Here we go with rover number 3. Something a bit different this time. I tried to post this a couple of days ago but it seems to have vanished. Anyway, as before any references to the current scene refer to 2005.
Not too many photos were taken in order to avoid frostbite!
Hope you enjoy it.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In February & March 1990, myself and a mate did a freedom of Scotland rover in
order to try and get some of our last Scottish ETH 37s & 47s.
The first thing to say is that we must have been mad!
Spending the week cavorting round Scotland at that time of year, with sub
zero temperatures the norm, made it an interesting experience.
On Saturday the 24th of February we spent the day doing the S & C 'specials'
with 25912 & 26007 providing the entertainment and our rover started the
following day.
Here is 26007 at Leeds, a nice precursor to our trip North.
26007_1990.02.24_2_Leeds by philwood55013, on Flickr
The next day, Sunday we left Yorkshire on 47448, which we took to Newcastle for a tram to
Edinburgh.
The rover itself started with the obligatory 'shoves', in this case 47701,
47706 & 47717.
We had decided to spend the first night on the up 'Fort Bill beds' and so we
set off to Crianlarich on a DMU.
The syphon on the sleeper was a winner in the shape of 37401 and this was
enjoyed to Glasgow Central, and that was the end of the first day.
Monday the 26th started with a trip to Carlisle, still on the Fort William
service, behind 90033.
After spending a while mooching around Carlisle station in the early hours
we headed back to Glasgow on 86222.
It was then over to Queen St. for more 47s
47703 was done out to Falkirk and 47712 was done back before we headed to
Inverness, doing the journey throughout on 47546.
From the Highland capital we went to the world famous town of Gleneagles,
although we had no intention of playing a round of golf
It was 47460 that did the honours for the 133 mile trip.
Next up was a short run to Perth on 47709, followed by 47710 to Stirling and
47442 to Glasgow.
At that time 47442 was a Crewe trainload freight loco and, as such, should
not have been all that common on Scottish internal passenger services.
At Queen St. We got off the stock and observed the goings on.
Very interesting it was, too.
The station pilot, a class 26, backed onto the stock and set off up the
incline through Cowlairs tunnel.
The 47 then left light engine, the stock came back in and, after the 26 had
been removed, the duff was attached to the front.
This was the overnight Glasgow - Inverness service and contained MK2
compartment stock, ideal for kipping!
We grabbed a compo and took a side each for a nap. These overnight services
were not exactly wedged, at least not in February, and so we didn't have to
worry about people wanting to share our compartment.
47442 worked as far as Perth were the train combined with a portion from
Edinburgh.
It was the ex-Edinburgh engine that worked forward and this was 47546.
The North bound service passed the Southbound one at Blair Atholl and we had
decided to swap over.
Somehow, we always managed to be awake at the right time, but this one cut
it close.
We woke up as we pulled into the station and saw a couple of things, one was
that the loco South was 47470 and the other was that it was snowing heavily!
I had gone up to Scotland wearing a big pair of Doc Martins and, naturally,
had taken them off when I went to sleep.
The fact that we had woken up a bit late meant that I didn't have time to
fasten them up and so it was a case of running over the footbridge with
three foot of bootlace trailing behind me in the deepening snow.
As soon as we boarded the train we found an empty compo, collapsed on the
seats, removed our footwear and dropped straight off to sleep.
After reaching a snow free Glasgow we headed first to Edinburgh and back on
47712 & 47707 before going up to Aberdeen on 47715, from Aberdeen it was
down to Edinburgh on 47709 and across to Glasgow on 47702.
It was now the afternoon peak and there were a number of services at this
time of day that were booked for 'standard' 47s.
We did 47550 and then 47640 on our trip to Edinburgh.
Then it was 47712 back to Glasgow and another unit to Crianlarich for the up
beds.
The syphon was once again 37401 and that was the end of day three.
The spark forward from Glasgow was 86255 and we did the same move of bailing
at Carlisle and heading back North on the first available service, which was
worked by 90006.
We did the Skoda to Carstairs and then did the Edinburgh portion of the
train, which was 47595.
Naturally Edinburgh also had a few 'non-shove' turns in the peaks and we did
the now preserved 47643 over to Glasgow before heading up to Inverness on
47492.
We had decided to have another night on the Fort William and so we headed
back to Glasgow, doing 47442 Inverness - Stirling, 47460 Stirling -
Gleneagles and 47518 Gleneagles - Glasgow.
The Syphon this time was 37413.
The trip to Carlisle and back involved 86426 and 86222.
