Peterborough North

[great northern]

Hands up those who like fiddle yards. I am having yet another reorganisation of mine, and I thought a few photos might be of interest, or not, as the case may be. I shall start at the north end, looking south.

 

 

Road 1 on the extreme right is the one that is always empty to allow cassettes to be off loaded, loose stock to be inserted as necessary, and general fiddling about. Road 2 houses my eight car rake of end vestibule seconds, which were out working when this was taken. Road 3 used to hold a mixed goods, but that has now gone to live in the alcove sidings at the other end.

 

 

and here they are. Exciting, isn't it? when designing this I worked on the principle that if I saw an alcove I should fill it with something. As it is right at the back of a three foot wide baseboard it takes a lot of reaching over to get at it, so the two sidings have been empty for some years. This rake doesn't have many duties, so I decided to put it in here, and motivate myself to do the shunting needed occasionally.

 

So now road 3 is empty, and I had nothing to put in it. But then came an idea. If you refer back to the first image you will see a rake in road 4. That is the eight all door seconds that featured the other day. More often than not, formations  are called for that don't need all eight cars of either type of seconds, so I have to do shuffling about. It is easier to shuffle in road 1, so I reckon I can put four of each type in road 3, and put whatever is necessary into road 1 from there.

 

Also at the north end are a number of spurs, again put in on the basis that if there was a space I would fill it. These at first housed short trains, but most of those went into cassettes. Then I put locos in them, in the order that they would be needed, so that they could just back onto their trains. That turned out to make my brain hurt too much, so they went into shed boxes, and the spurs now house loose stock. The  next three hold brakes on the left catering cars in the middle, and firsts and a composite on the right. These are moved by hand into the right place in a rake when needed.

 

 

More spurs almost hidden at the back hold some brakes, again hand shunted as required. You will notice that the latest Cobalt digital point motors only require two wires. That called for the mosking emoji, but I can't find it any more.

 

Plenty of stock still in the rest of the roads, as seen in the next image. Road 0 is in fact road 10, but I ran out of 1s. That one too is always empty to allow fiddling around.

 

 

What about the other end I hear you cry? Or maybe not. Well we have more spurs at the front, one of which holds the E.Lincs set, and the other the M&GN. which both get a lot of use. Behind them were more short spurs which housed wagons, but they've gone into cassettes, and in a good example of the saying that what goes around comes around, they have been replaced by some of New England's heavy mob, and the Ivatt 4s for the M&GN. That's cos the New England shed box got too full.

 

 

And, for the sake of completeness, two views looking north.

 

 

I think I've said before that if I was starting again now I would not have an 18 road fiddle yard, and concentrate much more on cassettes and loose stock, which is much more economical, apart from any other considerations. However, I won't be starting again, so I have to make the best of what I've got, which is turning out to be a constantly evolving process. if you haven't fallen asleep by now, I'm happy to answer any queries that may arise.

 

 

[great northern]

Someone else has decided to use costly colour film on that dirt encrusted A2/3.

 

 

Coming the other way we have a clean Grantham A3 with the 2.45 Hull-KX, but even with a lot of cropping this isn't very successful.

 

 

Well, not that bad, maybe.

 

 

 

[great northern]

The most photographed view of the real Peterborough North must surely be this one?

 

 

But we can also see it from the other side.

 

 

Not the same impact though, and too many overlapping lattices.

 

 

 

[jwealleans]

Someone needs to stop and examine that Thompson brake coming from Hull - looking at the state of the handrail, that's had a bit of a sideswipe.

[great northern]

16 minutes ago, jwealleans said:

Someone needs to stop and examine that Thompson brake coming from Hull - looking at the state of the handrail, that's had a bit of a sideswipe.

I have got as far as examining it Jonathan. Knowing me, doing something about it may take a while longer.

 

I haven't had the pleasure of your company for a long time, so if you fancy aniother trip down the A1, just send me a PM please.

[great northern]

At Platform 6 a Leicester based 3F waits to carry on its journey home.

 

 

Soon to be passed by a local K3, which is also on the way home witha Welwyn Garden City Class D to Westwood yard.

 

 

[great northern]

The K3 is still crawling along the slow, but the signals are on.

 

 

Everyone seems to be fixated with 60065, as we have yet another look at it.

