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Past memories of local railways is a popular thread, so perhaps a new thread devoted to trainspotting memories might be a good idea. As nostalgic moments go nothing does it more for me than recalling the smell of soot and steam, the excitement of seeing a 'namer' approaching, and the marking off of the engines seen, in my Ian Allan stock book.

My trainspotting commenced in the late 1940s, observing from Dobbie Bridge on Park Lane, Old Basford (drove over it yesterday). At that time the bridge still had its wartime anti-invasion fortifications in place. The bridge over Cinder Hill Road was the nearest regular spotting venue. Others were Perry Road, Western Boulevard and the bridge over Arnold Road, where the three-levels converged - GN Daybrook-Basford - GN rathole, Basford to Victoria - GC Victoria to Bulwell Common. Thinks: was this the only three-level crossing in England?

Midland and Victoria stations were the local main line visits and trips to further afield were to Newark and Grantham. A month at Pipewood Camp in the summer of 1951 saw almost daily walks to Rugeley to log the mainline locos from Euston to Glasgow.

A Red-letter day was a trip around Derby Loco Works, after which I organised one for myself, aged 13, and four others, and after we were shown the engine repair and new-build shops we were allowed to roam around the vast yard unaccompanied.

Everywhere you went you would see or hear trains - at night I lay in bed listening to the shunting at Babbington pit. Hold-ups at Basford Crossings for coal traffic or the Mansfield tank-engine-hauled passenger trains, and on Bells Lane for the coal trains to Newcastle Wharf were everyday events. The former is still the case, for trains and trams, but there is no-one in a signal box winding a big wheel to open and close the crossing gates.

Happy days, and how fortunate we were to have lived through them.

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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

Hello Chulla,

That's a lovely piece you have put together there and it brought back many happy memories !

Those engines all had evocative interesting names, from race horses, notable dignitaries or wild birds, names that played with a youngsters imagination.

I am always looking to add "specific" memories like yours relating to days out at Grantham Station to my website www.returntograntham.co.uk

One of the pages on there is entitled "Spotters Corner" so it would be great if you could contribute anything you remember about your visits.

There are also many photographs showing the station and shed during the 1950's & 60's.

Smiffy

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Great hobby. Old Coach Road bridge nearly every day. Sometimes near my aunts on the Mansfield line. Later we used to cycle everywhere including bunking sheds at Annesley, Toton, Colwick and Kirkby-in-Ashfield. Very happy days.

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I don't think the kids of today would understand the pleasure gained from a hobby like this (do kids have hobbies that don't involve technology?) For very little outlay, a few pennies for a train or car spotting book, and your own pedal power, pleasant hours could be passed, sometimes in your own company.

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It probably exists today, but in a modified form.

They sit in their darkened room, watching the output from several webcams and spotting trains from several locations simultaneously. Then tweeting their friends to tell them about some unusual train they've just "seen".

Whilst playing Grand Theft Auto on Xbox.

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Thinks: was this the only three-level crossing in England?

There was one in Chesterfield at least - the LD&ECR on a viaduct above the Midland route (still there) with the GCR line underneath.

That page from your Ian Allan book could almost have been mine! (although neater) - evidence there of your trips to Grantham and Newark.

There are some kids who still go trainspotting, but not a fraction as many as in days gone by. In fact, from my observations, the people you're most likely to encounter on platform ends with notebooks these days are people of our sort of age - the trainspotters of old - whiling away their retirement.

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chulla, what were the anti invasion fortifications you mentioned on dobby bridge? i lived on the estate at the back of the standard of england (now gone) in the 70's and those abandoned railway cuttings and embankments were my playground, there was still a concrete pillbox on the wallis street side right up until the whole area was built over in the early 80's.

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In the mid 60s, when we visited my grandma at Radford, we would sometimes go down to Bobbers Mill bridge to watch the trains, and I remember I did note down numbers, but it was all run-of-the-mill stuff. By then, there were no passenger trains along that line (to Bulwell and north) and the traffic consisted entirely of coal trains - full in one direction, empty in the other.

Although I didn't know it at the time, the footbridge where we stood was the site of the former level crossing, before Alfreton Road was diverted slightly to the west on a bridge over the lines

Next to the footbridge was the old crossing-keeper's house, probably not used for anything by the 60s. I think it's been demolished now, but a few years ago it looked like this.

cross-2.jpg

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chulla, what were the anti invasion fortifications you mentioned on dobby bridge? i lived on the estate at the back of the standard of england (now gone) in the 70's and those abandoned railway cuttings and embankments were my playground, there was still a concrete pillbox on the wallis street side right up until the whole area was built over in the early 80's.

think chulla would be refering to concrete posts across the road both sides of dobbie bridge,to stop traffic crossing over,i remember these well into the 60s.

