Strap yourselves in - it's another long one from me:
Wednesday 14/06/78
47552 1620 Harrogate – Leeds
47200 1707 Leeds – York
47346 1733 York – Leeds
The latter two 47s were both haulage requirements.
Thursday 14/06/79
Having been stranded in Carstairs I had resorted to sheltering in the pub until:
85010 0041 Carstairs – Preston
It was my intention to alight at Carlisle, but in my beer-fuddled exhaustion I woke up at Lancaster, so decided to alight at Preston for no apparent reason. Tiredness and poor decision making go hand-in-hand. Eventually I managed a fill-in move to Crewe.
86244 0408 Preston – Crewe
86029 0737 Crewe – Preston
86024 0838 Preston – Carstairs
Not one of my better WCML overnights. 86024 was delayed on its journey to Carstairs by the failure of 86036 on a stone train on Shap. It was assisted clear to Hardendale by 20083 + 20124 on the front and 20027 on the rear! At Carstairs there was another cracker of an engine waiting to work forward to Edinburgh:
47702 1105 Carstairs – Edinburgh.
The previous 12 hours had been a total waste of time, all stemming from the forgotten tail lamp on the 2140 Edinburgh – Carstairs the previous evening, and my subsequent stranding (in the pub) at Carstairs. Let’s hope for an improvement:
26025 1247 Edinburgh – Perth via Ladybank
40069 1534 Perth – Glasgow Queen Street (My machine – that’s more like it!)
27202 + 27204 1710 Glasgow Queen Street – Edinburgh
40071 1900 Edinburgh – Arbroath
40018 2051 Arbroath – Perth
47466 2220 Perth – Mossend (and here’s hoping I don’t overdoss past Carlisle again …)
Saturday 14/06/80
40178 1354 York – Manchester Victoria
40033 1615 Manchester Victoria – Preston
DMU Preston – Blackpool
There were a couple of 40-hauled charters due out of Blackpool this evening, one to Bradford and one to Morley, both via Copy Pit. 40046 (required) had worked out on the Morley, and 40037 on the Bradford. Alas, Control played the joker card – 40047 was needed at Healey Mills for tyre turning, so they swapped (rare, required) 40046 for (common, boilered) 40047. I learned the tale from the driver, who invited the two of us to join him in the cab of 40047 through to Leeds. My mate needed 40037, so he stuck with that to Bradford, leaving me to enjoy a cab ride in 40047 over Copy Pit to Morley, then ECS to Neville Hill, and light engine back to Holbeck, dropping me off at Leeds station. From there I took a DMU to Bradford to catch up with my mate who’d had 40037 OK.
40047 1829 Blackpool North – Morley via Copy Pit
40047 ECS Morley – Neville Hill
40047 Light Engine Neville Hill – Leeds
DMU Leeds – Bradford
31406 2150 Bradford – Leeds
47520 2234 Leeds – York
Sunday 14/06/81
My Anglia Rover was still burning a hole in my pocket, and the Liv St – Cambridge line was closed again. I headed to Liverpool Street to get a 37 via the diversion (or not):
47158 1438 Liverpool Street – Finsbury Park via Carpenters Road, Channelsea, Canonbury
I alighted at Finsbury Park for a unit to Moorgate to cover the next service out in the hope of some improvement in the motive power…
47160 1638 Liverpool Street – Cambridge via Carpenters Road, Channelsea, Canonbury, Hitchin. Two hours later, two digits higher.
37034 1820 Cambridge – Finsbury Park via Hitchin
At last!
Tuesday 14/06/83
It’s the end of term, the exams are all over, and the schoolkids are coming to York by special trainload.
40022 1733 York – Preston via Wakefield Kirkgate, Healey Mills, Copy Pit. This was a return schools charter to Blackpool North.