 

 

 

 

 

[great northern]

More happy holidymakers are returning from Skegness, to Hertford and Hitchin this time. A Hitchin B1 is in charge, while an Ivatt 4 waits with a Grantham stopper. New England seems to have run out of B1s by now, but the Ivatt can cope, and will get a change of scenery, A hill might be a bit of a shock though.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[great northern]

Another local at Platform 6. This one will be off to Boston.

 

 

and the Hitchin B1 turns out to be one of the few that were named.

 

 

Madoqua, if you can't read it, and don't have your Ian Allan handy.

 

 

 

[great northern]

In number 1 bay 62613 has a very easy duty again, just a mile down to East, and some of it downhill too. On the Down slow an 02 is bringing its load of empties to a stand.

 

 

 

 

 

[great northern]

02 again, lovely looking engine.

 

 

and south end activity. As the D16 starts its gentle run down to East, a Grantham A3 comes in with the 4.52 KX-Leeds.

 

 

 

 

 

[geoff west]

Have to agree Gilbert, the O2's are lovely engines. I have way too many of them.

Can you ever have too many O2's? 

[great northern]

10 hours ago, geoff west said:

Have to agree Gilbert, the O2's are lovely engines. I have way too many of them.

Can you ever have too many O2's? 

Well, I have three when I struggle to justify one, so for me the answer would be yes. But I wouldn't listen to it, as it would be a daft answer, wouldn't it?

[great northern]

Grantham A3 now simmering at Platform 3 and another is arriving with the 4.28 Doncaster-KX, a 36A duty, but they are using that ex works Haymarket engine again.

 

 

We can have a reverse angle on that.

 

 

[great northern]

A panorama from down by the bridge.

 

 

A couple of minutes later, Grand Parade stands gleamng in the sunshine at Platform 2. Will Haymarket ever get its A3 back, I wonder?

 

 

 

 

 

[great northern]

Time for Victor Wild to get back to work.

 

 

our little Sentinel doesn't seem to do much of that, but I decided it could have a close up anyway.

 

 

 

 

 

[great northern]

The Up White Rose means yet another trip to the capital for Enterprise.

 

 

 

High speed vibration down Stoke bank has shifted the headboard again.

 

At platform 6 the 5.00 KX-Newcastle has arrived, and will wait here for no less than twelve minutes. This was another of those trains that ran as required, and when it did it dwelt here for a while to let something far more important overtake on the main.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[great northern]

Unusual for me to venture out on a Bank Holiday, but this is only 20 odd miles from home.

 

 

Lovely, if functual, GC island platform buildings.

 

 

Then came a disappointment though. Not only was the engine on the Down running tender first, but it went and stopped here.

 

 

Not much I could do about that without trespassing.  A few minutes later, along came an Up train. At least this will be loco first, I thought, but it wasn't.

 

 

At least I could get a reasonable shot though, and could try another angle.

 

 

Not what you expect on here, I know, but I hope you enjoy them. Good to see that the car park was full, and the trains seemed to be pretty full as well.

 

 

 

[great northern]

60111 is resting at Platform 2.

 

 

And well cleaned A4 Dominion of Canada is partly hidden in the shadows under Crescent Bridge. A Pullman car behind the tender, so this must be the Yorkshire Pullman, as the Tees-Tyne doesn't run on Saturdays. So we now know why 60156 is having to wait. Posh people take precedence. 'Twas ever thus.

 

 

 

 

 

[great northern]

Enterprise and Dominion of Canada now meet.

 

 

 

But Great Central just waits.

 

 

[great northern]

We continue to follow the progress of the Yorkshire Pullman.

 

 

 

 

[great northern]

As the putting together of trains seems to become more complex, I get to run less of them in a session. That is not something that causes me any concern. What it does mean though is that you will find there are more photos of the same trains. I hope this will not cause the onset of boredom and disillusionment.

 

So, two more shots of 60010, but one of them from higher up to add some variety.

 

 

 

 

[St Enodoc]

6 minutes ago, great northern said:

What it does mean though is that you will find there are more photos of the same trains. I hope this will not cause the onset of boredom and disillusionment.

Not at all. Those curvy things all look the same to me anyway... 😀

[30368]

31 minutes ago, great northern said:

I hope this will not cause the onset of boredom and disillusionment.

 

Never! These images just takes me back to a simpler (and younger!) age despite the increasing complexity of the formations. Keep up the good work and many thanks.

 

Kind regards,

 

Richard B

[great northern]

7 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Not at all. Those curvy things all look the same to me anyway... 😀

The naughty step is quite big, so Clive doesn't take up the whole of it.