Midland Times Issue 4 - Preview

MIDLAND TIMES

The new history periodical for students of the BR(M), LMS and pre-grouping constituents

Issue no. 4 • March 2024

Unnamed Patriot No. 5513, a product of Crewe in 1932, with an Up train of mixed stock passes under the brick arch overbridge in 1936 and from which the author watched trains seven years later. The ‘cess’, ‘wide-way’ and ‘six-foot’ beside and between the tracks are boarded over and beneath which will be a drainage system to collect the over-spill and spray from the water dispersed as the passing engines make a pick-up. The leading coach is an ex-LNWR 45-foot family saloon and is followed by an ex-LNWR 12-wheel special corridor brake composite. Photo: Author’s Collection.

Royal Scot No. 6142 Lion, later to be renamed The York & Lancaster Regiment in 1936, on the Up Fast at the commencement of the water troughs and with a further train in the distance on the Up Slow and water treatment tower on the right.

Photo: Photomatic 4339, courtesy Rail Archive Stephenson.

Situated on the broad River Tay at the gateway to the Highlands, the city of Perth, the ancient capital of Scotland once called St. Johnstoun and also known as the ‘Fair City’ was an important centre of railway communication in the days of steam.

First reached by rail from Dundee in May 1847, its original terminus was at Barnhill on the east side of the River Tay, but by 1849 a bridge across Moncrieff Island provided a direct link for rail traffic from Dundee via Perth to the south which connected with the Scottish Central Railway which had opened to Perth in May 1848. Also in that year, the future North British Railway’s line, the Edinburgh and Northern Railway reached Hilton Junction followed by the opening of the line from Perth to Forfar. The Perth and Dunkeld Railway, the future Highland Railway, was opened from Stanley Junction in April 1856. Finally, a line from Almond Junction towards Crieff was opened for rail traffic in January 1858.

Jointly owned and managed by the early user railway companies, Perth General station was designed by Sir William Tite and was opened on 28th May 1848 with the opening of the line from Stirling. The station was enlarged in 1884 and 1893, its long through north/south platforms accommodating the heavy trains conveying families to and from the Highlands during the shooting season whilst the city of Dundee was served by two

1st September 1956 • Pickersgill Class 3P 4-4-0 No. 54489

acting as station pilot at Perth General with the coach sidings viewed to the left. The loco was built by Armstrong-Whitworth in March 1921 being withdrawn in December 1961.

To Inverness

LM&SR LNER

To Aberdeen

To Crie PERTH Bankfoot

Bridge of Earn RiverTay

To Dundee Stanley Junction

To Glasgow and London

To Edinburgh and London

To Ladybank Junction

sharply-curved platforms on the east side of the main station. The Down main platform was 1,415 feet long and the platform on the Up side measured 1,672 feet, the longest on Scottish railways. Scissor crossings were provided on the middle roads which enabled train portions to be worked from the same platform whilst the one centre island platform contained all of the station’s

There was more. Unnamed Patriot No. 45508 was coupled with Black Five No. 45257, No. 45468 with No. 40565, and I enjoyed the sight of two Jubilees performing a double act on an Up express, No. 45624 St. Helena with No. 45586 Mysore, one of whose nameplates sold at a GW Railwayana auction last November for £10,500. Co-Co diesels Nos. 10000 and 10001 also joined in by working the Down ‘Royal Scot’ together.

Further star sightings before my hunger, and the trepidation of facing my parents after pushing the time limits of my exeat, got the better of me, included Princess Coronation No. 46256 Sir William A. Stanier, F.R.S. on the Up ‘Mid-Day Scot,’ and classmates Nos. 46220 Coronation, 46233 Duchess of Sutherland, 46241 City of Edinburgh, and 46247 City of Liverpool, while a third Princess Royal was the now preserved No. 46201 Princess Elizabeth

Also deserving of mention are Royal Scot No. 46147 The Northamptonshire Regiment on ‘The Lakes Express’ and ‘copping’ within 10 minutes of each other my first Scottish-based Brit, No. 70052 Firth of Tay and first Clan Pacific, No. 72004 Clan Macdonald

I was back just two days later, on 28th July, an indication that my late return to our holiday accommodation on the previous Saturday was perhaps not as much a problem as I had anticipated.

This day too I arrived at exactly noon, and within five minutes I had logged the Down ‘Caledonian’ headed by Princess Coronation No. 46232 Duchess of Montrose, of which I had a Hornby Dublo model at home (and still have).

Within 15 minutes No. 40565 came through piloting No. 70050 Firth of Clyde, another Polmadie (66A) resident and thus my second Scottish Brit to be ‘copped’ on this holiday. These handsome Pacifics were a regular sight back home at Ilford, but being able to underline in my Ian Allan Combined Volume two from north of the border gave me great pleasure.

Patriot No. 45506 The Royal Pioneer Corps was next up on a freight rather than passenger train, and before long No. 46220 Coronation sped through on the Up ‘Royal Scot,’ while another express locomotive seen two days earlier also made a reappearance, No. 72004 Clan Macdonald. Oh, how I wished it was a different member of the 10-strong class, but Princess Coronation No. 46224 Princess Alexandra, being a Polmadie locomotive and thus a ‘cop,’ soon made up for it with the Up ‘Mid-Day Scot.’

Patriot class 4-6-0s put on a show mid-afternoon, when four members of the class – Nos. 45503 The Royal Leicestershire Regiment, 45512 Bunsen, 45519 Lady Godiva, and 45532 Illustrious – passed through within an hour of each other on a series of

Unnamed Patriot class 4-6-0 No. 45517 of 27A (Bank Hall, Liverpool) lets off steam as it departs from Windermere with the 3.23pm train on 18th July 1959. During a family holiday almost exactly a year previously, Geoff had travelled from the station for two spells of trainspotting at Oxenholme, where the Windermere branch joins the WCML. Photo: Alec Swain © The Transport Treasury

STAMFORD TOWN

Stamford in Lincolnshire is a town renowned for its 17th and 18th century buildings and medieval churches.

