News

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

We have just created a new page on the website. It's about Colin Morley's first visit to Grantham and includes a remarkable sighting of double headed A2s heading north through Grantham in June 1959. You can read more of his story here.

 

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