03 017 King's Lynn
I first became properly familiar with King's Lynn station in 1969, sadly after the demise of the Hunstanton, Dereham and Wisbech routes. I remember snooping around the extremities of the platforms one Tuesday lunchtime in my school uniform, seeing the 13.25 to London glide out gracefully and quietly and being left with the impression that this was a sleepy backwater with all its feeder lifelines cut, surely not long before the whole place closed ?
Fortunately this was the quietest I ever found it at Lynn and on many a subsequent visit, there was always something going on.
In 1969/70 I soon discovered there was a fleet of Class 03 shunters always in evidence. From memory these were numbered D2011-17 and were gainfully employed on the various branches radiating from the town, One was still in green livery and this one seemed to be the least active of the stud. See picture here : www.flickr.com/photos/86020500@N06/8561935042/in/photostream
These little engines had the monopoly in the (then busy) docks and also on the branch to the Harbour as well as that to the sugar beet factory at South Lynn. As was commonplace at this time throughout the country, there were probably far more locos than were actually necessary, but that was in the days when spare locos were two a penny.
The halcyon days of King's Lynn's 03 allocation were long gone when this picture was taken in 1980 and the number of locos had been reduced to just 3, but this picture does depict the sole survivor of that original batch, 03017 (the former D2017). It looks as if it is attached to a match wagon which enabled them to work track circuits successfully. Despite its very tidy appearance after a recent visit to Doncaster Works, it was not very long before 03017 was withdrawn and dumped at March having been replaced by a slightly younger example. By this time the station pilot was an 08 duty and the era of 03s at Lynn ended late in 1983 with the ubiquitous 08s taking over all the remaining diagrams.
The large white building in the background was the local technical college later known as Norcat and now the College of West Anglia and in the yard is 37086 preparing to take loaded sand from Middleton Towers through to Whitemoor. 19th June 1980.
03 017 King's Lynn
I first became properly familiar with King's Lynn station in 1969, sadly after the demise of the Hunstanton, Dereham and Wisbech routes. I remember snooping around the extremities of the platforms one Tuesday lunchtime in my school uniform, seeing the 13.25 to London glide out gracefully and quietly and being left with the impression that this was a sleepy backwater with all its feeder lifelines cut, surely not long before the whole place closed ?
Fortunately this was the quietest I ever found it at Lynn and on many a subsequent visit, there was always something going on.
In 1969/70 I soon discovered there was a fleet of Class 03 shunters always in evidence. From memory these were numbered D2011-17 and were gainfully employed on the various branches radiating from the town, One was still in green livery and this one seemed to be the least active of the stud. See picture here : www.flickr.com/photos/86020500@N06/8561935042/in/photostream
These little engines had the monopoly in the (then busy) docks and also on the branch to the Harbour as well as that to the sugar beet factory at South Lynn. As was commonplace at this time throughout the country, there were probably far more locos than were actually necessary, but that was in the days when spare locos were two a penny.
The halcyon days of King's Lynn's 03 allocation were long gone when this picture was taken in 1980 and the number of locos had been reduced to just 3, but this picture does depict the sole survivor of that original batch, 03017 (the former D2017). It looks as if it is attached to a match wagon which enabled them to work track circuits successfully. Despite its very tidy appearance after a recent visit to Doncaster Works, it was not very long before 03017 was withdrawn and dumped at March having been replaced by a slightly younger example. By this time the station pilot was an 08 duty and the era of 03s at Lynn ended late in 1983 with the ubiquitous 08s taking over all the remaining diagrams.
The large white building in the background was the local technical college later known as Norcat and now the College of West Anglia and in the yard is 37086 preparing to take loaded sand from Middleton Towers through to Whitemoor. 19th June 1980.