Back in the day...

[barrowjack]

Off to Minehead for a week’s holiday, only time I had the 86 an the 47 for haulage

1420xx Barrow In Furness to Lancaster (Most of the time didnt bother recording unit numbers)
90016 Lancaster to Preston
86420 Preston to Birmingham New Street
47508 Birmingham New Street to Taunton

From Taunton a bus to Minehead, The West Somerset would have to wait for another day.....

 

[NorthWestRover]

Saturday 16th July 1983

Too many cans again...a little note in my book observing S53 with 86318 and P18 with 86250. Both were often 87s. And even so...

86320 WBQ to Crewe, 1A18 06.30 Carlisle to Euston (with the comment "Good God!!")
86205 Crewe to Runcorn, 1F11 07.40 Euston to Lime St (with the comment "They've all gone again!!")
86204 Runcorn to Crewe, 1A32 10.00 Lime St to Euston

Then it got a bit better...

87004 Crewe to Preston, 1S61 06.45 Paddington to Glasgow
87023 Preston to Crewe, 1M57 09.20 Glasgow to Birmingham
87017 Crewe to Preston, 1S39 07.50 Paignton to Glasgow
86230 Preston to Crewe, 1V18 13.20 Glasgow to Paddington
87019 Crewe to Preston, 1P70 14.40 Euston to Blackpool
86318 Preston to WBQ, 1M47 17.20 Glasgow to Birmingham

 

[CW2]

Monday 16/07/79
47534 1247 York – Manchester Victoria
Not my preferred choice of traction, but I was on my way to Manchester Victoria to start my summer job in the Travellers Fare station buffets at Manchester Victoria.

Wednesday 16/07/80
After a brief visit to meet my future in-laws, time to head home to London:
25042 1754 Abergavenny – Crewe
87020 2045 Crewe – Euston

Thursday 16/07/81
On my way through Kings Cross I spied the Royal Train, so hung around to watch HM The Queen depart behind 47574. Meanwhile, a loco of an entirely different calibre was waiting to depart:
40081 2300 Kings Cross – Doncaster
75 minutes late into Doncaster, late start following the Royal Train, then stopped at Hitchin due to activating a hot box detector (unlagged steam pipe was the cause of that one) and then a bridge strike for good measure. All this meant the usual prolonged fester at Doncaster was mercifully curtailed:
(Friday 17/07/81)
40160 04xx Doncaster – Kings Cross
This was load 12, so it was a bit of a totter, but I timed it at a maximum of 92 mph. I cleared it for 1,000 miles haulage on this trip. 25 minutes late into Kings Cross.

Saturday 16/07/83
On the strength of some gen that 40063 was allocated to the 0840 Manchester Victoria – Scarborough, I set off over the Pennines behind a rather unlovely Peak…
45059 0710 York – Stalybridge
… to be met by this …
25095 0854 Stalybridge – Leeds
Evidently this 25 was a last minute substitute for 40063. We arrived at Diggle Signal Box with the fire bells ringing loudly in the engine room. Rodentus Mechanicus Defectivus Est!
We spluttered sonorously on to Leeds, where – instead of a nice class 40 - 47314 was waiting to take the train forward:
47314 0950 Leeds – York
At this point, after a prolonged fester, things got slightly better …
40135 1331 York – Scarborough
40135 1500 Scarborough – Liverpool Lime Street
There seemed to be no other class 40s about at Liverpool, so I took the first available exit back to Manchester to cover the Bangor – York, just in case:
45065 1845 Liverpool Lime Street – Manchester Victoria
45017 1952 Manchester Victoria – Stalybridge
That was NOT what I wanted to see. Oh well, I’ll just have to retire to the excellent station bar and drown my sorrows for a while until 40135 inevitably turns up again on the last train home, the 2040 Liverpool – York:
47588 2139 Stalybridge – York
At that point I may have uttered some naughty words! It was one of those days when I’d have been far better off staying in bed!

