Leicester Central Station

On Saturday 28th April 1962 ex-GWR 4-6-0 no. 6906 ‘Chicheley Hall’, having arrived on a train which had originated in Bournemouth, has been turned and watered ready to take another train back south.  The special feature of this photograph is the crowd of young train spotters on the right who have come along the path leading to the hosiery factory.  I do not recall spotters standing on the track like this since you could see well from the path a few feet behind them, but perhaps the locomotive was blocking the view a bit.  They may have been fed up in that this Banbury-based locomotive was a very common sight here on these trains so it was unlikely to have been a ‘cop’.  Usually we were not bothered by anyone when viewing from there, though I remember on one occasion a very official looking railway employee sternly telling us not to walk on the metals or we would be in great trouble.  I had never heard the track being called ‘metals’ before.

South of Leicester Central

Ex-LNER class V2 2-6-2 no. 60941 heads north past Leicester South Goods signal box with a van train on 24th June 1964.  Leicester Central locomotive shed can be seen in the distance on the extreme left.  By this date it was unusual to see a V2 in Leicester and the RailUK website records this locomotive as being disposed by BR from York shed two months later.

Leicester Central locomotive shed

A rarely seen view of the ex-GCR shed at Leicester within its surroundings, especially showing the track through the coaling stage with water tank on its roof.  In front of the shed are locomotives ex-LMS 4-6-0 44848 and 2-6-4T 42161.  Behind on the left is Leicester power station, separated from the shed by the Grand Union Canal.  Photograph taken on 5/6/64, a month before the shed closed, by Arthur Graham Bell.

Class K3 2-6-0 no. 61809 simmers alongside Leicester Central locomotive shed in July 1959.

This photograph which is full of fascinating detail shows class J10/6 0-6-0 no. 65158 raised slightly under the sheer legs at the side of Leicester Central locomotive shed, on 15/5/1960.  Note the coupling rods, apparently off this locomotive, in the foreground.  The RailUK website lists this locomotive as being disposed of by BR in the following month.  Horace Gamble, a prolific local railway photographer, has a photograph of this locomotive here taken five days earlier and says that it was on its way to Gorton for scrapping.

The plans of the GCR London Extension indicate this as “Crane to lift 35 tons”.

Ex-LMS ‘Black Five’ 4-6-0 no. 45342 stands outside Leicester Central locomotive shed on 4th July 1964.  This is reported to have been the last locomotive on shed here with the shed officially closing 2 days later on 6th July 1964.

A view here some years later when the shed was derelict can be found on this site here and an aerial view here.

Old Photographs Section