Back in the day...

[CW2]

Saturday 9th November 1974

When we got back into Waverley station our train was waiting. Mum got our seats sorted out whilst I went to look if D68 was still in charge. I got quite a shock when I heard the whistling noise from the front of the train. At the front was 40053. And I remember it double heading with D68.

Ooh I'm envious now! 40053 was one of the very early class 40 withdrawals, being scrapped in 1976, so I never had it. One that got away!

 

[NorthWestRover]

I was just about to post something very similar. I started spotting in July 1976 so didn't even see it, never mind get haulage.

 

[CW2]

I was just about to post something very similar. I started spotting in July 1976 so didn't even see it, never mind get haulage.

I think 051, 053, and 059 all went around the same time. I recall some of them being dumped on York depot, but can't be certain.

 

[Tryfan]

Ooh I'm envious now! 40053 was one of the very early class 40 withdrawals, being scrapped in 1976, so I never had it. One that got away!

according to Sixbellsjunction 40053 did the exact same ADEX in June 76. Failing at York on the return run. One of its final journeys apparently

 

[NorthWestRover]

Thursday 10th November 1988

I don't detail all my late 80s/early 90s Oxford to Reading work travel as they were often duffs. However, today was Hoovers, so...

50025 Oxford to Reading, 14.00 Oxford to Paddington
50025 Reading to Oxford, 16.07 Paddington to Oxford.

 

[xotGD]

Thursday 10th November 1988

I don't detail all my late 80s/early 90s Oxford to Reading work travel as they were often duffs. However, today was Hoovers, so...

50025 Oxford to Reading, 14.00 Oxford to Paddington
50025 Reading to Oxford, 16.07 Paddington to Oxford.

That's a short working day!

 

[CW2]

Friday 10/11/78
On my way home from college in Harrogate, the 1620 to Kings Cross had produced another Deltic:
55009 1620 Harrogate – Leeds
46036 1707 Leeds – York
At York, word reached me that there was a class 40 on the stopper from Kings Cross, so I headed to Doncaster to intercept it:
47402 1816 York – Doncaster
40058 1847 Doncaster – York

Thursday 10/11/83
I was working night shift in Leeds Control, and therefore in prime position to get the news that 40057 was allocated to the 0820 Leeds- Birmingham. I decided that a day sleeping safely in my bed in York could just as well be replaced by a day return trip to Birmingham:
40057 0820 Leeds – Birmingham New Street via Wakefield Westgate, Wakefield Kirkgate, Hare Park, Moorthorpe, Sheffield
At Wakefield we had to take a diversion via Kirkgate as the previous Leeds – Kings Cross HST had failed ahead of us.
40057 1450 Birmingham New Street – Leeds via Sheffield, Moorthorpe
On the return journey, 40057 seemed to be struggling somewhat, and the boiler failed, so it wasn’t the best trip.
After that I just had time to pop home to York for a quick change of clothes and a bite to eat, then back out again for another night shift (yawn):
47521 1801 Leeds – York
47401 2023 York – Leeds

 

[Falcon1200]

Saturday 11th November 1978
A day excursion from the WR to Glasgow, which the InterCity Railway Society utilised for a coach tour of Glasgow area depots; IIRC we visited Motherwell, Hamilton, Eastfield and Glasgow Works, and maybe Polmadie too. It was a long day !

47437 Oxford-Coventry
83007 Coventry-Glasgow Central and Glasgow Central-Mitre Bridge Jc
50027 Mitre Bridge Jc-Oxford

My first ever trip by rail to Scotland, little did I know then I would end up living here, and working with those depots.
Details obtained thanks to Six Bells Junction.

 

[NorthWestRover]

Friday 11th November 1983

I think this was another interview day, this time at Lanchester Poly (Coventry). As usual, it must have been Cans to cover the outward journey and the second half of the return to Warrington.

85019 Coventry to Wolverhampton

 

[CW2]

Saturday 11/11/78
Chasing after Deltics (with a very limited budget):
47469 1413 York – Doncaster
55011 1459 Doncaster – York
47405 1613 York – Selby
55014 1701 Selby – York

Friday 11/11/83
I don’t often include my commuting moves, but …
31410 0807 Leeds – Scarborough
I intended alighting at York to go home for a good sleep. Unfortunately the “good sleep” started a bit too early, and I awoke as we passed Strensall. There was no point in staying awake at that stage, so I closed my eyes again and dossed to Scarborough, then tried to be sufficiently awake to get off next time round:
31410 1015 Scarborough – York
Maybe it was the after-effect of the previous day’s trip to Birmingham with 40057 (instead of going home to bed for a proper sleep).

