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Month: April 2017

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Published on 2 Comments on Tracks through Grantham April 2017 Meeting

On Wednesday 12th April the Grantham Railway Club once again hosted a lively and enjoyable gathering of neary 50 friends and supporters of Tracks through Grantham.

The programme included:

East Coast Main Line Memories  An evocative presentation by Mel Smith of a selection of railway images dating from the 1950s to electrification, set off by some amusing captions with more than a hint of the popular culture of the day (song and film titles and the like).

A miscellany  Some short films from the 1950s and early 1960s (accompanied by a sometimes less than well-informed soundtrack commentary), and an Ask the Audience session to discover answers to queries that our and others’ research has thrown up, presented by John Clayson.

Pirt’s Pics of Grantham Tony Wright showed, and we the audience admired, a superb selection of photographs taken by Keith Pirt around the station at Grantham, the Loco (shed) and the immediate environs.  Tony was seeking new insights into the pictures.

The Tracks through Grantham website  An overview of some of the latest new pages, showing how resources are brought together to build content for the site.

Following the pattern of previous meetings, feedback at the event was generous and informative.   For example, the 'mystery locations' of several photographs in Mel's presentation were identified, the Ask the Audience session yielded answers to most of the questions posed, and Tony gained a great deal of information from the many comments he received on Keith Pirt's photographs.  We'll post a number of News items shortly as follow-ups, drawing attention to pages updated as a result of information gathered on 12th April.

Above all, it was again a great pleasure to have the company of our supporters.  We see the project as channel for contributors, and chatting to people at the meetings really does help us to guide the future of Tracks through Grantham.  New material continues to be offered most willingly, and as a result there are now several ideas ‘on the go’ for pages which will appear in the coming weeks and months.

Finally, some thanks are most certainly due.  First to the staff of the Railway Club who really pulled out the stops to ensure that the room and all the facilities were available as planned.

We would also like to express gratitude to:

  • everyone who contributed items to sell on a Bring & Buy basis for the benefit of the project
  • everyone who purchased something
  • everyone who gave a donation towards the costs of running Tracks through Grantham.

We have sufficient ‘in the kitty’ to cover the baseline running costs of Tracks Through Grantham (for example meeting room hire, website and film hosting fees, and newsletter printing) for at least the remainder of 2017.

And thanks to everyone who was there - it is really encouraging to have so much support.  The next Tracks through Grantham get-together will be in October and we'll fix the date in the next few weeks.

John & Mel

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Published on 1 Comment on The Wheels of Industry and Agriculture

We're back from a short break while we were in Grantham for our very enjoyable Tracks through Grantham get-together.

A photograph from 1936 recently published on the Grantham Matters website shows a comparatively little-known area of Grantham's railway property and a product of one of the town's agricultural engineers.

The location is a carting space behind the granary just south of the passenger station, looking north.  The wooden buildings at the far end are a police office (on the left) and a stable.

Published on Leave a comment on Leicester Lads found a View from a Bridge

Bob has recently been in touch with an enquiry.

I know I am clutching at straws but here goes!  In the early '60s my friend and I used to travel from Leicester to Grantham trainspotting.  They are fondly remembered days.  We used to walk to a road bridge, climb up the slope at the side and sit on the fence at the top.  The sheds were close by on our left with the main line in front.  I think the road was the route through Grantham to the east coast.
Is it possible that one of your members may have a photo showing either the bridge with a loco beyond or above, or maybe a picture of spotters at the location?
Any help much appreciated.

Exchanging a few emails, and with clues picked up from Mike Bacon's page in Spotters' Corner, we worked out that the bridge over Springfield Road was a perfect match.  Bob kindly filled in a little more background, and we had the nucleus of our latest page: How we discovered Springfield Road Bridge.

One of the pleasures of developing the content of Tracks through Grantham is that sometimes we don't know where the material for our next new page is going to come from ... but we can be sure that something will always show up!  So if you have a memory or a query and have been thinking about sending it, don't hold back any longer!