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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.

That's interesting to read, and kind of ironic bearing in mind that me and my mates would be playing army all around that area which would be British versus Germans, so in a way the wermacht got to invade dobby bridge!

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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

Would it be Kyle of Lochalsh or Mallaig ?

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Not a bad haul of numbers! You did well to have seen 'Union of South Africa' - I remember at Newark once talking to a couple of spotters who had seen all the Streaks except that one. I gather it was a Scottish-based engine which rarely worked south of Doncaster if not York. The A3 'Spearmint' was another example.

I have a tale to tell about that! We went on the infamous trip around Doncaster Works 'courtesy' of an Ian Allen special train from Vic, we were promised City of Truro double heading with Compound 1000 but the trip was oversubscribed, never saw them, and we ended up with a tatty B1 from Colwick that promptly failed at the end of the runway at Hucknall. We arrived late at Doncaster and were hurried around the works, much to our disgust. However I recall the works were full of Pacifics, including a few A4's being overhauled and repainted, in fact, 1960 I recall, the only mainline diesel we saw that day was the prototype Deltic in Doncaster Station.

When we got home my old man made a complaint to Ian Allan Ltd, as did quite a few people apparently. The compensation for this was an Ian Allan voucher for 10 shillings which was to be shared between my brother and I, how generous. With that, and an extra sixpence, I bought this:-

IMG_20141009_090640.jpg

When I compare the numbers in my previous book, to be illustrated later, Union of South Africa isn't in there, but it is underlined in this one, so I reckon I put my numbers from that day in here and 60009 must have been in the works, or else we happened to see the Elizabethan.

I do recall a momentous day nearly 20 years ago when BR ran a non stop steam special from Bishops Stortford to Ely and back, Sir Nigel Gresley outwards, Union of South Africa the return, all for the princely sum of £20. Despite a scheduled London EMU, USA was given the priority path, I was in the cab when the Inspector gave them the go ahead and they really went for it, the speed on the straight from Ely to Cambridge was well beyond the 70mph speed limit, the London bound awaiting passengers on the platform at Cambridge were shocked when we went through, chime whistle blazing all the way through the station, a magic moment.

One thing I recall from the Doncaster trip was the number and variety of stationary boilers around Doncaster Works, still in their original colours and having all the fittings, my brother reckoned that most of them were from Ivatt Atlantics, I wonder what happened to them all. The interesting story about that is that an engineering company at Witham, just down the road from me, went bust and the receivers found loads of old stationary loco boilers on the premises. One of them was from an Ivatt Atlantic, apparently it's being used in the recreation of an LBSCR Atlantic down on the Bluebell Railway.

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So you managed to get all 22, I was spotting from as soon as I could write down numbers until early 1982...

I never managed 55003 or 020...

Woke up on 3rd Jan 1982, and realised I wasn't interested in trainspotting any more...

I seem to recall that the illusive one was D9011, it took me sometime to get that one.

Having taken numbers for so many years it was hard to get out of the habit, but Bilbraborn and I packed it in when we were about 14/15, but we were so interested in the whole thing, knowing that steam and it's whole infrastructure was on the way out, we just used to go and observe, look at things in a different light, photograph them, get involved, 'rescue' stuff etc, even drive an 8F at Colwick sheds, thanks to the driver and fireman of the day who appreciated our knowledge and appreciation of the whole situation.

My uncle had moved to Morecambe which was in an area where the last steam loco's were based. We used to go up there regularly on family visits and I used to love having the opportunity to travel behind Britannia Pacifics, go round Carnforth sheds with impunity, as my uncle was a signal engineer for BR and knew the ropes and the people, it was a sad but wonderful time for me.

I recall standing on the end of the platform at Carnforth Xmas 1967, and all these blokes were busily jotting notes and taking pictures, I just said just watch it instead, take it all in, it won't be here next year or any other, it's the end of an era.

