Recent content by Martello

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!

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!

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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.

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...

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

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...

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...

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...

Thanks.