Above: At 6.14pm on Saturday 16th May 1964 class A3 No. 60062 'Minoru', based at New England shed, Peterborough, waits near Grantham South signal box with a southbound parcels train. On this day three of new England's six A3s were seen at Grantham by Phil between 10.50am and 6.30pm.
Phil Wilson’s spotting notes, predominately recording steam but with selective diesel power included, are reproduced below. These cover the period between February 1964 and June 1964.
KEY TO SYMBOLS:
- S means it was a Stopping train
- St means Straight through
- π means the train terminated at Grantham
- For the direction of travel, N or an arrow pointing downwards (↓) is Northbound or Down
- S or an arrow pointing upwards (↑) is Southbound or Up
Pages 38 & 39. Wednesday 1st to Friday 14th February (the latter mostly at Nottingham and Derby):
Pages 40 & 41. Notes covering Saturday 15th February until Thursday 26th March 1964, when there was a late morning failure of Brush Type 4 (class 47) No. D1520 that caused delay to the following Up Flying Scotsman:
Pages 42 & 43. Continuing Thursday 26th March at Grantham; then 27th and 28th March at Doncaster and Hull, Wednesday/Thursday/Friday 1st to 3rd April at Grantham, then the morning of Saturday 4th April mainly at Nottingham including the shed 16A (page 44, not reproduced; continues at Nottingham Victoria):
Pages 45 & 46. The final notes from 4th April at Nottingham Victoria, then Monday 6th April at Grantham, followed by a trip to Leicester on Tuesday 7th April, including seeing No. 7029 Clun Castle arrive at Leicester Central on an Ian Allan special from London Paddington to Doncaster Works, which Royal Scot No. 46163 Civil Service Rifleman was waiting to take over. Back to Grantham for 8th and 9th April:
Pages 47 & 48. Thursday 9th to Saturday 18th April. On 15th April we see signs of both diesel locomotive performance testing and unreliability. At 11.48 D9001 St. Paddy headed through northbound, with 10 coaches and a dynamometer car, on high speed braking trials between Hornsey and Doncaster. At 11.55 Phil notes "90104 towing failed D1523 through yards":
On Thursday 9th April 1964 (see above) Phil recorded B1 No. 61162 on northbound coal empties at 2.34pm and No. 90383 with a mixed freight heading south five minutes later at 2.39. By pure coincidence, discovered when compiling these pages some 57 years afterwards, Cedric Clayson spent that same afternoon on the station. Below are his photographs of both trains:
Photograph by Cedric A. Clayson
Photograph by Cedric A. Clayson
Pages 49 & 50. The highlight here is on Saturday 2nd May at 8.01pm. '60106 Flying Fox clean, on return special, old coaches, boards on front and back, 60-70'. This was the Gresley Society's London - North Eastern Flyer on which, reportedly, 60106 topped the climb from Grantham at 70mph and attained 94/96mph down Stoke Bank:
Pages 51 & 54. Concluding Wednesday 6th May and moving forward to Tuesday 26th, but taking out Friday 15th which was spent at Nottingham (pages 52 & 53). On the evening of Friday 8th May four Pacifics and a V2 were seen within 2 hours:
Photograph taken by Phil Wilson.
Pages 55 & 56. Concluding Tuesday 26th May and continuing to Friday 12th June. Bookending the day Saturday 6th June and in large print are A3s 60080 Dick Turpin, seen on arrival at around 8.30am, and 60051 Blink Bonny passing with the L.C.G.B. North Countryman Rail Tour at 8.41pm. Also written in large print is K1 62029 seen on Monday 8th June, which Phil captured with his camera:
Photograph taken by Phil Wilson
Pages 57 & 58. Concluding Saturday 13th June until Saturday 27th June, the latter until 4pm spent at Barkston catching both main line traffic and specials to and from Mablethorpe and Skegness on the link line between Allington Junction and Barkston East Junction. During the first week, Pacific activity is evident with nine different locos seen on passenger and troop specials, parcels and pigeon traffic, fast freight and the daily cement train; but they appear to have gone to ground after 20th with only one, 60119, seen on Wednesday 24th:
Page 59. Saturday 27th June concludes and 29th and 30th June take us to the end of this period, all steam sightings being 9F 'spaceships':
Phil's notes continue from July to October 1964 on the next page.