Emotional reunions as GC recalls 1966
50 years later to the day, this time with his wife Pamela, Ian McGill’s widow Linda, and (for part of the trip) John Spencer, he set forth once again to retrace those same journeys between Marylebone and Nottingham. Times change, and with the closure of the GC main line south of Rugby on that sad weekend in 1966, today’s trip had to follow very different routes in CrossCountry DMUs, while expresses out of Marylebone are in the hands of Chiltern’s ultramodern Class 68 diesels. But some things stay the same, and eight miles were still behind a ‘Black Five’, adorned with a wreath, and departing from Loughborough Central at 5.39pm, precisely the same time and five decades later to the day. This was thanks to today’s Great Central Railway, its ‘50th anniversary of closure’ gala weekend on September 3/4, and Stanier ‘5MT’ No. 45305 playing the part of its long-scrapped sister No. 44984. The man who fired the original No. 44984 from Leicester to Nottingham Victoria on the last northbound through train, the 10.45pm Marylebone-Manchester, was also back as a guest - one John Hildred, who in 1966 was based at what he calls “the unknown depot”. Starting on the London Midland Region as a cleaner at Workington in April 1962, he transferred that September to become a fireman at Nottingham Victoria station - a signingon point for just three drivers and three firemen to work station pilot, shunting and standby duties. “This was the line to work on,” he recalls with affection. “The camaraderie among the Annesley men was brilliant” - even (or especially) when struggling to operate the dying GC with exhausted locomotives. On one occasion, he recalls, the driver of the 7.40am Nottingham-Rugby local was asked, by the driver of the following 8.15am Nottingham-Marylebone semi-fast, not to take his locomotive light to Banbury shed for servicing as diagrammed “until we get there because we might need to swap ours for it!” James Savage remembers a touching little example of the same spirit among the railway community of Woodford Halse, which had been devastated by the end of the GC’s freight traffic and the closure of its shed the previous June (SR443). At the regulator of No. 44984 from Leicester to Marylebone and back to Woodford on the last night was Woodford driver Tom Pavey - whose wife Gladys travelled alongside the enthusiasts on every train he worked for the last six months before closure. “We saved her usual seat!” As No. 44984 left Marylebone to the sound of exploding detonators and forged northwards out of London, he adds: “They were sounding the whistle continuously all the way over the Chilterns I don’t know how they had any steam left.” Some detonators laid on the rails at
IN A 26-HOUR ‘gricing’ marathon on September 3/4 1966, enthusiast James Savage, along with Ian McGill, David Guiver and John Spencer - the so-called ‘Great Central Four’ - set out to travel on as many as possible of the last trains over the GCR’s ‘London Extension’, starting out from Marylebone on the 3.40am newspaper train behind ‘Black Five’ No. 44936, and arriving back at the London terminus at 5.19am on the Sunday morning behind a Type 2 diesel.
Leicester North similarly ensured that the anniversary was marked with a bang, while parcels trains and a four-coach ‘semi-fast’ re-created authentic scenes from the GC’s run-down. Stanier ‘8F’ 2-8-0 No. 48624 was turned out as No. 48095 (the last example recorded on the ‘London Extension’ in BR days), while two other classes appropriate to the route’s final years were ‘9F’ No. 92214 and ‘Britannia’ No. 70013 Oliver Cromwell - the latter carrying LCGB ‘Great Central Railtour’ headboards, in the absence of a ‘Merchant Navy’ to play No. 35030 Elder-Dempster Lines. The star of the 1948 Locomotive Exchanges, ‘Modified Hall’ No. 6990 Witherslack Hall, replaced ‘Jinty’ No. 47406 after new tubes for the latter were not delivered in time. GCR General Manager Richard Patching said that the event had “brought some excellent feedback, with a friendly atmosphere, and it was a pleasure to host those who were around 50 years ago and share memories. “Approximately 1,000 visitors travelled over the two days I wonder how that compares with the numbers of 50 years ago?” Martyn Ashworth, who organised the event with GCR fireman Anthony French, described it as “a truly nostalgic weekend. “I would like to thank all the team at the GCR for their support and I hope everyone had an enjoyable visit. It will be interesting to see what possibilities there might be for the 60th anniversary.”