David Heys steam diesel photo collection - 28 - BR LONDON MIDLAND - 2

Whilst my passion for railways has its roots in childhood spotting days during the Fifties, by the early Sixties the hobby was running out of steam. It began in 1955 when the British Transport Commission (BTC) announced the Modernisation Programme which outlined the BTC's plan to replace old-fashioned steam power with modern diesel and electric traction.
The turning point came when my tatty old Ian Allan abc needed replacing and I splashed out the princely sum of 10/6d on the latest Winter 1958-59 combined edition. How many remember the book's heady aroma of freshly printed ink? Ian Allan should've bottled it; they'd have made a fortune! 
Next a start was made on the depressingly predictable task of transferring the logged numbers from my old abc, but by the time I reached the BR Standard classes Nos 70000-92250, I had lost count of the number of gaps due to scrapping.
Worse still, when it came to underlining the new diesels I had 'copped' on visits to Swindon, Derby and Crewe Works, they didn't enter the equation because Ian Allan had published the new combined edition before the diesels were built.
Call it a dereliction of duty, if you like, but the discrepancies creeping into the hobby were totally at odds with the orderliness that spotters expected, and I ended up joining the legion of disenchanted youngsters who turned their attention to something more rewarding like railway photography - a natural adjunct to train spotting.
So, combining both interests from old spotting days, the purpose of this page is to list as many different steam locomotive classes (numbered from 40000 to 5999) which were listed in Ian Allan's abc Locospotters Book covering the London Midland Region in 1959.



(Above) We start with a lovely colour shot of a Class 8P Pacific 46231 Duchess of Atholl at Crewe Works. After nationalisation in 1948, the newly-formed British Railways tried out a number of liveries with a view to adopting a future standard for its express-passenger engines of Class 8 power classification (dark blue) and for its fleet of express-passenger locomotives with a lower tractive effort (light green). Eventually a lighter shade of blue was chosen for its large express locos, which included the Peppercorn and Gresley Pacifics of the Eastern and North Eastern Regions, the ex-SR 'Merchant Navy' Pacifics of the Southern Region, the ex-GWR 'King' class 4-6-0s for the Western Region and Stanier's ex-LMSR Pacifics. This fine shot of a blue-liveried 46231 Duchess of Athol outside the Paint Shop at Crewe Works was taken by W H Foster, who donated the slide to the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Preservation Trust for money raising purposes.

Established in 1988, the origins of the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Trust can be traced back to the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Preservation Society when a group of Rochdale railway enthusiasts led by Richard S Greenwood, formed the L&Y Saddletank Fund and acquired 3 locomotives, a carriage and 3 wagons. In 1987 the 'Fund' changed its identity to the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Preservation Society and started negotiations to form a Charity to secure the collection, thus ensuring that the influence of the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway continues to the present day. If you are interested in helping with the Trust's praiseworthy effort to restore and conserve the quality of L&Y workmanship, click HERE to visit the Trust's website to find out more; indeed you can make a big difference by providing either your skills in engineering or carpentry, or perhaps you are simply competent at DIY...you will be welcome with open arms!

(Below) This dinky-sized 'old timer' is one of Aspinall's 0-4-0 saddle tank designs, introduced in 1891 for the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway and designated Class 21. Note the wooden blocks on the buffer beam  which were ideal for dock shunting purposes. The last LYR Pug in BR service was a Western Region loco. However, this privately preserved Pug 51218 (acquired by the L&Y Saddletank Fund) was photographed by Richard Greenwood at Newton Heath shed on a very gloomy 18 February 1967 as it was being prepared to work three brakevan trips between Rochdale and Whitworth the following day. No 51218 has the distinction of being the first preserved loco to arrive on theKeighley & Worth Valley Railway on 1st July 1965.



                        LONDON MIDLAND REGION LOCOMOTIVES 40000-41199.



40001-40070. (Above-Insert-Below) Introduced in 1930, Sir Henry Fowler's LMS Class 3P 2-6-2Ts numbered 40001 to 40070 in the BR fleet was the first of the engines listed on the London Midland Region. A total of 70 were built for use primarily on local passenger services, four on the Western Region, the rest on the London Midland Region. (Above) The class was most easily identifiable from other 2-6-2Ts by their parallel boiler and smokebox curving down to meet the frames, which can be seen in this ER Morten shot of No 40058 entering Shrewsbury station with a local passenger train. (Below) Sporting a St Albans (14C) shedplate on the smokebox door No 40024 - one of twenty Fowler Class 3MT tanks (Nos 40021-40040) fitted with condensing apparatus for working the Metropolitan widened lines through the tunnels to Moorgate Street - is seen heading a suburban service at Aldersgate & Barbican(Inset) The 'Delph Donkey' being propelled by push-pull fitted Fowler Class 3MT 2-6-2T No 40012. Visible in the background is Saddleworth station (closed 5th October 1968).





40071-40209 (Above-Below) Introduced in February 1935, the Stanier 3MT 2-6-2T was a development of the earlier 1930's Fowler 2-6-2T mentioned above. Both classes were identical in many respects; the Stanier engines had the same 5ft 3in driving wheels, 3ft 3½ins pony wheels and trailing wheels, identical sized cylinders at 17½in X 26ins, the same 21,485lb tractive effort, 200 lb.sq.in. boiler pressure, 3 ton coal capacity, 1,500 gallons of water and 41ft 11¾ins length over buffers. However, a distinguishing feature of the Stanier design was the pronounced slope to the top of their side-tanks and tapered boiler in contrast to the parallel boiler of the Fowler 2-6-2Ts. (Above) No 40018 departs from Millersdale on the push-pull shuttle service to Buxton on 16th August 1950. (Below) Rebuilt in 1941 with larger boiler, No 40148 heads a Bradford-Forster Square- Leeds City express past the site of the proposed new Apperley Bridge station on 19th April 1952.





40332-40557 (Above) Former Midland Railway Class 2 (LMS Class 2P) No 40491 (built in October 1896) awaits departure from Sheffield Midland with a local train on 24th April 1952. Originally constructed by SW Johnson, the MR's CME 1873-1903, this 4-4-0 class was rebuilt by his successor RM Deeley (MR's CME 1903-1909) with superheater and piston valves. No 40491 was among only a few survivors of this once extensive class totalling 245 - only thirty six engines were still listed in my 1958-59 winter abc; No 40491 was withdrawn in October 1960. The majority of the 2Ps were allocated to sheds on the old MR system, chiefly in the Midlands.

40563-40700 (Below) Introduced in 1928 these 4-4-0s were the result of Sir Henry Fowler's post-grouping development of the earlier MR Class 2P with modified dimensions (smaller 6ft 9in driving wheels) and reduced boiler mountings. Out of the original 138 members built, no fewer than 134 were still listed in my abc, but only just...with the onset of dieselisation they were diminishing fast and all had gone by the end of 1962. The class was adopted by the LMS as a standard light passenger engine and many went to Scotland for service on the Glasgow and South West routes. During BR days the Class 2P continued to operate on the Scottish Region, principally around Kilmarnock. Some tenty years after its introduction in September 1931, No 40647 heads a local train at Ayr on 27th July 1951. The loco was withdrawn in October 1961. Note the Fowler flat sided tender which differed from the earlier Midland tender with coal rails as seen attached to 40491 above.





40907-41193 (Above-Inset-Below) Listed among the engines in my Ian Allan abc Locospotters Book (1958-59 winter edition) are 33 'Compound' Class 4P 4-4-0s Nos 40907-41193, albeit the sequence of numbers reveal ominous gaps due to scrapping. By the summer of 1960 only four remained in BR stock: No 40907 at Millhouses (Sheffield), 41063 at Manningham (Bradford) and the remaining two at Monument Lane (Birmingham). (Above) This once popular and highly efficient class produced some splendid performances during the earlier years of grouping on the Birmingham two-hour expresses from Euston, and also duties in Scotland on the former Caledonian Railway and G&SWR main lines. (Inset) The class was developed from the original five 7ft 'Compound' 4-4-0s introduced in 1902 by Samuel W. Johnson, CME of the Midland Railway 1873-1903 based at Derby. The 3-cylinder compound arrangement comprised one high pressure cylinder inside the frames, and two low pressure cylinders outside. From 1905 onwards, Johnson's successor at Derby, Richard M Deeley, built a simpler version based on Johnson's original 4-4-0 design which made the engines more straightforward to drive. The Johnson locomotives were subsequently rebuilt as Deeley Compounds and outshopped with smaller 6ft 9in couple wheels and superheater, including the now-preserved 1000 in 1914. The doyen of the class was destined for preservation after withdrawal in 1959 and restored in Midland maroon livery for display at Clapham Transport Museum. Here No 1000 was photographed by Frank Ashley heading the return leg of an SLS railtour from York to Birmingham New Street via Doncaster, Sheffield and Derby at Ambergate on 31 August 1959. (Below) The Compound Class 4P 4-4-0s were numbered 40900-40939 and 41045-41199 in the BR fleet, but it should be noted that Nos 40940-40999 were not built. However, with the onset of dieselisation and the introduction of more modern BR Standard steam classes they were early candidates for withdrawal. Here, No 40937 is seen on its home shed at Bank Hall (27A)...TO BE CONTINUED.



