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The only problem there is that by the time the GCR was built photography was about with an official photographer on the GCR who took pictures of all the bridges etc, inc halfpenny bridge footpath there at the opening of the line and no other bridge carrying park lane through to marble arch, or have I read it wrong and you are saying park lane ran through marble arch pre GCR and the road "kinked" not really to join st albans rd but to AVOID crossing the GCR?

ash, what i'm thinking is that park lane is there first, then the GCR is built across it, but, by coincidence its right at the point where the ground is level with the track level, so i'm thinking it may have had a small possibly ungated level crossing there, basically one of those farm crossing that still exist out in the countryside, then later still st albans road comes along, joins with park lane, forming the kink, leaving the little bit of park lane from there to hucknall road to become nothing more that a shortcut footpath. i'm also assuming that this is around the same time as the estate the other side of marble arch is built on the site of the farm there, making this level crossing somewhat redundant as the kersall drive bridge then became the main traffic crossing point over the GCR.

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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!

Looking at old maps, St Albans Road existed as a trackway from Bulwell to Park Lane, even in the 1880s, before the GCR or the GNR Leen Valley line were built. The GCR was famously built without level crossings - the last one on the line to London was at Beighton, just east of Sheffield. This map of 1900 shows the situation immediately after the GCR was built. The line in orange is an old trackway or path from St Albans Road to Hucknall Road which was closed when the GCR was built, by the look of things. The new bridge over the GCR was midway between the Hucknall Road end of Park Lane and the trackway from St Albans Road to Hucknall Road, replacing both.

Untitled-1_zps8feb6d4a.jpg

The two dots show the position of the bridge under the GN Leen Valley line. Older maps show there was a farm gate here before the GN line was built. I assume the bridge was built to maintain the access to the farm that the gate had previously provided.

Hucknall Lane did continue north towards the River Leen, but seems to have been little more than a trackway itself at this time.

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Yes, starts to make sense, I know the place where Phil assumed there was a crossing and can see the reasoning there, it did look like a road had crossed but having seen a GCR plan of the route on the internet, a thing that scrolled L to R or vice versa showing every detail (I think from a Leicester or Loughborough website) knew there wasn't a crossing, another thing is the development of the estate through marble arch was much later. guess maybe the name stemmed from locals? the suggestion re a bus clippie saying it sounds possible? (I recall being on a 44 trolley bus late at night trying to get from town to basford in a pea souper, the clippie said they were stopping at piccadilly as "the fog was real bad in chinatown" very confusing for me as never heard that before, and some body, a single person, must have come up with the name "Pretty Windows" ditto "The Swinger" so maybe along those lines?

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I was born in Middlesex and as a child used to catch the bus to Harrow on the Hill to train spot and saw many magnificent engines. Later we moved to Stoke Bardolph where I could hear the shunting yards at Colwick. Happy days.

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  • 5 months later...

Funny thing ones memory, I thought it was wider than that! I went through it twice a day for four years going to High Pavement school.

There is a debate about it in another thread.

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  • 3 weeks later...

As a newcomer this topic has been a really lovely, nottstalgic read.

On a slightly different note, did any member ever make the 25 mile trip from Nottingham to Grantham? A day out to watch the "racers" so to speak..

It would be good to hear any tales, or indeed see any photographs taken 1950's - 1960's.

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As a newcomer this topic has been a really lovely, nottstalgic read.

On a slightly different note, did any member ever make the 25 mile trip from Nottingham to Grantham? A day out to watch the "racers" so to speak..

It would be good to hear any tales, or indeed see any photographs taken 1950's - 1960's.

As a newcomer this topic has been a really lovely, nottstalgic read.

On a slightly different note, did any member ever make the 25 mile trip from Nottingham to Grantham? A day out to watch the "racers" so to speak..

It would be good to hear any tales, or indeed see any photographs taken 1950's - 1960's.

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hmmm, gremlins? wonder where my post went? All my trainspotting was former GCR, Malton Rd field, New Basford Station or Perry Rd bridge, Never even went to Victoria to trainspot but recall rides back as a treat when out with my mam shopping in town and being at the station for train when going on holiday to Mablethorpe or Hull (change at Doncaster where I saw streaks) do recall going to Hull (relations lived there) from Midland once, via Leeds where I saw a blue ex LMS equiv of a streak? didn't even go to Basford Vernon! cept for odd bank holiday ventures into Derbyshire,(well they had "funny" engines, that weren't in my Ian Allen eastern region book) never even went to Basford North, could see the smoke/steam on that line from New Basford platform but put off visiting after hearing older boys talking of some rat hole! yes I did believe it was infested, lol

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When I was at school we used to regularly play rugby against the King's School in Grantham. The ECML is adjacent to their Rugby pitch. Need I say more?

