Sheffield Steam Sheds Article in Steam Day Magazine

[hillsbro 30]

Oh – the Wisbech & Upwell Tramway… Somewhere I have two books about the line, which I remember seeing in 1960 when I was on a fishing holiday with a much-loved great-uncle. The line’s main raison d’être seems to have been transporting fruit and potatoes away from the area, and coal in the opposite direction. With limited opportunities for carrying other kinds of freight, and in a fairly sparsely-inhabited district, it could never be very profitable in its own right (despite "feeding" goods and passengers into and from the main lines) and passenger services were withdrawn in 1927. The line survived the first round of Beeching cuts but closed in 1966. In 1953, one of its passenger coaches had been used for filming the Ealing comedy The Titfield Thunderbolt.

It’s interesting to know about Butler-Henderson, and that the loco. has been preserved; it was often seen on light passenger duties at Victoria Station, along with stablemates Mons, Zeebrugge etc. I seem to remember seeing a mention of someone with the surname Butler-Henderson but I can't remember where or when.

[Cliffhanger 10]

You're right Athy. And of course Vicky Butler-Henderson the car programme presenter is also related I beleive.

[CHAIRBOY 10]

http://www.gcrailway.co.uk/locos/e506.htm

 

I knew it was a "director" but this link tells me he was a director of the railway.

[bus man 10]

Towards the end the W&UT used diesel shunters with metal skirts fitted the lines were at the side of the road and there were no fences.

 

Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisbech_and_Upwell_Tramway

 

 

Some nice photos

http://www.lner.info/co/GER/wisbech/stock.shtml

[hillsbro 30]

Yes, bus man, it was one of the diesel shunters that I saw in my schooldays, pulling three or four wagons. I would love to have seen one of the old engines - to this day I've only ever seen film of steam tram engines working. All the same, my train-spotting pals were quite envious of the "rare" shunter number that I'd underlined in my book. Also during my 1960 holiday, Uncle Joe took my brother and me for a day's fishing at Stonea, between March and Ely, in the "sixteen-foot drain". The March-Ely main line crosses the water where we were fishing, so naturally I positioned myself within easy spotting distance of the bridge. I only caught tiddlers that day, but my brother caught a three-pound bream and I copped 70012 John of Gaunt on the Harwich boat train! Happy days.

[hillsbro 30]

Non-spotters used to say that I seemed to be speaking in a foreign language. Here’s a short version of a 1950s train-spotting glossary (all additions welcome!)

 

Austerity A heavy freight loco built by the Ministry of Supply during wartime

Banker A heavy loco that helped goods trains up inclines

Black 5 An ex-LMS mixed traffic loco, cf. "Mickey"

Brit A BR passenger loco, "Britannia" class

Bug car Diesel multiple unit

to bunk to sneak round a shed without the foreman seeing you

to cab To be invited on to the footplate of a loco in steam

to cabbage To underline the number of a loco that you hadn't seen

Combined the combined volume of "British Railways Locomotives" published by Ian Allan

Compound An ex-LMS 3-cylinder compound loco

to cop to see a loco that you hadn't seen before

Crab An ex-LMS mixed traffic loco

Director An ex-GCR 4-4-0 passenger loco of the "Large Director" type, some named after directors of the railway

double header two engines pulling a train

Jinty An ex-LMS Fowler 0-6-0 tank engine

Jube An ex-LMS passenger loco of the "Jubilee" class

marking off underlining numbers in your book of engines you had seen

Mickey An ex-LMS mixed traffic loco, cf. "Black 5"

Namer A named locomotive

Nine F The large, 2-10-0 freight locos that were the only ones with the 9F power classification

Pate An ex-LMS passenger loco "Patriot" class

the Plant Doncaster locomotive works

Sandringham An ex-LNER Class B17 loco

Scot An ex-LMS passenger loco of the "Royal Scot" class

Streak An ex-LNER Gresley A4 Pacific (that is, a big, fast passenger loco to the uninitiated)

Unnamed streak No 60700, an experimental LNER class W1 loco, formerly numbered 10100. It was shamelessly scrapped.

Wessie The LNWR or one of its locos

[mikeG 16]

Consul - ex LMS 2-8-0 goods loco

[Arfer Mo 10]

Hey you Railway nuts, let's hear it for Grimesthorpe(19A). That's where all the real graft was.

Hi Did you ever use the canteen at grimey sheds' lworked there for a while, and there was always a brag or pontoon school going on one the end table near the fire, lost all my spends every week till l left, by the way l'm talking shortly after the Blitz, so a long time ago, Cheers ARTHUR.

