87015
Established Member
I was going to do a write up on my latest Euro adventure, but somehow I found it easier to go back a bit instead...
Cover certain trains on a regular basis and the headcodes will soon be seared into your memory. To most, 1G21 & 1B05 mean nothing, but to a few of us they will not be forgotten. Its late Summer 2006 and after a, at best shambolic, month or so's operation earlier in the year 87006 had been storming up and down the WCML on crew refresher runs with a Mk3 set.
It was back, and slowly optimism started to push out the cynicism (realism?) of experience from the previous attempt by Virgin to operate this set due to Pendo mods... The moves book could be dusted off, for now at least.
1G21 1651 Euston Birmingham, 1B05 1900 Birmingham Euston
Unforgettable to us few desperate soles!
A frequent Rugby-New St-Cov evening move might not have been the most exciting but with a small crowd of sociable regulars, reliable (by WCML standards) running, tight timings and all the right noises from up front made it an enjoyable few months or so All the more so after the rather disastrous month or so earlier in the year which had looked like such a low ebb for the class to go out on, but the 22nd December turned out to be a very enjoyable and very understated farewell.
And so it came down to 22/12/06, imagine the scene... A cold and foggy night at Euston with a small crowd of regulars gathered around the loco as the road out of Platform 7 cleared and at 20.54 with some blasts on the horn, slow applause from the assembled bashers as the motors notch up, a low cry of "my lords" goes up as '002 heads onto Camden Bank, loco and that Mk3 stock noise all being echoed around by the swirling fog.
For some that was it, the end - the magic gone, forever. Perhaps it was fateful that Wembley Yard held 87s off to pastures of Eastern Europe where I would eventually follow and truly get the bug of real trains in foreign climes, but thats another chapter...
Whilst 1G21/1B05 would make a return to hauled operation but with a skoda in charge so of absolutely no interest, it would be nearly a decade until the next class 1 'seven' honored Euston with its presence.
Some phots here from that mad few months, not the best due to fotopic (another blast from the past!!!)
https://87015aewn.wordpress.com/2012/12/03/vwc-87s-the-very-very-end-1g21-and-1b05-autumn-2006/
There is even a thread on this very forum which perhaps better illustrates exactly how shoestring the operation was http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=9346
Although it is telling that 87 Class 1 mileage this year will probably be similar if not higher, quality eventually endures perhaps!!
Cover certain trains on a regular basis and the headcodes will soon be seared into your memory. To most, 1G21 & 1B05 mean nothing, but to a few of us they will not be forgotten. Its late Summer 2006 and after a, at best shambolic, month or so's operation earlier in the year 87006 had been storming up and down the WCML on crew refresher runs with a Mk3 set.
It was back, and slowly optimism started to push out the cynicism (realism?) of experience from the previous attempt by Virgin to operate this set due to Pendo mods... The moves book could be dusted off, for now at least.
1G21 1651 Euston Birmingham, 1B05 1900 Birmingham Euston
Unforgettable to us few desperate soles!
A frequent Rugby-New St-Cov evening move might not have been the most exciting but with a small crowd of sociable regulars, reliable (by WCML standards) running, tight timings and all the right noises from up front made it an enjoyable few months or so All the more so after the rather disastrous month or so earlier in the year which had looked like such a low ebb for the class to go out on, but the 22nd December turned out to be a very enjoyable and very understated farewell.
And so it came down to 22/12/06, imagine the scene... A cold and foggy night at Euston with a small crowd of regulars gathered around the loco as the road out of Platform 7 cleared and at 20.54 with some blasts on the horn, slow applause from the assembled bashers as the motors notch up, a low cry of "my lords" goes up as '002 heads onto Camden Bank, loco and that Mk3 stock noise all being echoed around by the swirling fog.
For some that was it, the end - the magic gone, forever. Perhaps it was fateful that Wembley Yard held 87s off to pastures of Eastern Europe where I would eventually follow and truly get the bug of real trains in foreign climes, but thats another chapter...
Whilst 1G21/1B05 would make a return to hauled operation but with a skoda in charge so of absolutely no interest, it would be nearly a decade until the next class 1 'seven' honored Euston with its presence.
Some phots here from that mad few months, not the best due to fotopic (another blast from the past!!!)
https://87015aewn.wordpress.com/2012/12/03/vwc-87s-the-very-very-end-1g21-and-1b05-autumn-2006/
There is even a thread on this very forum which perhaps better illustrates exactly how shoestring the operation was http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=9346
Although it is telling that 87 Class 1 mileage this year will probably be similar if not higher, quality eventually endures perhaps!!