By now the weather was getting bad. The snow hadn't reappeared but it was
freezing.
The coach we were sat in on 86222 had inch thick ice on the windows!
The guard came through advising that the heating was working in all the
other coaches but, on inspection, they were all wedged and my mate and I
were the only people now in this coach.
Aside from the cold, we were now extremely tired and couldn't face standing
to Glasgow and so we stayed where we were, wrapped up as warm as we could
and dozed off.
After the usual walk across Glasgow city centre it was 47708 to Stirling.
We spent most of the day travelling between Stirling, Gleneagles and Perth,
the locos involved being 47509, 47546, 47562, 47593, 47595, 47640 & 47641.
After viewing the class 26 shunt release a few nights previously we had
decided to try and get it bit of haulage in from the Sulzer type 2.
As before, we did the loco and stock into Glasgow, the engine being 47635,
now of course something of a celebrity but in those days it was just another
47/4, then, as now, it was in large logo livery but it still carried its
original name "Jimmy Milne".
We decided that the thing to do was to be 'asleep' on arrival and that I
would take a long time to lace up my boots.
The plan worked a treat. As I sleepily laced up my boots, one of the
platform staff jumped aboard to hurry us up, saw the length of my laces and
said "We're going to move the stock, you'll have to stay on board until we
get back into the platform"
Nice one.
As soon as we set off up the tunnel we dropped any pretence and got our
heads out of the window
Although it wasn't the longest journey I've ever done, it did go a fair way
up the tunnel and the steep incline meant plenty of thrash.
When we got back into the platform we went to observe the loco and it was
26043 - Hellfire!
A few months later another one of my mates went for the 26 and he approached
the station staff and asked if it was alright for him to do the stock shunt.
The bloke he asked just shrugged and said yes, so our elaborate plan was
probably pointless although it does add to the memory.
The overnight move was 47635 to Perth and 47562 on to Inverness.
The next, and last, day started with 47562 all the way to Glasgow, 47710 to
Stirling and 47636 to Gleneagles.
It was then back to Stirling on 47604, a run to Perth on 47643 and another
visit to Gleneagles, this time getting there behind 47640.
We then did an out and back run to Perth, getting 47461 and 47578.
Here's 47461 at a snow free but very cold Perth:
47461_1990.03.02_1_Perth by philwood55013, on Flickr
Now the weather really started to play a part.
It was snowing so heavily that we started to worry we might get stuck at
Gleneagles, not a place I would like to be stranded for any length of time!
Then we heard a noise and out of the thick snow burst 37707 & 37708 on a
Southbound oil train.
They were thrashing well and it remains one of best non-haulage railway
memories.
Once again, Hellfire
We left Gleneagles for the last time on 47708 and headed North to Perth.
We should have been heading South but figured Perth was a better place to
get stuck than Gleneagles, so we had boarded the first thing to arrive!
There was no need to worry, though and we were soon heading back to Glasgow
on 47707.
Once again, Glasgow was snow free and so we decided to risk heading up to
Crianlarich once more.
The Syphon that night was 37424 and our journey to Glasgow was uneventful.
87028 was the spark forward from Glasgow.
By this time in the week we were virtual zombies and were spending most of
the day dozing, so we were quite punch drunk!
This had an effect when I woke up, looked out of the window and saw we were
sat in a station, in a panic, I woke my mate and told him we were at
Carlisle.
We grabbed all our stuff and ran to the door, expecting the train to move at
any moment.
It didn't.
We opened the door and jumped out.
Something wasn't right.
A quick look round revealed we were actually at Carstairs!
D'oh.
So we got back on and went straight off to sleep.
Surprisingly, we managed to wake up before Carlisle and we staggered off
only to find that the weather in England was much worse than it was in
Scotland.
The sleeper turned out to be the last train South of Carlisle on the WCML
for several hours.
Carlisle was chaos, the waiting rooms were full and standing and we were
dead on our feet.
I collapsed on a bench, out on the platform, dumped all my baggage on the floor and, bitter cold
or not, I fell asleep.
I awoke a few hours later and everything was much improved weather wise.
More importantly, our bags remained next to the benches, completely
untouched.
I had been so tired that I hadn't given a thought to my camera equipment,
etc and could quite easily have had it all nicked.
Maybe it was all the dirty clothes that we were in there that kept potential
thieves at bay!
Our journey back to Yorkshire was less than straightforward because there
was another 'special' on the S & C.
We did 47418 to Skipton and then went up to Kirkby Stephen on 58036 & 47456.
