Peterborough North

[great northern]

From under the bridge appears a slightly askew Fair Maid.

She will not be stopping here, and heads on towards canopy.

No need really to warn passengers to stand well back from the edge of the platform.

[great northern]

Pretty Polly heads on purposefully.

and meets another named train, the West Riding, with Copley Hill's Osprey in charge.

 

[great northern]

Rationing returns, as there has been little sign of sun this week, or not at useful times anyway. Here is Osprey, seen from Crescent Bridge, moving the West Riding on towards the capital.

[great northern]

Hastily we return to the North end, as the K2 is starting its journey to Grimsby.

Another visit from Clive today. No bus controversy, and I was tasked with helping with information regarding A3 tenders. There is hope for him yet. Much discussion of events, some more serious than others, and although he had declared in advance that he intended to see some trains run, he didn't.😁

[great northern]

Now we have the arrival of an Up Skegness-KX, shown in the WTT as stopping for six minutes from 1059 to 1105. With the pressure on this sole Up plaqtform on a saturday, I am pretty sure a stop of this length would involve an engine change. Thus we have one of our own B1s handing over to one of our own A2/3s.

The standard running time from here to KX on Saturday was 90 minutes, so Top Shed would be very pleased to have a Pacific available at that time of the day when it struggled to have anything suitable for northbound departures.

[great northern]

Some useful sunshine at last, so more photos taken, and we go back to normal rations, which this evening means a look at Sun Castle, which has now replaced the B1, and is ready for the off.

and soon afterwards, it is off.

 

 

[great northern]

Something coming on the Down slow.

 

Doesn't tell us much, does it?  Perhaps this will help.

The Little Barford empties, which runs much earlier on a Saturday, which didn't stop another loco being borrowed for the job.

[Oldddudders]

My Ian Allan suggests this is an O4/2?

[great northern]

45 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

My Ian Allan suggests this is an O4/2?

63890 was converted to 01 in 1948 Ian, according to the RCTS green book, and my 1958 Ian Allan agrees. Timara actually based this one on a colour photo of it at March in the late 50s, so I'm pretty confident it is right.

[great northern]

The 01 is out of the way on the slow, and hopefully has not delayed the 9.40 KX-Newcastle, which appears beyond the bridge.

A little further along, the A4 can be seen to be Sir Ronald Matthews, in normal Gateshead condition.

[great northern]

Slow progress under the roof for 60001.

but soon back out into the light.

[60027Merlin]

Gilbert,

 

The shot of the A4 under the station roof is one of the best at that spot. I think that it is the light streaming through the glass in the roof that sets it of.

 

Eric

 

 

[great northern]

And now back up onto Spital Bridge for our last look at 60001.

While our attention has been elsewhere, our disgustingly dirty A2/1 has been down to Nene sidings, and brought in its own stock for the 1130 Edinburgh.

[great northern]

The stream of Down expresses is really under way now. Between 9and 10am there were four departures from KX, and here comes the last of them, the 9.52 Leeds.

60983 is one of Top Shed's pet V2s, and will need to be going well, as the Flying Scotsman is just eight minutes behind it.

 

 

[great northern]

60983 does not stop here either, so we get our usual north end images.

 

[New Haven Neil]

Yon V2 has a lovely look, presumably a Timara job.  Really does look like a used but well cared for loco, and of course it's hard to beat a V2!

[great northern]

As the V2's stock passed by, our man saw this, and as he likes Gresley shorties, he took a photo.

Meanwhile on the Down slow, space has been found to get a J6 up from East with a trip working to New England,

[great northern]

Lots of V2s at the start of the day, then none for quite a while, but now they are back. Green Arrow  has an Up Hull due through non stop at 11.15am, and we have two familiar north end views.

 

[great northern]

Another angle on Green Arrow heading on to London.

 

Just four minutes later another traon on theUp, this time an M&GN service from Yarmouth.

[trw1089]

Loving the V2s at the moment.  How many non-stops were there through PN?  Elizabethan, Flying Scotsman I presume, but what about the Pullmans?  I must dig out my WTTs again and pore through I think.

 

Cheers

Tony

[great northern]

1 hour ago, trw1089 said:

Loving the V2s at the moment.  How many non-stops were there through PN?  Elizabethan, Flying Scotsman I presume, but what about the Pullmans?  I must dig out my WTTs again and pore through I think.

 

Cheers

Tony

That was something I could not resist Tony. Summer 58, Saturday Down expresses only, 38 of 62 stopped. However, if one takes out Skegness trains, the proportion is quite a bit lower. None of the Pullmans stopped at PN, weekdays or Saturdays, but the mix of other trains is interesting, as both West Riding and Newcastle services stopped in about equal proportion, whereas the general rule of thumb was that the West Riding trains stopped at the smaller stations such as Newark and Retford, whereas the ECML ones stopped at the larger ones. Grantham is an exception, because of the amount of engine changing there.

 

The other interesting thing is that the proportion of trains stopping increases as the day goes on, until by evening most stop. Logical really, as line occupation lessens.

[great northern]

Of course I then had to look at Up trains too, of which 21 of 51 stopped. However, if I strip out the E.Lincs trains it gets much less, and if one disregards evening trains, less still. Entirely logical with only one Up platform, of course, but still the trains were usually queuing up to get through.

[great northern]

Suitably admonished, our man took care to properly record the arrival of South Lynn's well cleaned Ivatt 4MT, 43142.

while at the south end, Golden Fleece, Top Shed's reserve Elizabethan loco, brings through the Flying Scotsman. Much care was taken to get the headboard exactly positioned, but look at it now. I'd rather you didn't, actually.

 

[mullie]

I do admit to a slight bias, anything GE or M&GN gets my vote.

 

Seems an unusual decision to send such modern locos to the M&GN, they did sterling work on the line and were desperately needed. 

 

Martyn 

[great northern]

So these two trains are going to meet, and they do.

 

and shortly after that, Golden Fleece is approachinng Spital Bridge, and the regulator is open.

I know people like these north end shots, but they are a pig to photoshop. Nevertheless, more this evening.