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Incidentally, most of those muddy shots were taken with the same camera, but you could get results with the right printing, same camera, Eastleigh, Easter, 1967, pretty good quality on different developing equipment.

e1.jpg

Now that was a good trip, me and Fanny Hill cycled down there from Nottingham staying at youth hostels on the Isle of White and the New Forest and witnessed more or less the end of steam on the southern for nearly a whole week.

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Managed to buy 4 plates in '68 from a schoolmaster friend who had acquired 20 (!) from Derby Works for their brass weight. Paid £70 for Malay States, Queensland, Hood & North Borneo. Idiot that

Hopefully this will be a picture of the last northbound steam special, perhaps some of you recognise yourselves The last southbound York-Bournemouth is the train on the left.

A topic about old Nottm railway stations might interest a few of the train buffs on here !   http://www.nottinghampost.com/news/history/lost-railway-stations-nottingham-220673

I stand corrected and you absolutely right - on checking my archive I find I have the same pic but in colour. 61131 did work a special in August 66 though hence my confusion. It was a great pity that neither 61131 0r 73 were Colwick locos and the shed did still have some working at the time despite being absorbed into the London Mildand Region. The two special B1s came from somewhere in Yorkshire. Nice clear shot of that tank at Eastleigh too.

I think technology will only go improving and I am waiting for software that will convert B/w shots into colour ( dont laugh - it will happen!) I just wish my late Uncle couild see what I can do with negatives without the need for a darkroom and all those chemicals and pans etc..

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Rob

I've been trying to find a pic of 61269, plenty of B1's but some of them are so filthy that you can't make out the numbers, some shots are unusual like one of them on a freight on the midland main line taken at Codnor Park Station in 1965, I'll put them on here if you're interested.

While looking through stuff, I wondered whether I had an old picture of Rood Ashton Hall/Albert Hall for Beefsteak, well, close, I have a picture of 4985 Allersley Hall, which was only two up on the production line, but this one is more interesting:-

5975 Winslow Hall double heading with a Warship. I took this when I was on holiday at Teignmouth in Devon in August 1963. One of my old mans cunning plans, you could build sandcastles, sunbathe , swim and trainspot from the beach.

At this time, the Warships couldn't handle the Cornish holiday trains alone up the banks from Plymouth so they were given assistance by whatever was available, in this case a Hall.

Sorry it's not a local scene, but it's interesting to compare it to the gleaming effort that Beefsteak saw yesterday.

d1.jpg

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Thanks for your 61269 search...I'd like to see any B1 pics you have!

Rather unusual for an assisting Hall to get on to the famous Sea Wall...they invariably came off at Newton Abbot.

Spent many enjoyable times at Dawlish, over the last 50 years. Went last year - not quite the same as years back!

Cheers

Robt P.

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Rob

I'm getting a bit of flak from madam, I have to sort out the little bedroom.

These are the 2 of B1 Nyala at Codnor, it was a saturday in April 1966 and we were hiking up the Nottingham and Cromford Canals, which hadn't been obliterated then by an opencast, we walked from Firbeck Estate all the way to the entrance to Butterley Tunnel taking a break at Codnor Station.

That leads on to other things because I've found a picture of Alberta crossing the steel bridge over the canal near Coventry Lane, which is still there, it looks as if I was standing on the bridge when I took it, I'll save it for later or I'll be in trouble.

cp1.jpg

cp2.jpg

With regard to the Hall carrying on past Newton Abbot, I found another picture in the same spot of a D63XX hydraulic leading a County Class, another unusual combo. I was lucky enough to have a Hall/Warship combo up the banks myself, I thought it may have been the same one, but I doubt whether I would have managed to run that far from Teignmouth station before it left, but who knows.

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Excellent pics at Codnor, many thanks.

Nyala being another Stockton loco, that only came down here in it's latter days...notice the nameplates already 'nicked'!

Cheers

Robt P.

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Rob

It's OK, she's nipped over to her mothers.

More B1's then.

donc1.jpg

Doncaster summer 1965, this was taken during an epic rail rover tour of the Eastern Region, too complicated to describe here.

donc2.jpg

The object of the trip was to travel on closing lines and by every form of motive power, we travelled back from Doncaster on the York Banbury parcels pulled to Sheffield Vic by this B1.

ed1.jpg

Not very good, but unusual in that it was taken at Edale, 1965.

tr1.jpg

A bit of a mystery this one, but I think it was taken at Trent Junction when we were waiting for Clun Castle to come through in 1965.

yk1.jpg

Taken at York Roundhouse, now the scene of the NRM, but then a proper shed, June 1966.

