All Aboard | Welland Valley Line | Photos | Video | Aerial Photos | Chairman's Letter

The Original Idea

British Rail was receptive to the Civic Society's ideas and suggestion when Kettering Station was refurbished - concluding with a special station opening to which we were invited. With this link as a starting point, it seemed a wild idea to hire a real steam engine for the day and starting from the station, travel north, via the Harringworth viaduct,  to York, a Cathedral City with quaint streets, minsters and the Railway Museum. The engine, 'The Union of South Africa' 60009 was booked for l0th May 2003 complete with historic carriages. 

The Union of South Africa 

The locomotive taking you to York today is a Gresley East Coast Pacific, originally belonging to the LNER class A4 4-6-2 and numbered 4488. The name 'Gresley' is taken from Sir Nigel Gresley scion of an ancient family who in 1911 was appointed Locomotive Superintendent of the Great Northern Railway. He died in 1941, still in office, as Chief Mechanical Engineer. His reign saw remarkable developments in the railway world, the A4- a streamlined version of the A3 that preceded it -being perhaps his most impressive achievement. 

The first A4 ran from London to Newcastle in 1935, by summer 1938 there were 35 in service. Some including 'The Union of South Africa' were given British Empire names to commemorate the coronation of George VI in 1937. Our engine was built in Doncaster in that year and was not withdrawn till 1966, having been the last A4 to work from King's Cross. Only five others of this class are still in existence. 

Few changes have been made to 'The Union of South Africa'. She has certainly changed colour! - Originally being painted 'garter blue'. The valancing over the driving wheels was removed from all A4's in 1941 for reasons connected with the war. And on nationalisation the number was changed to the 60009 we see today. According to PN Townsend (in "East Coats Pacific's at Work", 1982), "the A4's achieve a standard of spectacular performance and consistent reliability never surpassed by any other class of steam locomotive in this country". Admittedly, 60009 arrived four minutes late at King's Cross on the prestigious non-stop service from Waverly in June 1953, but this was due to bad luck! and two days later she performed the same journey faultlessly with eleven minutes to spare. Next year, in the summer season she covered 14,934 miles-" a testimony to the locomotives design and the shed staff at Haymarket", remarks Dennis Dey in a recent article for "Steam World". To this day, steam engine connoisseurs tend to regard what succeeded the A4's as inferior, in appearance if not in performance! 

But we have to be hauled back to Kettering by modern diesel. From York the 60009 will travel north to its home in Severn Valley, where it is privately preserved, so please say goodbyes shortly after arrival! Kettering Civic Society wishes to place on record our thanks to Rail Charter Services for organising this excursion and to the owner of the 'Union of South Africa" for allowing us to indulge - if only for a few hours - in nostalgia for the great days of British Railways.

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Travelling in style - Civic society members prepare for the trip

This Photograph and others can be ordered from the Evening Telegraph offices

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Outward journey by steam - Kettering - Corby - Harringworth Viaduct - Oakham - Melton Mowbray - Loughborough - Long Eaton - Chesterfield - Rotherham - Doncaster - York 

Return journey by diesel - York - Church Fenton - Moorethorpe - Swinton - Roorethorpe - Sheffield - Chesterfield - Long Eaton - Loughborough - Leicester - Market Harborough - Kettering

The Welland Valley Line 

One of the most scenic routes in the Midlands is the line from Kettering on through Corby, Gretton, Harringworth and Manton to Oakham. Leaving the main line at quarrying which once fed the steel and tube making works at Corby until the end of both quarrying and steel making in 1981. The line as far as Corby was singled in 1987. Corby station, along with the others on this line, closed to passengers in 1966. 

After Corby the train dives into Corby tunnel. It was the Midland Railway's excavations for the line in the 1870s, which revealed the extent of iron ore deposits, thus leading Samuel Lloyd to establish the Corby iron works and quarries. Out of the blackness of the tunnel there opens up a vista across the Welland valley. Once the grazing ground for hundreds of beef cattle it is still a magnificent view far into Rutland. Seven church spires can be seen, and a restore windmill stands on the skyline. Gretton, its station building now a house, sits high on the Jurassic ridge, which overlooks the valley. 

