Oxley Carriage Sidings

[Oswyntail]

As I was passing this deserted spot on Saturday, it reminded me of a question on my mind for a couple of decades. I seem to remember that a number of 08's were described as being fitted with skirts (or summat) because of the wet conditions at Oxley. So, two questions really:-
1) Skirts? What were the waterproofing methods involved
2) Wet conditions? Te place is up on top of an embankment, so I would have thought that drainage was not a problem. So what was the problem?
[Of course it is possible that my memory is guff, and that I have the site/problem wrong]

 

[BlythPower]

Was this something to do with the carriage washer or have I confused myself again..?

 

[western Champion]

Below is a link to one of the "waterproofed" 08's for working at Oxley, the photo shows it in a bit of bother at Wolverhampton but never the less illustrates the topic being discussed.

Up untill the early nineties when DVT's arrived on the scene trains were moved through the wash plant using the 08, the point of the waterproofing was to protect the area above the side rods from water ingress, in the cab we had to make do with newspaper wedged under the doors and round the windows !!!

http://western-champions-pics-online.fotopic.net/p55628821.html

 

[Oswyntail]

Splendid picture - can't you just see the "big hand" coming down from the sky to lift it and put it back.
I think this is the first photo of the skirts I have seen, and they are much smaller than I imagined. I had envisaged a full cover-up, like a Wisbech tram (Toby to you nippers). And I had also imagined that Oxley was something of a marshland, needing sub-aqua units to operate! Were there problems with other carriage washing plants, or was Oxley the only one that gave the 08s a good seeing to each time?

 

[Helvellyn]

Wembley used a small number of Class 82 and 83 locos to shunt stock to/from Euston and through the depot carriage wash at WB. Like 08765 in that picture they ended up rather bleached from the constant trips through the wash plant.

In the late 1980s/early 1990s the two things I remember about OY based coaching stocks were the square paint patches over damaged paintwork, and the fact that over time OY allocated stock definitely took on a more bleached look to the paint job compared to say WN, MA or PC allocated stock!