Railway photographs around Leicester obtained from auctions.
These images are from negatives or original slides bought, together with the copyright, from auctions. The photographers are credited if known.
Ex-Midland Railway 2P 4-4-0 no. 40542 simmers in the centre road at Leicester Midland on 14th September 1956 with a rake of coaches while awaiting its next duty. Photograph by H.C. Casserley.
I have memories of these 2P 4-4-0s clattering into Leicester Midland from the north on local trains when I first started trainspotting in 1958. However, very soon diesel multiple units took over these duties and the redundant 4-4-0s were sadly dumped in the Leicester locomotive yard before disappearing for scrapping.
Over the years I have bought a number of books written by H.C. Casserley or featuring his photographs, and later the book ‘Famous Railway Photographers: H.C.Casserley’, so I was delighted to win this and other negatives taken in Leicester by this celebrated railway photographer.
In this photograph, from a negative numbered two later from the one above, no. 40542 is still waiting in the centre road while 2-6-4T no. 42184 has arrived with a northbound train at platform 2 where it has caused a lot of activity. Photograph by H.C. Casserley.
The sad sight of ex-Midland Railway 2P 4-4-0 no. 40452 in the scrap line by the shed at Leicester Midland together with two other members of the class. For months we train spotters could peer down on this forlorn site through the gaps in the fence at the side of the footpath above, and then one day we looked and they had gone. Unknown photographer.
This locomotive is reported by RailUK as entering service on 31/05/1894, being withdrawn from service at Leicester Midland on 31/01/1961, and disposed of on 31/08/1961, being cut up at Albert Looms, Spondon.
No. 40452, another member of the ex-Midland Railway 2P 4-4-0 class, stands in the carriage sidings off platform 4 at Leicester Midland station on 29th June 1957.
A close-up of 2P 4-4-0 no. 40452 on another occasion standing in the carriage sidings off platform 4 at Leicester Midland station on 17th August 1957. The locomotive carries the code of its home shed ‘15C’, Leicester Midland, on the smokebox door.
BR 2MT 2-6-0 no. 78027 shunts the parcels depot sidings at Leicester Midland on 8/5/1965. The parcels depot and the sidings are now long gone and have been replaced by the car park for the station.
‘Britannia’ 4-6-2 no. 70013 ‘Oliver Cromwell’ is being turned in the Leicester Midland round house, in 1963. This was an unusual locomotive to have on-shed at Leicester, though by this date such locomotives were being used on duties other than the express passenger trains for which they were designed, and it is not recorded as being on a rail tour at that time. Unknown photographer.
Fortunately this locomotive has been preserved, becoming part of the National Railway Museum's National Collection and subsequently has had an illustrious career both hauling rail tours on the main line and working on preserved railways. Currently (Autumn 2020) it is undergoing overhaul on the Great Central Railway at Loughborough.
Around Leicester Midland station
A freight train about to depart from Leicester Belgrave Road (ex-GNR) goods station in the afternoon, judging by the shadows. Things to note:
- The locomotive is an ex-LNER J39 0-6-0, which were common on this line.
- On the left coaches can be seen in Belgrave Road passenger station.
- On the far left is the side of ‘Leicester Passenger’ signal box.
- The photograph is likely to have been taken in the 1950s or early 1960s.
The photographer has moved to the station side of ‘Leicester Passenger’ signal box to photograph the departing freight train in the previous photograph as it is about to go under Catherine Street Viaduct, authorised by the somersault signal.
For later photographs here in 1967 see the ‘Around Leicester 1960s’ page.
Around Leicester Great Central (GCR) station
There is a series of old railway photographs on the ex-GCR around Leicester on the sister ‘Great Central Railway through Leicester’ website. See especially the ‘Steam around Leicester Central’ page
An evocative scene of the period with trainspotters in their blazers and short trousers . ‘Royal Scot’ class 4-6-0 no. 46154 'The Hussar', hauls the Ian Allan (Trains Illustrated) ‘Potteries Express’ as it departs northwards from platform 2 at Leicester Midland, on 9th May 1959. This special train took a convoluted route from London Paddington to Stoke on Trent and return.
Around Leicester on the Midland Main Line
Ex-LMS 2-6-0 42798 heads south out of Knighton Tunnel, Leicester, on a passenger service, with the signals indicating that it will travel straight on on the main line at Knighton North Junction. This locomotive is recorded as having been withdrawn from service in November 1963. Easily accessible allotment gardens and footpaths then lay above the tunnel and Wyggeston Boys School was close by so it is not a surprise to see three schoolboys above the portal of the slow lines—a high-resolution scan of the negative shows that two of them appear to be wearing school blazers and caps!
LNER designed class B1 no. 61361 with a lengthy train in a platform at Leicester Belgrave Road station. Although closed to regular passenger trains, during the summer months in the 1950s and early 1960s holiday trains were run from here to east coast holiday resorts. This locomotive is recorded as being withdrawn from service in December 1965.
Later photographs around the Belgrave Road station area are featured on this site on the page ‘Around Leicester, 1960s’.