Peterborough North

[bigwordsmith]

32 minutes ago, great northern said:

Some questions there that on a broader front a lot of Governments would like to know the answers! Far too early to speculate, in my view, Peter. The media will of course give us gloom and doom, and the worst case scenario, but the truth is that no-one really knows the answers.  Viruses do mutate, and often weaken as they do so, and we have the team at Oxford University saying they have a vaccine which thay are 80% certain will work, and be available this year. What a difference just those two things would make.

 

Wait and see, dig in and cope, it is what it is for now, but may differ soon. One thing we've already learned is the value of having a creative hobby, so maybe demand will be greater in the future?

it’s probably because I spent twenty odd years advising Senior Management on how to navigate difficult times, Gilbert, that I tend to ask the awkward questions. 
 

in my experience,it’s the companies, and indeed governments that do that who tend to best survive.

 

right now, I just trying to survive each day - I’m going through the worst steroid crash I’ve ever had, and can’t even get out of bed!

[Tony Wright]

27 minutes ago, bigwordsmith said:

Fair point Tony, but for the vast majority of us who lack your amazing skills, RTR will remain the route forward.

 

I know my own limitations, which stretch about as far as re-livery and adding a bit of detail. when pressed, I can also hack bits of plastic about, but not too well, although I seem to have a gift for reasonable track laying. That said I am so far away from lines like yours, Gilbert’s, and those amazing templot layouts, that I feel like hiding in a corner!
 

Unfortunately as a long term lung condition sufferer, I’m now banned from using an airbrush, or carpentry, so will have to re-adjust horizons. That said, we all get pleasure from seeing a rake of coaches with a nice green machine at the head, rumbling around on something we’ve built....

Thanks Peter,

 

But never belittle your own achievements. Re-liveries? Adding detail? 'Hack' bits of plastic? Laying good track? That sounds like some real, personal model-making to me. 

 

I also imagine you're building your layout by yourself. Never underestimate the importance of that. There's nothing to beat being able to say 'I made/modified that, myself'. 

 

Kind regards,

 

Tony. 

 

 

[60027Merlin]

2 hours ago, great northern said:

Back to 1958, it is safer there. Tea is being consumed, so here is an image to go with it. I've run out of ideas on infrastructure shots for the time being so, continuing to record events on the sequence, we see that our filthy Gateshead A3 has backed on to the Glasgow, and is now heading for home.

 

 

 

Gilbert,

 

Your introductory line reminds me of the perceptive quote by L. P. Hartley from The Go Between,

"The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there".

 

Eric 

 

[great northern]

2 hours ago, bigwordsmith said:

it’s probably because I spent twenty odd years advising Senior Management on how to navigate difficult times, Gilbert, that I tend to ask the awkward questions. 
 

in my experience,it’s the companies, and indeed governments that do that who tend to best survive.

 

right now, I just trying to survive each day - I’m going through the worst steroid crash I’ve ever had, and can’t even get out of bed!

The problem is though Peter that in order to advise  or predict you need solid facts to go on. That's the lawyer in me again, I suppose. As I see it, it is all guess work at present.

[manna]

G'Day Folks

 

We seem to think 1958 as a safe and pleasant time to be alive, but the Cold War was with us and Nuclear obliteration, was only 4 minutes away, Steam engines and atomic power seem at odds with each other !!

 

manna

[bigwordsmith]

43 minutes ago, great northern said:

The problem is though Peter that in order to advise  or predict you need solid facts to go on. That's the lawyer in me again, I suppose. As I see it, it is all guess work at present.

never forget the media motto - Don’t  let facts spoil a good story!

[great northern]

Afternoon tea break again, the time does seem to fly by, surprisingly in the present circumstances. You like photos taken from Spital Bridge, don't you?

 

 

 This was zoomed again,and somehow the far background has come out sharper than usual, which I don't understand at all.

 

[CUTLER2579]

1 hour ago, manna said:

G'Day Folks

 

We seem to think 1958 as a safe and pleasant time to be alive, but the Cold War was with us and Nuclear obliteration, was only 4 minutes away, Steam engines and atomic power seem at odds with each other !!

 

manna

 

 Anyone experiencing the London smogs of the 1950's and early 1960's might also tend to disagree. I remember coming home from college and getting lost it was so thick. I actually saw a Bus conductor walking in front of his bus as the driver was struggling to see. It was about this point I think that I neglected to turn right. 