Monday 16/07/84
After a weekend at home in York, it was time to return to my new job in Glasgow Control. This is how I got there:
31106 0804 York – Leeds
47291 0900 Leeds – Carlisle
85039 1205 Carlisle – Carstairs
I was about to carry on with the 85 into Glasgow when I saw the nose of a 37 backing on to the Edinburgh portion at the rear of the train:
37139 1303 Carstairs – Edinburgh
47703 1400 Edinburgh – Glasgow Queen Street
After taking my luggage to my bedsit, I returned to Glasgow Central and took a ride down to Ayrshire:
DMU Glasgow Central – Largs
37149 1940 Largs – Glasgow Central
I needed both the 37s, and also 47291, which was more used to MGR coal trains in Yorkshire than anything passenger-wise. It was also my first visit to Largs (having missed out on the many and various excursions from the Manchester area to Largs which would produce class 40s whenever I couldn’t go on them and Peaks or Duffs when I could).

 

[D6130]

Too many cans again..

Nothing from me today I'm afraid....but can you tell me how/why class 86s acquired that nickname?

 

[AJM580]

16/7/83

40129 Norwich - March
31145 March - Ipswich
47585 Ipswich - Norwich

Afternoon move on Yarmouth - Manchester.

 

[xotGD]

16th July 1983 - a Summer Saturday with limited funds:

47446 Sunderland - Newcastle 1N35 (Seriously? Good grief! What a waste of 5p.)
37045 Durham - Newcastle 1N13 (Now we are talking!)
40181 Durham - Newcastle 1E71 (Now we are whistling!)

But I did miss out on this:

Class37.co.uk

 

[NorthWestRover]

Sunday 17th July 1983

Oh, klaxon alert, it's a 40 for once... But first...

47561, WBQ to Chester, 1D35 09.50 Man Vic to Llandudno
40034 Chester to Rhyl, ADEX from Coventry
But, boo, return ADEX to Coventry
47352 Rhyl to Prestatyn - I think I just did this leap as it was required, then took a unit to Crewe on the 17.50 Llandudno to Stoke which did turn out a 40 quite often but not today.
87008 Crewe to WBQ, 1P79 18.05 Euston to Carlisle

Thursday 17th July 1986

31159 (required), Warrington C to Birchwood, 1E53 19.45 Lime St to Sheffield
Return Goyle Ned leap was caped (the word used in my book), so unit back.

Sunday 17th July 1988

Day out in London, two required hoovers. Nice.

50012 Oxford to Paddington, 09.45 off Oxford
50033 Paddington to Oxford, 19.10 off Padd

 

[NorthWestRover]

... And just about to have this - 68020 - from Liverpool Lime St to Manchester Vic...

 

[CW2]

Sunday 17/07/83
There had been some moves afoot to get a class 40 diagrammed to work an ADEX from Wellington to Whitby, and I had put in for annual leave to cover it. I’d even bought a ticket. So I was looking forward to my first visit to Whitby, when suddenly – several days before my planned trip – an alternative dropped into my lap. There was an ADEX running from Wellingborough to York and Whitby. It only seemed reasonable to recycle the seats vacated by those people alighting at York!
37215 1110 York – Whitby via Northallerton, Middlesbrough
37215 1730 Whitby – York
Back at York I was about to head home when I heard that 40131 was working over the Pennines:
45029 2034 York – Stalybridge
40131 2217 Stalybridge – York
Not many moves, but some top traction and excellent track.

Tuesday 17/07/84
The Summer Only 1059 Kings Cross – Dundee was worked by an ER 47/4 out of Kings Cross a far as Newcastle. There it was diagrammed to be re-engined by a Scottish class 47 sent light engine from Millerhill specifically for the purpose. After a couple of instances where York Control hijacked the Scottish 47 as soon as it reached Newcastle, and sent some knackered old rust-heap north in its place, the controllers in Glasgow started playing it canny, and only sending light engine to Newcastle those locos they knew wouldn’t get nicked. As a result, the 1059 Kings Cross – Dundee saw some splendid days out for slow speed class 26s, which were otherwise sitting spare at Millerhill.
On this day it all went a bit wrong. 26005 + 26006 had been sent light to Newcastle for the train, but 26005 shut down at Newcastle and couldn’t be restarted, so it was detached there. That meant 26006 had to work the train alone to Edinburgh (on load 9), where it was replaced by 26003 + 26004. I think this failure of 26005 and the consequential delays brought this unusual situation to the attention of those higher up the food chain, so a polite version of “Right, you’ve had your fun, now stop playing silly buffers” (or something close to that) was transmitted back down, and the practice of sending 26s light engine to Newcastle to re-engine passenger services ceased forthwith. Shame – fun while it lasted!.
47226 1715 Glasgow Queen Street – Edinburgh
26004 + 26003 1803 Edinburgh – Dundee (1059 ex Kings Cross)
47407 2025 Dundee – Glasgow Queen Street



