The one that got away: Pioneer
Gresley‘A4’Silver Linkwas
scandalously allowed to go for
scrap by BR in 1963. In happier days,
circa 1947, the Grantham-allocated
celebrity is seen waiting to leave
King’s Cross in its relatively
short-lived form as LNER No. 14.Early in the British Railways era, Gresley‘A3’No. E62Minorubacks out of King’s
Cross station and heads for a well-earned rest on Top Shed.Ex-London & North Western Railway‘Cauliflower’0-6-0 No. 28370, a member
of a Webb-designed class dating back to 1887, hurries a four-coach Minsterley
to Shrewsbury train through the snow at Meole Brace, on former Shropshire
& Montgomeryshire Railway metals, on February 15, 1947. Note the carefully
manicured hedges either side.On another occasion, he recalls the
excitement of finding an LNER loco on
Shrewsbury shed – former North Eastern Railway
‘J25’ class 0-6-0 No. 5727, one of those loaned
to the GWR to replace Dean Goods 0-6-0s
requisitioned for war duties overseas.
Moving further afield in his late teens, he
added Brighton Works to his lists of conquests
and was fortunate to see one of Oliver Bulleid’s
extraordinary ‘Leader’ class locomotives under
construction. “Regrettably I was unable to get
a photo of it, but I’d also heard that a ‘Terrier’
0-6-0 tank had recently been painted in bright
yellow for internal duties at the works and was
pleased to secure a shot of that shunting in
the yard.”
After leaving school in 1947, Humphrey was
called up for national service with the Middlesex
Regiment and dispatched to Kempston, in
Bedfordshire. He smiles as he tells me: “The best
thing about getting the call-up papers was the
inclusion of a travel warrant from St Pancras to
Bedford, giving me a free journey on the Midland
Main Line.”Bonus
There was to be another bonus, though, for
his time in the military included a three-month
posting to Northern Ireland and the chance to
capture LMS/Northern Counties Committee
steam workings at Kinnegar Halt, close to his
barracks, and other Belfast area locations such
as Hollywood and Whiteabbey. “If you were in
uniform, you could travel anywhere on the city’s
tram system for a penny,” he recalls.
During Humphrey’s period of national
service, his parents moved to Brockenhurst,
in Hampshire, providing their son with the
opportunity to hone his photographic skills on
the Bournemouth main line as Southern Railway
liveries began giving way to BR branding, and,
shortly afterwards, he landed a job at a leather-
tanning firm in south Lincolnshire, enabling him
to add East Coast scenes to his repertoire.
Perhaps the biggest breakthrough of all
came when his application for a trackside pass
was granted by East Coast publicity officer
George Dow, permitting him to take photos
on the permanent way between King’s Cross
and Potters Bar in the late-1940s. This resulted
in some astonishing main line action shots,
including adventurous angles taken while
crouching down between the running lines at
ballast-level.The year 1948 was a fascinating one for rail
enthusiasts as it saw the staging of BR’s famous
locomotive exchanges, and Humphrey was able
to capture the remarkable sight of the SR’s
‘West Country’ Pacific No. 34006Budestorming
through Northwood. “Being my former home
town station, that was particularly special for me,”
he recalled. Later in the week he went to see the
‘Spam Can’ at Neasden depot and the foreman,
a hard-bitten ex-Great Central man, asked
him: ‘Have you come to see that queer-looking
Southern thing? We’ve stuck it at back of shed!’”
A dream came true for Humphrey a couple
of years later when he managed to persuade
Grantham stationmaster Harold Scampion to
arrange a footplate pass all the way from there
to Newcastle. “The engine I rode on was ‘A3’
No. 60105Victor Wildand my return trip was
in the cab of new ‘A1’ No. 60129, on both
occasions with Grantham crews. I forget thedate, but it was midsummer and the ‘A1’ still
hadn’t been named at the time, so it would have
been 1950. It’s nice to be able to say I rode on a
pretty close relative ofFlying Scotsman.”
Marriage to Diana in the early-1950s and
the raising of a family took Humphrey away
from regular railway photography, but he made a
point thereafter of recording special events, such
as the East Coast outing of double-headed Ivatt
Atlantics on the ‘Plant Centenarian’ in 1953, the
running of enthusiast railtours and the stabling
of the preservedFlying Scotsmanin the unlikely
location of Market Overton, Rutland, in the
early-1970s.
Now aged 90, he keeps in touch with the
modern scene by readingThe RMand finds it
rather amusing that we should be featuring his
work in 2019... “because I did try sending a
couple of photos to your predecessors 70 years
ago in 1949, but they were never published!” ■July 2019 •The Railway Magazine•27