Solved WWW No 196 - Negative Number 26809

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This photograph by W. A. Camwell is of Ivatt 2-6-0 43068 with a passenger train at Wisbech North station renamed Wisbech 27.9.1948. The station was opened by The Midland and Great Northern Railway on 21 July 1840, closed to passenger’s 2 March 1959 and finally closed 28 December 1964. The locomotive was built in December 1950 one of a class of 162 built between 1947 and 1952. Only (4)3000/1/2 were delivered before nationalisation in 1948. First allocated to New England and then Neasden, a 31D South Lynn shed plate is carried. The locomotive was allocated there in 1957 before being transferred to 40F Boston in 1960 from where it was withdrawn in January 1964. The answer was published in the Jul/Aug 2018 Journal.

Editor’s Supplemental:

A sister Ivatt 4F, 43145, worked the last steam hauled train from Yarmouth Beach to Peterborough through Wisbech North and @railexpress posted an image of it there, taken by A E Bennett, into our #SLSMemory Twitter feed. This was stated as being taken on 28th February 1959, obviously at variance with the date given above and as also given in other sources. This may make sense however, as the 28th February 1959 was a Saturday. Can any reader confirm either that:

(1) there was no scheduled Sunday service via Wisbech North in 1959 and therefore the station effectively closed to passengers after the last train ran on the Saturday, notwithstanding that the formal closure to passenger services was not activated until midnight on Sunday, or
(2) it was only the through trains from Yarmouth Beach to Peterborough that ceased on the Saturday and other passenger trains did call at Wisbech North on Sunday 1st March?

Information received from R. Wood, Rail Express, Chris Hall, David Charlesworth, and John New is acknowledged with thanks.

Readers who can provide further details about these pictures should write to K. Greenwood, Bradstones, Charlton Road, Holcombe, Bath, Somerset, BA3 5ER  or email The Photograph Collection Custodian