But the real subject of this post is the locomotive, a tiny wee Class 03 shunter.
This diminutive beast was intended for use on the weakest of track and at small stations where minimal shunting was required.
It could therefore often be found in dock railways, and at small branchline termini.
It was also used as a station pilot -- here's one at Newcastle.
And here's one where I first encountered them, at King's Lynn in Norfolk (that's the technical college in the background):
This pair is also at King's Lynn and if you look closely you can see the chief variation exposed: one of them has a chimney like a flower-pot, the other is more like a cone:
Here you can see the conical chimney more clearly:
They lost their jobs (or most of them) reasonably soon after they entered service, so many of them were sold off to private industries for shunting in factory yards. Many survive into preservation.
But one or two -- usually those operating in places like Lynn and Boston which had, to say the least, creaky Dock railways -- survived much, much later (here's one at Boston):
Terrifically sweet little machines. I like them a lot: there's just nothing precious about them.
10 comments:
I love the last pic in particular, and the sadly bleak Northern British scenery of a broken bike and a supermarket trolley: all that's missing is a bit of a Reliant 3-wheeler, a pram and an abandoned white plastic stiletto. No-one can do it quite like us!
"Northern"? It's Boston in south Lincolnshire. I've always thought of Lincs as firmly in the "Southern" half, though the east is a bit tricky.
Aww, I also love that last shot, with the very wobbly track alignment. :) Funny because I'd also consider Lincolnshire to be "Northern". Maybe that comes from growing up in London. Hmmm.
Maybe Lincolnshire straddles the divide -- the northern part of traditional Lincs is Humberside which, I agree, is firmly "Northern".
But Lincs feels Midlands-ish to me, veering into East Anglia (the south-east bit around The Wash is all part of The Fens). And East Anglia/The Wash/The Fens, while being many things, is definitely not "Northern".
Is it?
The "north" and "south" are widely defined for marketing and sociological purposes as being separated by a line drawn from Bristol to your native heath, King's Lynn. Its origins lay in the distribution of matches - mines and industry (where smoking was forbidden) were situated in the North so workers would buy red-top matches and conceal a few, with a cigarette butt, about their person, using a stone or a brick to light the match. No such demand existed in the south, where safety matches still predominate. Hold a clear ruler across the map and look where the division cuts - you'll find any prejudices you may have had confirmed as if by magic! To this day a new product is most unlikely to be launched in any of the perceived "northern" ITV regions such as Central, Granada or Yorkshire.
Intriguing! So the Midlands don't exist, and half of both Gloucestershire and Cambridgeshire are in the North??
In economic discussions I'm used to the line being drawn almost as you place it (from the Severn to The Wash is the formulation I know, which puts it a bit further north at the eastern end and does indeed include south Lincolnshire (Spalding? Surely that can't be in The North??)). But I hadn't come across it as a straight split in geographical/marketing terms when separating The North and The South.
Which reminds me of my favourite-ever roadsign, a confirmation sign on the verge of an "A" road approaching the small market town of Pontefract from the west (I think), on a road which ultimately has a junction with the A1(M). To confirm you're still heading in the right direction after a junction, the confirmation sign reads:
---------------
A628 (A1(M))
The NORTH
The SOUTH
Pontefract
---------------
Never has so much vastness been juxtaposed with such a tiny inconsequentiality (with apologies to the good people of Pontefract).
It's fun, isn't it?
And it places Cornwall firmly in the north - not really surprising given its culture and history - and indeed red-top matches weren't sold there. And without wishing to offend the locals I'd hardly think it would be the place to launch something shiny and new.
Correction: safety matches weren't sold in Cornwall - sloppy me!
As an ex-suburban Londoner (living in Australia for decades), I always, in my callow youth, thought that anywhere north of Watford was 'up north'. Older, but any the wiser...??
A dear woman I know who lives in Sussex asserts that you enter the North on crossing the Euston Road
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