Wednesday 11/11/87
Attending a Continental Railway Circle slide show / meeting in Stafford:
86413 1748 Crewe – Stafford
85030 2129 Stafford – Crewe

 

[xotGD]

Two-day catch up:

10th November 1988

47533 New St - Newcastle 1E35

10th November 1990

86401 New St - Wolves

Another of those days where I don't know how I got back!

11th November 1990

86213 New St - Sandwell & Dudley
86227 Sandwell & Dudley - New St

I assume this was a trip to a pub or several.

10th November 1991

Drags! Exciting!

47530 (+87023) New St - Wolves
47817 (+90003) Wolves - New St

So not exciting after all.

 

[NorthWestRover]

All duffs and cans again

 

[CW2]

Sunday 12/11/78
The Newcastle – Liverpool services were diverted from York via Castleford to Leeds, reversing and changing locos there (or not, as you can see …)
46013 1721 York – Leeds via Castleford
40018 1800 Leeds – Huddersfield
46031 2006 Huddersfield – York via Leeds, Castleford

Friday 12/11/82
The start of a weekend trip away …
43153 + 43196 2213 York – Newcastle
DMU 2340 Newcastle – Carlisle

Thursday 12/11/87 – Friday 13/11/87 (grouped together for clarity)
Part of my role as Speedlink Performance Assistant at Crewe was to monitor specific traffic flows on a daily / weekly / monthly basis to ensure they were meeting their targeted transit and delivery times. On this occasion I was monitoring the flow of drinks traffic to Deanside Transit in Glasgow. The traffic was mostly alcohol, i.e. cider from Hereford and Guinness from Park Royal, but there were other non-alcoholic flows too, so I had to keep a special eye open to see when the relevant vans were released for traffic, when they were attached to the trip locos, which trunk services they were on, and what time they were berthed at Deanside. Much of this could be done by phone, or by monitoring TOPS, but our bosses (bless them) also encouraged us to get out and see what was happening “on the ground”. So, equipped with footplate passes and lots of good intentions, I set off north:
86413 2138 Crewe – Warrington Bank Quay
I walked down to the TOPS office at Walton Old Junction and introduced myself to the Area Yard Master (AYM), and also to the various TOPS clerks who – until then – had just been voices on the end of the phone. We had a good load for the train to Mossend, 6S80 1650 Cardiff Tidal to Mossend. We were due away from Warrington at 0003, but it wasn’t until 0155 that we departed, waiting inward traffic. We had a pair of 87s allocated, and 27 vehicles to Carlisle, detaching 8 vehicles from the rear there. With a pair of 87s in multiple a trailing load of 1300 tonnes was authorised over Shap. I had a cab ride throughout, as we gradually pulled back some of the lost time.
87016 + 87029 0003 (actual 0145) Warrington Walton Old Jn – Mossend via Kingmoor, Wishaw, Holytown.
At Kingmoor we were timed to detach and attach, but we simply “cut and run” to regain some time. Similarly at Mossend the Deanside traffic was extreme rear of the train, so it was a quick and easy job to assemble the Deanside trip (T56?) off it.
37097 0710 Mossend – Deanside via Whifflet South, Rutherglen, Larkfield Jn, Shields Jn.
After tripping the loads into Deanside, (and faithfully recording the arrival time) we set off back towards Mossend with the previous day’s empties. I persuaded the driver to drop me off at Cardonald so I could catch an EMU into Glasgow Central from there, as my night’s work was done:
37097 08xx Deanside – Cardonald
EMU Cardonald – Glasgow Central
From there I had a good strong cup of coffee, then walked up to ScotRail House to visit some of my former colleagues in Glasgow Control whom I’d left a few months previously. After that it was simply a case of heading back to Crewe for the weekend. In passing I learned that there was no 87 or 86 available for the 1410 to Euston, so they were having to put out an 85 on it. That’s my train home decided then:
85022 1410 Glasgow Central – Crewe
All in all a very instructive and informative 24 hours – but a VERY tiring one!

