• Our new ticketing site is now live! Using either this or the original site (both powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Search results

  1. Martello

    The last days of steam at Willesden

    18 Brits! That year made all the difference. I was old enough to go round Willesden with my dad in August 1965 but probably wouldn't have got away with it a year earlier. By summer 1965 the Britannias had all moved away. We had to go to Kingmoor (in Sept 65) to find a few of them!
  2. Martello

    Britannias on the GC Marylebone line in 1965

    You're right, it was extremely well built. They found out HOW well when they tried to demolish some of those viaducts built with engineering blue bricks!
  3. Martello

    The last days of steam at Willesden

    The reason I posed the question was partly curiosity, but also to try and confirm a sighting of 92085 at Wembley Central on 15 Jan 1966. There was a car park alongside the LNW line, close to the bridge where the Neasden to Ruislip GC line crossed over so I could see trains on both routes. I...
  4. Martello

    The last days of steam at Willesden

    I've been looking back at loco spotting notes of trains on the LNW main line up to the end of steam operation. I went round Willesden shed on Sunday 15th August 1965 and found 54 steam locos on shed, of 9 different classes. This included ten tank engines (mostly Fairburn tanks) that had recently...
  5. Martello

    Britannias on the GC Marylebone line in 1965

    There are signal box diagrams on the web for the 'boxes at Neasden: Neasden South Jc: https://signalbox.org/~SBdiagram.php/?id=%20254 Neasden North Jc: https://signalbox.org/~SBdiagram.php/?id=%20237 Brent North Jc: https://www.s-r-s.org.uk/html/lner/E499.gif Wembley Hill...
  6. Martello

    Britannias on the GC Marylebone line in 1965

    From what I've read, the GC shifted as much as it could to the GW&GC joint line in 1906 and it wasn't until LNER days that some of the longer distance trains were routed via the Met&GC joint line. My guess is that it might have been cheaper for the LNER to run the trains over the Met line than...
  7. Martello

    Britannias on the GC Marylebone line in 1965

    Thanks, that's a great contribution. So now we know that six of the eight Brits definitely worked to Marylebone. Any idea what the returning (northbound) working was for the 17.15? Possibly the 00.15 Manchester sleeper or the 01.40 passenger & newspapers? I will post my summary of 1966...
  8. Martello

    Britannias on the GC Marylebone line in 1965

    A correction to my first post..... Sightings on 9/10/65 were both at Northwick Park, not Wembley - so definitely ALL the sightings were on 14.38 and 16.38 Nottingham trains. Sorry for the confusion. # # # A couple of years ago, I started a thread about the Marylebone to Nottingham trains in...
  9. Martello

    GC London Nottingham trains 1960s

    Thanks to all who have enlightened me about the Marylebone - Nottingham trains, particularly the nocturnal activities, much of which was news to me, 57 years after the event! Keith.
  10. Martello

    GC London Nottingham trains 1960s

    I agree, there are plenty of photos of steam on the 17.15 and interestingly, where you can see the stock, it's the usual 4-coach set, no vans! That suggests that all the vans did return at around 11.00 from Nottingham (unless Saturdays were different?). The 17.15 was 20.09 at Harrow but I seldom...
  11. Martello

    Photos of Manning Wardle/Bagnall/Kitson loco cabs

    Internal or external views? Have you got Fred Harmans' books on MW locos? Is this from a modeller's perspective?
  12. Martello

    GC London Nottingham trains 1960s

    Thanks, having had a good look at the 1965 timetable, and personal recollections, I know that the loco on the 08.15 up from Nottingham returned on the 14.38 down from Marylebone (I saw these trains many times around Harrow) and I am pretty sure that the loco that worked the 16.38 down train had...
  13. Martello

    GC London Nottingham trains 1960s

    Thanks to all of you, that was very enlightening. I'd not found Timetable World, what an incredible site! Tables 116 and 120 are very enlightening - I had no idea that there was a sleeping car service to Manchester from Marylebone! (thanks 30907 for pointing that out). Too late tonight for any...
  14. Martello

    GC London Nottingham trains 1960s

    I grew up close to the GC main line in Harrow, and was a regular observer of the Marylebone to Nottingham steam hauled trains in the last year or two of operation (1965 and 1966). My recollection is that there was an up train via Harrow on the Hill at about 1100 that formed the 14.38 down...
  15. Martello

    Articulation - how is load transferred between coaches?

    Thanks, delticdave, I hadn't come across the cup castings. My father built several 0 gauge articulated coaches, and some run well, others are temperamental! Thanks Domh245, I agree, the Eurostars are likely to be similar to theTGVs of that period. I can't actually tell from the diagram but it...
  16. Martello

    Articulation - how is load transferred between coaches?

    The introduction of the Greater Anglia 745 / 755s prompted me to do some research into how the load is transferred between articulated coaches. I eventually found an excellent picture of the coupling between a pair of coaches, see below https://bahnbilder.ch/picture/9850 This shows that (a) the...
  17. Martello

    Industrial Steam in the 80s

    Acton Lane Power Station, near Willsden Jc, had a final enthusiasts' open day in 1981. There were two 0-4-0STs, LITTLE BARFORD (Barclay 2069/1939) and BIRKENHEAD (RSH 7386/1948). I don't know how much use they had in the last year or so but they had been kept busy in the winter in the 1970s.
  18. Martello

    Foreign Locomotives In Britain

    And there is another Norwegian 2-6-0 at Bressingham, along with a Kriegslok 2-10-0, though you might not include running on the short Bressingham s.g. line as 'working in Britain'.
  19. Martello

    Abellio Greater Anglia Class 755s (Regional Trains)

    Whilst the media and the customers are understandably directing criticism at GA & NR for the current debacle, surely some criticism should be directed at the way in which rolling stock is now leased? If GA hadn't had to return the stock that went off lease, they might have been able to their...

Top