I've noticed that some B1's have smokebox brackets closer together than others, why was this.

cl1.jpg

Finally Alberta about to cross the canal at Coventry Lane, this was the famous 1966 Leeds? Skegness holiday train in summer 66, the final regular working of a Jubilee into Midland Station, I have a lovely colour slide of it powering off the junction at Trowell, so powerful in fact that a cinder set my hair alight!!!

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"...I've noticed that some B1's have smokebox brackets closer together than others, why was this...."

Those with closer smokebox brackets and higher smokebox number plates were of the batch built by North British.

The conventional majority were built at BR Darlington Works.

All English B1's were overhauled at either Stratford or Darlington.

Another different version was that the Scottish based loco's had a curved reinforcer fitted at the cab end of the boiler running board, whilst visiting St Rollox Works for overhaul.

Thanks for your latest pictures...

Cheers

Robt P.

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This is a bit like that music thread, one thing leads on to another.

While trying to find B1's for Rob, I came across this picture of a K1, taken at York Roundhouse again, June 66. Not all that common in the Nottingham area, though I have a picture of one in the area somewhere, and designed as a smaller B1 with the same boiler, but shortened. I noticed that the smokebox brackets were closer together, and, yes, all 70 members of the class were built by the North British Company, you learn something everyday.

yk2.jpg

The last surviving example of this class, 62005, now enjoys a happy time operating the Jacobite Specials from Fort William to Mallaig, a job they were designed for. It's survival is due to ICI who used it as an emergency boiler when their own broke down in 1968, thus saving it from the scrapyard.

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Hiya Firbeck - more great shots - keep em coming. Can definitely help you with info on the Alberta working. It was working the first leg of a Bradford to Bournemouth to Nottingham where it came off the train and went to Colwick shed for a sleepover. Was definitely the last ever Jubilee to work a regular BR train into Nottingham... and that train and service finsihed on the same day as did Nottingham Vics mainline days - September 3rd 1966. A frankly dreadful day in the history of Nottinghams railways!

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firbeck,

These pictures and memories should be put together in a book and published, it's great that you share them with the nottstalgia membership but I'm sure you could have a much wider audience.

Thanks for sharing !clapping!

Rog

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Notts Lad

Why would the Bradford/Bournemouth run into Midland, which route would it take from there, back to Derby, Bristol and the S&D, I thought it went to the East Coast, I can't blooming well remember and I have a lot of memories of that particular train, terrible that I can't recall where it actually went to!!

One memory was during the World Cup Final, we were all sitting watching it when Germany equalised with minutes to go. My old man had a terrible strop, 'Thats it, wer'e going to lose, I can't bare to watch it anymore'.

With that, he put on his shoes and said,' C'mon, lets go up the road and watch the Jubilee come back, that will cheer us up', so we went up to the Black Path Bridge and sure enough, along comes Alberta, meanwhile, another kid was sitting on the bridge with a transistor radio, as Alberta hammered past, goal number 3 went in, at which point we ran home just in time to see the immortal 'They think it's all over, it is now'. What a day.

Knowing that we were commited to seeing out the last rights of Vic station, we decided to go up to Sheffield to catch 'The last Jube' back to Nottingham the saturday before. We duly caught the train up to Shef, found out which platform it was due out on and went for a Kia-Ora at the buffet.

Sitting on the platform, waiting for the inevitable cloud of smoke and steam, nothing happened. This went on for a while, it was often late, but we saw nothing. Eventually we asked the station staff, who told us it had been and gone, shock horror. Well we were pretty seasoned keen types and we never saw a thing, apparently it was shoved off into a far platform, but even so, to this day, I can't work out how we missed it, we travelled home in silence on a regular working, one of the worst days of our lives, up to then.

Nice words Plantfit, but so many people must have so many better memories, photographs and experiences hidden away, where do you start. My missus reckons I'm a good scribe, but it's a frightening thought.

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Notts Lad Why would the Bradford/Bournemouth run into Midland, which route would it take from there, back to Derby, Bristol and the S&D...

Several other routes it could have taken from New Street: Oxford > Reading > Basingstoke > LSWR, for one...

Cheers

Robt P.

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firbeck,

A mate of mine has an interest in Roman history, he is now on his third book in as many years, he's never written anything before but wanted to share his thoughts and interest with others so, in my opinion you should seriously consider putting pen to paper and share your history and interest, you have already started in a way by entering some very interesting posts on this site and judging by the replies have already got a bit of an audience.