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I can only recall the fortifications on the Wallis Street side of the bridge. They consisted of a solid concrete block on both pavements - about six-feet cube as I remember. Up against them were a number of concrete 'drums'. Imagine concrete after being poured into a dustbin and you will get some idea of the size. Now that Benjamin mentions the road actually being blocked to traffic, I remember that also, but that was not what I have described above. I believe the road was blocked to traffic because its strength was not suitable.

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Bulwell Common was my usual spotting place but I did travel to other places ether by train or bike, I went to Grantham, Newark, Toton, Derby, Rugby and Tamworth. I also went on spotting trips to March, Cambridge, and New England (Peterborough). to Edge Hill, Walton and Aintree (all Liverpool).With the RCTS railtours to Eastleigh and Swindon (behind City of Nottingham), to Crewe and Gorton and Horwich. (two different trips).

I went on Holidays to relatives and spotted at Grimsby, from there I had a runabout ticket and went to Hull via the New Holland ferry and to Doncaster. Incidentally when I was 10 my mother took me on a special train from Bulwell Common to Doncaster to the Plant Centenary when I remember going through the tender of Mallard into the cab when it was on display.

A great hobby. I was well occupied in school holidays.

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A couple of Grantham memories for Smithy49.

I think it was 1951 when a pal and I went by train to Grantham. They would not let spotters stay on the platform, so we went through a tunnel under the lines to a field on the other side. Here we joined more spotters, making about ten or so in all. One of them had the bright idea of sneaking around the loco shed, and we followed him like sheep, not wanting him to see stuff that we couldn't. We never made it because we were intercepted by an official of some kind who then took all of our names, our parent's names, our addresses and where our dads worked. Frightened us to death, but we never heard anymore about it.

Sometime in the mid seventies I was standing on the station when a Deltic was approaching from the south. The speed limit through the station was 90 mph, and the driver throttled back as he came in. After coasting through the station at high speed, when he reached the right-hand bend at the other end of the station he wound up the throttle. The sound it made, affected by the Doppler effect of the receding engine was the most marvellous sound I have ever heard by a train.

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HEY Chulla,that reminded me getting caught by rail police (well they said they were) for walking thru rathole tunnel,there was 3 of us and they took us to a hut in the old 'carriage sidings' Basford,i heard from outside the hut them really shouting at my mates,until they gave them each others name and addresses,

Funny thing was they never shouted at me,...........probably cos i coughed up straight away :biggrin:

we were about 10 at the time,never heard anymore at which i was very relieved cos me Dad and both Grandads worked on the Railway,and i would have been in deep trouble.

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There was a feature on BBC Breakfast News about trainspotting a few weeks ago, it was sparked off by some political comment I recall and they went to the NRM to discuss it only to find the hobby was started by a 15 year old Victorian girl back in the 1850's, not Ian Allan, it was mentioned on here. They went off to the south end of Doncaster Station and found a few 'spotters' lurking about, they varied in age from teenagers to OAP's, but they all had 'onsite' enthusiasm, their computer aids were the ability to download timetables, upload from digital cameras and contact each other via the net either by e-mail or forums such as this. I thought, well, lot's of advantages, but what was there to actually see, virtually no loco hauled passengers trains as we've also discussed on here and the freights seem to be pulled by the same types of diesel, or electric loco, I recall one bloke getting excited because an HST came through in Grand Central colours, hardly 60007 Sir Nigel Gresley hurtling through, chime whistle blazing, the smell of sulphurous smoke and the rapid rattle of carriages on the track joints was it.

I recall my trip by train from Nottingham to Braintree back in May, the only interesting thing I saw were two tatty Class 56 diesels in the remains of Leicester shed and the famous goods brake van abandoned for years in a siding at Ilford station and the object of much speculation.