It was to Gretton station that Midland Railway dray horses came from distant cities to frolic in the fields during their annual holiday. Harringworth station is also privately occupied. The viaduct, the last arch of which was keyed in 1878, carries the line for three-quarters of a mile on 82 arches averaging 57 feet in height. It crosses the river Welland and also the now closed LNWR lines from Rugby to Peterborough, Seaton to Luffenham, and Seaton to Uppingham. 

The viaduct was built using an estimated 20 million bricks, made on site from local clay. It has been calculated that if the bricks were laid out side by side to form a pathway 63 inches wide it would stretch for 200 miles, equal to the distance from London to York. About 3,000 navies came from all over the country and were. accommodated in 40 huts at Seaton and 12 at Gretton as well as private lodgings. Their weekly pay was in the region of £1 5s for labourers to £2 l0s for bricklayers. 

There are three more tunnels at Seaton, Glaston and Wing. At Manton Junction the line joins that from Peterborough to Leicester. Beyond Manton tunnel one catches a glimpse of Rutland Water, the largest man-made lake in Europe. 

Elizabeth Jorditn, Gretton Local History Society

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Aerial Photographs over the Harringworth Viaduct courtesy of Stuart Tippleston

High quality versions of these photographs are available in presentation folder email Monica Ozdemir for details

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Chairman's Letter 

We especially welcome you to 'Steam to York', a Civic Society adventure. Never before has Kettering Civic Society embarked upon such an ambitious social event and we thank you all for supporting this unique occasion. Most towns up and down the country have a Civic Society usually formed to defend or protect buildings and the spaces between them. Our Society essentially tried to defend and save older buildings in Kettering town centre, which were to be demolished to make way for a new shopping centre. Regrettably it is only retrospectively in the hearts of older Kettering people that they now acknowledge building losses, which were the reason for our campaigning and contained a lot of the town's history. I can tell you this because it is valuable to be able to contrast losses and successes. 

Earlier in this newsletter you will have read something of Kettering Station and its refurbishment. The station is important for two reasons. Firstly bringing the railway to Kettering brought about the towns commercial success at that time, much as the A14 is doing now and secondly, its Architecture, which you must understand, related to a small market town in its day and which has a certain industrial splendour. It is the successful relationship between the Civic Society aiming to have as much of the station as possible saved and restored during the refurbishment and British Rail and Bernard Caucus, who listened and responded to our pleas which we see as a triumph for the town. We are of course mindful this work didn't happen earlier this year but to finally lay the project to rest in a way which many people relate to seemed a befitting celebration. 

Kettering is a key mainline station today, nostalgically there are Kettering people who worked on the railway in the days of steam, those who delight in the magic of steam and a bygone age, those who travel by train to specific destinations and those who enjoy a delightful scenic train journey. What better way than to say thank you to British Rail for listening than to charter a real steam engine with a pedigree and bring together a diverse range of people. York has been chosen specifically for many reasons. The route is interesting, the distance is great enough for one of Staniers special engines to show what it was capable of, half a century ago; the destination has so many different attractions to interest our many travellers and of course is an historic Railway City. 

Bringing together so many different travellers with so many different backgrounds and interests and introducing those of you who are not members to our Society, we hope that some of you may wish to become members. Our Society is making a transition from defending the past to looking to the future. The biggest campaign we are associating ourselves with is the Milton Keynes expansion study, which is considering the viability of introducing 169,000 new homes into this area, which spans from Milton Keynes as far as Corby. The study is one of four equally large investigations to bring development north of London. What is of concern is the impact it will have on our Civic Scene. As regional planning and regional government start to take over our lives, our local culture, which is the key ingredient to making our Civic Scene needs protecting so that too isn't demolished with the town centre buildings, which caused the founding of our Civic Society. 

Month by month we try to have a varying programme of talks and visits with as wide a range of interest as possible. An ongoing project is the placing of Commemorative Plaques around the town to form a rail through its history. Ideas for plaque topics are enthusiastically invited as you are to the plaque discussion workshop in the autumn. Meanwhile enjoy the day, the pleasure of being on an historic train and the City of York. 

Thank you for your company and travelling with us. 

Paul Ansell

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