mushroomchow
Member
When I was a kid, I used to get taken on holiday to Dawlish quite often, which I of course loved due to the railway on the sea wall.
This would have been around 2001-2002, and represents some of my earliest vivid memories of specific railway movements (as opposed to "wow, it's a train!" kind of reactions). I got quite good at working out when certain trains were due through, and specifically remember jumping out of the shower butt-naked to catch a view of the Torbay Express travelling north one evening.
Of course, a lot of the traffic is now gone, most notably the mail trains - something I'd never seen in Leicestershire and which I had little idea would be history a couple of years later. Loco-hauled diagrams were also still fairly commonplace, and though again something I didn't see back home, the 47-hauled Virgin XC trains didn't really stick in my mind, though on reflection a few did pass during walks to Dawlish Warren.
What I do distinctly remember, however, were the Virgin XC HSTs, which passed sporadically, operated by the buffer units now with Grand Central and Network Rail. At this point, I believe they were operating in the 5-car "challenger" rakes in line with the impending introduction of Voyagers. As well as thinking they were far cooler than the boring pea-green Midland Mainline units at work at home, I was witness to seemingly daily passages of the power cars, in tandems of 4 units, passing light engine.
I have no idea what the purpose of these movements was. Nor have I been able to pick out any evidence, video or photographic, to prove what I saw. But the units seemed to pass like clockwork every evening - I believe northwards - which I would guess had something to do with maintenance. What I don't understand is why this was done light engine, or where the maintenance took place.
I do also distinctly remember, on a trip through Newton Abbott to ride the Paignton and Dartmouth Railway, seeing the light engine consist parked in the siding with carriage rake absent.
So long story short - was I imagining this diagram? Did the VXC HSTs operate regular light-engine turns? If anybody has any photographs or videos of these movements they would be much appreciated. Or if it was just my impressionable young mind making things up every day for a week, do please say so.
This would have been around 2001-2002, and represents some of my earliest vivid memories of specific railway movements (as opposed to "wow, it's a train!" kind of reactions). I got quite good at working out when certain trains were due through, and specifically remember jumping out of the shower butt-naked to catch a view of the Torbay Express travelling north one evening.
Of course, a lot of the traffic is now gone, most notably the mail trains - something I'd never seen in Leicestershire and which I had little idea would be history a couple of years later. Loco-hauled diagrams were also still fairly commonplace, and though again something I didn't see back home, the 47-hauled Virgin XC trains didn't really stick in my mind, though on reflection a few did pass during walks to Dawlish Warren.
What I do distinctly remember, however, were the Virgin XC HSTs, which passed sporadically, operated by the buffer units now with Grand Central and Network Rail. At this point, I believe they were operating in the 5-car "challenger" rakes in line with the impending introduction of Voyagers. As well as thinking they were far cooler than the boring pea-green Midland Mainline units at work at home, I was witness to seemingly daily passages of the power cars, in tandems of 4 units, passing light engine.
I have no idea what the purpose of these movements was. Nor have I been able to pick out any evidence, video or photographic, to prove what I saw. But the units seemed to pass like clockwork every evening - I believe northwards - which I would guess had something to do with maintenance. What I don't understand is why this was done light engine, or where the maintenance took place.
I do also distinctly remember, on a trip through Newton Abbott to ride the Paignton and Dartmouth Railway, seeing the light engine consist parked in the siding with carriage rake absent.
So long story short - was I imagining this diagram? Did the VXC HSTs operate regular light-engine turns? If anybody has any photographs or videos of these movements they would be much appreciated. Or if it was just my impressionable young mind making things up every day for a week, do please say so.
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