I suppose I became a ‘trainspotter’ at about the age of 12. Certainly my ‘bible’ of the time- Ian Allan Combined Volume which I still possess – is for 1961 when I was 13.

Chesterfield at the time had 2 main lines through the town, the third having closed some time previously. The main line was the London St Pancras to Sheffield Midland – formerly the London Midland and Scottish and this used Chesterfield Midland station. The other minor line was the old Great Central from Nottingham to Sheffield Victoria via Chesterfield Central. This fell victim to the 1960’s line closures in 1963 and the line now lies under Chesterfield’s Inner By-pass.The picture shows the last passenger train at Central, pulled by the Flying Scotsman. I’d like to say I remember the day – but I don’t!

Our main spotting place was a footbridge over this line which was then level with the main line. Towering above us was Horns Bridge which had taken the third line, the Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railway which eventually terminated at Lincoln. Passenger services stopped in 1951 and freight in 1957. We were always told that the 7 brick arches were the largest brick built structures in Britain, The image shows just two of those arches.

At this time of course just about all the traffic on British Rail in our area was steam. Passenger and goods – especially coal. The local services on the old Great Central were often hauled by locomotives from a class (B1) some of which were named after antelopes. Our greatest interest was on the ‘main line’. Passenger traffic was often hauled by LMS Jubilee Class locos, built at the time of George V’s Silver Jubilee in 1935, a follow on from the earlier Patriot Class. The Jubs as we called them were named after every member of the then Empire, Generals and Admirals, and after ships of the Royal Navy. A few Jubilees have been preserved,- like ‘Leander’ pictured here but no Patriots. However a ‘new’ one is being built to be called ‘The Unknown Warrior’. 

The rarer visitors on named trains like the ‘Master Cutler’ could be Princess or Coronation class or even rare BR Standard Class Britannia or Clan locomotives.

I will continue with some more early steam accounts in my next post