We continue the page with a visit to Willesden Motive Power Depot in London, courtesy of two fine railway photographers, Alex (Mac) McClymont and Keith Long, both ex-railwaymen....
                                  
                                  WILLESDEN MOTIVE POWER DEPOT 1A

(Below) Willesden depot was classified as 1A, this being the first of the alpha-numerical shed coding system, which, for this young spotter back in the Fifties, somehow bestowed a level of prestige over the remaining BR sheds listed beneath it. This system had its origins back in the Thirties when the LMS carried out a reorganisation of locomotive operation and maintenance, and henceforth all sheds were grouped into districts with the main depot being allocated the code letter A, followed by a number of subsidiary sheds listed in alphabetical order. An extension of this system was adopted by BR in 1950 before it was replaced by an alphabetic code for BR's diesel fleet in 1973. (Below) A famous LMS Poster 'The Day Begins - 1946' by Terence Cuneo, measuring 50" x 40", shows a wonderful image of Princess Coronation Class locomotive City Of Hereford being prepared on the turntable at Willesden shed. This vibrant poster went under the hammer for a whopping £6,100 at a Creat Western Railwayana Auction in November 2012...click HERE.




                                                      
(Above-Below) Ex-SR engineman Alex (Mac) McClymont is a major contributor to this site. He has a Rail Cameraman  page featuring Eastern Region steam days at Kings Cross and a gallery of Southern Region photos on Geoff Burch's 'SR Enginemen Remember' pages. In this shot an assortment of locomotives are lined up in front of the 12-road running shed at Willesden depot on 16th June 1962. A little over three years later the shed was closed on September 27th 1965 and the site cleared to make way for a Freightliner depot. (Below) Stanier Black Five 44916 based at Willesden (1A) prepares to move off shed on 16th June 1962. Built at Crew in 1945, she ended up at Stockport Edgeley and was withdrawn in December 1967.





(Above-Below) Stanier Black Five 45111 was photographed at Willesden on 16th June 1962. Built in 1935 at the Vulcan Foundry works and a Willesden based locomotive (1A) at the time she was photographed, she ended her life at Rose Grove (24B) and withdrawn in October 1967. (Below) Stanier 8F Class 48668 was built at Brighton works and her last shed was Leicester (15C).





(Above-Below) Stanier 'Jubilee' Class 45669 'Fisher' in Willesden Shed on 16th June 1962. On 29 April 1935 No 5552, the first of the class, permanently swapped identities with 5642 which had been named 'Silver Jubilee' on 19th April 1935 in recognition of the Silver Jubilee of King George V on 6th May of that year. This change gave the name to the rest of the class. (Below) A general view of of locos stabled around the turntable.





(Above-Below) Another major contributor to this site is retired railway signalman, Keith Long, who has his own Rail Cameraman page. Keith goes by the name of 'Cabsaab 900' on his superb 'Flickr photostream. Here he captures the light and shade inside the steam roundhouse at Willesden 1A on a bright summer's day on July 2nd 1961. This shows the the second of HG Ivatt's pioneering Co-Cos No 10001 and BR's Type 2 Bo-Bo No D5031 tucked away in the stalls around the turntable. No 10001 was built at Derby Works and delivered to 1B Camden on 10th July 1948; withdrawal came on 12th March 1966 after 1,101,700 miles in service and she was scrapped at Cox & Danks of Acton in February 1968. By comparison No D5031 is a jumped-up whippersnapper!....built at BR Crewe Works and delivered new to 31B March on 25th June 1959, the loco became TOPS Class 24 No 24031. Withdrawn in October 1975 she was scrapped at Swindon Works in December 1976. Keth comments on his 'Cabsaab900' Flickr Photostream - 'At the time this photo was taken No 10001 was just a week short of her 13th birthday (almost a teenager) and D5031 is a week past her second (barely out of nappies) and there isn't a yellow warning panel to be seen anywhere!' (Below) Another classic photo of the transition from steam at Willesden. These shots were taken on Keith's trusty Ensign Selfix 820 and shows Type 2 Bo-Bo No D5089 and the second of the SR's Ashford Works 1Co-Co1's No 10201 inside the steam roundhouse on 16th September 1961.





(Above-Below) In pre-digital days - before cameras were equipped with auto-focussing and through the lens light metering - few photographers attempted interior shots of steam sheds; they were dark and dismal places where the changing light made it difficult to get the exposure right. Nonetheless, the results could be most rewarding, and Keith managed to produce a few 'gems' for his collection, including this one of 'Patriot' class No 45546 Fleetwood, still fitted with the original Belpaire boiler and single chimney, at Willesden shed (1A). (Below) One of the great things about opening a Flickr account is that visitors to your site get the chance to comment on your photos. For example, this excellent interior shot at Willesden depot of HG Ivatt's Co-Co No 10000 on 2nd July 1961 created some dialogue. It goes to prove that there must be countless thousands of enthusiasts who were disappointed that such an important locomotive was not saved from the cutters torch, including Keith who has posted his own comments - 'The real shame is that the loco survived so long after being withdrawn in December 1963 (it was not cut up until January 1968). It would have been better to have saved something like this rather than say eleven out of the thirty 'Merchant Navy' class. It's not that I have anything against the MNs, or steam in general; it's just that the preservation scene is so unbalanced.' Click this link to visit Keith's main collection; it contains a massive number of sets of BR steam-diesel days.



                                           A RAILWAYMAN'S MEMORIES

Tony Thompson, ex-Agecroft, Patricroft and Crewe, remembers a fateful trip on the 11.20pm Manchester to Glasgow in the summer of 1961…
During my firing days at Patricroft shed, the so-called 'No 4 goods link' job had more top passenger work than goods work. One evening during the summer of 1961 I had booked on duty at 9.35pm for the 11.20 Glasgow, which we called the '11.20 papers'; it also included two Royal Mail vans with mail catchers on opposite sides for the return journey. My driver that night was Maz, and as we prepared the Jubilee, I oiled the big and small ends for him (I always had a spare pair of overalls in my locker for 3 cylinder engines) and filled the firebox slowly during preparation. Then before we left the shed we topped up the tender and trimmed the coal for safety, which is more than can be said for the Newton Heath men that hooked onto us at Manchester Victoria…but I'll come to that later.
At 10.40pm we left Patricroft shed light engine for Manchester Victoria's platform 11, which more or less encroached on Exchange's platform 3. We hooked on to the train at 10.55pm and some 5 minutes later the Newton Heath men hooked on the front of us with one of the low-framed Caprotti black 5s.
The reason for double heading this turn was to tackle Pendlebury Bank, especially with 16 bogies on; it was a very heavy train filled mostly with mail and papers plus parcels. The timings to Preston was 43 minutes, but as usual our departure was held up by the paper guys, never the Post Office, and this delay could be anything up to eight minutes before we got away.
A few minutes before our scheduled departure I put a few rounds on; I had a good box with fullback damper open and near to blowing off, but one always has the gauge glass at approx ¾ or less to keep her quiet. The advantage of this job was that after starting from platform 11 we passed through platform 3, then across a series of crossings to get onto the Lanky, the fireman could drop the steam pressure to just above 200lbs then have his pressure up to 225lbs psi before Salford Station.
Having got the right of way at 11.27pm, Maz opened the regulator and we stormed through Exchange then with the second valve and reverser pulled right back, we headed across onto the Lanky. From then on it was all systems go and both engines were soon pounding through Salford Station, the 5x roaring and the black 5 blasting. Approaching Pendlebury Bank we had a full 7 minutes to make up, so it was shovel in hand and a few rounds for the climb ahead, but the 5x was in fine fettle so keeping her around the 225 mark was comfortably easy.
As we neared the top of the bank I shoveled a few more rounds into the firebox before we leveled out in anticipation of Walkden Water Troughs, serving all four tracks - 'Fast' and 'Slow' Lines. Ahead we had 14 miles of near straight level track and both engines were flat out, doing over 75mph on the approach to the troughs.
At this juncture, it should be explained that the practice for picking up water with a double-headed train was that the leading engine dipped first and as the spray started to dwindle the train engine dipped second. However, this particular night things didn't go quite as smoothly! When the time came for both firemen to prepare for the water troughs, I got off my seat and walked towards the water scoop handle when I heard an almighty crash behind me! Spinning round I saw a large chunk of coal had smashed through my window and shattered in the cab!
So much for trimming the tender on the part of the 26A men! I dread to think what might have happened to me had it been three seconds earlier!
With hindsight, l can only assume the bridge we'd just passed under was lower than the previous bridges, and as a result the coal had been dislodged from the tender of the leading engine, came hurtling along the top of our boiler barrel and smashed through my glass! Make no mistake I was shaken up but somehow managed to drop the scoop and top up the tender. After removing the broken glass from the window, I could put my head out of my side window at speed, but sitting on my seat in front of the missing glass took my breath away, so I ended up standing between firing, putting the injector on and keeping the footplate clean and dampened down. By the time we got to Peel Hall Sidings we were doing 86/88mph on the approach to Hilton House Junction and took the extreme right hand peg over the Whelley to join the West Coast Main Line. My driver Maz blew the whistle to get the attention of the leading engine crew and alert the bobby to wire Preston for a fitter to fix a new glass to the fireman's side.
By now we had recovered some time; we passed the 20mph restriction at Hilton House box, but once we were on the West Coast mainline down fast, it was back to sparks flying from both engines, especially the 5x - and, of course, the shovel was being used fast and furious to get us into Preston. We had a very fast run down to Preston, lurching over Euxton Junction at nearly 90! After such an unusual trip we arrived 1 minute late, but saw no sign of a fitter, the Newton Heath men hooked off and went on their merry way (the 26A men were booked to work a train back from Preston, and we at 26F had a Fish train from Law Junction to Oldham Road). When the Preston men relieved us to take the '11.20 papers' north I put my express lamps on and I explained to the driver and fireman what had happened.
Our return trip to Manchester was delayed - the fully-fitted Fish train arrived at Preston more than an hour behind schedule at 2.15am, but as the train rolled into the platform I couldn't have wished for a more welcoming sight - it was my favourite 'Jubilee' class 5596 Bahamas and looking in super condition. When we arrived at Manchester we headed up Platting Bank, then at Miles Platting Station propelled our train back down the bank into Oldham Road Goods Yard, hooked off and headed light engine to Patricroft Shed…the end of a good nights work, signed off, and home James...

