Unexpected trains as substitute traction.

[Peter Mugridge]

2x 321/9’s were used to run a service as well as a couple of hired in 317/6’s from WAGN.

All three 321/9s visited King's Cross; there was a pair and a single in adjacent platforms at least once during that grounding.

 

[Sad Sprinter]

I don't think anything would replace the shock I felt when I first saw a London Midland class 350 run over the bridge at Balham back in 2009-thought I was seeing things!

 

[delt1c]

What about the severe winter in mid 80's when diesels were used to haul southern EMU,s and even 56 was used hauling a $EPB

 

[Whistler40145]

What about the severe winter in mid 80's when diesels were used to haul southern EMU,s and even 56 was used hauling a $EPB

Oh yes, plus 33s & 73s

 

[ChiefPlanner]

One Xmas Eve (1997 ?),I put a 2 car 117 vice a 313 on the Camden Road - Stratford peak shuttle , and another time a 117 on a late evening Euston - Watford (crew operated of course) .........

Before my time - a catastrophic shortage of working DMU's had a 31 with 2 parcels vans (electrically lit ones) plus 6 platfrom benches forming Bedford to Bletchley.

 

[alexl92]

I seem to remember a steam loco + support coach move somewhere in North Yorkshire/the North East picking up passengers left stranded by a cancelled service train a few years ago?

 

[Dr_Paul]

There were plenty of "oddball" workings in BR days. For me, the moment a pair of 73's came into New Street on a Cross Country train from Reading would take some beating. Apparently, the booked traction had failed earlier in the day and the two ED's were only supposed to go as far as Basingstoke.

How well could a 73 work away from the third rail? Someone once told me that their diesel motor didn't allow for much more than pottering around a yard, but I guess he was exaggerating somewhat.

Just before the Mark 1 stock was withdrawn, a couple of 4 CEPs substituted for 455s on an up Shepperton (or a Kingston loop) service one morning. It had been many years since slam-door stock had been used on these services, and younger people were genuinely baffled about how to open the corridor doors with no inside handles.

 

[Whistler40145]

How well could a 73 work away from the third rail? Someone once told me that their diesel motor didn't allow for much more than pottering around a yard, but I guess he was exaggerating somewhat.

Just before the Mark 1 stock was withdrawn, a couple of 4 CEPs substituted for 455s on an up Shepperton (or a Kingston loop) service one morning. It had been many years since slam-door stock had been used on these services, and younger people were genuinely baffled about how to open the corridor doors with no inside handles.

Class 73s were prone to overheating when working on Diesel power, so I think they did well to reach Birmingham New Street

 

[Polarbear]

How well could a 73 work away from the third rail? Someone once told me that their diesel motor didn't allow for much more than pottering around a yard, but I guess he was exaggerating somewhat.

The original Diesel engines in the 73’s were not that powerful (600 hp) so that person who said they only allowed for pottering around in a yard was pretty much spot on. I suspect it would have been a rather slow journey, even with 2 on the front!

 

[D1537]

Class 73s were prone to overheating when working on Diesel power, so I think they did well to reach Birmingham New Street

They went back south on the booked return working as well. I was slightly miffed as I would have normally been in the West Midlands, but had been doing 40s in North Wales that day.

1M87 1105 Portsmouth-Manchester
https://www.flickr.com/photos/47209/6904445701/
1O92 1423 Manchester-Portsmouth
https://www.flickr.com/photos/d1059/7442869136/

 

[Whistler40145]

They went back south on the booked return working as well.

1M87 1105 Portsmouth-Manchester
https://www.flickr.com/photos/47209/6904445701/
1O92 1423 Manchester-Portsmouth
https://www.flickr.com/photos/d1059/7442869136/

That's amazing

 

[MotCO]

What about the severe winter in mid 80's when diesels were used to haul southern EMU,s and even 56 was used hauling a $EPB

I recall that. I was on an Orpington to Victoria train, and it stopped at Kent House. We were then told that some of us would need to get off since the train was too heavy to get traction in the slippery conditions, and we swopped over to a Diesel hauled train.

 

[yorksrob]

I once had a phase 2 CIG between Ashford and Hastings. Hauled by what I assumed to be a class 47

 

[Whistler40145]

I once had a phase 2 CIG between Ashford and Hastings. Hauled by what I assumed to be a class 47

Would’ve been rather rare for a Class 47 to have worked along this line, more likely to have been a Class 33 or 73

 

[yorksrob]

Would’ve been rather rare for a Class 47 to have worked along this line, more likely to have been a Class 33 or 73

Well that's just it. Being a Southern Region aficionado, I would have recognised a 33 or 73 at the time. This was more exotic.

 

[Whistler40145]

Well that's just it. Being a Southern Region aficionado, I would have recognised a 33 or 73 at the time. This was more exotic.

Never say never, if it’s in the right location it can work

 

[delt1c]

I once had a phase 2 CIG between Ashford and Hastings. Hauled by what I assumed to be a class 47

sounds like the severe winter and more likely a 56

 

[185143]

I seem to remember a steam loco + support coach move somewhere in North Yorkshire/the North East picking up passengers left stranded by a cancelled service train a few years ago?