 

[xotGD]

12th November 1989

Heading back from a couple of days back home...

86206 Carlisle - Preston
90006 Preston - Crewe
90020 Crewe - New St

I never did get to the bottom of whether travelling between Birmingham and Newcastle via Carlisle was actually a valid route!

 

[D6130]

Catching-up en route back from Italy to Yorkshire:

SATURDAY 11th NOVEMBER 1978:

A quick afternoon Crompton bash:

14 05 Portsmouth Harbour-Waterloo: 7350/7049 Petersfield-Woking
12 28 Exeter St David's-Waterloo: 33 032 Woking-Waterloo (Consist: W25955/5035/1991/15911/35188/35044/15934/25961 (Load 8 VB/DH))
16 46 Waterloo-Bournemouth: 425/402/3014 Waterloo-Woking
16 50 Waterloo-Portsmouth Harbour: 7385/7055/7393 Woking-Petersfield

THURSDAY 12th NOVEMBER 1981:

07 57 Dalmuir-Motherwell: 303 001 Hyndland-Argyle Street
18 23 Glasgow QS-Oban: 37 025 Glasgow QS-Garelochhead (Consist: SC4246/3881/4205/14049 Load 4 VB/SH)

 

[CW2]

Thursday 13/11/80
Word reached me that the 1630 Kings Cross – Peterborough was going to be a 40 tonight:
40012 1630 Kings Cross – Peterborough At Peterborough it was simply the case of a short wait for the 1630 Hull – Kings Cross:
55014 1854 Peterborough – Kings Cross
I clocked this at 111 mph. We were 5 minutes early into Stevenage, and 3 early into Kings Cross after a 20 mph TSR. At Kings Cross the 2000 to Aberdeen was standing without any loco. Eventually 40160 put in an appearance, whilst the station announcer apologised for the fact there would be “No Heat on this train as far as Peterborough.” Well I knew that at Peterborough the only big loco on the stabling point was 40012 – with its working boiler – fresh off the 1630 I’d travelled on earlier, so I set off north again behind 40160 with high hopes of a one-for-one swap at Peterborough.
40160 2000 Kings Cross – Hitchin (middle road) 45 minutes late start
However fate (or the Fat Controller) intervened. There was a class 47 being sent light engine to Kings Cross to work one of the later overnights, so they did an unscheduled engine swap middle road at Hitchin – so I couldn’t even alight when I saw the replacement loco. The engine in question? The infamous 47054.

Explanatory note: Why was 47054 “Infamous”? Some of you older readers may remember “The Reverend” (Richard Everard Johns White) who worked for many years in the timetabling office at Swindon. He was a consummate professional railwayman, but also a desperate crank. Nowadays he would have been diagnosed as being somewhere on the autistic spectrum, I suspect, but back then he was seen by some as a figure of fun, and came in for some “teasing” – which in these more enlightened times would properly be called bullying. The Rev was a keen basher of Westerns, and had been caught out by 47054 appearing as a last-minute substitute for a Western on a couple of occasions. Once that became known, various people took it upon themselves to wind him up further by ensuring that 47054 would appear before him at every opportunity. Somebody even produced a song sheet, to be performed on railtours by the Ever Reverend Withering Choir, an ad-hoc group which would gather in the Rev’s carriage and “serenade” him. The only song I can recall was “Once in Landore” to the tune of “Once in Royal David’s City”:
“Once at Landore on a Sunday
The foreman received a call
Put your Thousands on the parcels
Or to Margam send them all”
{Then a few more lines in a similar vein, culminating in the arrival of the Rev at Swansea in the wee small hours of the morning to catch the 100% guaranteed Western turn, the Up Fishguard:}
“Christ”, he cried “I’m caught once more” “Forty seven oh-five-four.”

So of all the wretched steam-heat duffs which had to bowl me out, it just had to be 47054. At least the boiler worked. By the time we eventually reached Peterborough the last southbound daytime service had already departed, so I was stuck with 47054 through to Doncaster.
47054 2145 Hitchin – Doncaster (1 hour + late).
(Friday 14/11/80) I alighted at Doncaster to retrieve what I could from the whole sorry escapade:
55006 0152 Doncaster – Kings Cross
So that was the first time a was caught by the legendary 47054, but it wasn’t to be the last!