If a publisher was seeking a sure fire winner to add to their list of new titles then they need look no further than former Railway Press & PR Officer Neil Johnson's anecdotes about the railway industry when he was based at the Railway Technical Centre (RTC) Derby. Here Neil regales us with the third in his series of stories from the land of the railway press office (the first two are still under construction).

                         MORE TALES FROM  'AULTY TOWERS'
                                          By Neil Johnson

Like many former railwaymen, my interest in trains and railways goes back to boyhood days and this has stayed with me through my entire life. The Derby area perhaps more than anywhere else in the UK, even worldwide, boasts an unparalleled history and input in the rail industry from its earliest days to the present time. During my career with the railways, I befriended a number of footplate staff; drivers past and present, firemen and second men, and those who had started their driving career as cleaners. You don't have to look far in and around Derby before you find someone who has ridden the rails for a living.
My old neighbours, the Holland's, were a family with a strong railway pedigree. Alf Holland had been a fireman during the Fifties and his father-in-law, Eddie Prince, had been a top link driver of considerable note and one of the first drivers to test the early LMS mainline diesels Nos 10000-1 in 1947.
Following his retirement in the early Seventies, Eddie Prince joined me on a jaunt to the then newly-preserved Severn Valley Railway and his first action upon stepping off the bus was to climb into the cab of a Stanier 'Black 5' - 'Great engines these,' he mused, 'They could do any job they were given. I always liked it when I was paired with one of these…'
Eddie Prince may have been an early diesel pioneer of some fame, but clearly his heart was still with the old steam workhorse that he had known throughout most of his working life.

(Below) A tantalising glimpse of HG Ivatt's first Co-Co twin No 10000 at Derby on 18 May 1948. Although this photo was taken some five months after British Railways was formed, the locomotive is still sporting its striking black and silver livery and raised LMS lettering on the bodyside. No 10000 was put into traffic working as a single unit on the MR main line under the watchful eye of Derby. It was joined by sister engine No 10001 for further tests to assess their performance coupled together as a 3,200hp multiple unit on the West Coast Main Line.





Alf Holland went on to tell me about one particular day as a young fireman when he was called upon to pair with his fiancé's father on an express turn from Derby to St Pancras. He was apprehensive at the prospect of working with his girlfriend's dad but equally keen to make a good impression. The loco was an elderly Midland Compound, a regular performer on the route, but by the 1950s the 4-4-0s (introduced to traffic in 1924) were getting a little long in the tooth.
Their journey was uneventful to begin with; Alf minded his P's & Q's and ensured he tackled everything absolutely spot on, but things were about to take a turn for the worse as he prepared to dip the scoop to pick up water from the troughs near Wellingborough.
Alf told me - 'I had just unscrewed the mechanism right down and then pulled it back a couple of turns to ensure we got just the right amount of water, but I was a trifle late in pulling it back and we hit the troughs with the scoop fully extended. The result was the tender overflowed with icy water, cascading a torrent of coal down into the cab and washing it right off the engine!'
The upshot was they reached St Pancras with a spotlessly-clean cab but barely a couple of shovelfuls of coal to keep the firebox at the required heat. It was a sobering lesson at such a young age.
A footnote to this story may give the young site visitor some idea of the way authoritarian-style conventions were often at odds back in the Fifties. Whilst the youthful Alf was considered old enough to fire a London express (not to mention the responsibility he had for the safety of hundreds of passengers) his fiancé's father still held him accountable for seeing his daughter was back home by ten every evening!



(Above-Below) Dipping the scoop to replenish the water at speed required a high degree of skill…here 'Black 5' No 44690 skims over Salwick Water Troughs between Preston and Kirkham on 3rd June 1963. (Below) 'Jubilee' class No 45647 Sturdee takes on more water than its 4,000 gallon tender capacity can cope with at Salwick Troughs on 23rd October 1966.



Characters abounded on the railways in times past, particularly those who drove and maintained Britain's grimy Goliaths; Alf told me on a couple of occasions of another fireman called Ginger, who, if bored when firing on a slow moving goods train, would literally step out of the cab and take a walk along the running plate to the front of the engine then around the smokebox before returning to the cab by the driver's side…all whilst the engine chuffed and chugged along! Goodness knows what his drivers thought about such behaviour, not to mention the goggle-eyed signalmen along the route.
Sadly neither Eddie Prince nor Alf Holland are with us as the 21st century rolls on, they have moved on to that great roundhouse in the sky, but their tales of the footplate and reminiscences will always be with me.
Likewise whilst working at Derby's Rail Technical Centre I spent many happy hours chatting to Pete Skelton, an ex-Nottingham fireman. He joined the railways in the early Fifties, or as Pete succinctly puts it - 'They were so short of staff at loco sheds they gave you five bob if you signed up.'
Pete even enticed an old school mate out of a job as a butcher's boy to join him cleaning engines. It was not long before both of them acquired firing turns on expresses down the Great Central mainline at the tender age of 17. By the end of the decade he had switched to the clerical ranks, yet he never lost his affection for those he had toiled and sweated with. In his opinion 'They were real blokes…'
In his latter role as the supremo for the Rail Centre's cash office, he brightened the lives of many with his humour and tales from the footplate.  If you were having a bad day, then a wander down to Pete's abode to collect your expenses always brightened the mood. As a queue formed for the two o'clock opening, Pete would sometimes greet the ensemble with - 'Crikey! You lot are impatient for your beer money today aren't you!' This he normally followed up with the first two verses of Gray's elegy or a literary gem of similar standing - if however the awaiting line was purely male, more than likely his opening gambit was a ditty that began with 'Whisky, women, cards and dice...'  
Modesty forbids me from regaling the remainder.
Pete once took me over to see some of his old footplate pals: it was one of the most enjoyable evenings of my life. One old boy told me with pride how he began his railway career as a telegraph boy for the Great Northern Railway, but before they ever let him near an engine he had spent hours in a gloomy office, signing footplate-men on and off duty: the company issued him with half a pencil with strict instructions to make it last for he would not get another for three months.
Even during my early days with BR, such frugality was not uncommon.
One driver that Peter worked with was a frustrated mathematician and every time they stopped for signals he would get his chalk out and teach him advanced arithmetical techniques and trigonometry on the loco cab floor - perhaps his driver's impromptu maths lessons were the catalyst that prepared Pete for his future life as a cashier?
I remember clearly whilst as a young relief clerk spending a couple of days working with Pete on the warrant travel section; he arrived at the office one morning in extra ebullient mood. On Nottingham station whilst switching from the Radcliffe train to the one for Derby, he had bumped into one of his old drivers who he had not seen for over two decades.
'We did a little jig!' he exclaimed -'the entire gathering on the platform was staring at us! I remember one day we were on a return working from Rugby to Nottingham with a tank engine and he asked me how much water I thought we had left in the side tanks; he was speculating on whether we should replenish the tanks at the next water column - 'Let's test our skill,' he said, 'we'll be extra economical.'
Well, after passing three other columns at which we could have stopped to top up before reaching Victoria station, I was sweating cobs and continuously looking at the gauge waiting for the explosion that would take us all to Kingdom come. By the time we steamed back to Colwick sheds the tanks were bone dry!
When I asked why we had done it, he answered - 'Just to see if we could!'

