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Back in the day...

Peter Sarf

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While I cannot guarantee that these were taken in the month of August, here is a selection of photos taken after my return to Scotland in the late-1970s and just prior to the mass invasion of the West Highland lines by class 37s. The quality isn't wonderful, as I have merely photographed old prints using my phone, but they may be of interest.View attachment 210428View attachment 210428View attachment 210428View attachment 210427View attachment 210426View attachment 210425View attachment 210424View attachment 210422View attachment 210421
Are they all 27s (except the 37 and 25) ?.

Where was the knitting - it looks very bare (as in simple DC like) ?.
I presume NW of Glasgow.
 
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D6130

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Are they all 27s (except the 37 and 25) ?.

Where was the knitting - it looks very bare (as in simple DC like) ?.
I presume NW of Glasgow.
Yes, they are....at Dumbarton Central, Helensburgh Upper, Crianlarich and Helensburgh Upper again. The knitting was at Dumbarton. Quite a lot of DC-style overhead line structures were used for the 25kV ac 1960 North Clyde electrification.... particularly in large station areas. Perhaps they had been ordered for the aborted Sheffield - Marylebone DC scheme?
 

Peter Sarf

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Yes, they are....at Dumbarton Central, Helensburgh Upper, Crianlarich and Helensburgh Upper again. The knitting was at Dumbarton. Quite a lot of DC-style overhead line structures were used for the 25kV ac 1960 North Clyde electrification.... particularly in large station areas. Perhaps they had been ordered for the aborted Sheffield - Marylebone DC scheme?
Thanks.

Yes, perhaps even then Scotland was getting ahead on electrification.
 

D6130

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And here are a few more from the archives....1979 I believe.
View attachment 210439View attachment 210441View attachment 210440View attachment 210444View attachment 210445View attachment 210446View attachment 210447
Good grief! Who's that geeky-looking young man posing on top of Queen Street tunnel? o_O
The second and third photos show 25 005 at Dumbarton Central - hauling Southern Region vacuum-braked dual-heat stock - on a Ramsgate-Balloch Pier overnight ADEX, for a cruise on Loch Lomond. The train had been worked from Ramsgate to Willesden by a class 33; Willesden to Mossend Yard by an AC electric loco and finally from Mossend to Baloch Pier by the Eastfield-based 25/0. A class 27 followed a short time later to take the stock back to Cowlairs for servicing.

The fourth photo was taken hanging from the leading door droplight (horror of horrors!) of a class 27-hauled train about to enter the West Highland line at Craigendoran Junction. The others are, of course, taken at Glasgow Queen Street.
 
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Magdalia

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es, they are....at Dumbarton Central, Helensburgh Upper, Crianlarich and Helensburgh Upper again. The knitting was at Dumbarton.
There are two Dumbarton Central photos, was the wandering on the platform because the loco had failed?

I think that the window hanging shot with the feathers is Craigendoran Junction?
 

Harpo

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I loved the era of steaming type 2s in Scotland and overnights with pairs of 26s or 40s ‘up the middle’.

The first regular year-round 37s in Scotland in that era were split box boilered stolen from East Anglia - that centre panel 37 looks like it might be a huge 3714x?
 

D6130

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I loved the era of steaming type 2s in Scotland and overnights with pairs of 26s or 40s ‘up the middle’.

The first regular year-round 37s in Scotland in that era were split box boilered stolen from East Anglia - that centre panel 37 looks like it might be a huge 3714x?
37 148 to be precise.
 

47403

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While I cannot guarantee that these were taken in the month of August, here is a selection of photos taken after my return to Scotland in the late-1970s and just prior to the mass invasion of the West Highland lines by class 37s. The quality isn't wonderful, as I have merely photographed old prints using my phone, but they may be of interest.View attachment 210428View attachment 210428View attachment 210428View attachment 210427View attachment 210426View attachment 210425View attachment 210424View attachment 210422View attachment 210421
Thats a fine set of photos for this nostalgic old fart to see :lol: brilliant.
 
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CW2

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Yes, 37108 in particular is an old friend. I have one of its works plates at home, and the loco survives to this day at the GCR.
 

CW2

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7409_012.jpg
A rainy day in Inverness, August 1974. A break from a school trip involving a week in the Highlands.
 

D6130

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Further to @GRALISTAIR 's shot of the North British class 29 at Glasgow Queen Street in post #7,474, @Cheshire Scot has given me permission to post these photos of 6121 working the last train on the Larbert-Denny branch in October 1971, on which he travelled with his father. If you look closely at the No.1 end of the loco, in the top right photo, you can see that there is only one electrification warning panel....thus reinforcing my opinion that this is the same loco shown in @GRALISTAIR 's Queen Street shot. The train was formed of the Scottish Railway Preservation Society's historic rolling stock.

The black-and-white picture - taken in about 1968 - shows an unidentified two-tone green -liveried class 29 (thought possibly to be D6133) departing from Helensburgh Central with the empty stock of a recently-arrived excursion.Last train to Denny NBL 6121.jpgNBL ex Helensburgh Central.jpg
 

Peter Sarf

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Good to see photos, keep them coming.

I must find my mid 1970s shots from 126 film taken in a dingy New Street. Then some medium format shots later. Wonder which loft/skip they were/are in.
 

47403

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Some fantastic shots. That one of Inverness, would make a great canvas. Them 29s, were long gone before I got into the hobby. That 3rd Pic of the group of 4, Thats my favourite of the bunch. Hang em in the Louvre lads.
 

Peter Sarf

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That picture of the 26s at Inverness sums up my first year spotting.

Holiday near Oban and several times a drive past what must have been the throat/yard of Oban station, viewed over a low stone wall. That was summer 1974. I started spotting late 1974 and straight away yearned for the numbers I had not noticed. I can still clearly see the locos in my memory !. All very harsh for a young lad living all the way down the other end of the UK in Kent !.
 

The exile

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While I cannot guarantee that these were taken in the month of August, here is a selection of photos taken after my return to Scotland in the late-1970s and just prior to the mass invasion of the West Highland lines by class 37s. The quality isn't wonderful, as I have merely photographed old prints using my phone, but they may be of interest.View attachment 210428View attachment 210428View attachment 210428View attachment 210427View attachment 210426View attachment 210425View attachment 210424View attachment 210422View attachment 210421
Would be fascinating to know whether you caught the re-signing of Helensburgh Upper just at the right moment or whether the ridiculous juxtaposition lasted months or years because the instructions didn’t say anything about taking the old signs down!
 

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