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As I mentioned before. The whole railway atmosphere in the closing days of steam was surreal. We just spent so much time getting around where we could. Before it was too late.

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I adore the heritage railways, but my favourite has to be North York Moors railway. It actually goes places, and there is opportunity to go further.

It goes through some of the most beautiful countryside (although I would find Scotland more interesting) and arriving in Whitby on a steam train is a total joy.

The staff are genuinely interested in their job, very knowledgeable and friendly. At £14 for a day pass its superb value too.

The mrs and I did one of the evening "romantic evening dinners" on the pullman coaches last autumn. The food was good, the wine was a bit ordinary (I am a total wine snob) but the atmosphere was superb!

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The original paint job for the deltic was lovely, light blue with chevron design on the front. What on earth made them paint them green and put a big yellow snout on them?

The prototype Deltic was in the manufacturer's livery as it was owned by them. The production Deltics were in the standard British Railways livery which shortly included the standard yellow warning panel. BR tended not to stray too often from their standard livery - even the narrow gauge steam engines on the Vale of Rheidol were painted 'rail blue' when that colour scheme was introduced. The rail blue and full yellow nose end didn't suit the Deltics as much as the two-tone green had done.

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Nearly all manufacturers prototypes were painted different colours, GT3 was a kind of chocolate colour, Brush D0280 Falcon was lime green, D0260 Lion was white, HS4000 Kestrel was yellow, the exception seemed to be DP2 which was constructed within a production Deltic body shell and was painted in the same livery as the early Deltics.

Deltic's actual number was DP1, but this was never applied to the loco, it was produced in the form it was with an eye for exports, hence the fairing on the front for a light, which was never fitted. Following it's trials on BR it was planned to send it to Canada, but the engine blew up and this never happened, subsequently it ended up in the Science Museum in London where I saw it once, I could never work out how they got it in there and how they got it out again to take it up to York where I last saw it.

I saw Deltic and Falcon many times, but never any of the others, we were tipped off by a 'reliable' source once that GT3 was supposed to arrive in Vic one Saturday morning on a test train so we all dashed over there, we never saw it, it never got further than Leicester that day.

This is a picture we took during an open day at Brush Works showing Falcon under construction:-

lough1.jpg

Arriving at Grantham on the northbound Master Cutler:-

falc1.jpg

Departing southbound later the same day:-

falc2.jpg

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I think I must have started taking numbers back in 1956, probably just after my older brother. He was given an ancient combined volume by our neighbours son which he used to use:-

IMG_20141009_090936.jpg

IMG_20141009_090915.jpg

We were going on holiday to Somerset that summer and the prospect of seeing all those WR locos prompted him to buy a more up to date book and took the cheapest option:-

IMG_20141009_090853.jpg

This contained all the up to date numbers and their sheds, I suspect that this is when I started taking numbers as he wanted some help jotting things down when we passed all those sheds on the way down there, trouble is, those cast brass GWR numberplates were hard to read, as were the front number plates on approaching trains as the WR used to put those big reporting numbers on the front.

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We built up a collection of the ABC regional spotting books as they were only 2/6d, though that was a lot to us then:-

IMG_20141009_090731.jpg

Then I got that combined volume as a result of the Doncaster trip:-

My brother then hit upon a cunning plan, all Ian Allan publications had vouchers in them, the more expensive the book, the higher the value of the voucher. He subsequently started to borrow every Ian Allan book from the City Library on Shakespeare St, and, as he found that the libraries committee hadn't cut them out, we had a field day, we were surprised that no-one else had thought of this! As a result we were able to update our combined volumes every year by taking in the vouchers to Beecrofts, that sold all the range of Ian Allan books, and redeeming them.

This was my final 'Combie' obtained that way:-

IMG_20141009_090619.jpg

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Some interesting pages in there:-

IMG_20141009_0850481.jpg

IMG_20141009_085104.jpg

IMG_20141009_090515.jpg

I'd be interested to know how many Brits I actually saw as I'd given up taking numbers on the memorable day that I went round Crewe North shed shed which was full of them and all the times I spent up at Carnforth and Lancaster when they were the only Pacifics remaining on the WCML, and plenty of them.

