Peterborough North

[manna]

G'day Gents.

 

I always found that there was a lot of 'Condensation' in signal boxes, the kettle was always on.

 

manna

[great northern]

Still taken during engineer's possession. The rear of the old engine shed. Nice window.

and what you would have seen as you came up the station approach.

Time for gym.

[31A]

I hope the Engineer's Possession was productive ... !

[great northern]

I hope the Engineer's Possession was productive ... !

It was, but there weren't actually all that many immediately visible results.

[great northern]

Another picture, and another example of that cameraman's fascination with the District Engineer's area.

I don't know what he sees in it..... except for the odd crate or oil drum.

[manna]

G'day Gents

 

The engineers area should be filled with old wagons, old coaches, with steps up to them, maybe and old crane, sleepers, rails, surely, you've got a boxful of old stuff (like most of us) hidden away.

 

manna

[great northern]

This evening, the camera is pointed at the Sentinel again.

and then a couple of minutes walk allows this shot to be obtained from the old engine shed yard.

The V2 pilot looks rather less run down, for a change. I shall have to check why the engine shed is resting on the ballast.

[St Enodoc]

This evening, the camera is pointed at the Sentinel again.

sentinel.JPG

and then a couple of minutes walk allows this shot to be obtained from the old engine shed yard.

pilot and vans.JPG

The V2 pilot looks rather less run down, for a change. I shall have to check why the engine shed is resting on the ballast.

Nobody hurt in small earthquake.

[great northern]

Altogether now. Oh no, not again! The difference in level was caused by that earthquake. Seriously, the board has moved a fraction, probably when I hit my head on it while crawling underneath.

station forecourt by way of a change.

 

 

[chaz]

Most inconsiderate of someone to park their bike right in front of the timetable.

 

Is the bloke with the suitcases Brahms? - I certainly worry for his safety if he makes it to the platform.

 

Chaz

[St Enodoc]

Most inconsiderate of someone to park their bike right in front of the timetable.

 

Is the bloke with the suitcases Brahms? - I certainly worry for his safety if he makes it to the platform.

 

Chaz

Looks like it.

 

"The rolling English drunkard made the rolling English road".

[great northern]

Most inconsiderate of someone to park their bike right in front of the timetable.

 

Is the bloke with the suitcases Brahms? - I certainly worry for his safety if he makes it to the platform.

 

Chaz

 

 

Looks like it.

 

"The rolling English drunkard made the rolling English road".

Would you struggle to stand up straight while dealing with the aftershock from a small earthquake? Especially with those heavy cases to handle as well?  Show some compassion, chaps.

[mullie]

Most inconsiderate of someone to park their bike right in front of the timetable.

 

Is the bloke with the suitcases Brahms? - I certainly worry for his safety if he makes it to the platform.

 

Chaz

If he's Brahms he should be well underground by now 'decomposing.!

[great northern]

Once more unto the DE, dear friends....

but then, fearing mutterings of discontent, a picture that actually features a train, in this case the Down Fair Maid, with Quicksilver in charge.

 

[Market65]

There's actually two to be seen, and very nice they both are. I hope we can get to see more of Quicksilver and her train. Also the B1 and her train, please, Gilbert. Thank you.

 

With best regards,

 

Rob.

[Hawk]

 This may sound silly, but I just compose a shot, fiddle with manual setting on the camera till the exposure  looks right to me, and fire away. It is a very good little camera, so it deserves any credit really.

 

 

It seems to work very well! May I ask what type of camera you are using?

[great northern]

It seems to work very well! May I ask what type of camera you are using?

It is a Canon power shot G12. Lovely little thing.

[great northern]

I still have a few more of those "nothing moving" shots, the next one being a view of that lovely canopy on Platform 6, with no train to obscure it.

When trains restarted though, the progress of the Fair Maid was closely followed.

[scottystitch]

G'day Gents.

 

I always found that there was a lot of 'Condensation' in signal boxes, the kettle was always on.

 

My father delights in telling me stories of his Grandfather, whose duty location for a time was Hilton Junction, just south of Perth. Signalman's tea in the 40's, 50's and 60's apparently didn't use a kettle, the tea pot was placed on the stove and throughout the shift would receive repeat amounts of tea leaves, without removing the previously entered leaves, and replacement water as the progressively tar-like stew was consumed....

 

 

Grandad was later one of the first signalman to serve at the then new Perth Powerbox, where such activities were rather frowned upon.

[TrevorP1]

My father delights in telling me stories of his Grandfather, whose duty location for a time was Hilton Junction, just south of Perth. Signalman's tea in the 40's, 50's and 60's apparently didn't use a kettle, the tea pot was placed on the stove and throughout the shift would receive repeat amounts of tea leaves, without removing the previously entered leaves, and replacement water as the progressively tar-like stew was consumed....

 

 

Grandad was later one of the first signalman to serve at the then new Perth Powerbox, where such activities were rather frowned upon.

 

 

I clicked 'like' because it is an amusing and 'classic' tale. But as a confirmed coffee drinker who cannot abide tea it actually sounds awful! Yuk!

