The south end of Nottingham Victoria, 1964

Image: © John Sutton Taken: Unknown

This is scanned from a low-grade Kodak Brownie shot, but may be of interest in showing what once lay underneath the Victoria shopping centre. This is the south end of the platforms, just north of Parliament Street, with the blue-brick retaining walls supporting Glasshouse Street in the background. The three-storey building with the curved corner still exists, but the Shipstone's pub to its right does not. The coal train, hauled by BR 9F 2-10-0 92068 is one of the famous "Windcutter" fast freights which ran (if possible) non-stop from the yards at Annesley, just north of Nottingham, to Woodford Halse in Northamptonshire, for forwarding to the south and west via Banbury. Despite only having brakes on the engine and the guard's van, these long "loose-coupled" trains ran at surprisingly high speeds and were remarkably efficient. They were also very exciting to schoolboy railway enthusiasts. For more on Nottingham Victoria see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nottingham_Victoria_railway_station

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