Happy New Year

Clan Line

As an old Merchant Navy man I have a close affection for The Merchant Navy's of the Southern. It was good that so many of Bullieds Locos were rescued over the years

Southampton Docks

My sea going career was with the P&O and as such Southampton Docks were well known to me. What a superb sight it must have been when the great liners were met by their own dedicated trains. The trains ran right through the dock estate to the ships side to take passengers and baggage through to the capital and points north and west

Mineheads brave experiment

The decision to rebuild a Prairie as a Mogul was one which caused a degree of stir amongst the railways preservation world but I think the gamble has paid off certainly in running

J23 GNR/LNER

Workhorses of the GNR/LNER suburban passenger and goods

Railway at Idle

Here a view looking up New St to the railway bridge. The large building to the right of the bridge is the Oddfellows Hall and pub the station steps went up the side and the main platform and buildings were on the North bound line running from left to right across the bridge

Merry Christmass to all my readers

We called em the good old days, well the snow was just as much a pain then as it is today. Here a Duchess class passes Winsford on the West Coast Main line back in Christmas1962

23 December 2009 Ghost of Christmas past

Passengers were rescued by a steam locomotive after modern rail services were brought to a halt by the snowy conditions in south-east England.

Trains between Ashford and Dover were suspended on Monday when cold weather disabled the electric rail.
Some commuters at London Victoria faced lengthy delays until Tornado - Britain's first mainline steam engine in 50 years - offered them a lift.
They were taken home "in style", said the Darlington-built engine's owners.
Train services in Kent were hit hard by the freezing conditions at the start of the week.

Tornado, a £3m Peppercorn class A1 Pacific based at the National Railway Museum in York, was in the South East for one day, offering "Christmas meal" trips from London to Dover.
Its "Cathedrals Express" service, the last mainline journey in its first year of operations, was about to depart when staff heard about the stranded passengers.
About 100 people were offered free seats, according to Mark Allatt, chairman of The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust - the charity which built Tornado.

A truely Dickensian modern story don't you think

My thanks to the BBC website for this remarkable story

Idle Station

To get the full size picture rt click and open in a new window

Minehead again

The last two from this recent find. Minhead in 2002.

Thames Clyde Express

Skipton was always a good station for spotting famous locos or types of locos. Here a Brit brings in the Thames Clyde express

Looking down High St to the railway bridge

The inevitable coal merchant by the railway, though the coal drops were on the other side of High St

A vew up from the Green to High St and the Railway bridge. The Station was just to the left in our picture

Great Northern Railway at Idle West Yorks

Past memories of my adopted village Idle

BR Standard 90136

BR Standard 80136 at Minehead 2002

GWR Prairie tank 5542

The backbone of GWR suburban and secondary lines the Prairie Tank 5542 at Minehead

5553 was also running that morning and here runs around it's train

On this gloomy winters morning a lovely reminder of the warm bright sunshine of summer

Minhead on the West Somerset Railway

Going through my archives I found this lot of as yet unpublished pics from the West Somerset some eight or nine years ago. I hope you can see why it is my favourite station.

Redolent of those happy times in childhood, summer holidays. Minehead has the whole atmosphere.

At that time under restoration and above the transformed prairie tank which became a GWR Mogul.

LNWR G class and Super D Goods loco

Builder: Designer: Wheels: Cylinders: Tractive Effort: LMS / BR Power Classification: Boiler Type: Boiler Pressure: Weight (loco only): Valve Gear:

LNWR Crewe Works C J Bowen-Cooke 4ft 5.5in 20.5in x 24in 28,043 lbs 7F Superheated 175 psi 62 tons 0 cwt Joy Piston Valves

I am grateful to Gordon Tidey  for this view of a super D.

I watched the British Steam Railways DVD of the Super D last night and was very impressed with Mike Lee's interview of Pete Waterman. Much funding for this restoration comming from The Waterman Trust. Pete also alluded to the many many of unpaid hours from his team at Crewe which they put into this engine.

