Attenborough Shunting Frame seen here on the 26th February 1977 Attenborough Signal Box was built by the Midland Railway and is unusual in that the standard timber operating floor is mounted on a brick base. The box was downgraded to a crossing box as part of the Trent PSB resignalling in 1969, A lot of the crossing boxes in this scheme were renamed with the suffix Shunting Frame when in reality all they controlled were the level crossing. When Trent was being planned in the mid 1960's CCTV was not an option as the technology was not available and the original plans had some of the level crossings as Automatic Half Barriers (Meadow Lane for example) however the aftermath of Hixon changed the plan somewhat and most of the level cossings (except Sawley and Barton Lane) were controlled from "Shunting Frames”. As CCTV became available the crossings started to be converted to CCTV with Colwich and Trent Lane being the first, being controlled from Sneinton Shunting Frame around early 1975. The first to be controlled by Trent itself was Meadow Lane and eventually Attenborough, North Erewash and Long Eaton all migrated into Trent. Attenborough closed in 1982 and the operating floor was removed however the brick lower half was converted into an equipment room for the new CCTV barrier level crossing and this remained in use until 2012. This has now been demolished

Praktica LTL, High Speed Ektachrome

Tags:   26th February Praktica LTL High Speed Ektachrome

© All Rights Reserved

On a wet and miserable 23rd February 1977 the Nottingham Divisional S & T Engineer is undertaking one of his periodic inspections. The inspection saloon is in charge of 25076 and thankfully for those involved it is one of the steam heating boiler fitted class 25’s. It is seen here at Gorsey Bank on the Midland Duffield – Wirksworth branch north of Derby awaiting the inspectors to return before heading back down the branch to Duffield.

Locomotive History
When Derby undertook redesign of the class 25 bodywork in 1963, the building of the batch of locomotives that would become D5223 - D5232 was transferred from Derby to Darlington works. This allowed Derby to retool it's production line without causing major interruption to the class 25 delivery schedule. These ten machines, including D5226 (25076) were destined for service on the Midland Main Line and D5226 was a local Toton engine for most of its early years until the later half of the 1970’s when its operational boiler made it interesting to the Scottish operating authorities and it moved to Scotland. 25076 was withdrawn in November 1984 and was dumped for a short while at Bescot prior to removal to Swindon on the 25th March 1985 in convoy with 25182, 25218 and 08095. It would linger at Swindon until broken up during August 1986.

Praktica LTL, High Speed Ektachrome

Tags:   23rd February D5226 25076 High Speed Ektachrome Praktica LTL Epson 4490

© All Rights Reserved

47195 approaches Cardiff General with a train of oil tankers heading I suspect to the oil refineries of South West Wales, 19th February 1977. Ten years after the introduction of the “corporate blue” colour scheme it is still in the original “two tone green” livery. At this point in time there were just eight class 47’s still to retain “two tone green”.

Locomotive History
47195 was built at Crewe works and entered traffic as D1845 in May 1965 and it remained a Crewe engine for all its life except for its last four months prior to withdrawal when it spent brief spells at Immingham and finally Tinsley. Withdrawn in October 1991 it lingered for another two and a half years before finally being broken up at Coopers Metals, Sheffield in March 1994.

Praktica LTL, High Speed Ektachrome

Tags:   19th February D1845 47195 Praktica LTL High Speed Ektachrome

© All Rights Reserved

45149 has just past over Barton Lane AHB past the floods to the right with a Nottingham – St Pancras express, 26th February 1977.

Locomotive History
Built at Crewe Works as D135 it entered traffic in December 1961 allocated to Derby MPD. It was transferred to Cricklewood in June 1964 and Toton from May 1966. In 1973 the Midland Main Line services started to go from steam heat to electric heat coaching stock and D135 was one of fifty class 45 locomotives selected to have its steam heating boiler replaced with electric train heating equipment (a Brush BL100-30 ETH auxiliary alternator). It was the penultimate loco dealt with and was renumbered 45149 on release into traffic in February 1975. It was withdrawn in September 1987 with a traction motor defect, a year before the end of class 45 operation on British Rail. It was parked at Cricklewood for a long period before being towed to Leicester and offered for sale. There was competition for its purchase but Pete Waterman was successful in becoming its new owner in 1993. It was moved to Heysham for safe storage and then to Crewe Heritage Centre in 1994 minus its power unit. No restoration work was carried out. The locomotive was eventually offered for sale again late in the autumn of 1996 and was purchased by the Cotswold Mainline Diesel Group. A programme of restoration is now taking place at the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire Railway.

Praktica LTL, Ektachrome 200

Tags:   26th February D135 45149 Praktica LTL High Speed Ektachrome

© All Rights Reserved

With the flooded fields on the left and bare winter trees on the right 31176 heads out of the winter sun at Attenborough Junction with a train of non passenger coaching stock heading for Nottingham, 26th February 1977. By this point in time British Rail had started to make serious inroads into the pre-nationalisation designed non passenger coaching stock, however this is not evident by the consist of this train where at least four of the ten vehicles are of pre-nationalisation design.

Locomotive History
31176 was built by Brush at Loughborough as D5597 and entered traffic in March 1960, allocated to Hornsea MPD for Great Northern suburban passenger, empty stock and local duties. It was built with a Mirrlees JVS12T 1250bhp engine with Brush electrical equipment. The Mirrlees engines were not successful and in 1964 a programme of works commenced to re-engine the fleet with the 1470bhp English Electric 12SVT engines with D5597 being rebuilt in November 1967. It survived in traffic for twenty seven years until withdrawn in April 1987 and broken up eleven months later by Vic Berry Leicester in March 1988.

Tags:   26th February D5597 31176 High Speed Ektachrome

© All Rights Reserved