Saturday 13/11/82
Having reached Carlisle by way of a DMU from Newcastle, we (I was travelling with my wife) didn’t have long to wait before the Fort William sleepers arrived:
85013 0143 Carlisle – Mossend
47xxx 0328 Mossend – Glasgow Queen Street (dossed in a sleeper so couldn’t identify the loco)
37085 0600 Glasgow Queen Street – Mallaig
37085 1235 Mallaig – Fort William
37192 1822 Fort William – Cowlairs
37051 2236 Cowlairs – Carstairs via Springburn, Gartcosh, Gartsherrie, Holytown, Wishaw
86030 2347 Carstairs – Euston
As far as I know, this ran main line all the way, being dragged by an unknown 47 Crewe to Stafford. Again, we were in a sleeper, so I couldn’t identify it.
(Sunday 14/11/82)
43096 + 43079 0845 Kings Cross – York

Sunday 13/11/94
3405 Reading – Waterloo
46229 1045 Waterloo – Salisbury via Staines, Chertsey, Woking
A thoroughly dismal run, drooning along through the mist at low speeds, with the sanders on constantly.
46229 1614 Salisbury – Waterloo via Southampton
The return run was no better. Dropped an hour on the already slack timings.
43125 + 43142 2100 Paddington – Reading

 

[NorthWestRover]

Saturday 13th November 1982

Another Goyle day in the Midlands. Gaps would have been cans/duffs/units... Roarers topping and tailing the day too... Goyles not necessarily in the right order.

85036 WBQ to Birmingham NS
31420 Birmingham NS to Hinckley
31214 Hinckley to Birmingham NS
31423 Leicester to Birmingham NS
31423 Birmingham NS to Leicester
31406 Hinckley to Leicester
31419 Leicester to Birmingham NS
85032 Crewe to WBQ

Tuesday 13th November 2018

Just after getting back into recording moves, I did a Cheshire Day Ranger which included loco haulage. Just to compare and contrast with everything else on this thread, I've listed all the moves.

156464 Padgate to Oxford Road
150205 Oxford Road to Picc
67020 Picc to Chester
221114 Chester to Crewe
350125 Crewe to Alsager
153384 Alsager to Stoke
390020 Stoke to Stockport
150103 Stockport to Picc
185103 Picc to Vic
185116 Vic to Lea Green
319366 Lea Green to Lime St
350247 Lime St to Crewe
323235 Crewe to Wilmslow
390104 Wilmslow to Stockport
220031 Stockport to Picc
142009 Picc to Guide Bridge
323234 Guide Bridge to Picc
150128 Picc to Oxford Road
156464 Oxford Road to Padgate

11 different classes of unit...

 

[Falcon1200]

11 different classes of unit...

Yet people still say today's railway is boring.........

I'll get my coat.

 

[xotGD]

11 different classes of unit...

Plastic fantastic!

At least you managed a run with a 67.

 

[47421]

Saturday 13/11/82
Having reached Carlisle by way of a DMU from Newcastle, we (I was travelling with my wife) didn’t have long to wait before the Fort William sleepers arrived:
85013 0143 Carlisle – Mossend
47xxx 0328 Mossend – Glasgow Queen Street (dossed in a sleeper so couldn’t identify the loco)
37085 0600 Glasgow Queen Street – Mallaig
37085 1235 Mallaig – Fort William
37192 1822 Fort William – Cowlairs
37051 2236 Cowlairs – Carstairs via Springburn, Gartcosh, Gartsherrie, Holytown, Wishaw
86030 2347 Carstairs – Euston
As far as I know, this ran main line all the way, being dragged by an unknown 47 Crewe to Stafford. Again, we were in a sleeper, so I couldn’t identify it.
(Sunday 14/11/82)
43096 + 43079 0845 Kings Cross – York

37085 ran round at Ft William? Very unusual?

