From the (digital) archives - part 1

I've mentioned before that I tend to focus on the less 'mainstream' aspects of railways and I think that this particular post pretty much confirms that…

I'm trying to get my digital photographic archive in some sort of order at the moment and in doing so this image caught my eye.

Great Eastern Railway station seat from Yarmouth South Town, displayed at the NRM, 11/8/10

This is a Great Eastern Railway station seat from Yarmouth South Town station that was on display in the Station Hall at the National Railway Museum when I visited in 2010.

The station closed on 4 May 1970 and for more information I can do no better than point you in the direction of Nick Catford's Disused Stations website.

For hundreds of years Great Yarmouth was a major fishing port and the decoration on this seat reflects that: ropes, nets, fish and seashells all feature on the cast ends… Did the GER use this design anywhere else I wonder?

Guess where I've been…

p.54 of Preserved Locomotives of British Railways (15th ed.)
Reproduced here with permission from Platform 5 Publishing Ltd.

That's right, I went to 'The Great Gathering' at the National Railway Museum in York yesterday. Just as the opportunity to see Mallard at Grantham was too good to miss so was the chance to see all six preserved A4 locomotives together in one place.

Temporarily repatriated (from the U.S.A. and Canada respectively) as part of the celebration of MALLARD's world speed record in 1938, 60008 DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER (the former 4496) and 4489 DOMINION OF CANADA were on display along with the four A4s that are usually based at various locations around the UK. Yesterday was the last chance to see all six together in York but one further event is scheduled for February 2014 at Locomotion, the National Railway Museum at Shildon in Co. Durham.

The Great Gathering, 11/11/13, larger version here.

From left-right are:60007 SIR NIGEL GRESLEY, 60008 DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER, 60009 UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA, 4464 BITTERN, 4468 MALLARD and 4489 DOMINION OF CANADA.

If you're wondering how I managed a shot with no people in the way (Dad has already asked me this) then I must mention the 'Exclusive Access Mornings' that the NRM organised at a very reasonable £15 per person that were limited to 50 people per two-hour session. The NRM staff also recommended that everybody take their photographs from the turntable before wandering amongst the exhibits and getting in each others' way. Some distortion is evident in the above shot thanks to the ultra-wide angle 18mm lens (on a full-frame digital SLR camera) that I had to use to get all six locomotives in one shot but I can live with that.

The Great Gathering, 4464 BITTERN, 4468 MALLARD & 4489 DOMINION OF CANADA, 11/11/13

The Great Gathering, 60007 SIR NIGEL GRESLEY, 60008 DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER
& 60009 UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA, 11/11/13

I must thank Platform 5 Publishing Ltd. for allowing me to reproduce part of their Preserved Locomotives of British Railways book. I realised today that I've been buying Platform 5 spotting books for almost 30 years now so must definitely qualify as a satisfied customer.

Mallard at Grantham

LNER A4 class 4-6-2, 4468 MALLARD, 7/9/13

You may have noticed by now that I tend to photograph and write about the less 'mainstream' aspects of railways… It's not that I'm not interested in the mainstream, I'm just more interested in the weird and wonderful, the obscure and the forgotten…

That said, I couldn't pass up the chance of seeing the legendary London & North Eastern Railway A4 class 4-6-2 steam loco 4468 MALLARD when it was recently on display at Grantham as the centrepiece of the 'MALLARD the story of speed' exhibition commemorating the 75th anniversary of the world speed record of 125.88mph that MALLARD achieved on July 3 1938 on the slight downward grade of Stoke Bank just south of Grantham.

I arrived when the event was still over an hour away from opening to the public but there was no shortage of people lining up to poke their cameras through the fence to get photos in superb weather conditions!

The National Railway Museum have to be congratulated for allowing such an important exhibit as this to be displayed in this manner and I can only hope more such instances will follow… Anyone for the Midland Railway "Spinner" 4-2-2 No.118 at Derby station?