The LNER Encyclopedia

G'Day Gents
Thats the train that I was on when we were derailed, just after running round.See 'Memories' thread
manna

That was a nice little job 9B69 Kings Cross Goods yard - Temple Mills & return. I bet that livened the day manna coming off the road!!!. Have a good day my old mucker... Micky

G'Day Gents
Thanks for that Micky, Yep, something that has stayed in my mind since then, can feel the engine bouncing over the sleepers, now? and watching the signal sway, before toppling over!! a very memorable day indeed
manna

manna my old mate, i suppose it would 'shake you up a bit' being on the loco when she comes off the road and lands in the dirt especially if your moving with a train of loose coupled wagons behind you. I like your description of seeing the 'signal swaying before you toppled over' for some reason i find that 'highly amusing' Micky

Time for another Kings Cross train crew diagram from 1974/75 infact this diagram i suspect was going on for a number of years before those dates. 7B66 Kings Cross Goods yard to Huntingdon. 7B66 was made up of (usually) a Brush type 2 (class 31) pulling about 5 or 6 parcel vans and 7 or 8 coal/mineral wagons and a brake van on the rear. The train was 'partially fitted' hence the class 7 in the headcode with the parcel vehicles vacuum braked and the coal/mineral wagons and brake van loose coupled. 7B66 left the the Goods yard/Five Arch shunting frame about 2:30-2:45am and made it's way northwards through Finsbury Park/New Barnet/Potters Bar/Hatfield arriving at Welwyn Garden City sometime after 3:am where it would perform a W shunt to gain access to the up yard. After 'knocking off' the rear portion of the brake van and 7 or 8 coal/mineral wagons the front portion of the train consisting of the 5 or 6 parcel vans and loco would become 6B66 (a change of headcode for the secondman and you thought that the secondman was always asleep?) with the guard now riding in the back cab of the loco. 6B66 would depart the up yard and perform another W shunt to regain access to the down main line and 'right away' Hitchin where 6B66 would again 'knock off' several parcel vans in the down yard opposite Cambridge Junction s/box. On completion of detaching the several parcel vans at Hitchin the remaining couple of parcel vans would be taken forward north to st Neots and left in the down siding. When i worked this diagram a couple of times in the new year of 1975 (in the early hours of a snowy morning all the way down from London, st Neots looked like a winter wonderland at 4:30am very pretty indeed!) the loco went 'light engine' north after leaving st Neots to Huntingdon where the loco was crossed over and then returned 'light engine' back up to London after which i can't remember what exactly happened to the loco and crew other than i think we went via the Hertford loop going back towards London. The last part of the diagram may have been for the loco and crew to work a train of inner suburban non-corridor stock from Hertford north or Cuffley into Kings Cross in the early morning peak but from this distance in time i can't really remember anymore. Micky

Andy W has kindly reminded me that the up 'longer distance' mixed coaching stock train was not my uncertain 5A19, but was 5A00.

Things were a little different in 1972, as the Summer WT lists an 0140 from Kings Cross Goods arriving at Temple Mills at 0243 headcode 8C02, although it was MX. The return working seems to be 8B07 the 0328 from Temple Mills to Welwyn GC.

John

I thought i remember the train running as 7B66 but 8B07 has a familiar ring to it now that you mention it but we definitely started from the 'Goods Yard' sometime around 02:30-02:45hrs cos i was a secondman on that diagram a few times (maybe twice) in early 1975. There was a goods that come out of Temple Mills now that you mention it and it probably was 8B07 that went into the up yard at WGC cos i can remember Alan 'Pedler' Palmer one of the regular signalmen at WGC from the mid 60s until CT closed in 76 saying one morning when i arrived in WGC s/box for early turn on the book (around 1972) that 8B07 was "still on the sweedy" that was the first time i had heard the G.E.R. referred to by that name. Micky