When the railway through Stamford was built the architect Sancton Wood (1816-1886) was commissioned to design the station and the result resembled a small Tudor house, more than likely influenced by the nearby Burleigh House. Opened in 1848 it was constructed with local limestone – the walls are almost a metre wide in place – the roof covering is of Collyweston slates.

Built by the Syston & Peterborough Railway, a subsidiary of the Midland Railway, it opened in 1848. To the left of the house is the business part of the station comprising a ticket office, booking hall, waiting room, water closets, parcels office, storeroom and other facilities. At the east end there is a bell tower with its gilded weather vane bearing the initials SPR.

On the platform side, the canopy on its cast-iron columns date from the 1870s or 1880s, as does the wooden waiting shelter and canopy on the opposite side. The canopy was replaced by a modern glass design in 2017. The lattice footbridge is a standard Midland Railway pattern and was strengthened in 2009.

Beyond the stationmaster’s house is the signal box, opened on 16th March 1895, it survived until 1984, closing on 15th May, its functions being transferred to Ketton. The box was moved to its current position in 1987 and saw use as a bookshop store.

Its original location was about 200 metres to the west where it controlled the rail access to the former goods yard. It is a standard Midland Railway Type 2b of 1891. The extensive goods yard was on land now occupied by the houses in Gresley Drive opposite.

Services began running to the station on 2nd October 1846, but only on the Peterborough to Stamford section, using a temporary station in Water Street, as a tunnel was waiting completion. The contract for the erection of the permanent station was obtained by Groocock and Yates of Leicester in 1847. The permanent station opened along with through services to Leicester on 20th March 1848.

The London and North Western Railway opened their single track branch line from Rugby via Market Harborough on 2nd June 1851. This joined the Midland line at Luffenham, but trains generally worked through to Stamford and terminated in the LNWR bay, platform 3, which is now disused and filled in.

In 1863, the weekday train service comprised five each way per day on the Peterborough–Stamford–Leicester route, three each way per day on the Stamford–Market Harborough–Rugby route, and just one each way per day on the Stamford–Market Harborough–Northampton route, including through coaches to London Euston.

The LNWR Rugby line was double tracked in 1878, but in 1879 the LNWR built a new line from Seaton to Wansford on

An exterior view of Stamford Town station with passengers arriving for an early morning service. Photo: James Harrold © Transport Treasury

a Newcastle-Liverpool

Gildersome

Swindon-built 2,500 h.p. Class 46 ‘Peak’ No. D184 (later 46047) heads

express between

Tunnel and Birstall on 26th July 1963. Photo: Mike Mitchell © Transport Treasury

A view of Cleckheaton Spen station. Photo: Author’s Collection

Cleckheaton road viaduct, an unusual station approach road built to link the station with the town centre. It is a Grade Ii listed steel-legged viaduct. Photo: Philip Hellawell

Dunlop and Ranken steel on rail wagons at Liversedge Spen Goods Yard. Dunlop and Ranken were Leeds-based iron and steel stock holders. Photo: © Transport Treasury

ODD CORNERS OF THE MIDLAND

Words and Photos by Alan Postlethwaite

My acquaintance with the Midland Railway was piecemeal. In 1960, I rode from St. Pancras to Liverpool Central on my way to photograph the railways of the Isle of Man. In 1961, I enjoyed lunch in a twelve-wheel LMS restaurant car out of St. Pancras on a business trip to Buxton. We encountered a blizzard in the Peak District and had to trudge through snow at Millers Dale to board the local DMU to Buxton. Finally, in 1963, I accompanied a friend to photograph the railways in and around Peterborough. My overall impression was that, like the LBSCR, the Midland infrastructure was built to last a thousand years.

The Midland Railway reached Liverpool Central via the Cheshire Lines, a railway company that didn’t own trains. Here, Black Five No. 45333 is reversing over the ash pit onto the turntable. This corner of the station was clearly hacked out of rock and had evidence of a former bridge carrying a steep road. I love its compactness, a corner that might fit beautifully on a model railway. These days, Liverpool Central is a through station, burrowing under the city centre to connect with the Lancashire & Yorkshire system to Southport, Wigan and Preston.

THE FINAL ‘DUNSTABLE DASHER’

Photos by Doug Nicholls

30th June 1962: The passenger train known affectionately as the Dunstable Dasher made its final journey to Leighton Buzzard station, the train being in the capable hands of a very clean Ivatt 2MT 2-6-2T, No. 41222.

It pulled out of Dunstable North railway station at 6.10pm on 30th June, 1962 for its final short journey through Sewell and Stanbridgeford to Leighton Buzzard, crossing Billington Road not far from what is now the Leighton Buzzard narrow gauge railway at Page’s Park.

The railway continued across Dunstable to Dunstable Town station in Church Street and then on to Luton Bute Street.

Organised by the South Bedfordshire Locomotive Club, there were around 300 passengers on the last train to Leighton Buzzard but, alas, it was not normally so busy. Towards the end of its days, the ‘Dasher’ was usually only filled on Saturdays when football fans used it to reach Luton Town matches.

The Leighton Buzzard to Dunstable railway opened in June 1848, with the line to Luton being built ten years later (see route map on page 78). After the end of passenger services to Leighton Buzzard, Dunstable North railway station continued to serve people who wanted to travel to Luton, but this closed on 26th April 1965 and goods traffic ended on 9th October 1967.

English Electric Type 4 No. D318 pictured at Stafford in 1962.

Photo: Michael Mensing © The Transport Treasury