Memoirs of a Young Gricer

The first listings from the notebook of Syd Williams.

My first listings were from small notepads (or even scraps of paper!). Sometimes a date would be shown but on others, no date. It can be assumed that the trips would have been from around 1947 onwards. Early trips were lineside observations on the Styal line at Burnage, where I lived, or the South Junction line at East Didsbury. Here the Styal line crossed the latter by the bus garage (now Tesco). Manchester London Road or Victoria Stations during school holidays and Heaton Mersey Shed (almost every Sunday afternoon) were visited. One notable exception was a visit to Gorton Shed and Works on 12th October 1947 which merits further explanation. I had recently become a pupil at William Hulme's Grammar School in Manchester (the same school as Alan Gilbert, although he had left a year or two before I started). My father was becoming annoyed that my interest in railways and the time I was spending thereon meant that my education was suffering. As it happened he was the accountant at a firm of builders merchants in Fallowfield and had just employed a new member of staff Dudley Whitworth. Dudley was in charge of the yard office responsible for inwards and outwards goods traffic which facilitated the invoicing and cash collection from an expanding business getting on its feet again after the war. Dudley of course was Secretary of the MLS at the time as well as being an expert on LNWR history and from chatting with him my father realised that there was perhaps more to railway enthusiasm than he had thought. This resulted in Dudley arranging for me to be included on the MLS trip to Gorton mentioned above. I was only ten at the time and presumably Dudley had taken much trouble to convince the MLS committee of his intention besides, presumably, not mentioning it in advance to the LNER.

My own records of the visit were patchy but it has been possible to compare the details from grice books belonging to the late Ron Simpson and others and as these match I am sure the locos seen on the listings are correctly stated. Most of my other visits around Manchester would have been by bicycle or public transport (often trams!) although I have a recollection of visiting Longsight Station (not the shed which was impregnable) on a cold and snowy 1.1.1948 as this was the momentous day of the start of British Railways and I was thus able to say "I was there"! Unfortunately I cannot find the notebook or scrap of paper!

Assemblance of order followed and the other list is a trip to Shrewsbury in August 1948. My mother had a sister-in-law who lived there and the date marked the re-opening of the famous Shrewsbury Flower Show (held in the Quarry Park in the town centre) for the first time after the war and this merited a family reunion! The family were left to admire the flowers whilst I preferred the station. I had been given a new fangled Biro ball point pen as a birthday present which I used for the first time and fortunately the ink is preserved to this day on a tatty pad.

So, to the lists

Gorton Shed 12 October 1947

Thompson B1	1155/1157/1158/1159/1160/1161/1184/1185/1187
Robinson B8	1350/1351/1357 Earl Roberts of Kandahar/1358 Earl Kitchener of Khartoum
Robinson B7	1362/1364/1371/1372/1373/1374/1376/1380/1381/1382/1384/1388/1391/1397
Robinson B9	1424/1440/1442/1474
Robinson B3	1495/1497
Robinson B4	1486
Robinson B5	1682/1685
Gresley K2	1756
Gresley K3	1838/1852
Worsdell D20	2101
Robinson D9	1214/2332
Robinson D10	2651 Purdon Viccars
Robinson C5	2898 Sir William Pollitt
Riddles 07	3007(90007)/3091(90091)
Robinson Q4	3223/3225
Raven Q6	3446
Gresley 02	3925/3928/3984/3987
Thompson 01	3591/3630/3689/3725/3736/3768/3795/3863/3865/3869/3901
Gresley 04	3575/3577/3578/3583/3584/3585/3588/3612/3634/3654/3670/3711/3725/3789/3805/3817/3860/3872/3887/3890
Robinson 04 ROD	3629/3717/3807/3832/3846/3850/3870/
Robinson J11	4311/4321/4355/4357/4361/4363/4367/4368/4382/4385/4435/4437/4440/4453
Gresley R/build J11	4304/4332
Gresley J39	4712/4714/4717/4721/4725/4732/4734/4739/4741/4742/4744/4753/4758/4887/4893/4903/4904/4939/4972
Parker J10	5153/5177/5191/5192/5203
Pollitt F2	7097/7101
Robinson C13	7401/7407/7410/7416/7417/7421/7422/7423/7424/7426/7431/7437/7439
Robinson C14	7447
Riddles J94	8063/8065/8067
Sentinel Y4	8164
Holden J69	8559
Robinson L3	9051/9061
Parker N5	9269/9271/9276/9289/9296/9299/9307/9308/9346/9353
Robinson A5	9827
Robinson S1	9901
Riddles WD	70834/77031/77111/77175/77307/78537/79239/79269

Works and Works Yard

Robinson D10	2659 Worsley Taylor
Robinson Q4	3224
Gresley J39	4722/4824/4886/4890/4967/4971
Robinson 04 ROD	3573/3641/3744/3753/3781/3813/3878/3900
Holden J69	8540
Robinson J11	4351/4364/4413
Robinson L3	3059
Pollitt F2	7107/7110
Sentinel Y3	8193/8176
Parker N4	9232
Robinson A5	9800

The older GC locos had survived due to the war but many were scrapped in the following year or two.

19.8.48 Shrewsbury original LMS numbers used (not plus 40000)

Ex LMS
3581/4125/4266/4350/4745/4769/4908/4940/5006/5321/5326
6224 Princess Alexandra (streamlined, black)
7344/7346/7392/7416/7608/8158/8389/8501/8539/8707/8737/8749/8945/9220/9245/9210/9618/90362/90404

Ex GWR
1013 County of Dorset
2205/2228/3749/9657/9672
4046 Princess Mary
5064 Bishop's Castle
7013 Bristol Castle
5994 Roydon Hall
6307

Last update September 2017. Comments welcome: website@manlocosoc.co.uk