Dreaming of Wolverhampton

It sounds unlikely, perhaps, but I did. I only went there once - on my own [I think] on 4/8/62. I had missed a visit to Stafford Road works and sheds that my friends had made a short time before, and I wanted to “catch up” on some of the stuff they had seen. I had no permits, so I spent a few hours on Low Level station and then came home, travelling both ways on the through trains between Birkenhead and London Paddington, via Shrewsbury and Chester.

These trains reversed at Chester, but certainly did not always leave from the bay platforms closest to the entrance that were used for most GW line destinations. The Western diesel is shown leaving for Paddington from the main down platform in September 1962, whereas the 2-6-4 tank has brought a Paddington special train into the bay in 1967, after regular services on the route had finished. Sometimes the through platform on the far side of the station had been preferred for these services.

It was certainly a productive day out. I saw 3 Counties, 12 Castles, 5 Kings [cabbing 6014], 1 Manor, 3 Granges and 17 Halls. The writing was already on the wall, however, as 3 Western diesels also put in an appearance and within a few months all the Kings had gone. Dream on, I say.

The T9s

The LSWR Drummond Class T9 4-4-0s were elegant locomotives. Introduced in 1899, they subsequently became known as the Greyhounds, being able to put on a turn of speed. They were primarily employed on passenger duties in the West Country. No. 30120 has been preserved as part of the National Collection and is on loan to the Swanage Railway. They had all been withdrawn from service by 1963. John Dyer caught up with No. 30313 at Eastleigh works in 1961 and No. 30718 at Exeter St David’s in the previous year.

  

Riverside View

This is where the River Greet passes under the formation on the edge of Rolleston, shortly before it joins the Trent. The gated crossing leads to a footpath and a farm, which are close to Southwell racecourse. The mid-day oil tankers from Kingsbury sidings to Humber refinery were hauled yesterday by Class 60 No. 60054.

A lady and her daughter passed by while I was waiting and she asked me whether I was expecting to photograph something unusual. I explained my purpose there and said that there had been some notable steam specials using this section over the years. I added that I looked forward to that being repeated in the not too distant future.    

Morton Crossing on Monday

It was groundhog-day at Morton crossing, in time for the lunchtime return of oil tankers to Humber refinery. Where the lineside is not overgrown with vegetation, it’s packed with unsightly metal fencing and techno-gubbins. It should still have been a simple matter of timing, however, for me to keep the loco’ clear of obstructions. Work in progress.

NRM Blog

I received an email flagging up a recent blog item that had been issued by the National Railway Museum. Under the banner “Things to do at Home”, they reimagined a series of ten vintage posters from their collection and replaced the original captions to suit the [then] current restrictions on movement around the country.

The theme of the message was that we can’t go there now but could look forward to a time when they can be revisited. Included in the list was this iconic image of the outdoor bathing pool at New Brighton. Septimus Scott pictured his bather on the top diving board - which I can remember was very high up, indeed.

I pointed out to the author that nobody would be going back there and doing that again, because the wonderful Art Deco pool was knocked down in 1990 after severe storm damage. It was then decided that it was too expensive to fix.

They haven’t got back to me.

Adams Class B4

These diminutive 1F 0-4-0 tanks had almost all gone, with just three members left, by the time of my summer 1962 combined volume. Twenty-five had been built for the London and South Western Railway between 1891 and 1908, for use as station pilots and dock shunters.

John Dyer photographed them at Eastleigh works [No. 30102] on 26/4/60 and No. 30096 at Winchester City station on 27/8/61. Two examples have been preserved, one on the Bluebell Railway and one at Bressingham Steam Museum, at Diss in Norfolk.       

The Southern’s USA Tanks

These Class 3F 0-6-0 short wheelbase tanks were used for negotiating bends with tight curves in dockland settings, most notably at Southampton. They were built during the Second World War by the USA Transportation Corps and shipped to Britain for use by the War Department. Ultimately 14 locomotives were used by the Southern Region and numbered 30061-74.