 

[D6130]

FRIDAY 13th NOVEMBER 1981:

07 47 Helensburgh Central-Airdrie: 303 065+303 065 Helensburgh Central-Glasgow QS LL via Yoker
18 23 Glasgow QS HL-Oban: 37 035 Glasgow QS-Dumbarton Central (Consist: SC4745/4138/4249/21272 Load 4 VB/SH)
37 081 Dumbarton Central-Helensburgh Upper

After departure from Queen Street, it was realised that 37 035 was short of fuel, so it was exchanged at Dumbarton Central with 37 081 off a Southbound freight, so as to get 37 035 back to Eastfield.

(Apologies for the confusion with yesterday's post....I was reading a photo of my 1981 notebook and posting from my phone en route back from Italy).

 

[NorthWestRover]

Plastic fantastic!

At least you managed a run with a 67.

Today's Northern Newspaper Day Ranger moves not going to have so many classes. But no locos either. I did consider doing Huddersfield to Garforth on the 68s with a Day Saver (but didn't). I'm at Swinton (S Yorks) as I type this, so I could probably get to Leeds in time... But I won't. I'll wait until the extra diagram starts next month and get a South Pennines Day Ranger, I think. The Sheffield Tap feels like a good call though.

 

[xotGD]

Today's Northern Newspaper Day Ranger moves not going to have so many classes. But no locos either. I did consider doing Huddersfield to Garforth on the 68s (but didn't). I'm at Swinton (S Yorks) as I type this, so I could probably get to Leeds in time... But I won't. I'll wait until the extra diagram starts next month and get a South Pennines Day Ranger, I think. The Sheffield Tap feels like a good call though.

My next planned leap on the 68s is three weeks today. Booster vaccination in Bradford in the morning, cranking in the afternoon! Hopefully I'll get home before the side effects kick in.

Come the timetable change I'll be able to do 68s both ways whenever I visit our company's office in Manchester. All I need is plenty of good reasons to go there.

Just to note that 13th November is devoid of entries in my moves book.

 

[CW2]

Tuesday 14/11/78
I was hanging around York station when an additional service to Doncaster was announced. This was a scheduled parcels train conveying passengers to connect for London off a late-running train from Newcastle. More to the point, it had 40154 at the business end:
40154 2035 York – Doncaster
At Doncaster, by good fortune, the 1809 Kings Cross – York was running 40 minutes late due to a points failure, so I was able to step straight off 40154 onto that to take me back home to York:
47459 2030 Doncaster – York

Saturday 14/11/81
That morning 40025 had worked into Kings Cross on a charter from Saltburn. I hadn’t ever had a 40 to Saltburn (spoiler alert: I still haven’t) so I set off to cover the return working. For some reason 40025 was swapped off the return charter – and instead was allocated to the 2100 to Edinburgh.
40025 2100 Kings Cross - Edinburgh
40025 was an absolute beast. On a mere load 8 it was whipped up to 96 mph between Hitchin and Sandy, and kept us fully entertained for the long journey through to Edinburgh, where we arrived 20 minutes early. The route we took was ECML to Peterborough, then via the Joint Lines to Doncaster, via Hare Park and Normanton to York, ECML to Northallerton, via Leamside and High Level Bridge to Newcastle, via the Blyth & Tyne to Morpeth North Jn., then ECML to Millerhill, Edinburgh Suburban Line and Haymarket to Edinburgh Waverley. Remember, this was a normal service train, not a railtour. This has to be one of the best ECML overnights I’ve ever done. Forty years (ago)!

 

[D6130]

SUNDAY 14th NOVEMBER 1976:

08 53 Havant- Waterloo: 7055/7356 Petersfield-Waterloo via Cobham
Bakerloo Line: Waterloo-Paddington
12 30 Paddington-Plymouth: 50 030 Paddington-Reading
14 30 Reading-Paddington; W51362/59514/51404/51366/59518/51408 Reading-Padddington
Bakerloo Line: Paddington-Waterloo
16 20 Waterloo-Havant: 7339/7054 Waterloo-Petersfield via Cobham

IIRC, the motive behind this trip was to have a fast run each way over the Cobham line - then with an 80 mph speed limit (now reduced to 70) and lots of jointed track - plus the hope (not fulfilled on this occasion) of having a "Western" down to Reading. I think we got fed-up with waiting for a 52-hauled service back to Paddington and decided to take the DMU instead for a forward-facing view of the GWML. On this occasion, Portsmouth Direct services were also terminating at Havant due to the renewal of Portcreek Junction.