(Above Left-Below) Team effort! Both driver and fireman replenish the side tanks of a BR Standard Class 4 tank at Woking. No fewer than 155 of these sturdy Class 4 2-6-4Ts were built between 1951 and 1956; 130 at Brighton, 10 at Doncaster and 15 at Derby Works. (Below) The Derby team was also responsible for constructing the bulk of the new BR Standard Class 5 4-6-0s. The first of the class, No 73000, was outshopped from Derby in April 1951 and the last No 73154 (one of thirty fitted with Caprotti valve gear and poppet valves) rolled off the production line in June 1957. This was the last steam locomotive to be built at Derby, thus bringing to an end a long and proud tradition at the Derby Works - a total of 2941 steam locomotives were constructed at Derby between 1851 and 1957.



Peter was one of many who relayed their stories with both unwavering loyalty and immense pride at the job they had once undertaken. Recently I was chatting to another old driver who had been a young fireman in wartime, often deputising on the footplate for many older colleagues pulled into the forces - 'Make no mistake,' he told me, 'The railways as much as anything won the war for Britain.'
Indeed it is difficult for many these days to comprehend the importance of Britain's railways before the motorway age, particularly in freight haulage. Nearby Toton in addition to Chaddesden sidings and Rowsley to the north once boasted gigantic marshalling yards. Even today Toton is of significance on the railway map; car drivers traversing the A52 can still witness a labyrinth of lines.
Returning when I can to Derby, I try to enjoy certain events as well as the company of friends; in addition to the annual summer beer festival, I love the model railway show in the Assembly rooms;  undoubtedly, one of the best in the country. Older Derbians will recall Syd Sharratt's shop which stood on the long gone Cockpit Hill opposite the bus station.
When I arrived in Derbyshire at the start of my teens one of my first purchases was a model loco (Hornby Dublo Class 8F) from this very emporium, a wonderful vista for a thirteen year-old lad. Just recently, over four and a half decades later, my model engine needed its first overhaul. I forwarded it to master of models Bob Denny who formerly had a model shop on the corner opposite Long Eaton station (once known as Sawley Junction). Now an octogenarian, Bob has lost none of his skills and the 8F was returned in superb running condition. Here too is a local chap of immense railway lineage - both he and his father were footplate men at Toton before he too made the switch to work in the Railway offices at Derby's Nelson Street HQ. In Bob's case as a young man he worked on the Beyer Garratt's, the largest locos ever to take to Britain's tracks. These articulated steaming behemoths were built especially for the sole purpose of conveying coal from the Derby/Notts coal field to southern England. They consumed a vast amount of coal themselves as they hauled immensely long trains of black gold south. No doubt they were also taxing work for loco crews. Trains still snake out of Toton but the visual drama is not what it once was.

(Below) In 1927 the LMS recognised the need to provide a more powerful locomotive to take over the heavy Toton to Brent coal trains worked by double-headed 0-6-0s. Built by Beyer Peacock of Manchester, the 2-6-6-2 Beyer-Garratt provided a tractive effort of 45,620lb and was essentially two 2-6-0s with one large centrally-placed boiler common to both. Although the Beyer-Garratt was by far the biggest of the LMS locomotives (length 87ft 10½in) the distribution of the axle load conformed to the severe loading restrictions on the route.  A further thirty were built with rotary coal bunkers in 1930, including No 47994 seen here at Toton shed.



My only pal still driving is another Derby lad who I will refer to by his nickname 'Nooge'. A decade and half ago when I was still a Public Relations Officer, I was lucky enough to spend a working afternoon with Nooge on the past Denby branch; a true rural gem threading its way through Little Eaton and Coxbench.
Nooge, I shall state, is like the railmen of old and quite a character - in the olden days, drivers progressed from cleaning and firing - today a trainman concept is in place and many of the 21st century drivers were once guards, ticket collectors, shunters and other 'hands on' occupations.
In Nooge's case he did the lot before becoming a driver. One of his favourite tales is rather risqué but amusing. When still a young passenger guard, he was working on a late evening London-Derby train when he encountered a group of young women returning from the capital after a day out....all were worse for wear after more than a few drinks, and some had mislaid their tickets. One in particular could not find her travelling docket...
'You must have a ticket M'duck' said Nooge - 'Are you sure you can't find it?'
In a fit of giggles the girl in question raised her skirt significantly showing ample and shapely legs - 'Can't you take it out of that?' she cheekily suggested.
'I was hoping you'd have something smaller!' replied my pal.
During my entire life the connection with trains and humour has always been present. In the old Derby Works, folk often spoke of the 'Railway Sense of Humour'.
I like to think it is still alive and well!

(Below) We started this feature with the Derby-built LMS pioneer main line diesels Nos 10000/1, and so it seems appropriate to end with another diesel class that rolled off Derby's assembly line. In 1959 the BR works was responsible for building the BR/Sulzer 2,300hp 1Co-Co1 Nos D1-D10 as part of the British Transport Commission's (BTC's) pilot scheme orders. These orders were placed by the BTC in order to evaluate the performance of different types of diesels in service conditions. The ten Type 4 'Peak' locomotives were extremely heavy, turning the scale at more than 138 tons which necessitated the use of the cumbersome 1Co-Co1 wheel arrangement to help distribute their weight. The Peaks had the dubious distinction of being the heaviest, yet they had a neat appearance - the nose-end closely resembling that of Derby's earlier LMS pioneers No 10000/1. All ten locomotives (Class 44) were named after Welsh or English mountains, and the name 'Peaks' was subsequently dubbed on the production models. Here the doyen of the class, No D1 Scafell Pike, poses for the official photographer at Derby prior to entering service in September 1959.



Neil has a host of other tales to tell from the land of the railway press office and these will be added in due course; indeed I'm grateful to all contributors, for having started this railway website back in 2007 I have now reached a point where I've run out of things to say!
However, this isn't caused by 'writer's block'; it's a matter of pitching stories about trains and railways in a way that appeals to everyone. This is why I'm happy to invite other fellow enthusiasts to chip in with their own train spotting anecdotes for others to enjoy. Not only does it bring a freshness to these pages, the subject of trains and railways is so complicated it is impossible for one person to cover it on their own.
Over the years I've received a number of interesting emails from Hugh Peate, a technical advisor in the commercial boiler manufacturing industry who, after a bit of arm-twisting, agreed to write a short feature on LMSR matters…still under construction

                                          LMSR AND OTHER RAILWAY MATTERS 1 
                                                         By Hugh Peate

Hi David, you asked for an article on LMSR railway matters and so I've been browsing through your wonderful site again and here are a few items of interest to me. I have immense regard for both the GWR and LNWR/LMSR traditions, in particular for all things Stanier, and for the way he developed the Swindon tradition forward through his work at Crewe.
Having spent the best part of my childhood train spotting at Chester, I enjoyed visiting John Stoddart's page 72 which shows 46245 City of London (right) at Chester accompanied by a caption stating - '46245 appears to be passing non-stop through Chester General, possibly with up empty stock since I can recall very few passenger trains, apart from holiday camp specials for the coast, working non-stop through the station....'
As I believe it, the cylinder drain cocks are open, and that which issues forth is vapour, not steam, indicating that the cylinders are cold. I believe this loco is starting away from cold with what is clearly a very heavy train. It can't be going at any sort of speed, as the vapour is shooting ahead of the loco.