We then did 31447 to Leeds and that was the end of our adventure.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I hope that did the trick. Next up, it's back to the all-liners.
Cheers,
55013
Not too many photos were taken in order to avoid frostbite!
Hope you enjoy it.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In February & March 1990, myself and a mate did a freedom of Scotland rover in
order to try and get some of our last Scottish ETH 37s & 47s.
The first thing to say is that we must have been mad!
Spending the week cavorting round Scotland at that time of year, with sub
zero temperatures the norm, made it an interesting experience.
On Saturday the 24th of February we spent the day doing the S & C 'specials'
with 25912 & 26007 providing the entertainment and our rover started the
following day.
Here is 26007 at Leeds, a nice precursor to our trip North.
26007_1990.02.24_2_Leeds by philwood55013, on FlickrThe next day, Sunday we left Yorkshire on 47448, which we took to Newcastle for a tram to
Edinburgh.
The rover itself started with the obligatory 'shoves', in this case 47701,
47706 & 47717.
We had decided to spend the first night on the up 'Fort Bill beds' and so we
set off to Crianlarich on a DMU.
The syphon on the sleeper was a winner in the shape of 37401 and this was
enjoyed to Glasgow Central, and that was the end of the first day.
Monday the 26th started with a trip to Carlisle, still on the Fort William
service, behind 90033.
After spending a while mooching around Carlisle station in the early hours
we headed back to Glasgow on 86222.
It was then over to Queen St. for more 47s
47703 was done out to Falkirk and 47712 was done back before we headed to
Inverness, doing the journey throughout on 47546.
From the Highland capital we went to the world famous town of Gleneagles,
although we had no intention of playing a round of golf
It was 47460 that did the honours for the 133 mile trip.
Next up was a short run to Perth on 47709, followed by 47710 to Stirling and
47442 to Glasgow.
At that time 47442 was a Crewe trainload freight loco and, as such, should
not have been all that common on Scottish internal passenger services.
At Queen St. We got off the stock and observed the goings on.
Very interesting it was, too.
The station pilot, a class 26, backed onto the stock and set off up the
incline through Cowlairs tunnel.
The 47 then left light engine, the stock came back in and, after the 26 had
been removed, the duff was attached to the front.
This was the overnight Glasgow - Inverness service and contained MK2
compartment stock, ideal for kipping!
We grabbed a compo and took a side each for a nap. These overnight services
were not exactly wedged, at least not in February, and so we didn't have to
worry about people wanting to share our compartment.
47442 worked as far as Perth were the train combined with a portion from
Edinburgh.
It was the ex-Edinburgh engine that worked forward and this was 47546.
The North bound service passed the Southbound one at Blair Atholl and we had
decided to swap over.
Somehow, we always managed to be awake at the right time, but this one cut
it close.
We woke up as we pulled into the station and saw a couple of things, one was
that the loco South was 47470 and the other was that it was snowing heavily!
I had gone up to Scotland wearing a big pair of Doc Martins and, naturally,
had taken them off when I went to sleep.
The fact that we had woken up a bit late meant that I didn't have time to
fasten them up and so it was a case of running over the footbridge with
three foot of bootlace trailing behind me in the deepening snow.
As soon as we boarded the train we found an empty compo, collapsed on the
seats, removed our footwear and dropped straight off to sleep.
After reaching a snow free Glasgow we headed first to Edinburgh and back on
47712 & 47707 before going up to Aberdeen on 47715, from Aberdeen it was
down to Edinburgh on 47709 and across to Glasgow on 47702.
It was now the afternoon peak and there were a number of services at this
time of day that were booked for 'standard' 47s.
We did 47550 and then 47640 on our trip to Edinburgh.
Then it was 47712 back to Glasgow and another unit to Crianlarich for the up
beds.
The syphon was once again 37401 and that was the end of day three.
The spark forward from Glasgow was 86255 and we did the same move of bailing
at Carlisle and heading back North on the first available service, which was
worked by 90006.
We did the Skoda to Carstairs and then did the Edinburgh portion of the
train, which was 47595.
Naturally Edinburgh also had a few 'non-shove' turns in the peaks and we did
the now preserved 47643 over to Glasgow before heading up to Inverness on
47492.
We had decided to have another night on the Fort William and so we headed
back to Glasgow, doing 47442 Inverness - Stirling, 47460 Stirling -
Gleneagles and 47518 Gleneagles - Glasgow.
The Syphon this time was 37413.
The trip to Carlisle and back involved 86426 and 86222.
By now the weather was getting bad. The snow hadn't reappeared but it was
freezing.