In the old days of steam there was so much variety and so many different workings, express passenger, local passenger, trip freights, express freights, you never knew what was about to appear and what was pulling it. Even when diesels came along there was so much variety and regional variation too, hydraulics only on the Western Region for instance. But that's all gone, it can't be interesting anymore, only the chance of seeing the odd heritage diesel or a mainline steam working. Our local station, Braintree, used to have freight sidings with some interesting workings, they've all gone, buried under a housing estate, there's nothing to see but the same tatty EMU's bumbling up and down from Liverpool St every hour. The junction for Braintree, Witham, on the GE mainline, is a lovely station, historic, well preserved and busy, but do you get anybody ever spotting on the platform, never, because you get the same boring old stuff going through all the time. They had a lovely traditional cafe on the southbound platform, it reminded me of Grantham in the old days, I thought it might be a magnet for enthusiasts, maybe it was, but not enough to keep it going, it's sadly closed down. I remember going to an open day at Colchester Depot about 20 years ago, it was fantastic, they ran a shuttle service from the station hauled by a GER N2 tank loco and the shed was packed with all sorts of interesting stuff from 08's to a Deltic. They did another one at Cambridge about the same time, they ran a famous 1960's 'Blue Train' electric shuttle service from Stansted Airport, brought down from Glasgow, it was great. Cambridge yard was full of steam locos and whatever,vintage roundabouts,steam traction engines, a shuttle service up and down the old branch line pulled by a West Country Pacific, it was great, another priceless moment captured on Pete's video. But they don't do this sort of thing anymore, it's all about trying to drag profits out of a p#ssed of public. So who wants to train spot, apart from having the problem of being jumped on for being a terrorist for taking pictures, this has really happened with quite serious implications for the poor youths concerned.

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Thanks Chulla !

#14 You can see a photograph of that tunnel under the lines on www.returntograntham.co.uk

Go to the page for Station Buildings and then look for the photographic survey pages.

Look through the pictures taken on Station Road.

I too remember the sight and sound of the Deltics and your description brought that back to me, so thanks again.

The approaching throbbing sound of the Napier engines from the south turned into an almighty roar as they passed through and (like you say) an almost "coasting sound" through the station followed by the power being put back on..... tremendous !!

A station announcement would herald one approaching from the north "Keep clear from the platform edge please"

A brief lull, then a wave of undulating sound from the, as yet, unseen train still hidden by the bend.

"What type of machine or monster is this that now approaches"? went through my mind the first time I saw one !

Leaning inwards to the curve they would sweep majestically by southwards, if the wind was in the right direction you could still hear them when they were miles away.

The vacuum cleaner I keep for the car makes a similar sound, that's why I have never got around to replacing it.

Smiffy

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Yes, the Deltics had more character than any other diesels seen at Grantham before or since, but you can't compare their passage through the station at speed with the days of steam-hauled expresses. The following is from 'Trails of Steam Volume 6 - Trails Through Grantham' by Colin Walker, published in 1979, and I don't think it can be better described:

''The passage of a non-stop express was an experience not to be taken lightly. Seeking refuge was not easy and whether they dashed down the straight from Stoke or swayed menacingly round the curved viaduct approach from the north their proximity became uncomfortably close. Smokebox door 'expressions' only added to the intimidation. There was little cordiality to be found on the front of an A4 while the other Pacific classes and the V2s possessed those enigmatic grins which suddenly assumed a demoniac character when they bore down upon the station at speed. One vividly recalls that it was by no means always the weakest who made for the walls!'

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Katyjay. It wasn't all that cheap. Ordinary ABCs that is Western Region, London Midland Region, Southern Region, Eastern region and not forgetting the good old Diesels and electrics were half a crown each when I was coming into double figures. A combined volume was ten bob. There wasn't much money around in those days but we all tried to buy one anyway. It didn't help that they soon went out of date and an up to date one would have been ideal.

Pete. You're dead right about today. Same old stuff day in day out. No chance of the thrill of a 'cop'. When we were kids there were literally too many. I mean, going round the curve into Derby station on a DMU in say summer Sunday 1962. How on earth could one lad jot down all those numbers. It was madness. Like a lot of things, They were the best years. I loved every minute. Bunking sheds. Getting Effed blind at by the foreman at Toton. Cycling up to Kirkby, Standing for hours on end outside Annesley. The absolute thrill of seeing something totally unexpected. Why can't I go back and do it all again?

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Thanks Merthyr Imp,

A very good book, not looked at it for some time but I do remember that paragraph, sends a shiver down your spine just reading it again !

I do remember that period too as a very young lad out on his own for the first time at the station.

Some of the older lads told us that you could be "sucked under in a flash" by the passing A4's, that's why the front end is streamlined, to scoop you up !

Of course I didn't believe them, that is until you saw one coming and quietly took a few steps backwards........

