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This pulls along the nostalgia with evocative black and white photos taken 'lineside' in the 1940s and early 1950s by the author Michael Dove and his brother John, indeed the "special magic of the steam era" is captured in this previously unpublished collection. "But the schoolboy spotters have gone, and the atmosphere of old, with simmering engines and steam rising from carriage-pipe connections, is no more".
Dove opens with a brief history of the East Coast Main Line from the days when the equine Great North Road was the alternative. But the horses weren't a pushover, apparently London to Newcastle could be done by carriage with 25 changes of horse, that's 100 horses, with a swift change done in less that a minute, "conjuring up scenes akin to present-day Grand Prix pit-stops".
Dove covers the ground with volition, noting the record breaking runs of the Flying Scotsman and the Mallard. The Mallard's 1938 speed of 126mph under steam was never beaten. The author deals with the importance of Sir Nigel Gresley, the Chief Mechanical Engineer (CME) from 1923 until his death in 1941 and the "Gresley man", Arthur Peppercorn who was CME from 1946. Gresley had a good team and spent much of his time at the Doncaster workshops even though his office was at Kings Cross. Apart from his famous locomotives, Gresley wangled better conditions for the staff, such as seats in cabs for the drivers from the 1930s.
Alongside one of the photos of a Gresley 'A4' Dove notes that "the typical syncopated beat of a Gresley Pacific can readily be imagined in this photograph of No. 15 Quicksilver pounding up the final 1 in 200 ascent to Markham Summit with an express from Newcastle on the afternoon of 20 November 1984". Listen out next time you're walking the moors between Pickering and Grosmont as there may be a Gresley loco running on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway.
The paragraphs accompanying the photos are charming, quirky and full of knowledgeable detail and not just about the locomotives, for instance he remembers which side of the bridge gave shelter from the blizzard one afternoon he was out with his camera. "To many railway enthusiasts this may seem like an idyllic scene long since disappeared - no forest of posts holding up catenaries [hyperbolic curve of cable] and a mass of other wires, no pre-stressed concrete structures, just wonky telegraph poles and an old iron and brick bridge. The camera had been set up on the evening of 10 August 1950 for the southbound Queen of Scots due along in a few minutes, when pottering up the slow line came 'A4' William Whitelaw, just out of Doncaster Plant in the short-lived BR blue livery after major overhaul". I was curious about the name William Whitelaw and had to look elsewhere to find out he was the chairman of LNER.
The Second World War years were difficult, the engine sheds were used for munitions manufacture, stations were bombed, staff were in short supply, maintenance suffered and speed limits were in force. The after the war came the re-introduction of liveries, new classes of locomotive, Pullmans running again and more named trains.
The Blue Peter is pictured "climbing away from Darlington" on its way to Newcastle when it was "barely a year old". It was saved and can be seen at the Darlington Railway Centre and Museum . Looking for more information online I came across The Sir Nigel Gresley Locomotive Preservation Trust Ltd which has masses of info, photos, and a section 'Sir Nigel in Steam' which has videos from 1996 onwards of the Sir Nigel Gresley on the NYM Railway
| Title | East Coast Main Line at Nationalistation. A British Railway Pictorial | Author
| Michael Dove | Publisher
| Ian Allan Publishing
| Price
| £12.99 | Published
| November 2006
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Wanderlust Walks with a stretch of disused railway line 528 Fylingthorpe Description and Information 537 Hovingham Description and Information
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Walks: Descriptions 