The coach we were sat in on 86222 had inch thick ice on the windows!
The guard came through advising that the heating was working in all the
other coaches but, on inspection, they were all wedged and my mate and I
were the only people now in this coach.
Aside from the cold, we were now extremely tired and couldn't face standing
to Glasgow and so we stayed where we were, wrapped up as warm as we could
and dozed off.
After the usual walk across Glasgow city centre it was 47708 to Stirling.
We spent most of the day travelling between Stirling, Gleneagles and Perth,
the locos involved being 47509, 47546, 47562, 47593, 47595, 47640 & 47641.
After viewing the class 26 shunt release a few nights previously we had
decided to try and get it bit of haulage in from the Sulzer type 2.
As before, we did the loco and stock into Glasgow, the engine being 47635,
now of course something of a celebrity but in those days it was just another
47/4, then, as now, it was in large logo livery but it still carried its
original name "Jimmy Milne".
We decided that the thing to do was to be 'asleep' on arrival and that I
would take a long time to lace up my boots.
The plan worked a treat. As I sleepily laced up my boots, one of the
platform staff jumped aboard to hurry us up, saw the length of my laces and
said "We're going to move the stock, you'll have to stay on board until we
get back into the platform"
Nice one.
As soon as we set off up the tunnel we dropped any pretence and got our
heads out of the window
Although it wasn't the longest journey I've ever done, it did go a fair way
up the tunnel and the steep incline meant plenty of thrash.
When we got back into the platform we went to observe the loco and it was
26043 - Hellfire!
A few months later another one of my mates went for the 26 and he approached
the station staff and asked if it was alright for him to do the stock shunt.
The bloke he asked just shrugged and said yes, so our elaborate plan was
probably pointless although it does add to the memory.
The overnight move was 47635 to Perth and 47562 on to Inverness.
The next, and last, day started with 47562 all the way to Glasgow, 47710 to
Stirling and 47636 to Gleneagles.
It was then back to Stirling on 47604, a run to Perth on 47643 and another
visit to Gleneagles, this time getting there behind 47640.
We then did an out and back run to Perth, getting 47461 and 47578.
Here's 47461 at a snow free but very cold Perth:
47461_1990.03.02_1_Perth by philwood55013, on FlickrNow the weather really started to play a part.
It was snowing so heavily that we started to worry we might get stuck at
Gleneagles, not a place I would like to be stranded for any length of time!
Then we heard a noise and out of the thick snow burst 37707 & 37708 on a
Southbound oil train.
They were thrashing well and it remains one of best non-haulage railway
memories.
Once again, Hellfire
We left Gleneagles for the last time on 47708 and headed North to Perth.
We should have been heading South but figured Perth was a better place to
get stuck than Gleneagles, so we had boarded the first thing to arrive!
There was no need to worry, though and we were soon heading back to Glasgow
on 47707.
Once again, Glasgow was snow free and so we decided to risk heading up to
Crianlarich once more.
The Syphon that night was 37424 and our journey to Glasgow was uneventful.
87028 was the spark forward from Glasgow.
By this time in the week we were virtual zombies and were spending most of
the day dozing, so we were quite punch drunk!
This had an effect when I woke up, looked out of the window and saw we were
sat in a station, in a panic, I woke my mate and told him we were at
Carlisle.
We grabbed all our stuff and ran to the door, expecting the train to move at
any moment.
It didn't.
We opened the door and jumped out.
Something wasn't right.
A quick look round revealed we were actually at Carstairs!
D'oh.
So we got back on and went straight off to sleep.
Surprisingly, we managed to wake up before Carlisle and we staggered off
only to find that the weather in England was much worse than it was in
Scotland.
The sleeper turned out to be the last train South of Carlisle on the WCML
for several hours.
Carlisle was chaos, the waiting rooms were full and standing and we were
dead on our feet.
I collapsed on a bench, out on the platform, dumped all my baggage on the floor and, bitter cold
or not, I fell asleep.
I awoke a few hours later and everything was much improved weather wise.
More importantly, our bags remained next to the benches, completely
untouched.
I had been so tired that I hadn't given a thought to my camera equipment,
etc and could quite easily have had it all nicked.
Maybe it was all the dirty clothes that we were in there that kept potential
thieves at bay!
Our journey back to Yorkshire was less than straightforward because there
was another 'special' on the S & C.
We did 47418 to Skipton and then went up to Kirkby Stephen on 58036 & 47456.
We then did 31447 to Leeds and that was the end of our adventure.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I hope that did the trick. Next up, it's back to the all-liners.
Cheers,
55013
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