I expect deaths from breathing infectious illnesses were very high amongst the older generation. Us teenagers just got lost.

[John Isherwood]

18 minutes ago, CUTLER2579 said:

 

 Anyone experiencing the London smogs of the 1950's and early 1960's might also tend to disagree. I remember coming home from college and getting lost it was so thick. I actually saw a Bus conductor walking in front of his bus as the driver was struggling to see. It was about this point I think that I neglected to turn right. 

I expect deaths from breathing infectious illnesses were very high amongst the older generation. Us teenagers just got lost.

 

I recall a London smog, one New Year's Eve in the early 1970s - it must have been one of the very last really bad ones.

 

We had been down to London for the day from Cambridge, and set off back in the late afternoon. Very quickly, what had been a misty day became a complete pea-souper! Policemen with flaming flares were trying to prevent collisions at major junctions, and most vehicles had someone walking in front, trying to find the way - including myself; not an experience that I'd care to repeat.

 

Suffice to say that we got back to Cambridge just in time to have a celebratory drink, as the New Year was rung in.

 

John Isherwood.

Edited April 18, 2020 by cctransuk

[great northern]

An experimental image first tonight. Does it come off?  You are the judges.

 

 

Then we find a train at Platform 6. The B12 is a Cambridge engine, which made the deduction that this is the 1237 to that City fairly easy.

Then we'll just check where we are.

 

 

[35A]

On 17/04/2020 at 10:13, great northern said:

Absolutely Derek. The size of New England yards plus MPD on one side, and the Midland and the M&GN on the other  was immense.

 

As demonstrated in the attached image, which I'm guessing might date from around 1963/64.

 

As an aside, if anyone can help me date this image, I'd be most appreciative. Noticeably, the M&GN track has been lifted, the bridge spans over the main line have been dismantled and Rhubarb Bridge, where the M&GN crossed over Lincoln Road (a low bridge which precluded the use of double decker buses on services to the north end of the city) has been removed. I remember, as a very small boy, the old Rhubarb Bridge (the name is now used for the Soke Parkway/Paston Parkway/Lincoln Road/Bourges Boulevard road junction complex) being dismantled, with the embankment and abutments remaining until about 1970/71, when work to build the new route of the A47 along part of the trackbed commenced.

 

The M&GN closed in 1959 and New England was closed to steam in January 1965. Apart from a couple of 0-6-0 diesel shunters, everything else visible is steam. Allowing a couple of years for M&GN track recovery, bridge removal etc. this would suggest a date of (roughly) 1961 to 1964. Given that I remember Rhubarb Bridge being dismantled (I was born in 1958) I tend to think that 1961 might be a little too early for those memories.

 

I'm sure that there may be a few here who are slightly older than me (or who may have seen the image before), any further pointers gratefully received!

 

I continue to find this thread utterly fascinating - your modelling skills are an inspiration, Gilbert, and its always a delight to drop by and see what you've been up to. 

 

 

 

 

[St Enodoc]

3 hours ago, great northern said:

An experimental image first tonight. Does it come off? 

Yes.

[Oldddudders]

I fear the experiment doesn't quite cut it. The loco is incomplete, and an optical illusion makes it look as if loco and tender have had a falling-out. There is no main subject, really, because the loco is so far down the image. Sorry!

[Tony Wright]

10 hours ago, great northern said:

An experimental image first tonight. Does it come off?  You are the judges.

 

 

Then we find a train at Platform 6. The B12 is a Cambridge engine, which made the deduction that this is the 1237 to that City fairly easy.

Then we'll just check where we are.

 

 

Good morning Gilbert,

 

It's good to see 61576 still going (strong?). When did I build it for you? A good few years now.

 

One thing which puzzles me about some of your (excellent) pictures are the number which show wheels off the road. How did 61576 get into that position with its trailing bogie wheels clearly derailed? 

 

I don't think the 'experiment' works, either. The loco is out of focus, and the discrepancy between the A3 and its tender is too obvious (caused by the tight radii). May I make a suggestion, please? Take the shot again but with no loco in the foreground. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

[landscapes]

14 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

Good morning Gilbert,

 

It's good to see 61576 still going (strong?). When did I build it for you? A good few years now.