The only complete classes I saw were the MR 47XXX saddle tanks, D57XX Co-Bo diesels (when they were stored at Derby}, Deltics, and all the D800 Warships, I note that I only needed 2 'Peaks' for the class, D180 and D182, and very few WC and Merchant Navy Pacifics, probably did see them in the end, I'll never know as I reckon I gave up taking numbers when I was 14, I don't think Bilbraborn and I on our many trips took numbers after the first few adventures, of which there were many to come.

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GT3 did run trials on the Great Central main line I saw it heading north one evening. I didn't know what it was as I had never seen anything about it. It made a deep humming noise not a bit like a diesel.

Another unusual loco I saw working was 10100 the Fell diesel mechanical on a southbound express at Derby.

Another unusual happening was at Trent where 10000 & 10001 came down the Erewash Valley line with a train with Royal Scot headboard. there must have been a bad disruption on the West Coast Main Line that day.

Unfortunately I do not have any records of these days just memories.

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Dumped at Loughborough, probably 1966:-

falc3.jpg

I wonder what happened to the impressive nameplate.

The Falcon was later bought by British Rail and numbered 1200 in the standard blue livery. I remember seeing it at Severn Tunnel Junction in 1974 or 75. There's some interesting details here about the nameplates:

http://www.railblue.com/Class%20Headers/class_53_brush_prototype_no.htm

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brian, are you bulwell bred and born?did you know shonky pit?

I was born in Peel Street hospital and lived in Bulwell until about 1970 when I moved to Newthorpe Common near Eastwood, then in 1974 I moved south to near St. Albans.

I knew of Bulwell Colliery but didn't know it. It closed 1n 1946. I lived on Henrietta Street off Highbury Road so my wanderings took me up to the Forest not up to where the pit was.

I did work for the NCB firstly at Cinderhill Laboratory, then at Eastwood Hall and finally at Hobart House in London.

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On one of the trips to the bridge at Western Boulevard, to see the 'quart-to-three-er' - don't why we bothered because it was always a Jubilee seen before - the freight train that preceded it had a long, low-loader wagon upon which was a cab numbered 70000. This was some time after Britannia had been in service, so always wondered what its cab was doing away from the rest of it.

Another memory was going to Midland Station to see the diesel 10800 arrive on a service - from London?

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Hindsight is a great thing. If only me and Firbeck had taken notes on our adventures. We could have had a few best-sellers between us.

And yes I remember all those Brits at Crewe, and Lion in store.

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Great shot Compo of the Black 5 #49, I stand corrected re. Elizabethan it could have been the Caledonian, definitely a Carlisle man telling me as he'd got snow on his boots!

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44871 on "The Jacobite" from Fort William to Mallaig, seen approaching Arisaig Station last week:

IMG_1343.JPG?gl=GB

Not a picture I'd expected in a thread about trainspotting around Nottingham, but...

Without resorting to 'looking-it-up' can anyone identify this station (Clue....it's not Penzance):

I suspect it is the aforementioned Arisaig - doesn't the West Highland line take a jut out to the west before turning north eastward to reach Morar and Mallaig?

... if I'd known you were here...

Lovely picture on bullhead track.

Bullhead soon to be replaced by FB, trouble is they load up wagons with the new rail right outside our bedroom, in the middle of the night...

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I was driving to work today alongside the A66, which goes through Middlesbrough. No one can say its the worlds most picturesque road, but today held something special.

The Sir Nigel Gresley was on the track alongside the A66. Its configuration was a little odd as the carriage was in front of the engine. I took a left turn and got to a place where I could see it. A lovely sight and brightened my day immensely.

I think the Sir Nigel was there as its linked with the North Yorkshire Moors railway.

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