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A junior boy’s memory. In the late 40s, one Saturday morning, this young lad and his brother would be squeezed into a taxi along with baby brother’s pram and all the luggage plus mam and dad and

A P.Bucket test? or a rail photo with a difference. It was so difficult to do I didn't have the heart to break it up so I framed it!

I've been looking at a railway book in the library with some pictures of the locations mentioned.

On one of them, the caption reads: This was Arnold Road, Highfields.

I took this to mean somewhere near the Arnold Rd / Hucnall Rd Junction, top side of the City Hospital.

But I've never seen the name Highfields on a map or heard it referred to.

Was this area known as Highfields?

Wonder if it was 'Heathfield' as in Heathfield Estate which is in that area?

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Just a test to see if I can get this thing to work.

Well, sort of, I don't seem to be able to write below the picture, any captions or other photo's seem to have to go above it, in other words, it has to be planned in reverse order, what am I doing wrong!!

I'll try again tomorrow when I've a bit more time, hopefully.

By the way, this is a photo of 60103 Flying Scotsman that I took at the north end of Grantham station back in 1962 when the loco was still in use with British Railways and it's future was uncertain.

scan0006-9.jpg

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Certainly if using flickr , that seems to be the way you have to post the images .

The image you want to be seen first on the page has to be loaded last .

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saw flying scottsman and the mallard regually going down to the sheds when we lived in netherfield

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saw flying scottsman and the mallard regually going down to the sheds when we lived in netherfield

Unlikely, A4 Pacifics were never used on GCR lines, as far as I know, the only recorded incident of one appearing at Colwick shed was Kings Cross based 60029 'Woodcock' which ran light from Grantham for a repair during the early 60's.

'Mallard' was shedded at Grantham from 1943 to 1948, it may well have visited Colwick for a repair during the war, but since withdrawal hasn't been to Nottingham as it has only run in preservation for a brief period 20 odd years ago. I recall seeing it being towed through Trowell on it's way up to York Museum in the 70's, probably the nearest it ever got to Nottingham.

I also think that it was unlikely that Flying Scotsman was a regular visitor either, it was shedded sporadically at Leicester Central from between 1950 to 1957, I don't know how it's schedule operated, but it was probably more likely to have been serviced at Neasden or Sheffield rather than Colwick.

I've got to go out for a meeting now, I'll wrestle with more photos when I get back.

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The A4 class were rare birds on the GC,but i saw "Woodcock" 60029 on 24 April 1957 on a "Ian Allan special" to Doncaster Works.

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Are you sure it was Woodcock on the GCR in 1957, I saw Mallard on an Ian Allan special about that time, I went specially up to Bulwell Common to see it, It was advertised in Trains Illustrated. Perhaps they had to repeat the trip because of high demand.

I once saw an A1 at Bulwell Common during a rail strike.

I was also on the famous trip from Vic to Eastleigh & Swindon behind Stanier Pacific 46251 City of Nottingham.

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Do know Flying Scotsman did at least one shift on coal trains towards end of steam days (pre Tornado) as there was a photo of it in a filthy condition (the engine not the photo) pulling one took outside The Station Hotel at Newstead. Said photo hung in the pub in the early days of the robin hood trains. No idea if photo still there or in fact if pub is!

ps There are either photos on picture the past or a video on you tube of Mallard on that trip took around Bulwell area, sorry not sure of facts but have see such on pc

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Do know Flying Scotsman did at least one shift on coal trains towards end of steam days (pre Tornado) as there was a photo of it in a filthy condition (the engine not the photo) pulling one took outside The Station Hotel at Newstead. Said photo hung in the pub in the early days of the robin hood trains. No idea if photo still there or in fact if pub is!

ps There are either photos on picture the past or a video on you tube of Mallard on that trip took around Bulwell area, sorry not sure of facts but have see such on pc

Flying Scotsman was withdrawn on the 14th January 1963, 5.5 years before the end of steam, my photo was taken late 1962 and the loco was in very good external condition, I'm sure that the staff at 'Top Shed' Kings Cross adored their loco and looked after it. The only time that Pacifics appeared on freights in the Vic area, were when some Grantham based locos were used on High Dyke ore trains, passing through Grantham to Colwick where they were taken off for the usual ubiquitous 8F's, 'Ozzies' etc which were waiting to take the ore to Stanton Ironworks, A3 Pacifics lurking at Thoresby Colliery, unlikely.