DMU Preston – Manchester Victoria
47466 2125 Manchester Victoria – York
(Wednesday 13/06/84)
I was working late shift in Leeds Control when I heard of a class 31 having failed in the Sheffield area. The upshot of it was that 37090 was going to be turned out for the 2337 Sheffield – Manchester, the next working of which was the 0210 Manchester – Cleethorpes. Because of the change of traction, the resources controller checked that everybody involved in the diagram signed class 37s, and the answer was “Yes”. That settled it: I’m having a night out and getting some unusual track for a 37.
DMU 2148 Leeds – Sheffield
37090 2337 Sheffield – Manchester Piccadilly via New Mills, Romiley
Thursday 14/06/84
37090 0210 Manchester Piccadilly – Cleethorpes via Guide Bridge, Romiley, New Mills, Sheffield, Retford, Lincoln Central, Barnetby
This was the only time I ever did Lincoln to Barnetby loco hauled, and I’ve never been on the line since.
31405 0737 Cleethorpes – Doncaster
43041 + 43xxx 0922 Doncaster – York
Home for a quick wash and change then back to Leeds for a late shift!
Friday 14/06/85
A long weekend off work, and I had a pre-arranged Domestic Exit Visa so that I could head for Wales for a little dabble on the Cambrian. How to get there? Like this:
87021 0905 Glasgow Central – Carlisle
40122 1040 Carlisle – Leeds
40122 1605 Leeds – Carlisle
86230 1956 Carlisle – Preston
47192 2131 Preston – Manchester Victoria
At this time the Crewe remodelling / resignalling was in full flow, and the 0147 Crewe – Cardiff was amended to start from Stafford and run via the newly built Oxley Chord from Bushbury Jn direct towards Shrewsbury, the first time this line had a regular booked passenger service over it. Obviously I needed the track, so I planned to do it. The only question was which train I would take to Stafford to pick it up. As luck would have it, when I arrived at Manchester Piccadilly the stock for the 2217 to Paignton had not yet arrived. When it did, I was delighted to note a declassified BFK at the front, and 85015 dropping on.
85015 2217 Manchester Piccadilly – Kidsgrove – Stoke on Trent.
I got my head down and dossed, as we departed 50 minutes late. I awoke suddenly at Kidsgrove, aware of total silence. The 85 had burst, and coasted to a halt at Kidsgrove station, the driver carefully leaving space for an assisting loco to be attached on the front. Speaking to the driver after he returned from the signalbox, it was problems with the 85 which had delayed the train in the first place. We had passed an 81 on a parcels train just before Kidsgrove, so that was called upon to assist us from the rear. However before it could attach, a familiar whistling sound arrived on the branch platform from Crewe. It was 97408, alias 40118, one of the class 40s which had been reinstated for the Crewe remodelling scheme, to work ballast trains only, with a speed limit of 35 mph. Our driver rapidly concluded that being assisted from the front by the diesel was infinitely preferable to having the 81 assisting in rear, so plan B was hatched. That involved sending the guard back to tell the 81 driver we didn’t need him after all, and bolting 97408 onto the front of our train!
I expected the 97 to do all the work, but most surprisingly the 85 burst into life – although with a fair bit of popping, banging, flashing, and overloading, and the speed was soon up to over 70 mph on the descent into Stoke. (So much for the 35 mph speed limit on the 97!). There – alas – both engines came off, to be replaced by 86250, running 115’ late.
97408 23xx Kidsgrove – Stoke, in tandem with 85015
86250 2306 Stoke – Stafford
That was the only occasion I had one of the 97s for haulage, and was the last time that 40118 / 97408 worked a main line passenger train. 40118 is now preserved at Tyseley.
http://aureol.weebly.com/d318.html
Saturday 14/06/86
Another trip to the in-laws:
87018 0910 Glasgow Central – Euston
50025 1605 Paddington – Bristol Temple Meads
33062 1852 Bristol Temple Meads – Newport
DMU Newport – Abergavenny
Faster routes are available, so I am told, but this way is “more attractive” (to me at least).
Friday 14/06/91
Required Freightliner 90044 was on loan to the GE, so I had to have an after-work dabble:
90044 1935 Liverpool Street – Manningtree
86250 2123 Manningtree – Liverpool Street