SATURDAY 14th NOVEMBER 1981:

A quick spin to Dunblane and back for lunch with friends:

09 22 Helensburgh Central-Airdrie: 303 023 Hyndland-Glasgow QS LL
11 35 Glasgow QS HL-Aberdeen: 47 424 Glasgow QS-Stirling (Consist: SC5201/5103/5104/5088/1842/13435/9414 Load 7 VB/DH)
xx xx Edinburgh-Dunblane: SC51235/59060/50174 Stirling-Dunblane
13 39 Dundee-Glasgow QS HL: 27 034 Dunblane-Glasgow QS (Consist: SC14009/4179/4191/4915 Load 4 VB/SH)
15 22 Airdrie-Helensburgh Central: 303 055 Glasgow QS LL-Hyndland

 

[xotGD]

14th November 1988

After getting a Duff up to Newcastle 4 days earlier, would my trip back to Brum be any better?

86252 Carlisle- New Street 1O20

That would be a "No" then!

14th November 1992

86225 New Street - Coventry
86257 Coventry - New Street

More Cans!

14th November 1998

A day on the NYMR...

08850 Pickering - Levisham
50027 Levisham - Pickering
50027 Pickering - Grosmont
D7628 Grosmont - Levisham
D7541 Levisham - Grosmont
D9009 Grosmont - Pickering
D9009 Pickering - Levisham
D5061 (Dead) + D5032 Levisham - Pickering

A good day out. A pity that the 24 had fagged - I still need it.

 

[CW2]

Sunday 15/11/81
Having arrived in Edinburgh off 40025 all the way from Kings Cross, the plan now was to see what class 40s were working in Scotland on the various services to / from Aberdeen and Inverness. Polite enquiries were made of the usual sources, and a “Nil Return” caused some initial disappointment, so we just decided to make the best of the day:
25244 1015 Edinburgh – Ladybank via Dunfermline
25037 1141 Ladybank – Haymarket via Dunfermline
47705 1303 Haymarket – Glasgow Queen Street via Falkirk Grahamston
I didn’t need 25244, which was a pretty common Haymarket boilered Rat, but 25037 was new to me. We headed off to Glasgow to cover the 1515 to Nottingham, and to see whether Carlisle might turn out a class 40 to take it forward over the S&C to Leeds:
85014 1515 Glasgow Central – MP 88.25 (Shieldmuir Jn)
Just after Motherwell, 85014 gave a fairly spectacular series of pops, bangs, and lurches, before expiring entirely. After an hour’s delay, an even bigger Roarer came to our rescue:
83009 1642 MP 88.25 (Shieldmuir Jn) – Carlisle
At Carlisle, whatever re-engined the Nottingham service (probably a 45) failed to meet with our approval, so we decided to return to Edinburgh to cover the southbound overnights from there:
86234 2020 Carlisle – Carstairs
47706 2123 Carstairs – Edinburgh
This ran about 30 minutes late, and so we arrived just in time to miss 55013 departing on the 2230 to Kings Cross. Cheers. Let’s just hope the 2250 to Kings Cross has got something decent on it… Oh yes, it had!
40025 2250 Edinburgh – Kings Cross
This ran round at Newcastle and departed via High Level Bridge because of an engineering block on King Edward Bridge, and was retimed 10 minutes later as a result. In fact we arrived in Kings Cross 6 minutes early on the retimings.
This was the only occasion on which I ever had the same class 40 for a round trip from Kings Cross to Edinburgh and return on service trains. 40025: What a beast!

 

[xotGD]

Nothing from me today, but this was today in 1997...

Class37.co.uk

 

[CW2]

A quiet day from me:
Thursday 16/11/78
46056 1126 York – Leeds
47112 1205 Leeds – York

Thursday 16/11/95
43138 + 43152 2030 Reading – Paddington
I was on my way to work a night shift, but a bridge bash had occurred near Old Oak Common affecting the GWML, so this train was diverted via Greenford. I think that’s the only time I’ve been that way with an HST.

 

[xotGD]

As I have nothing else to report today...

16th November 1991

91009 Doncaster - Haymarket (via High Level Bridge)

Hearts 3 Celtic 1

91021 Haymarket - Newcastle