(Above) Awaiting caption details for 46254 at Chester by JR Carter…
(Below Left) 'Pride of the Line' was often a term used to describe the Princess Coronation class, designed under the guidance of Sir William Stanier. 46228 Duchess of Rutland was one of the glorious original streamlined engines, built with a single chimney, looking somewhat different in 1960, but just as powerful. The 4-6-2 is London-bound on platform 4, with another Stanier concept on platform 6; a 2-8-0 '8F' in charge of a freight. Passenger trains used to have to 'draw up' at stations en route, such as Bletchley, because they were much longer than the platforms. Am I alone in finding 'Bletchley' an exceedingly unattractive name? I suppose 'Milton Keynes' is a bit better, which is what that station is called now.

I suppose we all know what we like, by which we perhaps mean more truthfully that we like what we know. Be that as it may, these wonderful engines were to my mind the most powerful, elegant and dramatic heavy express steam locos we ever had in Great Britain. The biggest and best! It seems quite astonishing that the last survivors of the class were scrapped in September 1964 - only ten years before the West Coast Electrification was completed to Glasgow. Some were only sixteen years old and the other survivors were only about twenty, and could have worked for those ten more years.
I went to Primary School in Chester, and we had a day trip to London after sitting the 11 Plus. To my eternal regret, I did not note the number of the loco hauling our train back from Euston, but I like to think it was a Stanier Pacific. I do remember that the train was seventeen coaches, and that we had a dinner on the way back which included about five courses.



(Above-Below) This view of the Hoole Bridge end of Chester General station shows the arrival of the 'up' 'Welshman' behind EE Type 4 D223 Lancastria. This Euston-North Wales service had portions connecting with Portmadoc, Pwllheli and Llandudno. Click HERE to visit Chris Carter's page dedicated to the memory of his dad, Footplate Cameraman Jim Carter. (Below) Caption to follow for two photos taken minutes apart on 10 April 1952 - left 44864 - right 6860. This is a splendid example of a gantry carrying early-pattern Great Western lower quadrant signals; the most notable features of GWR signals were swan-neck spectacles, and the signal arms were constructed of enamelled steel, ribbed along the edges for rigidity.



We spent many hours spotting at the Hoole Bridge end of what was then called Chester General Station. 'General' was a name used for stations which were Joint Stations owned by the Great Western Railway in common with one or more other companies. I think, in fact, that this name only applied when the Joint Company was the London and North Western Railway, and only when there was another, less important Station in town. Wrexham is another place with a station formerly known as 'General'. The triangular junction to the west of Chester General connected to Birkenhead Woodside on the GW/LNW Joint line for Wirral and some Liverpool traffic, and in the other direction continued what looked like a four track railway. It cut twice through the Roman City Walls, dodging just within the Northwest corner. This part of Chester is fascinating in its transport history. The canal basin is there on the other side of the railway, all designed by Thomas Telford. There's a dry dock, warehouses, a sea lock down to the River Dee and the Northgate flight of locks. The roof of the lock-keeper's house almost touches the elevated inner Ring road, built in 1966. The railway runs by, and all is overlooked from the Roman walls.
The four lines continue over a viaduct between the Roodee (Chester Racecourse, and the site of the Roman harbour) and former gasworks, and then over the River Dee. This bridge is the location of one of the earliest railway disasters, when the original cast iron bridge collapsed under a train. The engine got across safely, and the driver, with great courage and presence of mind, crossed to the other line and drove back over the other, still standing bridge, identical to the one which had just collapsed, to report the accident. There were no telephones or telegraphs in those early days. Over the river, the apparent nature of the four tracks is revealed, as the two southern pairs of rails are the GW line to Wrexham, Shrewsbury, Wolverhampton and further away, and the northern pair are the LNW line, following the North Wales coast, across the Menai Straits and Anglesey to Holyhead for the Irish traffic. How the Great Western would have loved to have that traffic! There were several LMSR/GWR Joint lines in our home area between Chester, Helsby and the Wirral. The LNWR/LMS and GWR may have been deadly rivals, but what railways they were! Both companies paid good, and frequently, excellent, dividends to their owners throughout their existences, right to the end - unlike two other railways I could mention!

(Above-right and Below) Caption pending for for the Roodee Bridge shots…WR unknown Hall class date 10 April.1952…(Below) Class 8F 48290 on same day…both ER Morten



Chester's other station was Northgate, situated across the Shropshire Union Canal (in a very deep sandstone cutting) from the Northgate in the city's Roman walls. This was the Chester terminus of the Cheshire Lines Committee Railway, a Joint railway company, whose route mileage was mainly in [what was then] Lancashire. Chester Northgate, like the western end of General, also opened out onto a triangular junction, with lines going to Connah's Quay in North Wales in one direction, and to Manchester Central, via many stations serving small villages plus the towns of Knutsford  and Northwich in the other.
This line crossed the GWR/LNWR Joint line from Chester to Manchester via Helsby, Frodsham and Warrington soon after leaving Chester, at Mickle Trafford. There was a sharp S bend where the later CLC line crossed over the older route, and the two lines kissed and parted. There are two underbridges of very different designs, one an arch, the other, girders. The connecting pointwork, removed in 1875, was reinstated in 1968, and the track west to Northgate lifted, since when all trains go into General over the older route. Nothing is left of Northgate Station or the CLC in Chester, save earthworks.
The other terminus of this line and of many other CLC routes was Manchester Central, another Joint Station, principally owned by the Midland Railway. This too, closed in about 1969, became a car park for a while, and is now famous as an exhibition centre. This Cheshire Lines railway from Chester Northgate to Manchester Central always seemed an oddity. This was because, fifteen and more years after Nationalisation, it was powered by Eastern Region locos, in a faint but surely economically ludicrous echo of its former Status as a Joint Railway.
My other memory of such interlopers is of a steam-hauled day trip from Brackley to London Marylebone and back in the early Sixties, on the greatest of all former Joint Railways, the Great Central. There seemed to be much slipping and clanking - aka the 'Gresley ring' - going on! Neither to be seen or heard in the West, or any of the nearby LMS or GW lines. There probably wasn't much in the way of enthusiasm for the job, as the line closed not long after. This Joint Railway was the fruit of the union between the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway, doing its damnedest to get into London, and the Metropolitan, busting a gut to get out! The M S & L ('Money Sunk & Lost') and partners formed the G C ('Gone Completely') which never did pay any dividends, and was a drain on its successor, the LNER. The tragedy of the closure of this superb, beautifully engineered line, built to the Berne or European loading gauge is, I suppose, matched only by the irony that there are now battles going on to reinstate it in the form of HS2 - barely two generations later!

(Below) This is the splendid view from the footbridge spanning the platforms at the north end of Crewe station; the Manchester line is to the right, the Liverpool and WCML route to the North in the centre, and the Chester lines are on the left. Crewe North Junction signalbox is prominent in the centre and part of the Works is visible behind it on the horizon left. Stanier 'Coronation' 8P 4-6-2 No. 46236 City of Bradford approaches Crewe in 1957 with the 10.15 Manchester London Road to Bournemouth West 'Pines Express'. The mobile gas-cylinders are probably for replenishing the reservoirs on kitchen-cars. Click HERE to visit the geograph.org.uk webpage.



I regret that I lost my Ian Allen 1963 'combo' many years ago, and the only spotting record I now have is in a Woolworth's Winfield notebook of a day at Crewe 51 years ago. (Winfield was what the W in F W Woolworth stood for. Little did I think then that Woolworths. along with almost all of these engines, would be history). Here is the list copied from my notebook:

                                           Crewe Sunday 10 March 1963
                                              North end of station. 
                 This trip may have also included a visit to Crewe Works, I can't remember.

