Fish trains which passed Kirkby South Jn :- Hull 1st train

D6712 with 3V05, the 3.30 pm Hull to Plymouth fish passes Mansfield Concentration Sidings on it's way to Kirkby South Jn.

Photo: L.Parish/Derek Talbot Collection, used with Derek's permission.

This is the first of four albums which aims to show the fish trains which passed Kirkby South Junction on their way along the Great Central main line through Nottingham Victoria, Leicester Central and beyond.

The data is evidence based using, in the main, extracts from Working Timetables (WTTs), Signal Box Train Registers and Hull Depot Enginemen Diagrams. The main part of the data embraces a time period from 27 Sep 1948 to 5 Jan 1965 which pretty much spans the whole period that BR operated fish trains via the GC route. I have also had access to a wartime LNER WTT dating from 4th May 1942.

This album covers the earlier of two trains from Hull. Departure time from Hull was about 1.00 pm and it travelled via Doncaster then on the East Coast main line before joining the ex L. D & EC Rly at Tuxford via the North - West junction.

This train was known locally in Mansfield as the "4 o'clock fish" and was a popular sighting with boys after their school, especially as the engine change at Doncaster would sometimes bring ex. Doncaster Works locos and also newly built BR Standards.

Later, during 1959, it was re-timed and my brother Gordon and I saw it many times in the early 1960s passing through Kirkby-in-Ashfield at about 6.30 pm hauled by a Hull (Dairycoates) EE Type 3 diesel loco. The diesel took the train to Leicester Central where it was booked to be changed.

During my research into this train I found that, sometime between 1959 and 1960 the train didn't take the "normal" fish train route from Culworth Jn to Banbury. Instead it continued on the GC main line to Calvert. The train was then propelled on the branch to Claydon LNE Jn. A Hall was waiting there to take the train forward to Oxford via Bicester. It then assumed the route of the fish trains which passed via Banbury. It certainly used this route up to 1964. The original engine which had brought the train from Leicester returned along the branch back to Calvert and then went to Woodford Halse.

I haven't been able to find out exactly why the train was routed via Calvert but I believe it could be that the route was a diversionary one. By having a regular timetabled train using it the train crew's route knowledge could be maintained.

The evidence shows that it's final destination from at least 1960 was Plymouth. I've seen some social media posts where people have questioned why a fish train would go TO Plymouth where a local fishing industry was already established. The answer lies in the type of fish it was transporting. The cod it carried was caught in the cold Northern waters, fished by the trawlers from the East Coast.

In producing these albums I would like to thank Tony Saville and Mister C (flickr) for their research assistance and their encouragement. Also my thanks to Bill Taylor and Owen Llewellyn for WTT information and to everyone who has made their material available for use/viewing. I would also like to thank my wife Janet for her patience during the hours I've disappeared to work on my PC doing research and producing the records.