Just my opinion,(put me down for a copy of the first book)

Rog

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Firbeck - I can assure you it absolutely was the Bradford to Bornemouth. It didnt go through Derby and it didnt have to go back through Derby either. It came down the Erewash line from Sheffiled straight into Nottingham I dont know the exact route but from Nottingham it definitely went down the Midland main line. It could have taken the line from Leicester to Birmingham and then down the route still used today. Remember one year previously and this train called at Nottingham Vic then onto Rugby, Woodford Halse, Banbury, Oxford etc.

Had it not been for the reverse at Nottingham we would never have seen any steam locos on thsi train at all in 1966 - they couldnt work south into GWR territory where steam had been removed a year earlier and Colwick was one of the last bastions of steam in Notts providing a coaling and watering opportinity if required not to mention turning. Oh and the locos were provided by Leeds Holbeck and Alberta was more a less a fuxture all summer long , much to my disgust having been haunted by it working the same train into the Vic in 1965 on an oh so frequent basis....

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Thursday 27th...BBC 4:

20:30–21:00 Beeching's Tracks

West

2/6. Simon Calder takes a journey along the West Country's forgotten railway lines.

Likely to be interesting, should include the ex Southern lines of North Devon...the 'other' route from Exeter to Plymouth.

Hopefully, one of the remaining four of the series will cover the East Midlands...certainly plenty of material!

Cheers

Robt P.

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Notts Lad

Sorry if I sounded as if I was questioning your knowledge, I can't remember where the thing went and I'm annoyed with myself for starting to lose my photographic memory, I'll have to do some research and try to find out it's obviously tenuous route, meanwhile here's a pic of our favourite Alberta taken in May 1966 at Leeds Copley Hill, of all places.

ch1.jpg

A month later, we went back to Leeds and tried to get into Holbeck, very difficult, fortunately, a loco had run off the turntable and made a hole in the wall on the public road, so we sneaked in by that route and I got a pic of Alberta's pal Kholapur which as we all know, survived the cull.

hol1.jpg

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Plantfit

Thanks again for your kind words, I wouldn't know where to start with a publication, yes, I've got a few interesting pictures, but I'm sure that they are pretty average to a publisher, they are my memories, not professional shots, I wouldn't suggest for one minute that they were, most of them are appalling. I can recall things better than the average elephant, but the memories are going as per my last posting, do I write them down now, I don't know, I tried to get my old man to write up his incredible war experiences before he passed on, but it never happened, fortunatley I have his war diaries, amazing stuff. I had a good education, my missus reckons I should take advantage that in my writings and musings, but I haven't the confidence to do it, there are better people out there than me who have tried and failed.

By the way, aren't you and Beefsteak having a Lincs a/c trip this week, I'm trying to find an excuse to publish some old plane pics, I'm going to be a pain are'nt I.

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Rob

According to the Radio Times they are wittering on about the Minehead Branch on this programme, well for Gods sake, they've been running the line since it closed, I can't see the problem, no doubt the 'lacking in knowledge' brigade will know better.

Anyway, I don't want to be accused of overkill but my revelation in being able to publish pics on here thanks to Beefsteak, has caused me to go through neglected material that has been a revelation to me, it's brought back many memories and really cheered me up as I'm really suffering at the moment financially and jobwise, as many of us all are. But there you go, life can be pretty naff sometimes, so lets remember a different time and revel in those memories.

These are some pics relating to some of my earlier comments on this thread, I'll start off with Shrewsbury, here's a pic of the Semi, Sir William A Stanier, and the Castle at the other end of the station, June 1963.

shrew1.jpg

shrew2.jpg

The first semi I saw I shot at Crewe, 18/5/59crewe1.jpg

Then there was the now preserved Scots Guardsman at Willesden, 1963.

wil1.jpg

Then the King at Snow Hill, April 28th 1962.

sh1.jpg

The printing exhibition special featuring Jubilee Implacable at Earls Court Station 1963

ec1.jpg

Midland Pullman at Nottingham 1962

mid1.jpg

A filthy A4 on a filthy Grantham Shed, it could be Walter K Whigham, 1963.

gr1.jpg

Thought you might be interested.

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"...A filthy A4 on a filthy Grantham Shed, it could be Walter K Whigham, 1963..."

Doubt it was WKW because of it's nameplate length and external condition...

The seven Gateshead A4's were notoriously neglected, so I'd suggest it was either 60020 Guillemot or 60023 Golden Eagle.

Cheers

Robt P.

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