Locos / Units In Strange Places

[RichmondCommu]

G'day everyone,

I've started this thread here because I'm not sure there are any really rare workings nowadays, rail tours or otherwise!

Sooo, can anyone beat this? I've seen a photograph of ex GWR railcar W14W at Tissington in Derbyshire in 1954 clearly a long way from home whilst on a rail tour. I'm assuming that W14W ran up to Buxton before returning home.

Any other entries?

Kind regards,

Richmond Commuter!

 

[Cowley]

One that I remember reading about but didn't actually see was when in 1984, 58002 piloted this HST to Plymouth. 58s were unheard of in Devon back then, let alone on a passenger train. They must have been pretty short of spare motive power that day .
Here it is racing through Dawlish Warren (not my photo unfortunately).

 

[gg1]

A pair of class 73s once hauled a Portsmouth to Manchester service as far as Birmingham New Street one day in 1982:

 

[Cowley]

Those 73s look so out of place.

Did an ex GWR Hall make it a long way north once on a relief before clonking a platform somewhere with a cylinder?

 

[Saltleyman]

One that I remember reading about but didn't actually see was when in 1984, 58002 piloted this HST to Plymouth. 58s were unheard of in Devon back then, let alone on a passenger train. They must have been pretty short of spare motive power that day .
Here it is racing through Dawlish Warren (not my photo unfortunately).

Nice photo sir, A Saltley crew worked it from B'ham New Street through to it's destination returning light diesel back to Saltley. Happy Days !

 

[Welshman]

A Class 124 "Trans-Pennine" unit made it to Blaenau Ffestiniog with an excursion from Leeds in 1968.

http://www.railcar.co.uk/type/class-124/operations

Scroll down for a photo of the unit at the old station in Blaenau, courtesy of Bob Lumb and the Railcar Association

 

[Merthyr Imp]

Did an ex GWR Hall make it a long way north once on a relief before clonking a platform somewhere with a cylinder?

Possibly what you're referring to, from this website:

http://www.railuk.info/members/steam/getsteam.php?row_id=3330

'Nottingham Victoria was the farthest north that Great Western locomotives ventured down the Great Central, except on rare occasions. One of these occasions took place on 15 August 1964 when engine No. 6858 Woolston Grange working the Poole to Bradford/Leeds train, and which normally would have come off at Leicester or Nottingham, managed due to an oversight by control, to reach Huddersfield. However, en route, it had hit the platform edge at Berry Brow station between Penistone and Huddersfield. The loco was quickly removed to Huddersfield shed where it languished well inside until it was towed to Crewe as an out of gauge load two weeks later.'

 

[Cowley]

Possibly what you're referring to, from this website:

http://www.railuk.info/members/steam/getsteam.php?row_id=3330

'Nottingham Victoria was the farthest north that Great Western locomotives ventured down the Great Central, except on rare occasions. One of these occasions took place on 15 August 1964 when engine No. 6858 Woolston Grange working the Poole to Bradford/Leeds train, and which normally would have come off at Leicester or Nottingham, managed due to an oversight by control, to reach Huddersfield. However, en route, it had hit the platform edge at Berry Brow station between Penistone and Huddersfield. The loco was quickly removed to Huddersfield shed where it languished well inside until it was towed to Crewe as an out of gauge load two weeks later.'

That's the one Merthyr Imp thanks for that.

 

[Cowley]

Nice photo sir, A Saltley crew worked it from B'ham New Street through to it's destination returning light diesel back to Saltley. Happy Days !

Brilliant. The loco must have only been about a year old at that point. You could understand one getting to Bristol for instance, but Plymouth? Wow.

 

[Merthyr Imp]

An A1 at Beeston must have been quite unusual - there's a photo here of 60138 heading west through there on a freight:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/railwaydave/2389350831

The photo is dated elsewhere as 1964.

 

[neilmc]

On 20/01/77, Western hydraulic D1013 worked all the way from Swansea to Leeds on a scheduled BR service train, just one month before withdrawal.

http://www.westernlocomotives.co.uk/d1013

In my trainspotting days in Leeds ten years earlier, we had always hoped for a hydraulic on the through trains from Cornwall, Devon or South Wales but none ever appeared, the best we ever get would be a named class 47 from the D1660-1677 range.

 

[Rover]

33046 worked through with 1E22 12.46 (FO) Portsmouth Harbour-Leeds on 7th June 1985 returning on the 21.30 (FO) Bradford-Weymouth from Leeds

No doubt a Saltley crew (Saltleyman to confirm )

 

[pdeaves]

I remember seeing a NSE-liveried class 50 at Birmingham New St that caused a lot of interest. I don't know how rare that was but it wasn't an 'all the time' thing like the 86s were.

 

[neilmc]

In 1981 I had just got a job in Blackburn but still had a house on Leeds so I commuted at the weekends. One Sunday evening I was rather surprised to see AC electric 86213 standing alongside Burnley Central station, especially as there are of course no overhead wires there!

