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What were the main events of October 1973?  Jackie Stewart achieved his third Formula One World Driver's Championship, after which he retired; war was raging in the middle east; U.S. president, Richard Nixon, reluctantly released the first tapes relating to the Watergate enquiry; 'Daydreamer' David Cassidy was in the singles charts, and we were buying LPs by the likes of Rod Stewart, the Stones, Slade, the Quo, David Bowie, Roxy Music, Elton John, Yes and Led Zeppelin, often in gatefold sleeves with amazing artwork.

In the Grantham area there had been a lot of talk about a new scheme which would turn some of the former ironstone mining countryside around Buckminster and Market Overton into a local leisure amenity, including an ironstone mining museum and a railway preservation centre.

Optimism was fuelled when A3 No. 4472 Flying Scotsman arrived at Grantham station for a one night stopover before moving on to a steam depot being established at Market Overton in Rutland.

Humphrey Platts was there, and he has kindly sent us some photographs, which are real gems.  They seem to capture the anticipation of a dream which, sadly, was not to be realised.

Tracks through Grantham aims to promote the use of other websites where there's interesting Grantham-related railway content.  We've just added several new links to our page Links to online Photograph Albums, so why not take a look and see what's to be found elsewhere?

If you find, anywhere on this site, a link that doesn't work please drop us a note via the Contact Form here.  We'll do our best to get it sorted.

The next of our regular twice-a-year get-togethers for people interested in the Tracks through Grantham project will take place in Grantham in mid-October.  These are always very enjoyable occasions, an opportunity for our contributors and supporters to meet while enjoying a varied and, we hope, informative programme.

If you are already on our list of contacts you should have received a preliminary note of the date at the end of May, followed by our Newsletter early in August giving outline details.  We are just beginning to distribute the programme with the usual reply form, so look out for it.  Please remember to let us know if you hope to be with us.

If you're interested in attending but are not currently on our contacts list, please get in touch using the Contact Form here, and we will send you information - date, time, venue and programme - and a reply form.  We need to know how many people to expect, so we cannot publish full details on the website.