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Wednesday, 24 February 2010 00:00

The GCR And A Kingmoor Black 5

Written by Mike
LMS 5MT Black 5 4-6-0 no. 44767 at Loughborough on the Great Central Railway, 24 February 2010 LMS 5MT Black 5 4-6-0 no. 44767 at Loughborough on the Great Central Railway, 24 February 2010

After a 15 month gap, I'm back at Loughborough for a photo charter.  The loco?  A Black 5 - and not just any Black 5 - a Kingmoor Black Five. 

In 1967 as a twelve year old I looked down in awe from Etterby Bridge at the lines of workstained locomotives lined up outside Kingmoor shed.  Black 5s, 8Fs, Britannas and 9Fs dominated. 

We spent a whole afternoon wandering around the shed gathering numbers.  Kingmoor closed to steam some months later at the end of 1967.  It left a memory with me that's remained ever since.

A Nature Reserve Today

Since then the shed has been razed to the ground and the site has become a nature reserve. 

I've walked around the reserve a couple of times thinking back to that visit in 1967 and the feast of steam it presented.

Workstained Black 5

The charter's Black 5 no. 44767 has just had a major overhaul completed.  Except the paintwork. So it looked workstained and sounded terrific.  Perfect. 

The mournful Stanier hooter and the sharp exhaust bark brought back many happy hours watching the last days of the Black 5s.

At the time we lived just east of Carlisle at Scotby.  On still nights it was wonderful to lie in bed listening to the bark of locomotives getting to grips with the climb to Cumwhinton.

First photo charter in 15 months

LMS 5MT Black 5 4-6-0 no. 44767 south of Loughborough on the Great Central Railway, 24 February 2010Swift fast forward to 2010 and it's great to be back on a photo charter after a 15 month gap.  I've missed my mates and I've missed the banter.

The light was as crap as ever in the morning - dull, flat and grey. 

But a miracle happened at lunchtime and the sun came out to play.  We got a few hours of a grubby Black 5 in full sun - perfect.

We had a freight rain in the morning, followed by a three coach maroon Mk1 set in the afternoon recreating some of the last workings before the GCR closed.

Keep Fit For Gricers

Russ seems to have come up with some sort of new keep fit regime for charters. 

We walked miles from Rabbit Bridge to Swithland in the morning and then Loughborough to Woodthorpe in the afternoon. 

Given the age group of a lot of the participants, I'm amazed there weren't any deaths.

Sounded Good Too

At one point I rode on the end platform of a brake van coupled to the smokebox end of the locomotive.  The Stanier sound effects were awesome, just awesome.

Of course the GWR afficianados were coming out with that boring old nonsense about Black 5s being nothing more than Halls without the shiny bits of top. Poor, sad, deluded individuals. Riddles was right.  Steam locomotives should be black.

I'd argue a Black 5 was probably the most successful design steam locomotive in Britain.  The Standards may have been more modern, but the Black 5s more than did everything asked of them over a longer life.

Enjoy the pictures at my Great Central Railway album.

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Mike

Mike

Mike McCormac has been a photographer since about ten years old.  He's a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society, and lives in a village in the hills near Paphos in Cyprus.

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