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Last month, Mark Higginson questioned whether the  larger locomotives ever used Derby’s Friargate station. David Kirk, of Ilkeston, has responded with his own memories.

I FULLY agree with Mark Higginson about the reported appearances of large LNER locomotives at Friargate station being possibly just a figment of people’s imagination.
He rightly quotes the route availability for the line, which prohibited the use of the large locomotives, Class A4, Class A3 and Class V2, over Bennerley Viaduct.
If these locos did work into Friargate, they must have come from the west, via Egginton Junction, and returned the same way.
If this was the case, where did they come from and return to and on what train?
The route from Derby Friargate to Egginton Jn was certainly an LNER route but, beyond Egginton Jn, it became LMS on to Stoke or (by reversing) to Derby Midland.
The route forward from Egginton to Burton was a jointly-owned LMS/LNER line but, beyond Burton, was purely LMS.
I believe the appearance of these locos at Friargate to be extremely unlikely. These locos were also rare at Derby Midland or Burton, being intensively used on their own routes. They would not normally be available to work away from their own regular routes.
From a personal point of view, I first travelled on the Friargate trains from Ilkeston North station as a child during the war years.
My first memories of Derby are of seeing the huge barrage balloons high over the town and, as I grew older, I regularly observed the workings on this route.
I was employed at Ilkeston North station from 1958 to 1960 and became a station master at Pye Hill station in early 1962 in its last year of operation.
Although Pye Hill was not on the Friargate line, it formed a junction with it at Awsworth and the operating requirements on both routes were the same.
I never saw or heard mention of these large locomotives working over this route.  It was always understood that the prohibition over Bennerley Viaduct was sacrosanct.
I agree that class 9F locos were allowed over the route (I thought that they were in fact RA8 due to the weight being distributed over the 10 driving wheels, but I cannot prove it).
Indeed, on one occasion, one of these locos in the early 1960s worked an excursion from Burton on Trent to Hucknall Central  for the then annual air display.
I know that this is correct as I actually remember travelling on it.