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We've just added a new page on the website. The location is slightly out of our usual Tracks through Grantham area, but we are sure that you will enjoy reading the entertaining story of 'Patrick Kew - A Peterborough Fireman'.  There's a link to the page here .

Can you help? After publication of the initial 'Diesel Era' introductory pages some years ago, this part of the TTG website has been somewhat neglected. Steve Philpott, one of our regular contributors, has a great interest and first hand knowledge and expertise in that area. Steve has kindly offered to help out by writing new content for this section of the website.

This is an ideal and most welcome opportunity for us to carry on with our continuing research and development of this part of the Tracks through Grantham project. With that in mind and with your anticipated help, the plan is to gather more information relating to diesel locomotive workings, sightings, documentation, anecdotal memories or anything else that could potentially be useful. Our ultimate aim is to present a day-to-day picture of typical operations and events, as diesels gradually replaced steam in and around Grantham.

This new development will see Steve link up with the existing Diesel Era The Diesel Era at Grantham  & DMU Railcars (Diesel Multiple Units) in Grantham and Lincolnshire. pages; already published on the website. We will then go on to record, in much more detail, the role that the BR diesel locomotive fleet played during the modernisation of railway services through Grantham. The period to be covered will be from the early 'prototype' years i.e. the late 1950s and eventually lead right up to the electrification of the East Coast Main Line in the late 1980s.

Photographs, Memories and Notes: With the exception of maybe the prototype 'DELTIC' there was a natural focus on recording the ever diminishing numbers of steam locos passing through our region. Few photographs it seems were taken of the ordinary workaday diesels in the Grantham area. Should you therefore have any photographs or slides from this period, or you know of someone else who would be willing to loan them to TTG for scanning and possible use on the website, then we would love to hear from you. As always, full credit will be provided to you or the original photographer. By the way, don't worry too much about quality, for as they say, every picture tells a story!  Also of great interest are any notes of diesel sightings and associated details such as train reporting numbers, liveries, times and consists etc. As a starting point for Steve, he has a quite extensive and comprehensively recorded set of notes of his own sightings at Grantham, some dating back to 1968. Maybe you have a few notes from this period hidden away yourself? If so please do get in touch.

Did you work on the railway in the Grantham area during this period? We are also seeking first hand stories from people whose working life was centred in and around Grantham between 1955 to 1990. Maybe you, or someone you knew, worked on the station or had a job associated with the railway? As a passenger, do you have memories of travelling to and from Grantham during this time? Again, please get in touch. Any small bit of information or anecdote is of great interest and will really help us to create a lasting record of the 'Diesel Era'

 

We've just added a new page on the website. In Mike Ward's entertaining story you will read about 'How a loco was bought for threepence'! Here's the link to the page The Day we bought a Loco for Threepence

Above: LNER staff at Grantham in 1920s costume with the CENTURY Azuma train (named at York on 15th May) passing by on the main line (The Grantham Journal)

On Thursday 28th September there was a big surprise in store for people travelling through Grantham station.

During 2023 today's LNER has been celebrating  the centenary of the formation of the original L&NER, on 1st January 1923.  There have already been events at some of the route's major centres of operation, but the company wanted to include one of the smaller stations in the programme and they chose Grantham.  Penny Bond, LNER Internal Communications Manager, explained that "The event is about celebrating our centenary with our customers, who are the very heart of our business."

Tracks through Grantham supporters were invited, and between 09.00 and 13.00 we were treated to:

  • a jazz band playing 1920s music
  • LNER staff from across the business dressed in 1920s attire
  • an exhibition of photos from the 1960s in one of the customer lounges (waiting rooms) prepared with the support of Tracks through Grantham
  • a newspaper stand with a copy of the LNER Gazette with LNER facts and history
  • historian David Turner in attendance to talk to people about railway history
  • a group of re-enactment actors playing 1920s passengers
  • re-printed LNER posters from 1923-1924  on display
  • London King’s Cross customers receiving replica ticket modelled on a 1923 Edmondson-style ticket.
Left to right: Becky, normally an LNER dispatcher at Newark, in the role of 'Mabel', a 1920s housewife; an on-duty LNER dispatcher at Grantham; an LNER colleague in the role of a 1920s soldier ('Mabel's husband'); Sharon Wyatt, LNER Station Delivery Manager at Grantham.

LNER's Managing Director, David Horne, was present throughout, and the Mayor of Grantham, Councillor Mark Whittington, called in.

Centre: Penny Bond, LNER Internal Communications Manager; right: David Horne, LNER Managing Director.

To see more of what went on follow these links to online and broadcast coverage, including photographs and video:

Our next get-together for people interested in Tracks through Grantham takes place in Grantham towards the end of September.  These events are an opportunity to meet for a few hours to enjoy a varied and, we hope, enjoyable and informative programme.  Our meetings are usually held twice a year, in spring and autumn.

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

If you'd be interested in attending but have not received a programme/invitation please get in touch, using the Contact Form here, providing your name and email address.  We will add you to our list of email contacts and send a programme and invitation which gives the date, time and venue (and requests a reply if you intend to join us).

We don't publish the meeting details on the website because we and our host venue need to know how many people to expect.

With the kind permission of the Railway Correspondence and Travel Society (RCTS) we are very pleased to re-publish, here on Tracks through Grantham, an article written by John F. Clay in 1966 for The Railway Observer.  The article draws on the author's extensive local knowledge as he relates how the town and its people contributed, collectively and individually, to fostering the widespread recognition of Grantham as a premier railway centre on the East Coast Main Line. 

The writer concludes by pondering the desolate, cleared site of the loco sheds and yard, querying the wisdom of 'Dieselisation' and wondering, from the perspective of the mid-1960s with the prospect of continuing post-Beeching closures, what future profile the railway would have in Grantham.

This link will take you directly to the page:

Grantham - The Rise and Decline of a Railway Centre