From the (Vuescanned) archives - Vic Berry

Easter 1987. I'd lost interest in railways for a little while (for the usual reasons, girls, beer, music, not necessarily in that order though) and was travelling through Leicester by coach when I spotted this.

Vic Berry's scrapyard in Leicester, 1987

Vic Berry's scrapyard, smack bang in the centre of Leicester. I fired off a few frames with my increasingly unreliable Zenit TTL camera and this is the only one that survives.

Piles of EMU and Mk.1 coach bodies on the left, a stack of what look like Mk.1 GUV bodies on the right (in the background) and a heap of Class 25 cabs in the foreground! The wasp-striped end of the yard's shunter 03069 (the former D2069) is also just visible on the right hand side.

The yard was on the site of the former Great Central Railway Braunstone Gate goods yard and the former GCR warehouse can be seen in centre of the picture. A serious fire in 1991 led to the yard's closure and in 1996/97 the site was redeveloped as 'Bede Island' a small commercial and residential area with streets named after herbs and spices. Even the bridge the photo was taken from is no more, Upperton road has been considerably lowered and apart from the River Soar only a footpath passes beneath now.

My interest in railways returned but I regret not making the short journey back to Leicester (with the Zenit's replacement, an Olympus OM-1) for another look.

Incidentally, 03069 managed to survive the scrapyard's clutches and the fire and can now be found at the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway.

Cab ride in 33035!

This weekend I got to do something that I've never managed to do before, have a cab ride in a mainline diesel loco. The Pioneer Diesel Locomotive Group's 33035 (the former D6553) was the locomotive in question and although the ride was a short one what it lacked in length in made up for in steepness!

33035 at the top of the Ravenstor Incline, 5/10/13

After spending five months under repair 33035 was undergoing testing of its electrical system on the 1 in 27 Ravenstor Incline at Wirksworth on the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway in Derbyshire.

View of the Ravenstor Incline from the Secondman's seat of 33035, 5/10/13

After a spirited ride up the incline there was time for a brief chat with Mike Jacobs and James from the PDLG about the loco itself, the railway and the local quarries that were one of the reasons that the line was built in the first place (and why it remained open until the late 1980s) before a more sedate trip back down to Wirksworth station.

Thanks must go to the The Pioneer Diesel Locomotive Group and John Evans, the Duty Manager at the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway for making it possible.

A railway related pint - The Alexandra Hotel, Derby

In addition to my love of railways I'm also very fond of a pint of real ale and am never happier than when I can combine the two such as at The Alexandra Hotel in Derby.

Situated on Siddals Road, a (very) short walk from the station the Alexandra is now owned by the Castle Rock Brewery from Nottingham and naturally serves their beers but also has a good number of guest ales on at any one time too (as befits the birthplace of Derby CAMRA in 1974).

The bar of the Alexandra Hotel, Siddals Road, Derby, 26/9/13

The bar is packed with railway memorabilia, ranging from photographs and signs through to an illuminated colour light signal and there's plenty to interest the enthusiast while inside the pub. More signs can be found outside as can a very recent arrival in the form of the No.1 end cab from Class 37, 37411 (or English Electric type 3 D6990 depending on your age).

Railway signs and the No.1 cab of 37411 (D6990), 26/9/13

I only had time for a quick drink but my pint of Castle Rock 'Elsie Mo' was perfect, very smooth and not too bitter and the pub itself was friendly and comfortable and I can thoroughly recommend it if you're in the area.

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?

Signalbox Safari - Postland

Postland signalbox (Lincolnshire), 3/8/13

I was tipped off to this particular signalbox by a tweet on the Railways Illustrated twitter feed a few weeks ago and decided to pay a visit.

Postland was a station on the Great Northern and Great Eastern Joint Railway line between Spalding in Lincolnshire and Whitemoor Jn. north of March in Cambridgeshire that opened in 1867. Named Crowland until 1871, Postland station closed in September 1961 but the line remained open until 27 November 1982 after which all traffic was diverted via Peterborough. I'm not sure when local services between Spalding and March ceased but the line was in use by long-distance trains linking East Anglia and the north right up until the end.