[Arfer Mo 10]

It's amazing all this. I have written on other threads about 'must haves' in the Christmas stocking viz. football annuals but another must was the Ian Allen Combined volume of numbers - £1 2s 6d?

You spent all Christmas day copying up your book. This brought in another quality of trainspotting - honesty! What was the point of deluding yourself? I can't do it now but at the time, I would liked to have been able to say where I saw x at a given time.

I also had the loco-shed book which gave directions, transport etc. to all the MPDs.

I used to like the orange station livery of the North East and the light blue of what now is termed Scotrail. You'll remember the destination board on the sides of trains. Most of the main trains through Sheffield were London-Bradford and Newcastle-Bristol, given the odd extension here and there, like the one a day to Poole and Parkestone Quay OR to Glasgow St. Enoch - one of the then four Glasgow stations to add to Central, Queen St (from Edinburgh) and Buchanan Street. That's going back to the days when Third Lanark existed!

"What were on t'Temmy"? - I bet you know that vernacular? What engine was pulling the Thames-Clyde express. This was a popular and full service and I'd guess left Midland station about 12.20pm? It got to Millhouses about 12.30 and was usually Jubilee hauled. It was great to watch it from the Woodseats Road bridge heading up to Archer Road - it was quite a gradient up to Totley cutting (another vantage point) and it had to work very hard. It was an important train and how many times have you "wished I was on that"?

The Newcastle-Cardiff train was just after 11am. If Newcastle or Sunderland were playing Cardiff or Swansea on the Saturday, they'd pass through Sheffield on the Friday on this train.

You'd look for those white reservation labels that they put on the windows. Then you could pass your annuals/pictures for signing through those two top windows which pulled apart!

Another memory is the White Rose express which left Doncaster just after 4pm. There was often an A1 on that with a double chimney and it made a lovely sound as the steam wafted around. This, too, was popular. There was often a lot of fuss on the platform as a wedding party was not too far away!

I loved those names: The Palatine, The Northumbrian, Elder- Dempster Line (?) Fred Olsen Line.

In the case of the Thames-Clyde express, we'd probably miss out in Sheffield as a Kingmoor Jubilee would probably bring it to Leeds and then go to Holbeck - whereupon we'd see the usual 55A engine we'd seen many times. It was waiting for the unexpected that made it - and when it happened people thought you were winding them up!

 

Can I add - other people can join us in this discussion.

Hi l would like to, but if l try my reply always goes to the end of the last page of the thread so go to the end for my answer. Cheers Arthur.

[bus man 10]

Yes, bus man, it was one of the diesel shunters that I saw in my schooldays, pulling three or four wagons. I would love to have seen one of the old engines - to this day I've only ever seen film of steam tram engines working. All the same, my train-spotting pals were quite envious of the "rare" shunter number that I'd underlined in my book. Also during my 1960 holiday, Uncle Joe took my brother and me for a day's fishing at Stonea, between March and Ely, in the "sixteen-foot drain". The March-Ely main line crosses the water where we were fishing, so naturally I positioned myself within easy spotting distance of the bridge. I only caught tiddlers that day, but my brother caught a three-pound bream and I copped 70012 John of Gaunt on the Harwich boat train! Happy days.

 

 

Think you had the better day

[Texas 10]

Yes Arfur, I too played three and nine card brag in the canteen. I was there in '51 for a few weeks as a cleaner, then the Army. When I came out I was registered and went more or less straight into firing. I think you said you were a steam raiser, didn't you?

I packed it in after about 3 years, although I loved the job it, didn't do anything for my social life. Being not quite stable in those days I went as a Guard for a couple of years, which, you'll agree, was just the same, hours wise. What did my head in was being on PM's one week, at 11/59, and AMs the following week at a minute past midnight.

I like your list Hillsboro. Crabs, they had a cylindrical boiler didn't they? Not tapered like a Black 5. Do you remember the British Railway's class 2 and 4F's? We called them rocker bars, owing to the design of the bars in the firebox. They could be operated by a leaver on the front, (that's the footplate) but we'll not go into that.

[hillsbro 30]

Yes, the "Crabs" had a parallel boiler. Their BR numbers were in the 427xx and 428xx range; here's a picture of one: http://www.krm.org.uk/myster18.jpg

I wasn't familiar with rocker bars or, I suspect, many other "technical terms" used by train crews. On a recent steam excursion (60009 Union of South Africa on a run from Lincolnshire to Chester and back), Mrs hillsbro and I met a dyed-in-the-wool railwayman who had fired steam locos and driven diesels - it was fascinating to hear his recollections and to see how they compared with mine as an ex-spotter.