World Record O fficially the world’s longest-running railway series, established in 1901
IT IS January 1966. Simon & Garfunkel’s ‘Sound of Silence’ is No. 1 in the music charts – and that is exactly what will soon envelop Leeds Central Station, as it has outlived its usefulness and is slated for closure. A rebuilt City station can accommodate the rapidly dwindling train services of Yorkshire’s largest population centre. The North Eastern Railway (NER) part of the station, known as ‘New’ when opened in 1869, will not survive to see its centenary because next year it will be rebuilt and become ‘New’ yet again. Brutal, cheesepared, but new. “The present now will later be past. The order is rapidly fadin’,” as Bob Dylan had apprised us.
And here comes a surprise manifestation of the old order, as weary Gresley ‘V2’ 2-6-2 No. 60824 wheels the 10-coach (350tons tare) 13.54 York-Cardiff Central alongside the new Platform 12 that has already replaced the tired, soot-blackened station fabric of the NER structure. It is a rare visit from this Edinburgh St Margaret’s loco, and its work is almost done as it will be withdrawn for scrap eight months from now. Today, ‘V2’ has covered for an unavailable rostered Brush 2750hp Type 4 (Class 47) to Leeds, where Holbeck has found a spare ‘Peak’ to work the train forward. This must be one of the last occasions when steam will give way to diesel on timetabled midweek cross-country services.
Doyen of the ‘V2’ fleet No. 60800 Green Arrow calls at Grantham in August 1961 with an up working to King’s Cross. Today, this is the sole survivor of the fleet in preservation (see page 35).
COLOUR RAIL
Railway manager Noel Proudlock, on secondment to a university research project, is on board having timed the train from York. No. 60824 has lost 7min, even if measured against standard steam timings. Noel had experienced another ‘V2’ with this train in July 1965, but that had been the first time after a 3½year gap in ‘V2’ haulage. This Leeds scene was not how he wished to remember the Gresley 2-6-2s; after all, these were the ‘engines that won the war’ (but would that make the German 7794 ‘Kreikslogs’ the ones that lost it then?).
When Noel was East Coast Main Line onboard ‘investigator’, ‘V2s’ had occasionally let him down – but it was the salad days of the late 1950s when they had given him a series of often high quality and always interesting runs when he used to return home to Leeds from Newcastle on Friday afternoons. Before a York stop was inserted in the 5.05pm Newcastle-
Passing under the fine signal gantry at Eaglescliffe (County Durham) on July 30, 1953 is ‘V2’ No. 60868 with a midday Newcastle-Liverpool relief working.
JS PHILLIPS
“After all, these were the engines that won the war”
King’s Cross, resulting in a 40min booking for the 44.1mile Darlington-York leg, he had used the 5.10pm Newcastle-Liverpool Exchange, which was rostered for a York ‘V2’ – unusually through to Normanton, where a Liverpool Bank Hall 4-6-0 would take over.