Hello all, here we go with rover number 5.
My photos from this week are very 37 heavy, but then we did get some monsters.
Hope you enjoy it.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This one took place just over a month after the previous adventure and once again there were three of us on the move.
The rover started on Sunday the 22nd of July, but we spent the Saturday out
on the railway in the Manchester area, getting several sparks and 31427 &
31439 on the Liverpool - Yarmouth service.
Not too bad a start to the week.
Our first haulage of the rover was Railfreight grey liveried 90043 on a
service from Piccadilly shortly after midnight.
The train was wedged, largely due to the fact that the Inspiral Carpets had
been appearing in concert in the city and hundreds of people in baggy
clothes were making their way home.
We had to stand in a vestibule with several other people and when we got to
Crewe and very few folk got off, we decided we couldn't stand up all night
so we bailed and spent several hours dossing on a Brute instead.
It was still fairly early when we headed back to Manchester, making the trip
on 47525.
As ever, Sunday meant engineering work and our next journey, from Picc to
Oxford on 47811, took a very roundabout route, going via Worcester.
From Oxford we did NSE liveried 47582 to Reading and then headed over to
Gatwick and enjoyed 73206 into Victoria.
Our plan now was to cover the Brighton - Plymouth service and so next up was
an EMU to the South Coast.
The reason we wanted to cover this turn was because it was booked a 73/1
between Brighton and Portsmouth Harbour, with a 50 forward.
The ED was 73141 and the run to Pompey was very enjoyable.
50024 was the loco that took over from 73141 and we did this, via
Eastleigh, to Gillingham.
One of the lads had decided that he wanted to go to Scotland as there were a number of
services up there that had been turning no heat syphons, so he stayed on
50024, travelling North from Exeter overnight.
The two of us that remained spent the rest of the day doing Hoovers, getting 50001, 50018, 50023 & 50026 in, finishing up at Exeter.
Day two began with the up 'Night Riviera'.
After reaching Exeter on 50001 it was too late to get anything West and so
we waited there for our sleeping accommodation, which eventually arrived
behind 47808.
We did the erstwhile "Samson" to Paddington and spent the first part of the
day covering the commuter services into the capital.
Sadly, the days of 50s in and out of Padd were now gone but at least you
could still get locos and we had 47474, 47587, 47596 (twice), 47715 & 47845
before we were lured over to the Waterloo - Exeter route once again.
We had a few short runs between Basingstoke and Woking, with 50001,
50005 & 50037 supplying the traction.
A run back to Reading, on 47815, saw us pay another visit to Paddington,
going in on 47705.
At Paddington 47581 "Great Eastern" was waiting to
head West and so we leapt aboard, but only for the 18 mile run to Slough.
47716 was then done to Reading and then it was back to Basingstoke for a 50
to Exeter.
In the event, we had not one but three Hoovers, 50033 worked to Salisbury
where it was replaced by 50050 & 50026 in multiple.
Nice.
Unlike the previous night, we had arrived at Exeter in time to do a
Westbound tram to Plymouth.
This time it was 47802 on the up beds and this was done to Reading where we
bailed for a unit to Gatwick, and a bit more ED bashing.
Once on the Southern 73202, 73203, 73206, 73210 & 73211 provided our
entertainment.
We were going home for the usual bath and hot meal but we had a bit of time
to kill so we did a unit to Clapham Junction and another into Waterloo.
50024 was stood in on an Salisbury service so we decided to do it.
Because we were going back to Yorkshire we only time for a "bus stop"
mileage move, going only as far as Clapham Junction.
I'm glad we did as this was the last time any of us ever had "Vanguard"
After doing a unit back to Waterloo it was the tube over to Kings Cross and
91017 to Wakefield.
Next on the agenda was Scotland and so, suitably refreshed and replenished,
we headed over to Manchester on a Trans-Pennine service, now into the last
six months of loco haulage, which was worked by 47422.
A unit to Crewe followed and then it was 90047 to Carstairs.
At Carstairs 47578 took over to Inverness, or at least it should have worked
to Inverness.