I've inserted a '?' after any which are not clear; I think the rest are correct...
42583 46144 47297 5995? 46155 73067 43525 E3078 E3097 E3081 E3071 E3016 E3076 E3002 E3079 45046 47310 [could be 47380] 84022 43977 42380 47959 48748 45250 45426 45353 D338 46162 70018 E3031 E3052 E3088 E3062 E3022 M50471 M59179 M50523 45250 48748 E3019 47505 45669 E3055 D336 46162 D209 D329 D322 46248 46253 45251 45446 61384? 45567 46243 78030 71000 44081 70050 70054 44759 44681 46063 D227 45444 49448 4907? 45721 46254 70052 41212 D858 D819 D297 D311 45353 71000 44681 45556 46243 46238 45567 44680 45270 46157 5426? 44352 46243 47618 43959 47658 44373 47380 D57 77661 46154 46159 D1056-73 [Westerns under construction in the Works?] D340 D300 D266 D224 D235 46203 D369 D581 D330 45726 42065 92076 92092 40512 70051 98108 92108 92043 92231 4831? 92163 48358 92211 48275 48246 92087 45040 45422? 92044 44088 45580 45004 78019 92007 82044 D215 D292 D223 D326 D221 D303 45325 45093 43187 44730? 48511 45387 92004 44848 44781 92231 45040 45154 45441 45247 92009 48037 92076 92069 46203 D381 45560 48414 49106 45318 48174…
46465 (this looks as if it might be 46265, which did not exist, perhaps 46256 Sir William A Stanier FRS? - wishful thinking is all this can be now!) 86136 (I guess this should be 80136?) 48002 48438 48417? 43275 42189 45102 45200 45550? 46230 45275 D370 D341 48388 D299 46424 D296 D318 92220 49395 1057 44894 45349 45297 46880?-46080? 46238 46236 47618 46495 D221 D233 D375 D325 D333 44683 42959 3876 [?- 43876?] 46035 48444 44450 92097 45656 46486 45409 45474 90714 78031 78055 70047 47677 47354 78031 47330 43034 45000 47615 45067 70023 70037 47482 45634 42965 92077 45005 48309 42984 45000 47406 48516 47467 47354 47677 47384 75057 78055 45000 47648 47450 45420 45158 43418 45392? 70007  44834 44688? 70007 70037 70027.
(Hugh Peate's article continues further down the page)

FOOTNOTE. I've have received an email from contributor Phil James, who has two articles - 'The Quest for Cops 1-2' - featured on the 'Train Spotting-2' HERE.
Phil writes…'David, I have been working my way through your site and came across an article by Hugh Peate featuring list of engines seen at Crewe on March 10th 1963 (above). In the early 1960s, the West Coast Main Line between Rugby and Crewe was my hunting ground, but I could spend a whole day there and hardly `cop` anything. The main hope was that a Scottish-based engine might have managed to avoid being taken of its train at Carlisle or that an interesting `foreigner` might be on its way to or from Crewe Works.
Hugh lists 46230 Duchess of Buccleuch as seen that day. This was my last 'Duchess' and to see it I had to visit 66A Polmadie in April 1963 when it was tucked away in the confines of the shed, in store I believe, along with most of the other 66A Duchesses. If it was at Crewe in March, this must have been one of its last workings. Also at Crewe that day were 'Britannias' 70037 Hereward the Wake and 70007 Coeur-de-Lion. I am not an expert, but I was under the impression that the Eastern Brits went to Doncaster for overhauls. Why were they there 9 months or so before they were transferred to Carlisle? No doubt someone with far more knowledge than me can provide an answer. 70037 was the only Brit that managed to avoid me despite two trips to Carlisle and being allowed around Kingmoor on both occasions, courtesy of a kind foreman.
I have saved the best to last. Also listed that day were 'Black 5s' Nos 45154 Lanarkshire Yeomanry and 45158 Glasgow Yeomanry. Along with 45157, these named Scottish based Stanier 5s were incredibly rare to all of us who lived south of the border. On two shed bashes to Scotland I only managed to see 45158, but did not realise until later. I had not slept for a long time and I think I was on auto-pilot by the time I went round Eastfield. Amazingly, to me at least, Hugh Peate does not mention any of the above engines as the interesting ones seen. If I had been at Crewe that day in March 19 63 I would have gone home with a huge smile on my face which would probably have taken a week to disappear. I suppose it was all about being in the right place at the right time. Regards, Phil James...'

In response to Phil's query regarding the Eastern Region 'Britannias' Nos 70007 and 70037, there is an interesting in-depth study of all the BR Standard Class 7MTs Nos 70000-70054 by Derek Dean on Pages 90-92 HERE.
Derek adds...'The fate of the 'Britannia' Pacifics was in the balance during 1963, but the plain fact of the matter is that the engines were a little over 10/11 years old at the time which saved them from complete annihilation, although this was little more than a stay of 'execution'.
No Britannias were recorded as entering Doncaster Works beyond late 1962, all being maintained at Crewe thereafter, while nine class members were stored at March depot (31B) for the best part of 1963. No 70007 Coeur-de-Lion was a fixture at Crewe for interminable chassis frame repairs (cylinder mounting brackets) and No 70037 Hereward the Wake had been serviced at Crewe and was most likely stored there pending their collective future employment.

(Inset right) A sorrowful 'Britannia' No 70007 Coeur-de-Lion awaits the 'off' with a northbound express from Lancaster (Castle) Station in July 1964. No 70007 was the first of the class to be withdrawn on 19th June 1965, and the only Britannia to be taken out of service from Crewe Works. The engine was stored at Crewe South depot for a short time before being cut up at the Works in July 1965.

                                    LMSR AND OTHER RAILWAY MATTERS 2
                                                 by Hugh Peate

Steam, diesel and electric locos! During my visit to Crewe in 1963 the really surprising one was 71000 Duke of Gloucester, which I jotted down several times. I think he must have been working that day, as it seems unlikely that we would have logged a static loco more than once, although he was said to be stored out of use by this time. Maybe we saw him twice in the Works? How I wish I had a clear memory of it! I was very surprised to see 71000 again at Barry about ten years later, and was convinced by the state he was in then, that he would never steam again, like the two Kings 6023 and 6024 seen there. These three are all preserved in working order. We saw and cabbed a King, 6012, I think, at Shrewsbury, which must have been in 1962, the last year they ran on BR. I saw 6024 working there again 45 years later. Other notable engines from that Crewe day include 92220, 45000 and 46203 - Princess Margaret Rose.



(Above-Below) Designed at Derby and built at Crewe Works in May 1954, the unique Class 8 Pacific 71000 Duke of Gloucester was intended to represent the pinnacle of modern British locomotive development, but No 71000 was unpopular with crews for being a shy steamer and after only a short working life based at Crewe North MPD the locomotive was withdrawn from traffic in November 1962 and languished at Crewe for a long period pending a decision on its future. Following the removal of the loco's outside cylinders for display at the Science Museum London, a bizarre mix up resulted in the condemned 71000 being sent initially to the wrong scrapyard at Cashmore's in Newport instead of Woodham Bros in Barry. Had it stayed at Cashmore's there is no doubt that it would not have survived, but in the event it ended up at Woodham Brothers where its rescue led to one of the most remarkable restorations in the preservation movements. The dilapidated No 71000 was photographed at Barry on 13 August 1966



Below) Rail Cameraman Keith Long certainly has an eye for a good shot. Not content with the usual three-quarter angle, he chose a viewpoint from the turntable pit at Carnforth shed to photograph two 'Princess Royal' class locomotives in store: 46203 Princess Margaret Rose, the first of the modified design, withdrawn in October 1962 but now preserved - along with the first of the original design, 46200 Princess Royal, withdrawn in November 1962 and scrapped at Connell Union Works, Coatbridge in October 1964. Click HERE to visit Keith's page; links are provided to his 'Cabsaab900' flickr site, well worth a visit.



Inset left & inset right) An interesting shot of newly-built 'Royal Scot' class No 6115 in its original LMSR form with parallel boiler. Constructed in 1927 by the North British Locomotive Company in Glasgow, No 6115 was later named Scots Guardsman. A Longsight engine for most of its life the now-preserved 6115 was the last of the class to be rebuilt with a new tapered type 2A boiler by the LMSR in 1947. (Inset Right) In 1933 the LMS was invited to send a locomotive and train to the 'Century of Progress' exhibition in Chicago USA. It was decided to send a 'Royal Scot' class and the locomotive selected to assume the identity of the doyen of the class, No 6100, is generally regarded as being No 6152 The King's Dragoon Guardsman, which was due a general overhaul at that time. On its return from the USA, the locomotive was fitted with an enlarged nameplate with details of its appearance at the exhibition. This is a close up of the nameplate and commemorative plaque, including the name of the driver, fireman and fitter who accompanied the locomotive on its visit to the Chicago World Fair and tour of the USA and Canada. The photo was taken by Keith Long…click HERE to visit Keth's fantastic 'Cabsaab900' flickr photostream

