Above: Grantham Driver Arthur Northern.
All photographs by Colin Walker.
We don't know the date of this trip on which Colin travelled between Grantham and King's Cross. The train was an afternoon relief express and the locomotive was A3 No. 60106 Flying Fox driven by Grantham driver Arthur Northern.
Flying Fox was one of the most celebrated of the East Coast Pacific locomotives. In July 1927 it was selected to haul the inaugural run of a new and much-publicised non-stop service between London and Newcastle. This was then the longest non-stop run in the world. No. 60106 was one of the last of its class to continue in service, operating from New England shed at Peterborough until Boxing Day 1964. With more than 41 years on the East Coast Main Line under its belt, Flying Fox had attained the highest recorded mileage of any A3 - and possibly of any main line steam locomotive - at 2,642,860 miles.
The sequence of photographs was taken over the four miles between Grantham and Stoke Tunnel. The weather looks to be grey and drizzly, far from ideal for taking photographs while hanging out of a swaying, shaking locomotive cab.
The large inclined handle at top right is attached to the steam regulator valve in the boiler; it is in the open position. Below it are two small handles for the driver's brake valve. At far right the 'sunflower' disc with chromed surround is the indicator of the Automatic Warning System (AWS), a device linked to the brakes which visually and audibly indicates, and records, the position of distant signals as they are approached, and will apply the brakes if a signal showing 'caution' is missed by the driver. The shiny handle below the window is the reversing handle, attached to the locomotive's valve gear.
Beyond the three-arch bridge Saltersford automatic colour light home signal is in clear view from this, the fireman's side, but Driver Northern will not yet see it. Because of the curvature of the line here his view ahead is obstructed by the locomotive's boiler.
It's also just possible to see the rear of the splitting banner repeater signal for Saltersford Down Loop.
The bridge was a farmer's accommodation bridge, built to give access to both parts of a field which was bisected when the railway was built. It has since been removed.
Forward to a slower speed footplate trip over most of the same section of route with an O2 heavy freight locomotive: A Trip to Highdyke in Winter's Chill.