh on the day of our visit that you haven't seen for over 45 years:-

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e2.jpg

e3.jpg

Only a few months to go and they would all be hauled off for scrap, the last West Country Pacific looks to have lost it's driving motion.

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I also found this taken at Nuneaton shed ( not Stafford ) during our visit in 1965, clearly withdrawn, incredibly enough, the one nearest the camera 78018 is currently being restored at Loughborough, one of the others is 78019 now running at Loughborough on the GCR.

nun3.jpg

After getting through the hole in the wall at Holbeck shed and being confronted by 'Kolhapur', we found this nice selection of ex LMS 2-6-4 tanks:-

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The trouble with my prints is that my old man's mate that developed them for next to nothing, bless him, used to take peculiar liberties with the images he put onto the prints, look at the negatives and the actual shot is much better, my mate 'Oop North' messed around with some of the negs a few years ago and the results were fantastic. I'm hoping that when I get my new slide/negative scanner set up properly I'll be able to do something about it, thankfully I've kept all my negs in good condition over the past 50 odd years, I don't know how considering all the house and location moves I've done in that time.

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Who said it was difficult to get into Toton Shed, these were taken from the early Winter 1965 through the rest of that year, I have more but these will do for now:-

t8001.jpg

t9.jpg

These were taken from the A52 bridge during really bad weather with snow on the ground, I was trying to get some shots for the BGS railway society photo competition, the theme being 'Railways in Winter'. I'll dig out my winner later.

t10.jpg

View of the coaling tower from the bank on the other side of the yards, one of the locos next to the tower was a Scottish Brit that brought us all rushing down there. Note the new diesel depot behind.

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Finally, on the BGS thread concerning the school Lake District trips, I mentioned that we'd stopped off at Skipton, probably because 'Jolly Jack' wanted to go round the sheds. Bilbraborn and I went over to the station and saw this Class 5, probably waiting to head North for the Carlisle and Settle line :-

skp1.jpg

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What were your favourite local spotting places around the Nottingham area.

I would go to Trent Junction more times than anywhere else, there was so much to see. We'd cycle along the canal from Stanton Gate, first stop the steps at Sheet Stores Junction to see the Derby and Castle Donnington traffic. Then to the South Junction where the tracks crossed the canal, this was a good spot as the trains made a racket when they crossed the Trent and into Red Hill tunnel. We would always finish off on Trent Station to make use of the buffet and, if it was cold, the roaring fire in the waiting room. We used to try and time it to see the Thames Clyde arrive and stop and on summer Saturdays the returning East Coast holiday specials, there was always one special too that used to come round the loop line from the Derby direction. If it was a warm midsummer evening and my old man was in a good mood, we'd go over to Sheet Stores to see the 'Palatine', always a rare Longsight Brit, the returning Midland Pullman and the Tamworth Mail, often a Lincoln B1.

The problem with Trent is that you couldn't see all the routes at once, we sorted this once by putting up a tent in the middle of the triangle and used a pair of binoculars to get all the numbers, again, it was a warm summer Saturday and we were there all day, even the cows didn't bother us. I was hoping to put up some new pics but the work computer is off line at the moment, I'm doing this by phone.

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