Some 47 miles North of Perth we came to a halt in a passing loop and waited
and waited and waited.
The 47 had expired.
This was pre central door locking and many people got off and sat on the
grass in the early morning sunshine.
People were actually walking on the track and were quite surprised when a
Southbound tram appeared!
Luckily, no one was hurt by the interloper.
After a long wait we finally got on the move when a rescue engine arrived
from Inverness.
Happily, the rescue loco was the very nice 37128.
)
Here's a poor quality shot of the 37 and dead 47 after reaching our destination:
37128_1990.07.25_Inverness by philwood55013, on Flickr
After arriving at Inverness we finally made it to the Kyle of Lochalsh,
going there and back on 37421.
As mentioned earlier, there had been an upsurge in the number of loco hauled
services in the North of Scotland, with several turns on the Kyle line and
numerous reported runs of NB syphons on Inverness - Aberdeen turns.
There were also a couple of bizarre workings such as a morning Inverness -
Elgin and a Montrose - Dundee service that were producing no heat 37s.
We had therefore decided to stay in Scotland and cover some of these turns.
In order to be in Inverness for the Insch service the next morning we
decided to do the internal overnight services that had served us well in
February.
There was some time to kill before this so we had a run to Dingwall on
37418, returning on 37419. We then met up with our mate who had enjoyed a pretty disastrous day yesterday. He told us that after he had left us he had had to stand all the way from Exeter to Edinburgh overnight, then he had gone for the Montrose service and it had been a bus!
We all hoped no such bad luck would befall us on that service today.
We left Inverness on 47461 and headed to Perth, where the stock
split into portions for Glasgow and Edinburgh.
We decided to go with the portion that had a new engine and so did 47492 as
far as Dunblane.
From Dunblane we returned to Inverness behind 47630.
The Inverness - Elgin service that seemed, according to the magazines at
the time, to be worked by either 37262 or 37708 was not due off for a while
so we had time to have a run to Insch and back, doing 47643 out and 37419
back.
As anticipated it was one of the two regulars, 37708, that was on the Elgin
train and we travelled on it throughout and then did it on the return as far
as Nairn where we had bailed to view the next Aberdeen bound service.
This arrived behind another NB in the shape of 37261 which had sadly lost
the large logo livery that it had carried the last time I had done it and
was now in Railfreight grey.
We bailed at Forres in order to double back and cover the following service.
47541 took us back to Nairn and then we picked up the very nice 37156.
We wanted to cover the aforementioned service to Montrose and so we stayed
on board to Aberdeen and met up again with 47630 which we did to Carnoustie
which is where we awaited, hopefully, another syphon.
We were in luck.
It was a lovely large logo machine, 37153. Hellfire.
We did this to Montrose and then watched the stock shunt as we sat on the
platform in glorious sunshine.
The return on 37153 was enjoyed as far as Dundee where we again split up.
One of the lads was going to stay in Scotland whereas two of us were going South once
more.
We headed over to Glasgow and then up to Crianlarich , using units all the
way.
The loco on the sleeper was 37405.
Not a bad day, 4 NB 37s on service trains, how I wish that was still a daily
occurrence!
As was usual at this time, the syphon worked to Shields Road depot where a
spark was added to drag us back into Glasgow Central.
Unfortunately, we were both so knackered that neither of us could be
bothered to walk to the other end of the train and see what it was.
No such problems identifying the loco we had to Euston, it was 90022.
It should come as no surprise that we were going after 50s and so it was
over to Waterloo.
50026 was the first of the day and this was done to Woking.
As we were stood on the platform 73109 arrived pushing a Waterloo bound
train and so we sprinted over and experienced an enjoyable run into London
on the machine now, of course, famous as the SWT thunderbird.
Next it was out to Basingstoke on 50018 and then a couple of round trips
between there and Woking on 50007, 50033, 50048 & 50049.
Whilst on "Defiance" we got talking to another basher who told us that 37223
had worked to Weymouth on a Bristol service and should go back in the
evening.
