Category: New Photos

BR Steam – a New Collection

After a break (for many reasons) we are back. We are adding new photographs to purchase from our extensive collection, starting with a new Collection of BR Steam.

All photographs are scanned and enhanced from negatives to ensure the best quality at an image size that suits you. The way you can buy images is also changing. We will be detailing that in a forthcoming post describing our product offerings.

We are constantly searching for new images to bring to our customers. It’s not possible to pay the ridiculous prices for some original and quality images, but we do try to offer variety and to provide detailed information on the photographs.

The photograph seen above is a case in point. The three locomotives are sat outside Doncaster shed. No place or date was stated in the sale, but a bit of detective work pays off. Using shed allocations for all three engines we can narrow down the date to between June 1959 and June 1960. Thompson B1 61215 was allocated to Hull Dairycoats shed on 14th June 1959. Gresley K3 61800 was all allocated to Doncaster on 7th February 1959, but as no smokebox shed plate is visible, this does not help us.
However, Gresley V2 60909 was allocated to Grantham shed between 12th June 1960 and 9th October 1960, giving us the year the picture was taken.

It is often the detective work necessary to provide a detailed caption for photographs that bring them to life! Whilst some photographs are simply records from a day out, others have been planned to record history.

This photograph records a normal working day 62 years ago…

In a scene that harks back to steam days, an unidentified Class 37 heads west from a misty March station in the early 1970s.

An unidentified Class 37 heads west from March

A Class 37 heads west(?) away from a misty March(?) with a freight train made up of vans. I think this photograph was taken by Peter Collins at March station in the early 1970s; but it would be nice to get some confirmation from folks.

I remember a few van trains from my early train spotting days in Thurston, but not many and I haven’t found a Working Timetable from the early 1970s yet to attempt to identify the train. If anybody can help with an identification that would be appreciated. Given the area, I assume that the train contains vegetables from East Anglian farmers (or possibly sugar beet), but again any ideas would be gratefully received. The split-headcode  loco looks relatively clean, so this suggests a recent repaint in BR Blue.

The photo would have been taken when March was still a major concentration point for freight in to and from East Anglia. Container trains to Felixstowe were still relatively low in number as the port had yet to go through its major expansion, although there is a photograph in Peter’s collection of a Class 47 hauling a freightliner away from March station to the east.

The photograph will feature in a book (or possibly two) that Peter and I are preparing at the moment which will feature photographs from the 1970s of British Rail in its most fragile state after the end of steam. Working practices had yet to be modernised, timetables were pretty much the same as in 1968 the only thing being the change to diesel and electric traction. Further announcements will be made soon as to the availability of the book, so watch this space!

A view from York Road station of the eastern platforms of King’s Cross station in the 1970s.

A view of the eastern platforms of King’s Cross from York Road station. This platform served the trains from the Hertfordshire suburbs to Moorgate until closure in 1976; the northbound suburban services used Platform 16 on the far West of the station.

The famous station signal-box can be seen on the right hand side of the photograph and in front Deltic 9007 ‘Pinza’ waits patiently for the stock of 1L37 19.00 King’s Cross to Bradford service to arrive at the station. An un-identified Class 47 departs with the 18.25 1H17 to Hull. the 1H02 head-code fooled me at first as this is the 12.20 service to Hull, but I am assuming that the loco had worked this service earlier in the day then made its way back to King’s Cross in the late afternoon. The Class 31 (still in BR Green, and possibly 5572) is probably the station pilot used on ECS movements to the carriage sidings north of the station. It is not hard to imagine the Class 31 replaced with an N7, the 47 with an A3 and the Deltic with an A4!

The signal-box was built by the LNER in 1932, and closed on 26th September 1971, with all signalling operations moving overnight to the new King’s Cross Power Signal Box situated on the site of the old York Road Station buildings (behind the photographer). The signal-box remained in-situ for another five years before being demolished as part of the electrification scheme and rationalisation of the station track-work.

The negative from which the photo was scanned is in a bit of a state, and needed a lot of work doing to it to make it presentable. It’s a little dark for my liking, so a bit more work needed I think before I’m happy to make it available to buy at Lineside Photographics.

An unidentified Class 37 on possibly a Harwich Boat Train to London Liverpool Street heads through Manningtree Station some time in the early 1970s.

Another fabulous photograph by Peter Collins sees an unidentified Class 37 head south through Manningtree Station towards London Liverpool Street some time in the early 1970s. If the head-code is to be believed it is 1F23, so if anybody can identify the service I would be most grateful. The Type 3 is passing a northbound service that has called at the Manningtree station on its way north, probably to Norwich.

The photograph captures British Rail in the 1970s, a time when operating practices remained pretty much as they had been during steam days. Mail and parcels are waiting to be be loaded on the next London bound train; whilst commuters are gathering on the platform seats for that train too. Looking at the way people are stood back from the platform edge I assume that the Type 3’s train is non-stop through the station; as most of the Boat Trains between Harwich Parkeston Quay and London were.

A driver is making his way up the platform towards Platform 1, where the local trains between Manningtree and Harwich Parkeston Quay departed from. The next service to Harwich will have connected with the train in the northbound platform to allow London passengers connections to the coast and intermediate stations.

My initial research leads me to believe that Manningtree (can anybody confirm this?) was still a signing-on point for train crew in the 1970s. Harwich was a busy port with regular shipping services for passengers, vehicles and freight to several European destinations. The rail operations that supported the flow of people and goods through the port of Harwich were intense, and this is reflected in the photograph taken by Peter Collins.

This picture captures my earliest memories of rail travel, a shame then that some 40 years later freight traffic is almost non-existent (having being replaced by the Port of Felixstowe), and the loco-hauled Boat trains are no-more.

See more of Peter’s photographs at Lineside Photographics.