Around Leicester, 1970s
1-of-26) Brush type-2 no. 5252 shunting in the parcel sidings at Leicester Midland station, 31/3/73.
2-of-26) "Peak" no. 132 on down Amoco oil tanks, platform 2, Leicester Midland station, 31/3/73.
3-of-26) Leicester Midland station before rebuilding with dmu M50450, M50503, M59153 in the middle road, 31/3/73.
4-of-26) "Peak" no. 56, amidst a forest of semaphore signals, on an up passenger train passing Leicester North signal box and about to enter Leicester Midland station, 31/3/73.
5-of-26) 0-6-0 shunter no. 3786 shunting at the parcels sidings at Leicester Midland Station. This area is now the station car park, 28/4/73.
6-of-26) 0-6-0 diesel shunter no. 3057 at the former Great Central Railway freight sidings, Western Boulevard, Leicester, 1/5/73. This area later became Vic Berry’s famous railway vehicle scrapyard.
7-of-26) Brush type-2 no. 5549 at Leicester Midland station, on the 16:55 from Peterborough, 26/5/73. A sight common then is the pile of mail bags on the platform.
8-of-26) EE type-1 Bo-Bo nos. 8068 & 8190 make their way on the avoiding line as they head south past Leicester Midland station with a freight train, 29/5/73.
9-of-26) Brush type-4 Co-Co no. 1857 on a southbound passenger train heads under Welford Road, Leicester, 2/6/73. The quadruple track here was later reduced to the left-hand two tracks, which has caused a bottleneck in recent years.
10-of-26) "Peak" 1-Co-Co-1 no. 90 on a southbound passenger train, Welford Road, Leicester, 2/6/73.
11-of-26) Staff examine the catch-point near a derailed dmu carriage, Leicester Midland station, 1/9/73.
12-of-26) Brush type-2 no. 5699, on a Birmingham-Cambridge train, passing the derailed dmu carriage, Leicester Midland station, 1/9/73.
13-of-26) 0-6-0 diesel shunter no. 3785 shunts the carriages into the sidings away from the derailed carriage in the previous photographs. M50500 is next to the shunter. Leicester Midland station, 1/9/73
14-of-26) During the derailment shown in the previous photographs, "Peak" no. 35 on a southbound train approaches Leicester Midland station on the avoiding line, 1/9/73.
15-of-26) Leicester Midland locomotive stabling point. Locomotives recorded in my notes are nos. 46028 (front), 25118 (left), D71 (right), 45130 (back [probably back-left]), 21/7/74.
18-of-26) Cl. 46 "Peak" 1-Co-Co-1 no. 46044 on a northbound freight train just north of Leicester station, 26/1/75. In the background is the goods shed, which was subsequently demolished and the area turned into a retail park.
19-of-26) Cl. 45 "Peak" 1-Co-Co-1 no. 45132 on a northbound passenger train just north of Leicester station, 26/1/75.
20-of-26) Cl. 44 "Peak" 1-Co-Co-1 no. 44001 "Scafell Pike" on a southbound freight train at Forest Road, north of Leicester station, 22/2/75.
21-of-26) Cl 45 "Peak" 1-Co-Co-1 no. 45114 on an up passenger train, Leicester station before rebuilding, 12/4/75.
22-of-26) Unidentified "Peak" 1-Co-Co-1 on a London-bound passenger train, departing Leicester station, 13/4/75.
23-of-26) Class 47 Co-Co no. 47140 approaches Leicester from the south with a train of ballast wagons and is about to go under Regent Road bridge, 13/4/75.
The two goods lines on the left were later removed to leave just the two tracks on the right, causing a bottleneck here today.
24-of-26) Panoramic photograph of Leicester station before rebuilding with 08695 sitting in the parcels sidings, 13/4/75.
On the far right, some of the sidings have been given over to a car park. Eventually the car park would take over the whole of the parcels sidings.
25-of-26) Panoramic photograph from Leicester Swain Street bridge as a Cambridge-Birmingham train, with E56116 & E51283, enters the station, 13/4/75.
On the left is the National Carriers depot, on the site of the goods warehouse. This depot would in its turn be replaced by a retail park.
On the right is the elevated Hutchinson Walk with the “Birdcage” which gave a panoramic view of the trains and steam shed, and latterly the diesel depot which is in the distance on the right.
26-of-26) Class 45 "Peak" 1Co-Co1 diesel locomotive no. 45107 departs from Leicester station, under New Walk bridge, with a passenger train to London St. Pancras, 17/1/76.
On the far right construction work is under way on the new road Waterloo Way.
The photographs in these railway photograph galleries are available for use under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. Attribution should include a link to www.nigeltout.com.
16-of-26) Resulting from a proposal for a railway museum in Leicester the National Railway Museum’s ex-LMS 4F 0-6-0 44027 was moved to the Abbey Pumping Station museum, Leicester, seen here on 11th August 1973. When the proposed railway museum fell through this locomotive was moved in 1975 to the Midland Railway Centre at Butterley.
17-of-26) The National Railway Museum’s ex-Great Central Railway 8K (LNER O4) 2-8-0, BR number 63601, in storage at the Abbey Pumping Station museum, Leicester, 11th August 1973. In 1976 it moved to the Dinting Railway Centre.
Also squeezed into this shed at the Abbey Pumping Station museum at this time was ex-LNWR 0-8-0, BR no. 49395, which too soon moved on.