A quick look in the timetable produced a plan.
After leaping from 50049 at Basingstoke we headed over to Reading and did
47521 into Paddington.
We then had to suffer mega tram mileage, doing one all the way to Westbury.
It was worth doing the tram though as the gen proved correct and 37223
arrived as predicted.
Not for the first, or last, time during the week we enjoyed some chunky NB
syphon haulage.
Here is 37223 running round at Bristol, with a busy Bath Road in the background:
37223_1990.07.27_2_Bristol_& 47820 by philwood55013, on Flickr
We had decided to spend Saturday, the last day, covering the holiday
services to Yarmouth and so we planned to spend the night at Birmingham New
Street.
To get to Brum we headed further West, going Bristol to Exeter on 47830.
This was done in order to make the train we intended to do to Brum.
This next train was a nightmare!
It was hauled by 47572 "Ely Cathedral",
but that wasn't the problem.
The train was so wedged that the guard was moving women and children into
first class.
Even then, it was a thoroughly unpleasant journey to Brum.
We intended to do the first train to Yarmouth, which left fairly early in
the morning, but we were absolutely shattered so we collapsed in one of the
New Street waiting rooms and went straight to sleep.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the train we had hoped to do, worked by two 31s
(31101 and 31423), had been and gone while we slept.
Luckily, that wasn't the only loco-hauled service to East Anglia from Birmingham
and we were soon on the move behind 47558.
Norwich was a shadow of its former self but there was still a hangover of
the old 'whirlpool' days.
We did 31450 to Yarmouth and returned on 37709, which was nice.
Another round trip followed, this time with 37219 doing the honours both
ways.
37219, waiting to head back to Norwich:
37219_1990.07.28_1_Yarmouth by philwood55013, on Flickr
Once back at Norwich, it was time to head home.
47446 was done across the Fens to Peterborough and 91006 took us home to
Yorkshire.
That was the end of my fourth, and best, all-line rover.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
That was the last rover of 1990. 1991 coming soon,
cheers,
55013
My photos from this week are very 37 heavy, but then we did get some monsters.
Hope you enjoy it.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This one took place just over a month after the previous adventure and once again there were three of us on the move.
The rover started on Sunday the 22nd of July, but we spent the Saturday out
on the railway in the Manchester area, getting several sparks and 31427 &
31439 on the Liverpool - Yarmouth service.
Not too bad a start to the week.
Our first haulage of the rover was Railfreight grey liveried 90043 on a
service from Piccadilly shortly after midnight.
The train was wedged, largely due to the fact that the Inspiral Carpets had
been appearing in concert in the city and hundreds of people in baggy
clothes were making their way home.
We had to stand in a vestibule with several other people and when we got to
Crewe and very few folk got off, we decided we couldn't stand up all night
so we bailed and spent several hours dossing on a Brute instead.
It was still fairly early when we headed back to Manchester, making the trip
on 47525.
As ever, Sunday meant engineering work and our next journey, from Picc to
Oxford on 47811, took a very roundabout route, going via Worcester.
From Oxford we did NSE liveried 47582 to Reading and then headed over to
Gatwick and enjoyed 73206 into Victoria.
Our plan now was to cover the Brighton - Plymouth service and so next up was
an EMU to the South Coast.
The reason we wanted to cover this turn was because it was booked a 73/1
between Brighton and Portsmouth Harbour, with a 50 forward.
The ED was 73141 and the run to Pompey was very enjoyable.
50024 was the loco that took over from 73141 and we did this, via
Eastleigh, to Gillingham.
One of the lads had decided that he wanted to go to Scotland as there were a number of
services up there that had been turning no heat syphons, so he stayed on
50024, travelling North from Exeter overnight.
The two of us that remained spent the rest of the day doing Hoovers, getting 50001, 50018, 50023 & 50026 in, finishing up at Exeter.
Day two began with the up 'Night Riviera'.
After reaching Exeter on 50001 it was too late to get anything West and so
we waited there for our sleeping accommodation, which eventually arrived
behind 47808.
