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Published on Leave a comment on Tracks through Grantham: October 2018 meeting

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

If you are already on our list of contacts you should recently have received the programme.  Please remember to let us know if you hope to be with us.

If you're interested in attending but have not received a programme please get in touch, using the Contact Form here, and we will send you information - date, time, venue and programme.  We cannot publish these details on the website because we need to know how many people to expect.

Published on

Friends who were with us at the April get-together may remember that we spent a little time recalling the career  of Grantham railwayman Jack Ashford who served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War.  However, we'd lost track of him following his distinguished war service.

As a result of the discussion in April there was a suggestion that Jack returned to the railway after the war and worked in the yard at Highdyke.  Graham Wareham then sent in a photograph showing  Jack outside one of the cabins at Highdyke, with some of the other men who worked there.

Recently a search of The Grantham Journal has revealed that Jack was a keen angler and that he enjoyed considerable success at the sport, captaining the Grantham BRSA angling team.

We've added the photograph and a newspaper article at the end of the page The Railway at Grantham in Wartime 1939-45.

Published on Leave a comment on The Diesel Era at Grantham

We have just published our introduction for the start of a new section on the website that will tell the story of the Diesel Era at Grantham. You can read more about the background to this and the reasons for the transitional change from steam to diesel power by visiting the first part of our new section here.

Mel Smith

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Above: Class O2/4 locomotive No. 63931 is travelling tender-first through Grantham station on the Down Main line on 27th June 1963.  Later in the afternoon it returned south hauling empty ironstone wagons.
Photograph by Cedric Clayson, © John Clayson.

Our latest new page is a table created by Kevin Roche where he lists all the Class O2 'Tango' heavy freight locomotives that have been based at Grantham.  As we heard from Tony Wright and Grahame Wareham in their presentation Talking Tangos: knowing your O2s at the October 2017 Tracks through Grantham get-together, the history of the O2 class is a complex one.  This compilation of Kevin's will help to make it more understandable.

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Published on 1 Comment on A Spotter’s Memories of Grantham and the ECML

Alan Curtis's earliest railway memory was hearing and watching steam trains as they passed along the Boston to Spalding line, situated only a short distance from his parents' house. Some years later after he had started at secondary school, he became more interested in the local railway scene and spotting locomotives. Alan made many trips to Grantham and luckily for us on a few occasions made a photographic record of what he saw. You can read more about his photographic trips to Grantham here

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In February 1980 Doncaster Power Signal Box extended its area of operation to include Grantham.  In our latest new feature Andy Overton provides a unique insight into the work of signalling in a power box, including the vital role of communication with station staff at Grantham.  There's also the frustration of prioritising train movements effectively through an over-rationalised track layout in the era of the privatised railway.  It's a fascinating read.

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Published on 6 Comments on East Coast films, 1960s

Jeremy Stone discovered this eight-minute video recently published on YouTube.  Locations are not identified, but we think they could be as follows:

0:00 - 2:35 somewhere on Stoke Bank (Swayfield?)

2:35 - 2:52 Peascliffe Tunnel southern approach (60013)

2:52 - 3:18 Stoke Tunnel southern approach (4472)

3:18 - 3:50 Barkston

3:50 - 4:16 Tweedmouth

3:16 - 4:35 cannot identify (but quite distinctive - can anyone help?) - it's Benton North Junction, north of Newcastle, see the comment below

4:35 - 5:12 somewhere on Stoke Bank

5:12 - 7:33 Barkston (in the snow, with a fearsome easterly blowing!)

7:33 - 7:37 somewhere on Stoke Bank (in the snow)

7:37 - 8:11 Peascliffe Tunel (southern approach)

 

Published on Leave a comment on More railways rediscovered: the High Dyke Branch

Need to shake off the winter blues?

Why not rediscover the High Dyke Branch!

Surely, following our recent spell of Siberian weather, spring will soon be in the air.  If you fancy getting out and about while rediscovering some railway heritage let our new page, The High Dyke Branch Rediscovered - Part 1, be your guide.

John Pegg will show you the first 3 miles of the former branch line, from Highdyke Junction to the Great North Road near Colsterworth.  There's a great selection of photographs .  Most show scenes taken in summer 2017 but, mixed in, are some 'flashbacks' to the 1960s and the early 1970s when the line was still moving heavy loads of ironstone to the main line, the job it was built for in 1916-19.

So why not find your boots, burn off a few excess calories and clear away the cobwebs?

...and look out for Part 2 soon.

Published on Leave a comment on The Gresley Society: Colin Walker’s Grantham

If you're a member of the Gresley Society you will have seen an evocative 13-page feature of Colin Walker's photographs from the 1950s and 1960s in the current (Autumn 2017, No. 173) edition of the Society's journal The Gresley Observer.  The photographs were taken at a range of locations including the Loco (shed), the northern and the southern approaches, and at the passenger station.  Colin was there on 'The Last Day' that Grantham Loco was operational, Saturday 7th September 1963, when he recorded some poignant views of the shed's remaining active A3s preparing to leave and departing: No. 60066, No. 60108 and No. 60112.

To become a member and secure a copy please see the membership page of the Society's website here.

Our own tribute to Colin Walker can be found here.

John Clayson

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Published on 1 Comment on Diesel Multiple Units / Railcars
Grantham Arrival - August 1971.  We are currently writing a new section for the TTG website all about the 'Diesel Era'  - Our starting point will of course cover the introduction of Diesel Multiple Unit / Railcar (DMUs) services to and from Grantham. Our photograph (above) shows an arrival in the Bay during the early 1970s, but if you were a Driver or a Staff member during any period from the mid 1950s to the mid 1980s and have memories & anecdotes from that time we would like to hear from you. We would also like to hear from passengers and their own experience of travelling by DMU from Grantham. Incidentally, does anyone recognise the Driver?