Smiffy

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A magic moment was one Saturday afternoon, sitting on the fence beside the line going over Arnold Road. Slowly approaching up from the New Basford station direction was lone engine A3 Diamond Jubilee, resplendent from the workshops in Apple Green, black and red trim. I can only imagine that it was off Doncaster and was making a trial run, probably down to Grantham and then to Nottingham Victoria and then on to Sheffield. A youth who passed by a little later didn't believe me and got quite stroppy. He, he!, I saw it and he didn't!

The only other time I saw a bright, shiny engine straight out of the shops was at Crewe in July 1951 - Royal Scot Old Contemptibles , I think - and that was also resplendent in Apple Green, not very Midland Region, but it looked gorgeous.

Never stood on Grantham platforms as the 'streaks' sped through - as I said, we were not allowed to.

My cousin and his brother were trainspotters. One of them saw every diesel - all of them. When he had done it he started all over again!

We weren't anoraks, there wasn't any in those days, only windcheaters.

Have to say I'm pleased how this thread has progressed so enthusiastically. 21 posts in less that two days.

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Never stood on Grantham platforms as the 'streaks' sped through - as I said, we were not allowed to.

When I was there in the late 1950s/early 1960s I was always with my father, so that was different. But at Grantham there were always plenty of spotters about in those days - my impression of that time (can't speak for earlier) is that if you arrived by train and didn't go off the station no-one was bothered, but if you tried to get onto the station with a platform ticket (price 2d) you weren't allowed to.

My own experience of spotting on stations on my own in those days was limited, but there was no such problem at Lincoln Central, however at New Basford they wouldn't let you onto the station. I remember at Nottingham Midland once (hardly ever went there as Victoria was handier) I was allowed on because I was wearing my Ian Allan Locospotters Club badge - even though it was the blue Eastern Region version!

Back to the subject of Deltics, here's one approaching from the south in the early 1980s, shouting at you as it goes past.

DelticatGrantham1980s_zps534ec6a3.jpg

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Where we lived in the 1950s/60s was 200 yards from Sawley Junction station (as it then was). At the end of our street was a style just below the signalbox. There would usually be anything between three and a dozen lads parked there spotting.

This is the sort of varied menu on offer : Derby-Nottingham locals - 2P 4-4-0s, 2-6-2 and 2-6-4 tanks, Ivatt "Mickey Mouse" 2-6-0s, Crab 2-6-0s, occasionally standard 4-6-0s (73000 and 75000 type);

London expresses - Jubilees (mainly), Black 5s, a few Patriots, and later Royal Scots and Britannias. Quite frequently they would be double-headed, the pilot usually being a 2P.

Freight - 8Fs and 4Fs by the score, plus Austerity 2-8-0s and later 9Fs.

Add to these a few foreigners - B1s fairly frequent, and for a while (about 1956 I think) one or two GC Directors and A5 tanks working through from Lincoln.

There was also a local trip freight that visited the sheet stores about half past 6 each evening, and that would usually produce a 2F or 3F.

I recall a hiking trip to Derbyshire, setting off on the morning Nottingham - Liverpool which was usually a Black 5 or Jubilee. On this particular morning a K3 put in an appearance - don't know where they had filched that from!

Bank holiday excursions, and seaside holiday trains could be anything (obviously loads of Black 5s again) but very often 4F 0-6-0s which were a bit short on the speed stakes. Summer 1956, we went to Yarmouth for a week. The Saturday morning through train from Derby had a 4F, piloted from Nottingham by a 2-6-4 tank. Holidays to Llandudno in 1961 and 1964 produced a Crab and a Jubilee ("Jellicoe") out, and Black 5s back.

It wasn't only the loco scene that provided variety - the coaches you travelled in were a very assorted lot too. LM region trains would often have odd Eastern (ex-LNER) and less frequently GWR vehicles in them. I remember coming home on an excursion from Alsop-en-le-Dale on the Buxton - Ashbourne line in one of those strange "Lavatory composites" where a non-corridor compartment had a door in one corner that led to a private loo occupying half the width of the coach. Some of the older LMS open (or Vestibule) coaches had a pair of windows to each table bay, one of which was a droplight raised or lowered with a leather strap.

Compare today - I live in Shropshire. From Shrewsbury my options are Arriva 153s, 158s or 175s; LM 170s (to Birmingham); or just once a day I can go to South Wales and back on the 67-hauled Holyhead - Cardiff.

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The deltic. I do recall them fondly from my childhood.

Its all about raw power. They were beautiful in a very distinct way - because of the power they held.

IIRC the engines had a very distinct beat due to the triple piston system which was used. Its very rhythmic.

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