Bradford Exchange station in computer art

Again no idea of artist please let me know if you recognise it

Bradford Exchange station 'The old one'

I came across this superb watercolour of Exchange station. I can't make out the artist, if you know please let me know and I can attribute it

Midland Railway Derby 4F

Derby 4F simmers at Haworth yard

The interesting bit, the 4F cab

Adensfield ne Goathland on the NYMR

Made famous by the TV program Heartbeat one of the principle staions on the North Yorks is Goathland. A picture pretty North Yorkshire village well worth a visit. Why not travell by rail from Pickering or Whitby.

http://www.nymr.co.uk/

York Station

The wide sweep of YORK station was more used to A1's 2's 3's and streamlined A4's, but today we are just happy to see steam again on the mainline. Here an LMS visitor in the form of Princess Royal Pacific Princess Elizabeth rests with the Scarborough spa express.

Cleckheaton West Yorkshire

Cleckheaton is now largely a residential area serving Bradford Batley ans Dewsbury. However it was once a centre of much industry as it's station and good yard indicate.

Laying to the west of Bradford and the next stop from Low Moor and the major MPD.

Cleckheaton Goods

Cleackheaton station 

Whitby station

Memories of the summer just gone on this snowy cold day.

Ariving from Pickering via Grosmont and all stations west. The palm trees make it look positively oriental. North Yorks Orient Express maybe!

Into Queensbury from Thornton

What looks to be a Gresley J23 tank approaches Queensbury with a goods from Keighley via Thornton

The Great Northern Railway Class J23 was a class of 0-6-0T steam locomotive. They had long side tanks that came to the front of the smokebox, which sloped forwards to improve visibility and had a recess cut in to aid maintenance. Forty were built by the Great Northern Railway (GNR) between 1913 and 1922, with a further 62 being added by the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) between 1924 and 1939. None of the locomotives survive today.

Wikepedia

For shunting and local goods work, the Great Northern Railway (GNR) had traditionally used saddle-tank engines of the 0-6-0 wheel arrangement; the last of these, of GNR Class J13, having been built in 1909 to the designs of H.A. Ivatt, the GNR Locomotive Superintendent.
Nigel Gresley succeeded Ivatt in 1911, and soon identified a need for engines to work the short-haul coal traffic in the West Riding of Yorkshire; the nature of which required that the locomotives also be suitable for shunting. He designed a new class of 0-6-0 tank engine, using side tanks instead of saddle tanks. Gresley had recently begun the rebuilding of the GNR Class L1 0-8-2T locomotives with larger boilers, 4 feet 8 inches (1.42 m) in diameter, which left a number of 4-foot-2-inch (1.27 m) diameter boilers spare. Thirty of these were used in the construction of the new goods tank engines between 1913 and 1919 when ten more were built in 1922, these again used secondhand boilers, but 4 feet 5 inches (1.35 m) in diameter. On the GNR, both varieties were classified J23, but the LNER divided them into J51 with smaller boilers, and J50 with larger boilers. The LNER continued the construction of Class J50, building a further 62 down to 1939, only the first ten of which were given secondhand boilers.Class J51 were rebuilt to class J50 between 1929 and 1935.
Each of the two main classes exhibited variations: locomotive brakes could be operated by vacuum or steam pressure; the driving position could be on the right- or the left-hand side of the cab; and there were three sizes of coal bunker.



N2 leaving Queensbury

Gresley N2 tank

Once a common sight on the GNR's Queensbury and Laisterdyke to Shipley route, the N class tanks were the mainstay of motive power on those hilly lines

My thanks to http://www.nymr.co.uk/

Santa special at Oxenhope

BR Standard 4 tank hauls the Santa Special into Oxenhope. They have worked hard to make it Santaland There is a winter wonderland display in the museum among with a Santas Grotto and of course Crib to remind us what Chrismas is really about.

4F at Haworth

A lovely loco which has just undergone a long heavy overhaul so it should be available for some years to come.

Harrow and Wealdstone

Imprinted firmly on my memory was the Harrow and  Wealdstone accident. I was about eight and remember the aerial views on newspapers at home and all over. It was the major topic of conversation and my young ears caught it all

A London and North Western Railway station we see it here at the turn of the last century

Haworths Derby 4F 43924

Yesterday was not too gloomy so I took a drive up to Haworth and there was Derby 4F posed perfectly for me

As can be seen Haworth is a very clean and tidy yard and they are to be highly commended for this.

Do visit them at http://www.kwvr.co.uk/ The santa specials are running now every weekend till Christmas