 

One thing which puzzles me about some of your (excellent) pictures are the number which show wheels off the road. How did 61576 get into that position with its trailing bogie wheels clearly derailed? 

 

I don't think the 'experiment' works, either. The loco is out of focus, and the discrepancy between the A3 and its tender is too obvious (caused by the tight radii). May I make a suggestion, please? Take the shot again but with no loco in the foreground. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

Good morning Gilbert

 

I do like your station signage, it looks very realistic , is it a ready made product or bespoke made.

 

to me it looks far to good to be a ready made product.

 

hope you are keeping well. 

 

Regards

 

David

 

[Welly]

11 hours ago, great northern said:

An experimental image first tonight. Does it come off?  You are the judges.

If that was a photo of the real thing, would you have kept it at the time?

[great northern]

53 minutes ago, Tony Wright said:

Good morning Gilbert,

 

It's good to see 61576 still going (strong?). When did I build it for you? A good few years now.

 

One thing which puzzles me about some of your (excellent) pictures are the number which show wheels off the road. How did 61576 get into that position with its trailing bogie wheels clearly derailed? 

 

I don't think the 'experiment' works, either. The loco is out of focus, and the discrepancy between the A3 and its tender is too obvious (caused by the tight radii). May I make a suggestion, please? Take the shot again but with no loco in the foreground. 

 

Regards,

 

Tony. 

Good Morning Tony,

 

You built the B12 in 2002, and, as with everything you build, it runs as quietly and reliably now as it did then. The derailed wheels? I think it usually occurs when I decide to move locos by pushing them along manually when I'm composing a picture. I'm too idle to walk a few feet to reach the controller and do it that way. Then my eyes don't see what has happened, I'm afraid. I usually find out when the loco starts away, but sometimes the wheels seem to fall back to where they should be of their own accord.

 

That experimental shot? I didn't like it at all, for the reasons that both you and Ian have raised, but I've learned over time that others do like what I don't, which is why I now ask for opinions. I shan't repeat that one though, or not with a loco in shot, as you suggest.

[great northern]

44 minutes ago, landscapes said:

Good morning Gilbert

 

I do like your station signage, it looks very realistic , is it a ready made product or bespoke made.

 

to me it looks far to good to be a ready made product.

 

hope you are keeping well. 

 

Regards

 

David

 

Thank you David, I am well, and I trust you are too?  The signage is by Sankey Scenics, and was indeed bespoke made.

[great northern]

4 minutes ago, Welly said:

If that was a photo of the real thing, would you have kept it at the time?

Good question, and the answer is no, I wouldn't have kept it!

[great northern]

Morning images on another lovely day. We have a rear three quarter view of 61576.

 

 

Is that bogie still off track? I honestly can't tell. A crew would be a good idea though.

 

Next we have another experiment, but this one I will say straight away I do like.

 

 

There was a lot of back lighting to contend with, and when pointing the camera between two close objects inevitably there will be something out of focus, as on the front left, but if the eye channels as intended towards the loco and signal box, I think this works, and it gives us a vantage point we haven't seen before.

Edited April 19, 2020 by great northern
spelling

[Mallard60022]

That aerial shot of New England is amazing. Where was that in relation to todays ECML north of PB if I was on a Down train?

[Oldddudders]

Experiment No 2 is a very different kettle of fish. Here we have a clearly-defined subject (J50?), interestingly framed and with good supporting background. In photographic terms a 'keeper'.

[great northern]

7 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

Experiment No 2 is a very different kettle of fish. Here we have a clearly-defined subject (J50?), interestingly framed and with good supporting background. In photographic terms a 'keeper'.

Thanks Ian. J50 indeed, on a transfer freight. A view I shall return to, indeed I already have.

[great northern]

18 minutes ago, Mallard60022 said:

That aerial shot of New England is amazing. Where was that in relation to todays ECML north of PB if I was on a Down train?

You would be up towards the end of complex Phil. If my memory serves me correctly, you will have a retail park on the right hand side. No trace of the engine shed remains at all, so far as I could see.

[31A]

55 minutes ago, Mallard60022 said:

That aerial shot of New England is amazing. Where was that in relation to todays ECML north of PB if I was on a Down train?

 

To the north of where GBRF's (very small) modern loco shed is now.