The Signalbox itself is a Great Northern Railway 'type 1' dating from 1882 and amazingly still contains it's original 35-lever frame. I can only assume that the cut-off rear corner of the box is to provide extra clearance for the road which curves sharply at this point.

Postland signalbox lever frame, 3/8/13

I should point out here (before somebody else does) that strictly the section of line between Whitemoor Jn. and Spalding wasn't 'Joint' at all, being opened solely by the Great Northern Railway but is regarded as being part of the GN&GE.

Other boxes on the line also survive, notably at Cowbit and French Drove & Gedney Hill but have been (or are being) converted into private homes and as such enthusiasts may not be able (or welcome) to view them.

Coincidences…

When I first encountered the 0-4-0VBT locomotives built by De Winton of Carnarvon I was immediately struck by how 'cobbled together' they looked, seeming to be part locomotive, part coffee-pot!
Now this turns out to be a bit of a coincidence strewn entry because the family of a close friend of mine always refer to anything that looks cobbled together as being 'George Henry'd' after an ancestor who was quite adept at what I would call 'the art of bodging' so during my recent visit to the Narrow Gauge Railway Museum I just had to take a photograph of a De Winton locomotive named 'GEORGE HENRY' that was used in the Slate Quarries at Penrhyn.

De Winton 0-4-0VBT GEORGE HENRY, NGRM, 16/8/13

I showed the photo to my friend and after much rummaging in cupboards she produced the photo below, coincidentally showing the subjects of my last post DOWIE and TOMMY with none other than (her grandfather) George Henry himself on the footplate!

DOWIE, TOMMY and George Henry Henson, date unknown
Photo courtesy of the Henson family archive.

It turns out that George Henry Henson was one of a number of family members that worked either in the quarry at Crich or on George Stephenson's mineral railway and along with his brother, Harold, was consulted during the writing of the book 'The Crich Mineral Railways' published in 1971 that first sparked my interest in the line.

What a small world we live in…

Derbyshire railway history… In Wales!

This week I finally got to pay my first visit to the Talyllyn Railway, and amazingly (given my  track record where visits to Wales are concerned) in glorious weather!

Whilst waiting for No.1 'TALYLLYN' to arrive with our train Joy and I had a wander around the Narrow Gauge Railway Museum at Tywyn Wharf and came across these…

HODDER, TOMMY & DOWIE nameplates, NGRM, 16/8/13

HODDER, TOMMY and DOWIE, nameplates from three steam locomotives that once worked a line very close to where I grew up (albeit well before my time!)

The line in question was (unusually for the UK) a metre gauge concern that carried limestone from Cliff Quarry in Crich, Derbyshire (now home to the Crich Tramway Village) down to lime kilns by the side of the North Midland Railway line at Ambergate, constructed by none other than George Stephenson, renowned as the 'Father of Railways' and was opened in 1841 using a mixture of self-acting inclines and horses to move the wagons.

DOWIE was the first steam locomotive to arrive in 1893 being constructed by Markham and Co. Ltd. of Chesterfield at a cost of £500. A De Winton & Co. 'coffee-pot' purchased from an unknown source in 1899 became the first of two locomotives to be named TOMMY but wasn't a huge success, eventually being replaced by a secondhand locomotive identical to DOWIE built in 1889 by Oliver & Co. Ltd. of Chesterfield (who later changed their name to Markham and Co.)

HODDER (a Peckett dating from 1924) was the fourth and final steam locomotive bought for the line in 1934 from William Twigg, an engineering dealer at Matlock. A much larger locomotive than DOWIE and TOMMY, HODDER had to be cut-down in size but even with a severely truncated chimney it still only cleared the village tunnel roof by a couple of inches.

Cliff Quarry (although reopened at a later date in a limited capacity) and the railway closed in May 1957 without ceremony and as far as I am aware none of the steam locomotives survive.