David, on the Crewe page 8 and LMR-1 page 27, you write - 'Prior to accelerating the Anglo-Scottish expresses on the West Coast in 1927, the LMS took the unusual step of borrowing a 'Castle' class 4-6-0 from the GWR for tests between Euston and Carlisle. The performance of the GWR engine proved superior to the LMSR's 'Claughtons', so a decision was taken to dispense with Sir Henry Fowler's planned 3-cylinder compound and 4-cylinder compound Pacifics, and an order was placed with the North British Locomotive Company of Glasgow to build fifty 3-cylinder 4-6-0s with a parallel boiler and Belpaire firebox…'
This is a very vexed question. After the Grouping, the former Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway and former Midland Railway factions both wanted to prove their locomotives superior to those of the London & North Western Railway on the West Coast Main Line. The L&Y 4-6-0s were shown to be inadequate, and the Midland's biggest superheated locos, the Compounds, were only 4-4-0s - and there were only about 26 of them! Nevertheless, the Midland faction was in the ascendancy, and they wanted at first to show that their two dozen little engines could do the job! The 535 superheater locos from the LNWR were hauling the most intensive and heaviest - and most remunerative - traffic in Europe, and the LNWR had been known for decades as the 'Premier Line'. The Claughtons had produced impressive test results in 1913, and they were doing work greater than anything performed on the GWR. CJ Bowen-Cooke, the Chief Mechanical Engineer of the LNWR, had died tragically in 1920, and he had stated that he was 'going to take the Claughtons in hand'. They were being fitted with improved piston valve heads and various other modifications. It would be so interesting to know how these and other subsequent Crewe locos would have developed in the LMS era, given different management from the top. For instance, would the Pacifics have emerged with four cylinders in line driving the leading coupled axle, resulting in zero hammer-blow, like the Claughtons?
Zero hammer-blow means that the reciprocating parts are fully balanced, and there are no violent up-and-down forces on the track. The Claughtons were the only locos without nett out of balance forces. Anyhow, the realisation came that a few Compounds could not do the job. Railway politics reared their head (don't they always?) and a GWR Castle ran on trial on the Premier Line. It is a long story, resulting, via the scrapping of advanced work on another new design, in the Royal Scot class of locos, and the gradual dawning of a new era.
The real tragedy of the LMS was that it took ten years for the constituent Company factions to get into bed together amicably and work to the same end. Even so, there was much duplication of effort. For instance, the Royal Scots and the Patriots were very similar, the Scots being a new design, and the Pats were in fact 'accountant's rebuilds' of the Claughtons, meaning that they were really all-new engines - Derby had to have its go.
William Stanier arrived at the LMS at the end of those ten awful years. His brief was to start a drastic policy of scrap-and-build. This programme of work was almost complete when WW2 broke out, so there were just a few older locos surviving right through to BR days. Stanier's first express passenger locos, the Jubilees, were pretty much the same power as the Scots and Pats, and the three classes became very similar after various stages of rebuilding. Stanier also produced the legendary Class Five mixed traffic engines, known also as 'Black Fives' or 'Mickies, and the equally legendary 8F freight engines. And then the two series of Pacifics. William A Stanier was knighted and became an FRS. The penultimate Pacific was named after him - long after he retired. A truly great and modest man.

(Above-Below) A nameplate, measuring 75¾" long, the original paintwork touched up in places, went under the hammer for £20,000 at a Great Central Railwayana Auction in September 2015. Built at Crewe in 1944, the LMS Class 8P Princess Coronation 4-6-2 No 6250, later BR 46250, was formally named at a ceremony at Lichfield Trent Valley station by the Mayor of the Midlands city, Miss Agnes M Thompson, on 20 June 1944. (Below) This photo above shows the naming ceremony. Allocated new to Crewe North on 20 May 1944, 46250's later sheds included Polmadie, Camden and Upperby from where it was withdrawn during the week ending 12 September 1964 and sold for scrap to West of Scotland Shipbreaking at Troon. The engine was originally painted in the LMSR's black livery adopted by the company during the Second World War; this austere livery reduced the need for cleaning at a time of severe labour shortages. Click HERE to visit the National Railway Museum and SSP's 'Euston Photos' Collection.



Also on the Crewe page you have captioned a Jim Carter photo of 46238 City of Carlisle as follows - 'Although officially designated the 'Princess Coronation' class, the Stanier Class 8P Pacifics will always be called the 'Duchesses'. It seems an odd choice, seeing that of the 38 members of the class, only 10 - Nos 6225-6234 - were named after Duchesses. The remaining locos carried a proliferation of 'City' names, except for No 6257 Sir William Stanier FRS, named in honour of the LMSR's CME 1932-1944 at a ceremony held at Euston in December 1947...'Well David, another Stanier Pacific was named after a man - 46244 King George VI, and one was named after his Mother, 46222 Queen Mary. Locomotives have been named since Richard Trevithick's 'Catch-me-who-can' in 1808.

(Below) A locomotive nameplate 'City of Chester' as carried by the LMSR's 'Princess Coronation' class Pacific No 6239. Built at Crewe in September 1939 to Lot 150, the loco emerged from the works with a double chimney, streamlined casing and painted in red and gold livery. A year after the streamlined casing was removed the loco became 46239 upon nationalisation in. A long time allocation to Camden (1B) the loco moved to Willesden (1A) for a short time and finally Crewe North (5A) from where she was withdrawn in September 1964. The loco was broken up at Cashmores, Great Bridge in December 1964. The cast brass plate measuring 75" x 7½" is one of the original plates fitted when the locomotive was built in its streamlined form and originally bore chromed letters. BR took most of the chrome away, but this example has retained it around the edges. The back has a 2" wide cut away section which slotted into the streamline banding. The nameplate went under the hammer for £28,000 at a Sheffield Railwayana Auction in December 2008. Click HERE to visit the company's fascinating site.

West coast loco naming and numbering is ever fascinating. The first run of the City series were named and numbered in alphabetic and numeric order. There was then a three year break in production, in the middle of World War Two, and the alphabetical sequence was lost. When production resumed in 1943, it seems that Hereford was left out and added in later, and Salford came later still, after that place became a City, and in BR days - a nice touch. Hereford was the only City name used which was on a Joint line, not exclusively LMS territory. Bradford, Leeds, Leicester and Nottingham were on ex-Midland Railway routes normally barred to the Pacifics, although it is said that these locos all went to their namesakes for the nameplates to be unveiled. Just reading the names applied to the Patriots, Jubilees and Scots - and four Black Fives - is an enlightening exercise in itself.
Many of the names were recycled from Victorian times, and they include islands, colonies, regiments, poets, authors, statesmen, nurses, sailors, and soldiers, including distinguished holders of the VC.
There is a wonderful tale, dating from late Victorian days. Her Majesty's Comptroller was one Sir Charles Cust, known to be of an irascible and perfectionist turn of mind. The Royal Train was heading north overnight, and stopped at Crewe to change engines; it was always double-headed. The new pair had just backed onto the train, coupled up, and the brakes were being tested. Sir Charles strode up, and was delighted to see that the train engine was none other than 'Sir Charles Cust'. On he went to look at the pilot engine - named 'Vindictive'! For all its faults, and they were many, the LMS was the largest shareholder owned Company in the World at the time, and it paid good dividends to those shareholders - right to the end. I write this as a diehard fan of both the LNWR/LMS and of the GWR - which seems to make me very peculiar!
Finally, I do like geographical conundrums. Which of the Grouping era Companies had stations the furthest North, South, East and West? The answers are: LMS Thurso in the north; GWR Helston in the south; LNER Lowestoft in the east - and, very surprisingly, LNER Arisaig - the penultimate station on the line to Mallaig - which is a fraction of a degree further West than Penzance, Stranraer, Oban, and the Kyle of Lochalsh. 

(Below) Sporting a 28C Carstairs shedplate on the smokebox door, Fairburn 2-6-4T No 42173 awaits departure at Glasgow Central - superbly cleaned for the job. This is sporting the Caledonian rosette around the smokebox door handles and a 'Caley' semaphore route indicator. Lovely touches both, showing the pride of the shed and locomen, well into BR days.



                                         ALL CHANGE AT STAFFORD



Above-Below) Stafford railway station lies at the junction of the Trent Valley Line and the Rugby-Birmingham-Stafford Line on the West Coast Main Line. The first station was built by the Grand Junction Railway and opened in July 1837. This was replaced by a second station in 1844, followed by a third and more grandiose architectural style in 1862, but this was swept away by the present station which was built as part of the modernisation programme when the West Coast Main Line was electrified in 1962. Here Hughes 'Crab' 2-6-0 No 42723 at Stafford in 1960. (Below) With evidence of modernisation well underway - part of the platform canopy and support columns have been removed, and a poster showing electrification progress occupies the wall of the Ladies Room - a couple of spotters cast quizzical looks from behind 'Patriot' class 4-6-0 No 45528 REME at the head of an 'up' train. Built in April 1933, this former paralleled boilered 'Patriot' (Baby Scot) suffered the ignominy of remaining nameless for 26 years! Rebuilt in September 1948, it wasn't until September 1959 that No 45528 was named REME after the Corps of Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. The loco was among five members of the class withdrawn in1963; it was cut up at Crewe Works in April of that year.







