Thursday 01/03/79
A day at college in Harrogate, then:
43076 + 43077 1620 Harrogate – Leeds
46049 1707 Leeds – York
47408 1816 York – Selby
55017 1852 Selby – York
Later that evening I saw 40069 was working the overnight Stockport turn (“The Bangor Mails”) but for some reason I had to go to Leeds beforehand – perhaps handing over some paperwork to a fellow student – hence:
43065 + 43xxx 2130 York – Leeds
40069 2250 Leeds – Stockport via OA&GB Jn, Denton Jn
(Friday 02/03/79)
40069 0051 Stockport – York via Denton Jn, OA&GB Jn
Saturday 01/03/80
To supplement my meagre student grant – and to enable some paid cranking – I had applied to work as a train trolley caterer at Euston. The idea was to work through the summer, but first they had to try me out to see if I was capable of doing the job. So when a Euston – York ADEX was planned to have train catering trolleys on board, I was asked to assist the rostered Trolleyman, who would report back to his bosses in due course as to whether or not I was a suitable recruit.
I booked on duty at Euston at 0715, an hour before the booked departure time, to pick up our trolleys and stores, and a couple of urns, which we filled with boiling water. Then we trudged through the basement at Euston to appear up the ramp by the bufferstops, and bundled everything into the brake van of our rake of 12 Mk 1s (one of the Cobbler sets, usually used for Northampton – Euston commuter services).
86231 0815 Euston – Stockport via Northampton, Crewe
Hello, what’s waiting for us at Stockport?
40031 1119 Stockport – York via Denton Jn, OA&GB Jn
An excellent start to my trolleying career. We were able to dump our trolley and supplies in the Travellers Fare buffet offices in York station, so we were free for a touristic wander around York, prior to our return journey. Of course we had to refill the urns with a fresh charge of hot water.
40031 1657 York – Stockport via OA&GB Jn, Denton Jn
Surprisingly our return loco wasn’t (quite) the same.
86230 1856 Stockport – Euston via Crewe, Northampton
There was a delay at Stockport as nobody could find the guard. It turned out he had been trapped between two end-vestibule doors whilst walking through the train. Once he was released, we got under way 20’ late. That was when I learned that any late arrival into Euston would result in paid overtime, as we were booked for 1 hour after the train arrived to unload everything, transport it back to the Travellers Fare buffet, and dispose of all the goods. So if the train ran late, we got paid more.
I got a favourable report on my day’s performance, and was engaged to work as a Train Trolley Caterer.
Saturday 01/03/86
73138 0008 Basingstoke – Southampton
33002 0155 Southampton – Malago Vale CS
I’d started off this “long weekend” bash in Glasgow the previous Thursday evening, so I was already quite tired by the time I joined the 0155 Southampton – Bristol Temple Meads … and woke up in Malago Vale Carriage Sidings! Oops. Fortunately there was a quick exit:
33023 0630 Malago Vale CS – Bristol Temple Meads
50024 0730 Bristol Temple Meads – Cardiff Central
A nice way to get into South Wales. My plan for the day was to do some West Wales branches.
43167 + 43004 0903 Cardiff – Swansea
37426 1020 Swansea – Fishguard Harbour via Carmarthen
37426 1305 Fishguard Harbour – Whitland
Having done Fishguard with a 37/4, I alighted at Whitland to do it again, with a 33 this time:
33022 1352 Whitland – Fishguard Harbour
33022 1510 Fishguard Harbour – Swansea via Carmarthen
Targets achieved.
43020 + 43139 1743 Swansea – Bristol Parkway
1958 Bristol Parkway – Bristol Temple Meads
33056 2020 Bristol Temple Meads – Westbury
Rather than doing another overnight on the Waterloo – Southampton route, I decided to do the Weymouth – Waterloo overnight:
DMU Westbury – Weymouth
33116 2253 Weymouth – Eastleigh
Sadly, my anticipated long doss all the way to Waterloo was miserably fractured by engineering works:
BUS Eastleigh – Basingstoke
4 VEP EMU Basingstoke – Waterloo
That wasn’t quite the snoozy overnight I had in mind!
Wednesday 01/03/89
After a night in Oban, I resumed by task of monitoring freight traffic on the West Highland Line on behalf of Speedlink.
37410 0855 Oban – Crianlarich
This was the freight service to Mossend, and I had a ride in the front cab throughout. First, we shunted Oban Yard and Oil Terminal, and en route we also served Taynuilt and Connel Ferry yards. There was also an outbreak of sheep wrestling at one point. Some dim sheep had broken through the lineside fence, and was stubbornly wandering along the tracks, refusing to deviate to either side. The second man got out, wrestled it to the ground, then picked it up and heaved it back over the fence. I bet that doesn’t feature in the job description!
At Crianlarich we crossed with the Mossend – Oban service, which we swapped into:
37403 12xx Crianlarich – Crianlarich Lower Yard
We shunted various timber wagons around the yard, then I said my farewells, and walked back to the station.
156 450 + 156 449 1356 Crianlarich – Glasgow Queen Street
90013 1620 Glasgow Central – Crewe
Wednesday 01/03/95
6024 0755 Swansea – Paddington
90’ late start, awaiting stock from the sidings.
6024 1858 Paddington – Didcot
6024 was on the final day of its main line certificate, so it went out in grand style with a high mileage railtour.
