Sighting help

[dgsp69]

I wonder if anyone can help me tie up a couple of loco's.

On Thursday of this week (9th Nov) I was driving upto Aberdeen. I passed a yard on my right around Brechin area which had 2 locos and 2 coaches in it. Didn't get a good look at the second loco but pretty sure one of them was a Class 33 in BR Green. I've found the yard on Google maps, it is Hydrus, Brechin. Just off the A90.

Does anyone know what they were? Assuming they were en route somewhere as looking at the place online it doesn't appear to be a permanent storage place for rail stock.

Thanks
Dave

 

[D6130]

The Caledonian Railway at Brechin has two green-liveried type 2 main line diesel-electric locomotives - D5314 (26 014) and D5370 (27 024) - which are similar in appearance to a class 33. Maybe they and the two carriages have been moved to the Hydrus Engineering yard for safe storage over the winter period....or possibly for repairs following the recent flooding in the area?

 

[dgsp69]

The Caledonian Railway at Brechin has two green-liveried type 2 main line diesel-electric locomotives - D5314 (26 014) and D5370 (27 024) - which are similar in appearance to a class 33. Maybe they and the two carriages have been moved to the Hydrus Engineering yard for safe storage over the winter period....or possibly for repairs following the recent flooding in the area?

Thank you for that, you are probably correct. I didn't realise there had been flooding in the area and it wasn't until after I posted that I realised the Caledonian railway is in that area.

 

[JKF]

You can see a couple of MK1 coaches on google street view footage, claimed to be 7 months ago.

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

maps.app.goo.gl

One looks like a full brake or something that has been used as a barrier coach, presumably this one: https://www.departmentals.com/departmental/6399 (said this as moved there on 5/23).

Other coach possibly this one, though there’s a couple of candidates at Brechin

BR 80735 Mk 1 Gangwayed Full Brake built 1955

 

[Western Gaffer]

Just found this thread, after passing this site yesterday on the A90, and was also curious - the locos are still there but difficult to get a good look at them when travelling at 'line speed', although I did form the impression that they were 26/27s rather than 33s.

 

[norbitonflyer]

I did form the impression that they were 26/27s rather than 33s.

Very similar in apearance from the side - they had essentially the same bodyshell but the Type 2s had a 6 cylinder engine whereas the 33 had an 8 cylider one - the extra space being found by omitting the steam heat boiler. Easier to tell apart from the front. Main ways to distinguish them:
Class 26 - Small centre windscreen. No headcode panel. No windows in cab doors.
Class 27 - Small centre windscreen. 4-character headcode panel above windscreens.
Class 33 - 2-character headcode panel between windscreens.

 

[12LDA28C]

Just found this thread, after passing this site yesterday on the A90, and was also curious - the locos are still there but difficult to get a good look at them when travelling at 'line speed', although I did form the impression that they were 26/27s rather than 33s.

Preserved railways tend to feature appropriate locos for their location hence most Scottish heritage lines featuring home-based locos like 26s, 27s, 37s etc. (notwithstanding the 31 at the Strathspey). A 33 would certainly be rather out of place at Brechin.

 

[norbitonflyer]

Preserved railways tend to feature appropriate locos for their location hence most Scottish heritage lines featuring home-based locos like 26s, 27s, 37s etc. (notwithstanding the 31 at the Strathspey). A 33 would certainly be rather out of place at Brechin.

Not always - some are more eclectic - the East lancs has a Warship and a Class 14 for example, and the NYMR has a class 26, as well as several Southern Railway steam locomotives.

 

[Western Gaffer]

Very similar in apearance from the side - they had essentially the same bodyshell but the Type 2s had a 6 cylinder engine whereas the 33 had an 8 cylider one - the extra space being found by omitting the steam heat boiler. Easier to tell apart from the front. Main ways to distinguish them:
Class 26 - Small centre windscreen. No headcode panel. No windows in cab doors.
Class 27 - Small centre windscreen. 4-character headcode panel above windscreens.
Class 33 - 2-character headcode panel between windscreens.

Indeed - I'm familiar with their respective appearances after spending many years in both SR and ScR territory in the previous century, and think the northern one of the two was a 26 but couldn't swear to it! It really was just a fleeting glimpse, although for anyone wishing to take a closer look, the Google Maps angle linked above illustrates that there's a layby not far to the south, from which it would be possible (if legal) to walk back along the verge....

 

[JKF]

Preserved railways tend to feature appropriate locos for their location hence most Scottish heritage lines featuring home-based locos like 26s, 27s, 37s etc. (notwithstanding the 31 at the Strathspey). A 33 would certainly be rather out of place at Brechin.

Didn’t some of the 33s work up in Scotland towards the end of their lives? Thought there were a few in Dutch livery working there.

 

[12LDA28C]

Didn’t some of the 33s work up in Scotland towards the end of their lives? Thought there were a few in Dutch livery working there.

A couple of 33s owned by DRS worked in Scotland briefly, with one famously working the 'sleeper' out of Aberdeen, but they were not in 'dutch' livery. This still doesn't mean that 33s were associated with Scotland though as they were of course Southern locos.

 

[D6130]

Thought there were a few in Dutch livery working there.

They were refurbished 26s.

 

[JKF]

They were refurbished 26s.

No, I was definitely thinking of 33s.

According to http://www.scot-rail.co.uk/page/class+33# :

Three class 33 locomotives were sent to Scotland on 1st October 1999.
33025 (grey/yellow) and 33030 (EWS livery) were allocated to Motherwell, and outbased at Aberdeen for local freight duties.
33019 (grey/yellow) was kept at Motherwell Depot as a source for spares.

Aberdeen did pop in my head when I first thought I could recall something. Would they have been similar enough for class 26/27 drivers to have found some familiarity when operating them?

 

[87electric]

There’s a pic of 33025 in Dutch livery at Aberdeen on derbysulzers website, dated September 2000.

 

[D6130]

No, I was definitely thinking of 33s.

No, I was definitely thinking of 33s.

According to http://www.scot-rail.co.uk/page/class+33# :


Aberdeen did pop in my head when I first thought I could recall something. Would they have been similar enough for class 26/27 drivers to have found some familiarity when operating them?

Apologies....I had forgotten about those three. I think they were employed tripping freight services between Craiginches Yard and the Waterloo Quay depot, before the Kittybrewster-Waterloo branch was fettled-up for class 66s. Open to correction though, as always.

 

[The Puddock]

Apologies....I had forgotten about those three. I think they were employed tripping freight services between Craiginches Yard and the Waterloo Quay depot, before the Kittybrewster-Waterloo branch was fettled-up for class 66s. Open to correction though, as always.

The 33s were brought north partly to replace class 08s on the Waterloo trips (from Guild Street rather than Craiginches) but were mainly used on enterprise services to Elgin, Huntly, Inverurie and Port Elphinstone. They only lasted 18 months because the traffic on these trains was already dwindling before they arrived.

Anyway, the two locos visible from the A90 road that the OP was asking about are 26002 and 26025 which were formerly at the Strathspey Railway.

 

[Sulzer:1999]

Strathspey Railway Aviemore

D5302 ready for the off!

flickr.com

public
These are not the Class 33’s you are looking for….