(Above-Below) Ivan Whitehouse, who was a fireman on the Midland Bushbury Shed (3B) from 1957 to 1963, took these shots of Stafford station on a 'borrowed' camera in 1958. The first one shows Rebuilt 'Royal Scot' class No 46129 The Scottish Horse awaiting departure with a northbound train. (Below) 'Jubilee' class 4-6-0 No 45586 Mysore is standing in the south bay on platform 1.





(Above-Below) Missing its smokebox numberplate, Class 3F 0-6-0T No 47475 looks oddly antiquated whilst on station pilot duty at Stafford in 1958. An unusual feature of the 'Jinty' 0-6-0T was the position of the sandboxes; access was gained via a recess in the tank sides so that they could be filled. This shot by Ivan Whitehouse reminds me of my childhood days when Tri-ang produced a 00 gauge model of the Class 3F in the 1960s. Now am I the only one who assumed it was a clockwork model, that the hole in the side was for the key? Just one question...where does the word 'Jinty' come from? (Below) Whilst on the subject of nicknames for locos, how long will it be before the colloquial use of the term 'Black 5' is construed as racially offensive? This is not as daft as it may sound. The irony of today's barmy PC world can be judged by a recent court case involving two Premiership players and an alleged racist remark during a game. Now I'm not about to go into the ins-and outs of it here; what I will say is that when the media covered the day's evidence in court - the one word deemed offensive enough to warrant a court case was the only one that did not require censorship…the rest (swear words) were obliterated in a blizzard of asterisks…the offensive word, of course, was 'black'…it's a crazy world. Here 'Stanier 'Black 5' No 44949 pilots 'Britannia' class 7MT No 70046 Anzac on a 'down' express through Stafford in 1960. (Inset above) A nameplate from the BR Standard Britannia Class 4-6-2 No 70046 Anzac went under the hammer for £8,000 at a great Central Railwayana Auction in April 2011. Built at Crewe and named in September 1959, No 70046 was allocated new to Holyhead in July 1954 and later Crewe North, Longsight, Willesden, Aston, then back to Holyhead again, before being transferred to Banbury and finally Carlisle Upperby from where it was withdrawn during the first week of July 1967. It was sold to Campbells, Airdrie on 3 October 1967. The loco takes its name from the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps formed during WW1.





(Above-Below) For many years the West Coast Main Line had to operate under the baleful influence of modernisation. The nature of engineering work required for the installation of electrification masts included the lifting of road bridges, or lowering of track level to obtain the neccessary clearance for the overhead catenary. The WCML from Euston to Crewe required work on 78% of the 904 bridges concerned, whilst on the 44 mile between Crewe and Manchester, 82% of the bridges had to be rebuilt. Inevitably, the phase of modernisation involved prolonged disruption of train services. The bridge clearance work involved can be gleaned from this shot of EE Co Type 4 No D218 - later to be named Carmania in July 1961 - heading through Stafford in 1960. The EE locomotives Nos D210-D235 were named after ships operated by the companies Cunard Line, Elder Dempster Lines, and Canadian Pacific Steamships, which were associated with sailings to the port of Liverpool. (Below) The stunning images from the NMSI collection show the quality of poster art to be seen on station platforms across the country during the 1950-60s. For the record, the NMSI family is comprised of four award-winning museums, each with their own diverse identity: the Science Museum, the National Media Museum and, of course, the National Railway Museum (NRM) at York which houses the world's pre-eminent railway collection. Spread across three halls, the Great Hall - formerly the steam engine shed (50A) - is complete with a working turntable, while the Station Hall (previously York's central goods depot) is now laid out like a 'period' railway station. However, the NMSI's full collection is so big that only 8% of the artefacts are on public view. The rest are hidden-away just off the M4, on an ex-WW2 airfield. The Science Museum Swindon is a massive site housing collections ranging from the iconic Lockheed Constellation airliner to super computers, bicycles and the last Fleet Street printing press. The NMSI Collections Online is a superb website which displays countless thousands of objects including a range of fabulous railway travel posters...a visit is highly recommended. This British Railways (London Midland Region) poster - 'London Midland Electrification' was painted by John Greene in 1963 and depicts an AL1 class (later known as Class 81) locomotive with a passenger train in the new Stafford station. An electric multiple unit is waiting at an adjacent platform. The text beneath reads - 'Manchester, Liverpool, Crewe, Birmingham, London, still making good progress'



(Below) A mention must be made of the LMS-Patriot Project's praiseworthy aim to build a new 'Patriot' class steam locomotive to be completed in time for the 100th Anniversary of the Armistice in 2018. The new engine will be named 'The Unknown Warrior' upholding the tradition of former railway companies (in this case, the LNWR and LMS) who bestowed war memorial names on engines to commemorate the brave men and women who served the country in wartime. Click here to visit the site.





(Above) When HG Ivatt became CME at the LMS, his aim was to improve the performance of existing steam classes and several modifications were made to a batch of Stanier 'Black 5' 4-6-0s, including the replacement of the Walschaerts valve gear with the Caprotti variety. Additionally, several members of the class were fitted with double blast pipes and chimneys, including No 44687, seen here at Stafford on 3rd June 1952.







(Above-Below) Following the energisation of overhead catenaries on the West Coast Main Line south of Crewe (where the wires had been installed to clear 13ft 1ins loading gauge instead of the normal 13ft 6ins height gauge) diagonal yellow stripes were painted across the cabside of locomotives denoting their prohibition from working in electrified areas. The relaxation in clearance was permitted by the Minister of Transport to avoid the costly programme of rebuilding certain bridges and tunnels. Some of the classes prohibited included: 'Royal Scots'; 'Patriots'; 'Jubilees'; Class 4F, 7Fs and 'Coronation' Pacifics which carried the compulsory cabside stripe. The engines permitted to work in electrifies areas had their smokebox door lamp bracket moved to a lower position to prevent locomen climbing up to chimney height in the vicinity of the 25kV overhead wires. There is still four years to go in these shots of 'Jubilee' class No 45556 Novia Scotia (above) and 45688 Polyphemus (below) before the official ban south of Crewe began on September 1st 1964.



                                                  ER MORTEN GALLERY

When Mr Morten's railway photos first appeared on the Internet a lot of people expressed interest in buying his work. All enquiries regarding the purchase of photographs should be made to Jeremy Suter, custodian of his negatives, by email to pa.suter@tiscali.co.uk (In order to avoid spam this is not a 'clickable' mail-to link). Also please note I am not affiliated with the sale of ERM's photos in any way, merely passing on a contact address.



















                                                     LONDON TERMINI



(Above) Midland Pullman at St Pancras station on 15th June 1962. Initially shown to the general public at Marylebone Station on June 23rd 1960 these trains were a revelation on the railways of the day. There were five trains, comprised of two six-car sets having first class only, which ran the Midland services, and the three eight-car sets, which ran between Paddington and Bristol and also between Paddington and Wolverhampton via Birmingham, which had first and second class accommodation. The Midland Pullman entered service between London St Pancras and Manchester on 4th July 1960 and ceased at the start of electric-hauled trains between Manchester and Euston.

(Below) A pair of unframed carriage prints comprising 'St Pancras Station, London' by Claude Buckle and the 'The Entrance to Euston Station, London' by Claude Buckle, both from the LMR Railway Architecture Series, went under the hammer for £180 at a Great Western Railwayana Auction in April 2015.

(Below) Sporting a 55A (Holbeck) shedplate on the smokebox door, Caprotti 'Black 5' No 44755 rests at the buffer stops at St Pancras on 2nd August 1961.





(Above-Inset-Below) The official photographer captures an interesting display of advertisements near the entrance to the gentlemen's toilets at Euston station in 1944. Although government propaganda posters were produced in large numbers during World War II, commercial advertising continued unabated; here we see posters for Mackintosh's Quality Street chocolates, Swan Vesta matches, Duraflex shoes, Beecham's Lung Syrup, Dewar's White Label whisky, military uniform tailors and religious tracts. (Inset) An elevated view of Euston's Platform 13 prior to departure of 'The Royal Scot' circa 1933. Introduced in 1862, the Anglo-Scottish express left Euston station daily at 10 am for the 400 mile journey to Glasgow. (Below) 'Royal Scot' class 4-6-0 locomotive No 6139 Welch Regiment makes a spirited start from Euston station in 1928. These photos are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike licence. In a nutshell, this means they are free for non-commercial use as long as you credit '© National Railway Museum and SSPL' and add a link to the page of origin, in this case, the NRM's Euston Collection HERE.





To be continued...