_________________ 1961 _________________

 


1461 - Photo: Michael Timms Collection.

Only two weeks old D9000 rests at Leith Central TMD during March 1961. The locomotive was present for crew training purposes and is seen fitted with the experimental flashing headlight. Leith Central TMD was converted from a former railway station and used during the rebuild of Haymarket shed.

 

 

D9000 D9001

Production Locos
_____ 1961 _____

D9002 D9003
D9004 D9005 D9006 D9007 D9008 D9009
D9010 D9011 D9012 D9013 D9014 D9015
D9016 D9017 D9018 D9019

 

1961
_________________ Headlines _________________

January

03  - The 1,000,000th Morris Minor rolls of the production line.
11 - BR orders enquiry as to why the Queen's train broke down causing delay of one hour.
24 - Lioness Elsa, from Joy Adamson's book 'Born Free', dies.
30 - 'The Pill' goes on sale in the UK.
31 - US send Ham the chimp 150 miles into space for 18 minute flight - an apple is his reward.

February

01 - Plans announced for a 507-ft tall Post Office tower in London.
24 - Jodrell Bank sends message to Australia by bouncing signals of the moon.

March

01 - First suspect is identified as a result of an 'Identi-kit' picture.
06 - George Formby dies.
09 - USSR launch and recover space rocket containing a dog.
13 - A dam burst in Kiev kills 143.
15 - Dr. Beeching becomes head of British Railways.
25 - Nicolaus Silver wins Grand National.

April

09 - 150 die as fire sweeps through British liner Dara in Persian Gulf.
17 - Tottenham Hotspur are football league champions.
22 - Russian Yuri Gagarin is the first man into space.
28 - Britain applies to join Common Market.

May

05 - US put Alan Shepard into space.
06 - FA Cup final: Tottenham Hotspur 2, Leicester City 0.
13 - Actor Gary Cooper dies.
14 - Stirling Moss wins Monaco Grand Prix.
18 - New universities are announced at Colchester, Coventry and Canterbury.
22 - 'Pay-on-answer' phones are installed in UK.
25 - US announce plans to put man on the moon.
31 - Psidium wins the Derby.

June

04 - UK: Cigarettes rise by half-penny to around 1/9d for ten.
05 - Dr. Ramsey becomes 100th Archbishop of Canterbury.
07 - UK population rises: 52,675,094 - up by 2.5 million in ten years.
12 -
"The Flying Scotsman" and "The Talisman" services become Deltic diagrams.
14 - 'Push-button' pedestrian crossings are announced.
16 - Russian ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev defects in Paris.

July

01 - British troops land in Kuwait in anticipation of attack by Iraq.
02 - Author Ernest Hemingway dies.
08 - Wimbledon: Rod Laver beats Charles McKinley in the men's final,  
.......and UK's women's finalists Angela Mortimer beats Christine Truman.
14 - Kenyatta released in Kenya.
16 - Holiday train crashes near Blackpool: 6 are dead, 116 hurt.
17 - 43 letter phonetic alphabet to be taught in certain UK schools.
21 - US launch second man - Virgil Grissom - into space.
25 - Mini budget puts 4d on cigarettes and 3d on a gallon of petrol.

August

04 - MP's approve proposal to join Common Market.
07 - USSR launch second cosmonaut - Gherman Titov - into space for 25 hours.
08 - As East Germany cuts link with west a mass exodus ensues: 1,741 flee in 24 hours.
13 - East Germany blocks the Berlin border with barbed wire.
16 - GPO announce that the new tower will now be 603 ft tall as opposed to 507 ft.
20 - A five foot high concrete wall is erected to replace barbed wire on Berlin border.
23 - Tanks and troops line west side of Berlin wall.
24 - Man killed and girlfriend raped on the A6 in England.
30 - 6 die as cable car slices cable and is stranded in France - a further 63 are rescued.
31 - Berlin wall continues to grow taller and wider.

September

03 - US and UK call for ban on atmospheric nuclear testing.
10 - 13 spectators killed at the Italian Grand Prix as two cars leave the track.
........86 die in Ireland as plane crashes at Shannon airport.
11 -
There are now 13 Deltic diagrams out of King's Cross requiring: 5 Deltics from
.......Finsbury Park; 4 from Haymarket; and 4 from Gateshead (with D9015 late on delivery).
14 - Mothercare open first shop in Kingston.
17 - Massive ban-the-bomb protests end with 850 arrests in London.
28 - Bob Dylan debuts in New York.

October

01 - Last steam train runs on London Underground.
09 - Margaret Thatcher becomes parliamentary secretary.
12 - Smaller ten shilling notes enter circulation in UK.
23 - USSR explode a massive nuclear device - probably as big as 30 megatons.
24 - Malta becomes independent of Britain.
31 - Stalin's body is removed from the Lenin mausoleum

November

10 - Stalingrad is renamed Volgograd.
11 - Stalinists removed from Russian Communist party.
12 - All public memorials to Stalin are removed in East Germany.
19 - Tank traps are built along the East side of the Berlin wall.

December

03 - An electrician's error plunges south-east England into darkness for two hours.
04 - Birth pill now available through the NHS.
15 - Nazi Adolf Eichmann is sentenced to hang for war atrocities.
27 - First successfully hijacked airliner lands in Havana.

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Background image: Yuri Gagarin becomes first man in space.

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