Retford (GN) loco depot: on the scrap road

Image: © John Sutton Taken: Unknown

In the days of steam there were two engine sheds at Retford, this one, near the station, built by the Great Northern Railway, the other, Thrumpton, by the Great Central on its cross-country line from Sheffield to Gainsborough, Lincoln and Grimsby. By 1965 the Eastern Region was dieselising rapidly and freight locomotives like Great Central O4/1 63692 (built July 1912) were being withdrawn from service (on 14 February 1965 in this case). Already lacking its coupling rods, it stands next to an LNER 4,200-gallon tender, probably attached to a B1, and in the foreground are other scrap items: rails, signalling equipment and other hunks of metal. The picture was taken on a schoolboy locospotters' bus trip which had taken us to Frodingham and Hull Dairycoates and called at Retford on the way back to Nottingham. The building in the background still exists, but the rest of the engine-shed site on West Carr Road is now occupied by a business park.

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