John Dyer visited Southampton docks on 29/8/1961 and found Nos. 30061 and 30070 at work there. I saw ten members of the class during BR days, including the four examples that have since been preserved.

Diesel Dilemma

We simply weren’t that interested in diesels. Their arrival at the head of an express was always a relative disappointment. The end of the age of steam in 1968 must have been a tipping point for many enthusiasts, especially if they were at the age that they thought they should perhaps be giving up trainspotting, anyway.

I went on to collect their numbers and to photograph them partly because I had developed an interest in the railway scene, in general. Diesels and electrics were what was available. It was not that I found them particularly interesting. Some types, like the Westerns and Deltics, grew on me over time.

Some diesels had been around for years, notably the examples shown here. John Dyer photographed Nos. 10000 and 10001 on the down Royal Scot at Crewe on 5/10/58, Nos. 10201 and 10203 after overhaul at Derby works on 18/8/62 and No.10202 at London Euston in August 1959.

“It’s like Cousins Café in here”

As we say - and have done for the last fifty years - whenever the other one clears dishes away from the table a bit prematurely. I got hooked on vanilla slice at Cousins Café in Liverpool. I preferred Cousins to Sayers, however quickly they wanted to remove my plate. Before I had been old enough to go to cafes all by myself, my folks took me to Reece’s, where, at an upstairs window seat, I ate hot-buttered toast and watched the trams on Church Street, below.

Later, when between trains at Lime Street station, I partook of the odd cheese burger in the Wimpy bar on the corner of Skelhorne Street. The air was thick with the fug of fried food, but I wasn’t so worried then about the quality of what I was eating, the air that I was breathing or the efficiency of commercial extractor fans. I might even have had a fag to add to the overall ambience.     

Lime Street station, Liverpool, 1967

Tardis Moment

The Beatles [with Little Richard, I am now reminded] at New Brighton Tower Ballroom in 1962, England and Everton at Wembley in 1966, or Botham at Headingley in 1981? I’d be tempted by all of those, but first choice would probably be Exeter St David’s station on July 27^th 1957. This was the busiest day ever on the Western Region’s West of England main line, both for the number of trains that ran and the number of passengers that were carried.

The account is told in one of my favourite go-to escapism books, Summer Saturdays in the West, by David St John Thomas and Simon Rocksborough Smith. This photo by Peter Gray is from the book, and also featured on the front cover. When I finally got there for the first time in 1963, the Kings had all gone and Hymeks, Warships and the new Western diesels were in charge of most long-distance passenger trains.

Lime Street Nocturn

This painting by John Harrison is one of his earlier works, completed in the 1980s. John has a less conventional approach than many other well-known railway artists. He includes convincing figures of passengers and railwaymen in many of his pictures and he chooses very varied compositions, relying much less on the typical three-quarter front view of the steam locomotive.

Set in about 1958, when Jubilee Class No. 45587 Baroda was briefly an Edge Hill engine, John’s night-time image is set near to the platform end at Liverpool Lime Street station, looking back under the overall arched roof towards the concourse. A Stanier Black Five is about to depart and Baroda has backed down, prior to reversing light engine to 8A, the stock from her incoming express having already been removed by one of the ubiquitous 3F tanks. The lighting glows softly in the carriages at the next platform.

This typical scene is a moving reminder for me of an evening return to Lime Street after a day’s train spotting - maybe to Crewe, Manchester, Leeds or York. Tired, hungry and very sweaty, I would still probably have stirred myself sufficiently to go and find out what the Jub’ was near the platform end, before wandering down to Central to catch the New Brighton train for home.   

VE Day

Dick and Joan Jones spent their honeymoon night at the Exchange Hotel in Liverpool, on 13^th September 1947. This imposing railway hotel had been built next to the terminus station by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway in 1850, and it belonged to the London Midland and Scottish Railway by the time of their visit. It closed in 1977. The façade remains in situ, though redevelopment has taken place behind it.