We did the erstwhile "Samson" to Paddington and spent the first part of the
day covering the commuter services into the capital.
Sadly, the days of 50s in and out of Padd were now gone but at least you
could still get locos and we had 47474, 47587, 47596 (twice), 47715 & 47845
before we were lured over to the Waterloo - Exeter route once again.
We had a few short runs between Basingstoke and Woking, with 50001,
50005 & 50037 supplying the traction.
A run back to Reading, on 47815, saw us pay another visit to Paddington,
going in on 47705.
At Paddington 47581 "Great Eastern" was waiting to
head West and so we leapt aboard, but only for the 18 mile run to Slough.
47716 was then done to Reading and then it was back to Basingstoke for a 50
to Exeter.
In the event, we had not one but three Hoovers, 50033 worked to Salisbury
where it was replaced by 50050 & 50026 in multiple.
Nice.
Unlike the previous night, we had arrived at Exeter in time to do a
Westbound tram to Plymouth.
This time it was 47802 on the up beds and this was done to Reading where we
bailed for a unit to Gatwick, and a bit more ED bashing.
Once on the Southern 73202, 73203, 73206, 73210 & 73211 provided our
entertainment.
We were going home for the usual bath and hot meal but we had a bit of time
to kill so we did a unit to Clapham Junction and another into Waterloo.
50024 was stood in on an Salisbury service so we decided to do it.
Because we were going back to Yorkshire we only time for a "bus stop"
mileage move, going only as far as Clapham Junction.
I'm glad we did as this was the last time any of us ever had "Vanguard"
After doing a unit back to Waterloo it was the tube over to Kings Cross and
91017 to Wakefield.
Next on the agenda was Scotland and so, suitably refreshed and replenished,
we headed over to Manchester on a Trans-Pennine service, now into the last
six months of loco haulage, which was worked by 47422.
A unit to Crewe followed and then it was 90047 to Carstairs.
At Carstairs 47578 took over to Inverness, or at least it should have worked
to Inverness.
Some 47 miles North of Perth we came to a halt in a passing loop and waited
and waited and waited.
The 47 had expired.
This was pre central door locking and many people got off and sat on the
grass in the early morning sunshine.
People were actually walking on the track and were quite surprised when a
Southbound tram appeared!
Luckily, no one was hurt by the interloper.
After a long wait we finally got on the move when a rescue engine arrived
from Inverness.
Happily, the rescue loco was the very nice 37128.
)Here's a poor quality shot of the 37 and dead 47 after reaching our destination:
37128_1990.07.25_Inverness by philwood55013, on FlickrAfter arriving at Inverness we finally made it to the Kyle of Lochalsh,
going there and back on 37421.
As mentioned earlier, there had been an upsurge in the number of loco hauled
services in the North of Scotland, with several turns on the Kyle line and
numerous reported runs of NB syphons on Inverness - Aberdeen turns.
There were also a couple of bizarre workings such as a morning Inverness -
Elgin and a Montrose - Dundee service that were producing no heat 37s.
We had therefore decided to stay in Scotland and cover some of these turns.
In order to be in Inverness for the Insch service the next morning we
decided to do the internal overnight services that had served us well in
February.
There was some time to kill before this so we had a run to Dingwall on
37418, returning on 37419. We then met up with our mate who had enjoyed a pretty disastrous day yesterday. He told us that after he had left us he had had to stand all the way from Exeter to Edinburgh overnight, then he had gone for the Montrose service and it had been a bus!
We all hoped no such bad luck would befall us on that service today.
We left Inverness on 47461 and headed to Perth, where the stock
split into portions for Glasgow and Edinburgh.
We decided to go with the portion that had a new engine and so did 47492 as
far as Dunblane.
From Dunblane we returned to Inverness behind 47630.
The Inverness - Elgin service that seemed, according to the magazines at
the time, to be worked by either 37262 or 37708 was not due off for a while
so we had time to have a run to Insch and back, doing 47643 out and 37419
back.
