303013 (yay!) Dumbarton C to Helensburgh C, 20.01 Airdrie to Helensburgh C
37113 Helensburgh C to Glasgow QS, 1T56 16.10 Mallaig to Glasgow
Presumably that was EMU to Helensburgh Central, walk to Helensburgh
Upper to pick up the 37 from there?
37113 was an NB loco, so quite a rarity (even in summer) on the West Highland Line.
Anyway, here's my contribution for the day:
Friday 17/08/79
Another Friday night, and the target it the Blackpool – Stranraer. I’d arranged to work early shift Friday / late shift Saturday specifically so I could cover the Stranraer.
46001 1540 Manchester Victoria – Warrington Bank Quay
That wasn’t quite what I had in mind, but I had to take it anyway.
86244 1624 Warrington Bank Quay – Preston
DMU Preston – Adlington
40067 1814 Adlington – Preston
This was the 1745 Manchester Victoria – Blackpool North. With hindsight I’d have done better to ignore 46001 entirely and wait at Manchester for this, but hindsight is a wonderful thing.
81012 1846 Preston – Carlisle
We got off to a good Roaring start on the Blackpool – Stranraer, although 10 minutes late because of an ETH fault on the stock. At Carlisle, the booked class 40 was waiting for us:
40113 2010 Carlisle – Stranraer via Kilmarnock, Ayr.
We were delayed 25 minutes because the Ayr guard demanded heat in the unseasonably cold weather. Unfortunately 40113’s boiler was broken, so we went cold. Because of the delay we ran non-stop through Girvan – but somebody alighted there anyway!
Sunday 17/08/80
Another day out to North Wales with the trolley:
86214 0855 Euston – Stafford
47190 1113 Stafford – Crewe
40125 1149 Crewe – Chester
For once, I got a class 40 on my booked diagram! I alighted at Chester to re-charge my urns.
40058 1314 Chester – Llanfairfechan
40068 1518 Llanfairfechan – Chester
… and back onto diagram …
40125 1757 Chester – Crewe
86258 1839 Crewe – Euston
Wednesday 17/08/83
Sometimes, gen is useful. Other times, it can be very misleading …
45052 1710 York – Stalybridge
A refreshment pause, then:
45016 1916 Stalybridge – St Helens Jn (50’ late)
The purpose of all this Peak mileage was to pick up 40004, which was in diagram to do the 2040 Liverpool – York …
45134 2056 St Helens Jn – York
Instead what I got was more Peak mileage. Cheers then. Just for the sake of irony, the following day (when I didn’t spend all evening crossing the Pennines to cover it) 40004 did indeed work the 2040 Liverpool – York. A case of “Right Place, Wrong Time”.
Saturday 17/08/85
After an early shift in Glasgow Control I came out to scoop up a required 37. Recently-transferred 37299 had spent its entire career in South Wales until being reallocated to Eastfield prior to going in for refurbishment. It wasn’t apparent to us at that time which locos would get refurbished, and which would emerge as 37/4s (and be common on passenger work) or which would emerge as one of the later exotic freight sub-series. Just to be on the safe side, 37299 had to be hunted down and bagged.
37402 1650 Glasgow Queen Street – Crianlarich
37299 1910 Crianlarich – Glasgow Queen Street
On my way home from that mission, there was another distraction:
37083 2157 Glasgow Central – Ayr
47053 2303 Ayr – Paisley Gilmour Street
(As it happened, 37299 emerged as 37426, one of the 6 37/4s allocated to Canton primarily for working up and down the Marches and to Aberystwyth, so I was to have plenty of further runs with it in that guise in future).
Saturday 17/08/96
On my way home from a family holiday in Bulgaria, with the usual luggage mountain:
EMU Manchester Airport – Wilmslow
47828 1920 Wilmslow – Crewe
This was a through train to Birmingham New Street, but the last connection to Reading would have departed by the time we got there. Then we had a bit of luck. The preceding 1830 Manchester Piccadilly – Euston was having troubles at Crewe, with the TDM system not working correctly. As we arrived they were in the process of running round the train, so we boarded and settled down.
90003 1911 Crewe – Euston (50 minutes late)
43132 + 43140 2230 Paddington – Reading