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Smiffy, in the late 50's we used to enjoy getting a day return from Vic to Grantham and spend the day revelling in the A4 and A3 "racers" but always special to see the streaks coming through, with the tannoy warning everyone to "stand away from the platform edge" before they arrived, and perfecting just the right way of swivelling your head to get the name or number as they thundered through.

Trent Junction was a regular "free" spot going there on bikes, and once "adventured" to Birmingham Snowhill - what a dump - but a walk across the City to New street, the nearest GWR spotting from Nottingham was well worth it. Once had a trip from Midland to Rugby, and of course the occasional trip to Derby, but the staff there were not over friendly towards the hordes of kids on the platforms, even though the majority of us were pretty civilised !!

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We went to Grantham many times in school holidays, and occasionally we would get tickets to Newark for a ride on the East Coast mainline. However, there were not that many trains stopping at Grantham and Newark and one day got on the wrong train and ended up at Doncaster which was even better than Grantham. Another time we gat the train from Grantham to York , pulled by 60085 "Manna" and had a good run. We managed to wangle our way back to Vic by way of Sheffield Victoria and saw several of the Woodhead Line Electrics. We often used to cycle to Newark via Southwell in the summer. Long hot days, endless innocent fun. Magic !

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I have many memories of Grantham station, but not of trips there from Nottingham, as my Dad used to take me there when we were still living in Lincolnshire. It was a magical place to a 9-year-old (in 1959). You'd go over the footbridge to the island platform, and there seemed to be an endless vista of lines stretching to the shed area where you could see engines moving to and fro.

There was no turntable by that time, and a triangle had been laid out instead, so that engines would steam off into the distance and then return facing the other way.

Back in 1959 I can remember seeing the N2 tanks (695XX series) which were used for, I suppose, shunting and station pilot duties - I don't believe they saw service on passenger trains - but a year or so later they had all gone, and the L1s had appeared (677XX series) which were used on the Nottingham services - later saw plenty of them at the Rat Hole! As well as the express engines there was also an allocation of freight types - I remember the O2 2-8-0s which were used on the High Dyke iron ore trains.

My time for trainspotting there was roughly in the 1959 - 1963 period. I would estimate about half the expresses stopped there, many of them to change engines (the main reason for the shed). At the north end of the station there was an engine siding next to the end of the island platform where you could inspect the engine waiting to take over a northbound train. At the south end, the engine siding was beyond the platform end past the little signal box, so you only saw the relieving engine when it backed onto the train.

We trainspotters mostly gathered at the northern end (and it was always the island platform), mainly because the bay platforms were at that end for the Lincoln services (all dmus by that time) and the Nottingham and Skegness lines. Would sometimes go to the south end though. The 'up', or southbound, platform had a colour light signal at the end, so if it was green you knew a 'run-through' train was coming (i.e. non-stop). At the north end you could see a bracket signal around the curve. If it is was 'single-pegged' - i.e. one signal was clear - you know a train was approaching which would stop. 'Double-pegged' - i.e. both signals were clear - meant a non-stop. Same with the signals visible from the south end of the station for northbound trains.

Passenger services of course were all handled by Pacifics plus V2s. Standing at the north end it was always fun if one of them slipped in getting the train under way - the A1s seemed particularly prone to that. The worst case of slipping I ever saw, though was an A3 - I think it was 'Centenary' - at the south end, when it could hardly move the train at all, slipping violently with the train just inching forward. After some time of this it appeared that there was some defect with the brakes on the train which had not been released!

I particularly remember the 'Streaks' (A4s) on non-stops approaching from the south when you could see them coming from some

distance away - it was always a thrill to see the strangely-shaped front end taking shape and hear the chime whistle as it neared the station - 'Streak!!!'

The first diesels had made their appearance in 1959 - the D200-ers as we called them at that time. In other words the early class 40s, with numbers such as D206 and D208 etc. I remember they had a regular working on the 'Heart of Midlothian' express. We had to admit it was noticeable how quickly they could accelerate a train compared to steam.