As anticipated it was one of the two regulars, 37708, that was on the Elgin
train and we travelled on it throughout and then did it on the return as far
as Nairn where we had bailed to view the next Aberdeen bound service.
This arrived behind another NB in the shape of 37261 which had sadly lost
the large logo livery that it had carried the last time I had done it and
was now in Railfreight grey.
We bailed at Forres in order to double back and cover the following service.
47541 took us back to Nairn and then we picked up the very nice 37156.
We wanted to cover the aforementioned service to Montrose and so we stayed
on board to Aberdeen and met up again with 47630 which we did to Carnoustie
which is where we awaited, hopefully, another syphon.
We were in luck.
It was a lovely large logo machine, 37153. Hellfire.
We did this to Montrose and then watched the stock shunt as we sat on the
platform in glorious sunshine.
The return on 37153 was enjoyed as far as Dundee where we again split up.
One of the lads was going to stay in Scotland whereas two of us were going South once
more.
We headed over to Glasgow and then up to Crianlarich , using units all the
way.
The loco on the sleeper was 37405.
Not a bad day, 4 NB 37s on service trains, how I wish that was still a daily
occurrence!
As was usual at this time, the syphon worked to Shields Road depot where a
spark was added to drag us back into Glasgow Central.
Unfortunately, we were both so knackered that neither of us could be
bothered to walk to the other end of the train and see what it was.
No such problems identifying the loco we had to Euston, it was 90022.
It should come as no surprise that we were going after 50s and so it was
over to Waterloo.
50026 was the first of the day and this was done to Woking.
As we were stood on the platform 73109 arrived pushing a Waterloo bound
train and so we sprinted over and experienced an enjoyable run into London
on the machine now, of course, famous as the SWT thunderbird.
Next it was out to Basingstoke on 50018 and then a couple of round trips
between there and Woking on 50007, 50033, 50048 & 50049.
Whilst on "Defiance" we got talking to another basher who told us that 37223
had worked to Weymouth on a Bristol service and should go back in the
evening.
A quick look in the timetable produced a plan.
After leaping from 50049 at Basingstoke we headed over to Reading and did
47521 into Paddington.
We then had to suffer mega tram mileage, doing one all the way to Westbury.
It was worth doing the tram though as the gen proved correct and 37223
arrived as predicted.
Not for the first, or last, time during the week we enjoyed some chunky NB
syphon haulage.
Here is 37223 running round at Bristol, with a busy Bath Road in the background:
37223_1990.07.27_2_Bristol_& 47820 by philwood55013, on FlickrWe had decided to spend Saturday, the last day, covering the holiday
services to Yarmouth and so we planned to spend the night at Birmingham New
Street.
To get to Brum we headed further West, going Bristol to Exeter on 47830.
This was done in order to make the train we intended to do to Brum.
This next train was a nightmare!
It was hauled by 47572 "Ely Cathedral",
but that wasn't the problem.
The train was so wedged that the guard was moving women and children into
first class.
Even then, it was a thoroughly unpleasant journey to Brum.
We intended to do the first train to Yarmouth, which left fairly early in
the morning, but we were absolutely shattered so we collapsed in one of the
New Street waiting rooms and went straight to sleep.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the train we had hoped to do, worked by two 31s
(31101 and 31423), had been and gone while we slept.
Luckily, that wasn't the only loco-hauled service to East Anglia from Birmingham
and we were soon on the move behind 47558.
Norwich was a shadow of its former self but there was still a hangover of
the old 'whirlpool' days.
We did 31450 to Yarmouth and returned on 37709, which was nice.
Another round trip followed, this time with 37219 doing the honours both
ways.
37219, waiting to head back to Norwich:
37219_1990.07.28_1_Yarmouth by philwood55013, on FlickrOnce back at Norwich, it was time to head home.
47446 was done across the Fens to Peterborough and 91006 took us home to
Yorkshire.
That was the end of my fourth, and best, all-line rover.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
That was the last rover of 1990. 1991 coming soon,
cheers,
55013