Turns out it was being named "Lancashire Witch" and still has a charmed life in Bulgaria.

 

[gg1]

I remember seeing a NSE-liveried class 50 at Birmingham New St that caused a lot of interest. I don't know how rare that was but it wasn't an 'all the time' thing like the 86s were.

Unusual but not that rare, I remember seeing a few in my 'spotting days between 1987 and 91. The most unusual working I personally witnessed around that time was a class 33 hauling what I think was a 4TC set into New Street.

 

[Merthyr Imp]

Not in NSE livery, but here's one of 50011 in the 1980s. I think they used to work up from Paddington on the services via Oxford - I remember there used to be Paddington - Liverpool trains at one time and there would have been a changeover to an electric at New Street.

 

[87015]

Some skoda (039 maybe) went to Llandudno Jn after the VTWC Crewe shunter declined to take it off and the forward driver took it in train, someone eventually noticed and it was taken off at the Junction. Just a few weeks after VTWC had declared they'd never (and it was that sharp) use a seven again we got a farewell to 87013 working Crewe-Euston and return...

 

[curly42]

Not quite on the same scale as some of the others,but I worked into Paddington with a Class 150/2 one evening.If I recall correctly,it was a Cardiff to Waterloo service,diverted to Paddington for some reason,and the Cardiff driver didn't sign between Gloucester and Swindon,so I was booked to piot him.He was most pleased when he found out that I signed the road all the way.

 

[Mag_seven]

Not sure if this is far back enough to count as "history and nostalgia" but what about the Class 325 units being hauled up the West Highland Line. Probably the first (and last?) time an AC electric unit will ever work the WHL!

 

[Mag_seven]

Those 73s look so out of place.

Wh would have though that in 2017 we would see them working in Scotland!

 

[Cowley]

Wh would have though that in 2017 we would see them working in Scotland!

Well that's a good point .
Why did the 325s end up going on the West Highland line? I'd not heard of that before.

 

[sprinterguy]

Why did the 325s end up going on the West Highland line? I'd not heard of that before.

Took place in 2010 apparently, there was a short thread on it on here at the time, but it's news to me, too!
http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=30423

 

[sprinterguy]

Not in NSE livery, but here's one of 50011 in the 1980s.

The Ansells pub advertising Double Diamond in the background really sets the scene: We've come a long way from both class 50s and Ansells in the intervening years!

 

[Strathclyder]

Well that's a good point .
Why did the 325s end up going on the West Highland line? I'd not heard of that before.

Two 325s (325002 & 325008) were hauled up to Fort William Alcan from Polmadie by GBRf's 66728 in February 2010, before they (GBRf) took over the North Blyth Alcans from DB Schenker. The 325s were most likely used to replicate the weight of the wagons. Video link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKOqzSPqsc0

 

[Cowley]

Two 325s (325002 & 325008) were hauled up to Fort William Alcan from Polmadie by GBRf's 66728 in February 2010, before they (GBRf) took over the North Blyth Alcans from DB Schenker. The 325s were most likely used to replicate the weight of the wagons. Video linked below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKOqzSPqsc0

I just watched that, what a strange sight. Thanks Strathclyder.

 

[hairyhandedfool]

I remember seeing a NSE-liveried class 50 at Birmingham New St that caused a lot of interest. I don't know how rare that was but it wasn't an 'all the time' thing like the 86s were.

There used to be a weekly Cardiff-Glasgow double headed class 50 working back in 1986. Whether lasted long enough for any NSE livery examples to make it I'm not sure, 50007 (BR green) and 50045 (large logo blue) certainly did.

 

[RichmondCommu]

On the 21.5.89 a 'large logo' class 26 made it down the S & C on a short engineers train. Although I'm very happy to be corrected I doubt that many class 26's appeared south of Carlisle. For what its worth the loco sports a large looking Scottie dog and a "Railfreight" sticker on the cab side.

 

[Bevan Price]

On the 21.5.89 a 'large logo' class 26 made it down the S & C on a short engineers train. Although I'm very happy to be corrected I doubt that many class 26's appeared south of Carlisle. For what its worth the loco sports a large looking Scottie dog and a "Railfreight" sticker on the cab side.

I can't remember the date - possibly the 1980s, but 26s did sometimes reach Preston on a parcels service.

My own unusual observation was in the 1960s - a "Bubblecar" hauling a short engineering train, passed one sunday between Didcot & Reading.

 

[RichmondCommu]

I can't remember the date - possibly the 1980s, but 26s did sometimes reach Preston on a parcels service.

Many thanks for this I'm interested to know how long the train was heading back north and how heavy it was. No easy task for a type 2 climbing Shap I would have thought.

 

[pdeaves]

When 150001 was brand new I saw it in a siding at Luton. Obviously it was on a test working but the class didn't make a regular habit of going there in service!