By 1961 the great days of steam were over, with the Brush Type 4s (class 47) and the Deltics starting to appear, and steam began to be in a minority. I still used to go, but it was never the same.

When my Dad used to take me he would often sit in the buffet on the island platform with a cup of tea and a cigarette while I was on the platform outside. I do remember that on the buffet counter one of the two sandwich and cake display cabinets had the initials LNER on it!

After a break of several years I visited Grantham station again in about 1974. Some changes! Of course the shed and sidings had all gone, the Lincoln bay had been filled in, the canopy over the other bay platform had gone, the buffet on the island platform had gone - in fact all the buildings on that platform have now been replaced, plus there's a new footbridge. In 1974 there was still a proper buffet on Platform 1, but now that's been replaced by a little coffee and sandwich place.

I did spend a little time on the station with my own son a few years ago and noticed one thing hadn't changed - the battered railings at the north end of the island platform. I'm sure they're still the same as I used to lean against all those years ago!

The only photos I have date back no earlier than the 1970s and the age of the Deltics, but I'll see if I can put a few on here.

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I only caught the very end of steam on the East Coast line - and sadly - never did see a streak, even though my mum took me all the way from Bilborough to Grantham one day just to see one - and it was the day they didn't come through. Oh well. I saw plenty of Deltics later which were also good fun.

I did see A1s, 2s and 3s though and V2s.

I used to go to Newark a few years later with my mates. The best place for spotting was the other side of the road bridge down a lane to a gate. I had a penny that we put on the line when Pegler did his Flying Scotsman run in 68 (I think). Hw waved to us all as he went by. Nice chap.

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Here's a Deltic hurrying through Grantham northbound in the late 1970s. They had a bit more character about them than most diesels, but not a patch on a Streak!

The old footbridge was still in place at this date, along with the buildings on the island platform.

55atGrantham1970s_zps23579532.jpg

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The Diesel Loco was responsible for the decline of our once great nation! All national pride ended with the coming of them, plus of course unemployment increased by over a million with the removal of steam, what with the shutting of pits as the demand for coal was no longer there, And another thing, the great train robbery would never have happened with 2 fit men up front armed with shovels and coal hammers! When I come to power one of my first acts with be to reopen the likes of Darlington, Tyseley, Crewe and Derby works producing replica's of Tornado for use on the restored NSR, lol

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Merthyr Imp - it seems from the attached link (obituary of T H Barton OBE) that Tommy only developed what had already been invented and patented by Ackroyd Stuart in 1890. He apparently always referred to them as oil engines - never diesel.

www.bartonsplc.co.uk/index.php/2012-01-23-22-22-17/t-h-barton

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Not sure whether this is already on Nottstalgia but searching for something else and came across this site which may be of interest to you railway buffs. Heaps of photos of Notts rail etc if you have the patience to scroll through the pages, as well as comments. Start at page 1 and you will be hooked!

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/69274-dave-f-more-photos-added-21-june-from-1947-to-1955ish/page-23

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Trent Junction was a regular "free" spot going there on bikes, and once "adventured" to Birmingham Snowhill - what a dump - but a walk across the City to New street, the nearest GWR spotting from Nottingham was well worth it.

You got it the wrong way round there, New Street was a dump and still is, probably will be when it's multi million pound redevelopment is eventually completed.

One Saturday in the summer of 62, me dad took my brother and I off to Nottingham Midland and we ended up in Birmingham New Street, we walked across the tatty city centre, which was being redeveloped at that time and ended up at Snow Hill, yes, the nearest GWR spotting place to Nottingham and the last stronghold of the King Class before their demise that year. The only problem was, my new Ilford Sporti 4 camera was playing up, the view finder was twisted and everything came out on the edge of the frame, I took loads of pictures of Halls, Granges, Castles and Kings that day but every picture was a disaster apart from one, how this one came out and not the others is a mystery to me.

sh1.jpg

King Edward V on the down Cambrian Coast Express.

GWR locos were so different were'nt they, having a very unique, old fashioned, almost 'Arts and Crafts' feeling about them that made nonsense of their real power and efficiency. How come their valve gear was made to look so simple, almost non existent, compared to our local brutes. Until the very end, always nicely polished and looked after too.

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