Readers’ Letters
East Anglian portfolio, Steam Days February 2024
Sir: As an enthusiast who grew up in Norfolk in the 1950s, I always enjoy Peter Kerslake’s
photographic reminiscences of his time in East Anglia in the mid-1950s. His photo
of a ‘B12’ at South Lynn on a Birmingham-Yarmouth (Beach) working prompts a couple
of observations. I think that the locomotive would have worked the train from Leicester
(London Road), from which it would have departed mid-afternoon. It would have arrived
there in the early afternoon with the westbound train, leaving just enough time for
it to be serviced at Leicester (Midland) shed prior to working the return leg. Summer
Saturdays aside, the daily Yarmouth-Birmingham workings (almost always referred to
as ‘The Leicester’) were the nearest thing the M&GN had to an express working. The
journey from Leicester to South Lynn took the northern spur of the M&GN via Bourne,
not the southern spur which started at Peterborough and ran via Wisbech to South Lynn.
Although Yarmouth (Beach ) MPD (32F) retained two ‘B12s’ until just before closure
March 1959, by the late 1950s, haulage of ‘The Leicester’ was generally in the hands
of Ivatt class ‘4MTs’. There were M&GN workings to and from Peterborough and Yarmouth
(Beach) -
typically three a day in the mid-1950s, but they used the former Great Northern station
at Peterborough (North), not the ex-Great Eastern station at Peterborough (East).
Chris Wright, Lower Shiplake, Oxfordshire
Shed code and number plates
Sir, I have just finished reading ‘BR: 1948 – winter conclusions’, a splendid article, but I have a question. Clearly to absorb and amalgamate such enormous undertakings as the various railway companies from 1948 onwards was a massive job, and involved many, many specific tasks.
Over the years I have wondered about the production and issue of front number plates and shed plates. Which works were involved, and why the variations in number plates (see pics: 60024 with curly ‘6’, 44703 with square style numbers, and 46201 ‘normal’)? Similarly for shed plates, 61B, 61A clearly a different font.
I have read numerous books over the years, but nowhere have I been able to find any references to the works which produced the plates, and the reasons for the variances. Hopefully some Steam Days readers can help!
Mike Yeoman Mangawhai, New Zealand
GWR locos withdrawals convoy at Stockport
Sir: Thank you to Steve Bartlett for solving a mystery of more than 50 years for me! His article ‘Shrewsbury