 

Reminds me of a tale from an ex-footplateman friend who positioned the drivers tea can under the leaking regulator gland in the cab, goodness knows that that ended up tasting like or at what point the poor driver noticed...

[great northern]

Tonight's picture comes rather earlier than usual, and shows one of the immediately noticeable changes that occurred when Peter visited on Sunday. it also gives me the chance to show another of the occasional model/prototype comparisons which I like to try now and again, just to see how things are coming on really. The prototype photo is again shown courtesy of, and acknowledging copyright of Andrew C Ingram.

Cambridge B17 Lambton Castle, resting by the rudimentary coaling stage near the DE area. Quite a late picture, I think. Please note the water column by the loco's tender, which is the reason for the comparison photo.

And here is the model. I don't have Lambton Castle, a loco I never saw, so Milton agreed to stand in, though I could perhaps have found a loco with the late crest instead. The change is, as hinted above, the water column, which was the last one on the layout that had not been cut down to somewhere nearer to scale size, and which has now been suitably cut and shut.

 

As usual, there are glaring divergences from the real thing, not least of which is that for once my photo is somewhat sharper than the original. I did try very hard to get this as close as possible, and with Peter's assistance established where Vic Fincham must have been standing when he pointed the camera at 61623. Unfortunately when I put my camera in that spot, all I achieved was to get a lot of other stuff in shot that shouldn't be there, so this is about as near as I can get. So, we have background buildings in the wrong places, loco at the wrong angle, not enough of the coaling stage in shot, and the water crane is "wrong" in several details.

 

However, it looks a lot more "right" than it used to, and doesn't dwarf everything around it, as it used to. There is so much compression at this end of the layout that I have to accept I can never get anything very close to the real thing, but in the end I'm very pleased that this is not that far out. After all, the pub on the corner of Bright Street is only the length of a B17 away from where it should be, so that really isn't very far, is it? Having said all that, I may have another go at this when I have more time.

[great northern]

Another of my random "I wonder what it looks like from here" shots is first up today.

but then a return to normality, as we go back to following the progress of the Fair Maid on its way Northwards.

[chaz]

Tonight's picture comes rather earlier than usual, and shows one of the immediately noticeable changes that occurred when Peter visited on Sunday. it also gives me the chance to show another of the occasional model/prototype comparisons which I like to try now and again, just to see how things are coming on really. The prototype photo is again shown courtesy of, and acknowledging copyright of Andrew C Ingram.

61623.jpg

Cambridge B17 Lambton Castle, resting by the rudimentary coaling stage near the DE area. Quite a late picture, I think. Please note the water column by the loco's tender, which is the reason for the comparison photo.

water crane.JPG

And here is the model. I don't have Lambton Castle, a loco I never saw, so Milton agreed to stand in, though I could perhaps have found a loco with the late crest instead. The change is, as hinted above, the water column, which was the last one on the layout that had not been cut down to somewhere nearer to scale size, and which has now been suitably cut and shut.

 

As usual, there are glaring divergences from the real thing, not least of which is that for once my photo is somewhat sharper than the original. I did try very hard to get this as close as possible, and with Peter's assistance established where Vic Fincham must have been standing when he pointed the camera at 61623. Unfortunately when I put my camera in that spot, all I achieved was to get a lot of other stuff in shot that shouldn't be there, so this is about as near as I can get. So, we have background buildings in the wrong places, loco at the wrong angle, not enough of the coaling stage in shot, and the water crane is "wrong" in several details.

 

However, it looks a lot more "right" than it used to, and doesn't dwarf everything around it, as it used to. There is so much compression at this end of the layout that I have to accept I can never get anything very close to the real thing, but in the end I'm very pleased that this is not that far out. After all, the pub on the corner of Bright Street is only the length of a B17 away from where it should be, so that really isn't very far, is it? Having said all that, I may have another go at this when I have more time.

 

It seems to me that your attitude to accuracy and compromise is spot on. You have attempted to portray a real place in a space which is not big enough*. Having accepted that some compromises are therefore inevitable your recreation of the scene at PN is admirable. If the chief way for one to spot deviations is a close comparison between photographs of the model and what existed there in '57 then I would argue that you have a winner. As a convincing backdrop to operating the ECML timetable of the time, well I for one are envious.

 

*Have you ever worked out just how much bigger the room would have to be to portray the station exactly to scale - say between the two overbridges?

 

Chaz

[Oldddudders]

The increasing visibility of the marvellous structures at PN in recent posts is hardly a disappointment, surely. Without them the fine trains would be running on beautifully laid and ballasted track in a desert. Peter L's work gives the place its distinctive character. The trains may be the principal actors - but the structures are their stage.

[chaz]

Another of my random "I wonder what it looks like from here" shots is first up today.

high van.JPG

but then a return to normality, as we go back to following the progress of the Fair Maid on its way Northwards.

15 1.JPG

 

I thought our agile photographer had shinned up one of those redundant canopy support pillars but looking at the alignment of the tracks I now think it more likely that he's on the roof of a van in the bay, or has climbed on to the tender of a parked loco'. Naughty boy, if he gets caught they will likely ban him from the station and all future photos will have to be taken from one of the bridges.