My father-in-law carried the hotel card with their room number on it in his wallet for the rest of his life. That he had been able to enjoy a honeymoon at all was the result of considerable fortitude on his part during the preceding years.

On May 7^th 1945, Dick was in Riesa, Germany, having walked for about fifteen miles into the town from Stalag IVB, as part of a column of British POWs. The camp had earlier been liberated by Russian Cossacks, who, having arrived on horseback, promptly shot the locks off the gates and then kicked them open. This is Dick’s own account of how he spent his time, seventy-five years ago today.

                    “I seemed to lose contact with all my close friends, except Paddy. I don’t

                     think I ever knew his surname. We had acquired a wheel barrow onto which

                     we put our possessions. After marching all day, we came to a town between

                     Leipzig and Dresden called Riesa. It was fairly badly mauled. It became

                     known that we were to be put into some German barracks. Paddy and I

                     were not in agreement with this and at a convenient moment slipped down

                     a side street and hid.

                     Wandering around later, we found a tobacconist’s shop. Cigarettes were

                     always a problem so this looked a promising place. We knocked and when

                     the frightened Germans answered, we explained we were British prisoners

                     looking for a billet. This seemed to them a better bet than the revenge crazy

                     Russians. We were admitted voluntarily, arranging for us to sleep in the

                     shop. The arrangement worked well. We would answer the door to Russian

                     marauders, explain we were British POWs and they would shake our hands,

                     back slapping all round and go away. In return the Germans would supply

                     us with cigarettes. They slept in the basement of this three storied building.

                     We had to survive as best we could, scrounging and stealing food and

                     supplies. It was dangerous and at times life risking. Russians shot first and

                     cleared the bodies away later. They did not differentiate between stealing

                     Germans or British. We had no idea how to get home and were living in a

                     chaotic world.

                     V.E. [Victory in Europe] Day came, not that we knew until a Russian tank

                     commander, looking for billets for his men, called at the shop and told us.

                     The frightened Germans showed him upstairs and to our astonishment, in a

                     town where hardly a house had not been looted at some time or another,

                     the rooms were perfect. They were the living rooms of this family. Even the

                     tank commander could not believe it. Dirty and travel stained, as were his

                     men, he decided to sleep in the shop with us and left the rooms untouched.

                     Our presence had saved their home from being vandalised and looted. The

                     cigarettes given were a cheap price.       

                       

                     The tank commander instructed his men to bring food and they brought

                     what looked like half a cow, asking the Haus Frau to cook it. After her

                     initial horror, he tempered his request to cook enough for a meal to

                     celebrate V.E. Day. I had been looting in the larger residential houses and

                     had acquired silver plated cutlery and serving trays, so the banquet was

                     served on these, plus plenty of vodka etc. Paddy and I kept sober. Russians

                     are very unpredictable when drunk. After, we all fell to sleep. We were

                     woken by the sounds of tanks on the move, taking pot shots at random. Our

                     Russian friends had left. Fortunately, they left a lot of food behind, which

                     came in useful. By this time, we had become friendly with the Germans and

                     would sit with them in the basement rooms and they would distil Schnapps,

                     which would drowsily send us to bed. 

Morton signalbox on the move

The Newark Advertiser has reported [6/5/20] that, subject to Newark and Sherwood District Council’s approval, Network Rail plan to dismantle the Morton signalbox later this year. It will then be re-erected on the Vale of Berkeley Railway in Gloucestershire along with two other Nottinghamshire signalboxes. The Sharpness branch was jointly operated by the GWR and the LMS, so Midland Railway design boxes would seem to be appropriate additions.

The Morton box, formerly known as Fiskerton Junction, controlled access to the spur connecting with the collieries in the Mansfield area, via the Southwell to Rolleston link. After closure of that branch line, the box continued to operate the crossing gates on the minor road leading into the village. It was notable for having a hand-operated wheel mechanism right up until its own closure during comparatively recent signalling upgrades on the Castle Line, when the old gates were replaced with automatic barriers.  

