Pondering the drags that used to regularly happen on the WCML and wondered more about their history.
There’s many discussions and pictures of the exotic traction they had in the 80s such as:
but wanted to know this:
When did they start? There’s pictures on Flickr in the late 70s when I guess they were taken notice of more as bashing took off. If they took place from the 60s onwards once electrification happened, were they just ignored as the engines used would have likely been common anyway?
The other point is, from an engineering/maintenance point of view: why did they stop? Was it a change of practices? Upgrades to OHLE ? (after WCRM perhaps- I wasn’t taking much notice of the railways around then.) I know BHM- EUS started to be sent via Stafford and the Trent Valley for a while instead, and the reluctance of VT to use their 57s/221s as time progressed.
There’s many discussions and pictures of the exotic traction they had in the 80s such as:
1980's Nuneaton Drags
Quick query about the drags that used to take place between Birmingham New St and Nuneaton on Sundays. I'm in the process of adding these drags into the new version of 'Hellfire' and cannot remember what happened with 1J32, the 1340 Euston - Shrewsbury working. Did it get a pilot loco from...
www.railforums.co.uk
but wanted to know this:
When did they start? There’s pictures on Flickr in the late 70s when I guess they were taken notice of more as bashing took off. If they took place from the 60s onwards once electrification happened, were they just ignored as the engines used would have likely been common anyway?
The other point is, from an engineering/maintenance point of view: why did they stop? Was it a change of practices? Upgrades to OHLE ? (after WCRM perhaps- I wasn’t taking much notice of the railways around then.) I know BHM- EUS started to be sent via Stafford and the Trent Valley for a while instead, and the reluctance of VT to use their 57s/221s as time progressed.
