The 'Grantham Railway Society' (GRS) will be holding another meeting in the town on Thursday 16th March 2023. Non-members are very welcome! Here are the details of the programme:-
News
Peter Wilkinson
Above: Cleaner Peter Wilkinson in the cab of Class A3 locomotive No.106 'Flying Fox' at Grantham Loco in May 1948.
Dear friends,
We have been saddened to hear that Peter Wilkinson passed away last Sunday, 19th February, at the age of 90.
From the earliest days of our project Peter was a great friend of Tracks through Grantham and he supported our project in many ways. He always shared a word of encouragement when we chatted at our meetings, which he attended regularly.
Peter began his working life at Grantham ‘Loco’ in March 1948 as an engine cleaner, progressing to fireman until, in August 1954, he left the railway to follow a career in the police. When we got to know Peter in 2011, shortly after our project began, he delighted in recalling the formative six years of his life spent on the footplate at Grantham. He kindly allowed this entertaining and keenly observed story to be published on our website (see below).
Peter had many interests, and he lived a very full life. Mel remembers exploring the Lincolnshire countryside with him:
I first met Peter at one of our Tracks through Grantham railway events and I found him to be a very interesting man to talk with. Apart from the relatively short time that he worked on the railway he would also tell me about other periods in his working life. Like many others he was called up for National Service and later joined the Police force and went on to become the Harbour Master in Lincoln. Throughout his life Peter had a great love of aircraft and was an accomplished model maker. Peter's original family home was in Welbourn, Lincolnshire and, as I then lived in the next village, I was keen to hear about his personal memories and knowledge of the area. His father was a blacksmith in Welbourn and, when Peter was a child, he would sometimes accompany his father on 'shoeing' visits to a stable a few miles away at Temple Bruer. However, he could not remember the exact location. During one of our telephone conversations he brought the subject up again; so I said that we ought to try and find it. On one of the occasions that he came over to my house at Temple Bruer we decided to do just that. Arming ourselves with an old ordnance survey map, we made a few local enquiries. Eventually we did find the remains of the former stable block, and of course Peter was absolutely delighted to have finally solved the mystery. For posterity a couple of photographs were taken of him standing outside. Peter was a kind, thoughtful gentleman and I will never forget him. His book 'My Lincolnshire Life' (published privately by his family) is a fitting testament to a life well lived.
Peter Wilkinson’s funeral will be held at Lincoln on Tuesday 21st March. There’s a link to the family notice giving full details here.
Below are links to the pages on the Tracks through Grantham website where Peter relates the story of his railway life, supplemented by photographs he took while at work.
- Railway Life at Grantham - Peter Wilkinson
- Footplatemen’s Photographs (scroll down to halfway)
Mel and John
The Grantham Railway Society
The 'Grantham Railway Society' (GRS) will be holding another meeting in the town on Thursday 16th February 2023. Non-members are very welcome!
“Season’s Greetings”
Sixty Years and Counting: Thursday 31st August 1961
It's time for our next selection of photographs taken 60 years ago on one of a series of visits to Grantham station by my father and me.
The Tracks through Grantham time machine takes us back to Thursday 31st August 1961 to catch up on the first of three early excursions to Grantham. Go to the Sixty Years and Counting header page and scroll down to the link.
John Clayson
The Grantham Railway Society
The 'Grantham Railway Society' (GRS) will be holding another meeting in the town on Monday 21st November 2022. Non-members are very welcome! Here are the details of the programme:-
The LNER & British Railways (Eastern) Magazine.
The Great Eastern Railway Society has produced a series of DVDs recording past issues of the LNER and British Railways (Eastern) Magazines. They make a very interesting read and as such we thought that it would be a great idea to track down articles and events that happened in and around Grantham. You can read more here.
Grantham Railway Society
Of great interest to all railway enthusiasts. We would like to let you know that the 'Grantham Railway Society' (GRS) will be holding another meeting in the town on Monday 17th October 2022. Non-members are very welcome! Here are the details of the programme:-
Looking Back at the Era of ‘The Elizabethan’
At Tracks through Grantham we've been discussing how we might 'do our bit' to mark the close of the modern Elizabethan era.
It was in 1953 that the world's longest regular non-stop train service was retitled The Elizabethan to mark the coronation of the new monarch, HM Queen Elizabeth II. Since we heard Richard Cumming's presentation Steam on The Elizabethan 1953-1961 at our meeting in October 2021 it's been on our minds to feature The Elizabethan on our website. Now seems an opportune moment to realise this aim.
So we've gathered together photographs of The Elizabethan train service in the Grantham area from our website image library for a new page called At the Dawn of a New Era: ‘The Elizabethan’ in and around Grantham. We think it’s an appropriate gesture and we hope you agree.
You can find the new page here, in our website's Traffic and Trains section.
All the best,
John Clayson and Mel Smith
Grantham Railway Society
Of great interest to all railway enthusiasts. We would like to let you know that the 'Grantham Railway Society' (GRS) will be holding another meeting in the town on Monday 19th September 2022. Non-members are very welcome! Here are the details of the programme:-