We might be thinking of the same thing, but I seem to vaguely recall a Scotland bound charter picking up some stranded passengers in Northumberland in what I presume was a wires down event late in the evening?

 

[Mag_seven]

Sometime in early 80s a set off the Glasgow portion of a Inter-City "cross country" working ran a service round the Cathcart Circle in lieu of the usual Class 303 or Class 311. I can't remember the exact circumstances but there was service disruption of some kind.

 

[yorksrob]

sounds like the severe winter and more likely a 56

Not severe weather - they'd just scrapped a few too many thumpers at the time.

Could well have been a 56 though. They look similar to me even now.

 

[ANDREW_D_WEBB]

Although regular for a couple of years, the Deltic worked Ramsgate + Birmingham on a summer Saturday was interesting. Rode it several times from Bromley South to Olympia on a Travelcard

 

[delt1c]

Not severe weather - they'd just scrapped a few too many thumpers at the time.

Could well have been a 56 though. They look similar to me even now.

the 56 was a development of the 47. 47's were very rare in that area most freights were 33's,37's, 56's or 73's

 

[AY1975]

On the inappropriate/unusual topic I think the 142s working vice class 158 when Liverpool to Newcastle loco hauled trains ended.

What, all the way from Liverpool to Newcastle?

Turning up in North Wales in summer 1995 where there were 31s, 37s and 47s plus hsts on the mainline to find a dmu being dragged to Blaenau Ffestiniog and back on the last service of the day after it'd been rescued by a railfreight coal liveried class 31. The dmu was then dragged back to Chester on the last passenger service of the night. First generation dmu drags by locos were rare by that point and this was one of the last in the UK I'm aware of.

Loco-hauled trains did occasionally turn up in place of DMUs on the Conwy Valley line in the 1980s. I remember travelling behind a Class 31 from Llandudno Junction to Blaenau Ffestiniog in 1989.

See also this thread on loco haulage in Wales: https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/memories-of-loco-haulage-in-wales.182139/

 

[Mag_seven]

We might be thinking of the same thing, but I seem to vaguely recall a Scotland bound charter picking up some stranded passengers in Northumberland in what I presume was a wires down event late in the evening?

Probably the return leg of the SRPS tour from Linlithgow to Lincoln on 4 December 2015:

See the bottom entry of this link:

http://www.srps.org.uk/railtours/archive/report15.htm

The train then headed back south, picking up 150 passengers from a stranded Cross-Country service at Alnmouth.

 

[yorksrob]

the 56 was a development of the 47. 47's were very rare in that area most freights were 33's,37's, 56's or 73's

It categorically wasn't one of the other three.

 

[AY1975]

Unless the juice was off somewhere on the route or an Uckfield or East Grinstead service?

I didn't think East Grinstead or Uckfield trains were ever booked to call at all stations between Clapham Junction and East Croydon, unless they just happened to be stopped at every station for signal checks. It would more likely to be deputising for a failed EMU, although I would have thought that they'd only use a Thumper vice EMU as a last resort if there was no spare EMU available (using a VEP or a CIG in place of a failed EPB or 455 would surely be preferable to using a Thumper). I seem to recall that there used to be the odd one that called at Selhurst, though.

My dad remembers having a Thumper vice EMU from Wimbledon to Sutton via the St Helier loop once in about the mid-1990s. It must have really struggled up the steep gradient nicknamed the "Wall of Death" between West Sutton and Sutton.

 

[43096]

Virgin XC used 2+2 HSTs to substitute for failed 158s on occasions. I bet those went!

And, the other way round, many years ago I was at Reading on a Saturday with one of Virgin's train planners when XC had various diversions. The Paddington-Manchester rolls in as a single 158. "Oh," he says, "that should have been a pair of 158s. It was all I had left!"

Speaking of "that went", I once had an ersatzzug in Austria for a heavily-delayed EuroCity from Germany that came in formed of a 3-car "city shuttle" push-pull set with a Taurus on the front. That was rapid...
EDIT: found the photo of it.

 

[AY1975]

I once had a phase 2 CIG between Ashford and Hastings. Hauled by what I assumed to be a class 47

According to this thread on Southern Region services worked by diesel-mechanical units (i.e. conventional first generation DMUs as opposed to DEMUs) at https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/trivia-southern-region-services-worked-by-dmmus.197694/ a Class 117 was borrowed for use on the Ashford-Hastings line for a time in the late 1980s or early 1990s. If you scroll down that thread you will find a couple of photos of it.

 

[185143]

Probably the return leg of the SRPS tour from Linlithgow to Lincoln on 4 December 2015:

See the bottom entry of this link:

http://www.srps.org.uk/railtours/archive/report15.htm

That's the one!

 

[yorksrob]

According to this thread on Southern Region services worked by diesel-mechanical units (i.e. conventional first generation DMUs as opposed to DEMUs) at https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/trivia-southern-region-services-worked-by-dmmus.197694/ a Class 117 was borrowed for use on the Ashford-Hastings line for a time in the late 1980s or early 1990s. If you scroll down that thread you will find a couple of photos of it.

That would have been novel, but I didn't manage to catch it on the route (not that I would have known it was on there, being pre-t'interweb).

The loco-hauled CIG was pure chance