The Alan Valentine Collection

10 February 2020

On February 10th our guest was Brian Dyes from the Ipswich Transport Museum to present The Alan Valentine Collection. Alan was a native of Ipswich and a wide variety of images taken around the station area and docks in the mid fifties were seen. All the local steam classes were shown including the L1 tanks used on pilot work and services to Felixstowe and the 0-6-0 types used for local freight services There was also an interloper in the form of a LMS Black 5 on a day excursion from Bletchley to Felixstowe. There were visits to Ipswich loco depot to record the last years of steam traction noting that wartime coal stacks were still extant there. Also B1s and Britannias were recorded on the expresses to Norwich but gradual dieselisation saw the first Derby Lightweight and Cravens units employed on local services. Other areas of East Anglia were also visited such as Cambridge, March and Peterborough where more steam and diesels were featured. A favourite location was Walton just north of Peterborough where workings on both the ECML and the Midland route towards Leicester were shown. As well as the East Coast Pacifica on top link expresses and Midland tank engines on local services ex Midland and Standard classes were seen on the numerous freight workings and also the SR diesels on the Uddingston to Cliffe cement train. Alan moved to Tyneside in the late seventies but still returned to the Ipswich area to visit family and continued to record the modern scene. One image shows an HST set departing Newcastle for Edinburgh over the famous diamond crossing to the north of the station. Unfortunately he passed away last year and the museum knows that it does not have all his local photographic archive and is endeavouring to locate and catalogue as much as possible