I remember going on a tandem ride in 1965 through Derbyshire with my mate Fanny HIll and stopping over on the bridge in Derby spanning the Birmingham line and giving a good view of the sheds. To our amazement there was an A1 Pacific sitting there, we had stopped taking numbers by this time, but I'm sure it was 60138 'Boswell', I recall it had worked a cross country York train down via Leeds and the 'powers that be' wouldn't let it go any further.

Steam specials in the 50's and 60's were few and far between, maybe ( and I have some pics ) A4's and all and sundry did appear, but these weren't regular workings.

My Ian Allen trip to Doncaster from Vic was a disaster, supposedly hauled by 'City of Truro' and Compound 1000, we ended up late, with a filthy and neglected B1 from Colwick that failed adjacent to the end of the runway at Hucknall. The rest of the story was a joke, ever run round Doncaster Works, not much fun when you're 8 years old and getting tearful over your situation.

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"Silver Link" 60014 North Bound at Bulwell Common.No date given. Both Photos from "Great Central Memories" bportperrycarshow2003242.jpg?t=1362676622y John Healy.

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Yes, inevitably special trains, not regular workings, likewise GWR then BR Clun Castle at Nottingham Midland then southbound through Trent circa 1965. Plus a Merchant Navy Pacific on the last steam excursion up to, then, onward from Vic on the last day of through trains with two clean B1's on, pity BR didn't reciprocate the atmosphere, all they could do was provide a filthy Class 5 from Colwick for the last steam hauled semi-fast to Marylebone, a pity they couldn't have brought down a V2 from York, no sense of history or occasion as usual. I always wondered who paid for the wreath on the front, I bet it wasn't BR.

I note the Pullmans on the Silver Link, Ian Allen excursion, lucky chaps, we had filthy Mk1 open seconds that matched our sad B1!!

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I saw Mallard at Colwick sheds once 1960 or 1961 on an open day I have a photo of 60029 Woodcock on Colwick shed for repair after a failure at Grantham.

A3s could have visited Colwick(as 38A) in the early to mid 50s when some of the class were allocated at Leicester Central(38C) for working trains over the G.C. main line.

Flying Scotsman did visit Colwick as 4472 once or twice in the late 1960s(on a "rail tour")

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Mid 80s, Nigel Gresley was at Toton sidings. Through contacts I had, I was given an orange railway vest and allowed on the sidings to take photograph as the engine was prepared and steamed up. Unfortunately I cannot now find the pictures or negatives. DOH!

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A1 60125 Scottish Union on Sat 27th June 1964 nearing Bagthorpe,on the reurn leg of a Normanton to Didcot pigeon special. Scanned from "Echoes of the Great Central". by john Healy.portperrycarshow2003243.jpg

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Yes, I can see you all trying to shoot me down in flames, the point I'm making is that Piggy and Babs suggested that Flying Scotsman and Mallard were regular visitors to Colwick, which they clearly weren't. I reiterate, various classes of alien loco's made odd appearances to the GCR, either by accident, design or on special occasions such as railtours, it happened everywhere, but the GCR was a particular hive of odd activity, it was a strange line, if you happened to be in the right place at the right time.

For example, I recall wandering around Weymouth shed in 1961, it was heaven, but amongst the King Arthurs, Schools, Lord Nelsons, West Countries, Halls and Granges et al, was a LMR 8F, and a clean one at that, probably from Bristol via the Somerset and Dorset line, but not something I would have expected to see there.

I'm trying to get my pics in order now.

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Sorry, my computers gone bonkers, I can't put on the pictures I want or let me edit the gibberish that's appeared, I'm worried that a virus has struck, please beware of this, what do I do now, I can't get rid of this crap that's been posted.

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