Back at the crossing

This farm track has a gated crossing over the railway between Staythorpe and Rolleston. I’ve made it the focal point of my bike ride a few times, and tried to time it right to photograph one of the oil trains from the Humber refinery to the West Midlands distribution depot at Kinsgsbury. I was joined once more yesterday, during a brief rural interlude waiting for the train, by a lively common whitethroat. The afternoon working was hauled by Class 60 No. 60039 Dove Holes.   

A maze-ing

The former colliery branch lines at the edge of Clipstone Forest provide a maze of off-road cycle opportunities today. Such was the concentration of pits and the rail links provided for them, that it takes a little sorting out to decide exactly where we were venturing. Luckily, there is a very detailed map to refer to, at:                                                                                                     http://www.railchronology.free-online.co.uk/East%20of%20Mansfield%20rail%20plan.JPG           

The first photo - looking south - shows a left fork which led to Bilsthorpe Colliery and right to Blidworth and Rufford Collieries. An embankment to the right of this junction carried the branch from Rufford Junction, on the Midland Railway’s route from Mansfield to Southwell, to Clipstone Colliery. This location is shown on the rail chronology map as being adjacent to the former Rufford No. 2 Coal Stocking Site, which is the open area shown in the second photo, looking south from the Bilsthorpe branch towards the former Rufford Colliery. The bridge in the third photo took the Great Central Railway from Mansfield to join up with the former Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast route towards Ollerton, by way of Mansfield Concentration Sidings.   

One Day on the Great Central Main Line

It was on the fourth of June 1963 that I took my one and only trip on the former Great Central Railway main line between Liverpool and Sheffield Victoria, via Guide Bridge. It was also an introduction to the distinctive, 1950s-built, electric locomotives that were based at Wath. The route over the Pennines and through the Woodhead tunnel was closed to passenger trains in 1970 and to all traffic in 1981.

It was not until we had reached Sheffield, in time for our connection to Doncaster via Mexborough, that we found out that we had been hauled over the hills by Class EM2 No. 27000 Electra. While we were under the wires, we noted 17 examples of the Class EM1 26000 Class, in addition to No. 27006 Pandora.

John Dyer had made the same journey on 26 June 1959. He took these pictures at Sheffield Victoria, before being taken back towards Guide Bridge by Pandora. Thanks again to John for letting me use his photos in this way.

Good Manors

They were less frequently spotted at Chester than some of the other ex-GWR namers, but the routes into North Wales from Ruabon, Gobowen - and especially Shrewsbury - were strongholds for the Manors. We also saw them on our school railway society trip to Oswestry in 1961, where John Dyer photographed No. 7801 Anthony Manor on the shed.

No.7819 Hinton Manor, also pictured by John, is seen at Shrewsbury station in 1964. My only photo of the class in the days of steam shows No. 7820 Dinmore Manor lined up forlornly with other withdrawn engines at Shrewsbury MPD in 1965. Fortunately, no fewer than nine members, out of the thirty in this Collett-designed class of 4-6-0s, made it into preservation.

The Mighty King Class

Quite majestic, were the Kings. A pleasing and well-balanced design, yet they looked noticeably more substantial than the Castles, being nearly ten tons heavier and with a more purposeful-looking “front-end”. In my experience, they rarely came as far north as Shrewsbury, with most Paddington to Birkenhead expresses changing to a Castle at Wolverhampton Low Level.

John Dyer’s excellent picture of No.6016 King Edward V on Shrewsbury sheds was the only one I saw there. My combined volume shows that and I only ever saw 11 of them, including the three preserved examples and two of those were at Barry scrapyard.

John’s other picture shows No. 6007 King William III at Swindon. My photos of No. 6000 King George V are both front on - a special to Chester non-stop through Gobowen in 1962 and at Bulmer’s siding in 1973.