26006 arrives at Edinburgh Waverley with the 1059 from Kings Cross, which it had worked solo from Newcastle. 26003 and 26004 wait to re-engine the train and work forward to Dundee. 17/07/84.

Thursday 17/07/86
37034 1545 Glasgow Central – Annan
47483 1815 Annan – Glasgow Central

Friday 17/07/87
Travelling from Crewe to Plymouth to visit my parents, there’s the direct route, and then there’s the route with preferred traction (for two legs at least):
47538 1501 Crewe – Birmingham New Street
50004 1700 Birmingham New Street – Reading via Coventry
50012 1938 Reading – Plymouth

 

[xotGD]

17th July 1984

While I missed out on a 26 out of Newcastle, there was other entertainment to be had in the north east. A combination of lousy DMU availability and spare 37s sat on Gateshead resulted in plenty of Syphon-hauled locals over the summer months. Today was the first of three identical evening moves this week to get different 37s:

37200 Hexham - Newcastle 2E48

Class37.co.uk

17th July 1987

Three years later, and it was still possible to get a 37 on a DMU replacement turn, although 47s were the norm by then:

37252 Heworth - Newcastle 2B12

 

[NorthWestRover]

Nothing from me today I'm afraid....but can you tell me how/why class 86s acquired that nickname?

I don't know. Because we wanted them made into cans?

 

[NorthWestRover]

Monday 18th July 1983

Up and down day until the penultimate move...

86251 WBQ to Wigan, 1P16 06.25 Birmingham to Lancaster
87008 Wigan to Crewe, 1A18 06.30 Carlisle to Euston
87003 Crewe to Preston, 1S53 08.07 Birmingham to Glasgow
86251 Preston to WBQ, 1A35 09.34 Blackpool to Euston
86220 WBQ to Preston, 1P18 08.35 Euston to Blackpool
86247 Preston to Crewe, 1M20 11.10 Glasgow to Euston
33015 Stock shunt, lol
87035 Crewe to Lancaster, 1P63 14.00 Euston to Carlisle
87003 Lancaster to Preston, 1M87 15.20 Glasgow to Nottingham
40063 Preston to Lime St, 1M22 16.20 Glasgow to Lime St - good old M22 produced AND it was a required 40.
Unit home

Friday 18th July 1986

31459 Warrington C to Birchwood, 1E53 19.45 Lime St to Sheffield
31422 Birchwood to Warrington C, 1M61 19.22 Sheffield to Lime St

 

[CW2]

Monday 18/07/83
A tidy little after-work move:
40197 1950 York – Scarborough
40197 2115 Scarborough – York

Wednesday 18/07/84
After an 0700 – 1500 shift, I had time to pick up a required 37, in the form of 37171:
47712 1500 Glasgow Queen Street – Edinburgh
37171 1610 Edinburgh – Carstairs
This made a minus connection at Carstairs into:
86322 1633 Carstairs – Glasgow Central (0717 ex Harwich Parkeston Quay)
Walk Glasgow Central – Queen Street
An evening trip up the West Highland Line in the height of summer:
37037 1820 Glasgow Queen Street – Ardlui
37112 1959 Ardlui – Glasgow Queen Street

Thursday 18/07/85
There’s a required 37 out on the G&SW, with the added attraction of a 26 for the return journey:
37200 1545 Glasgow Central – Annan
26027 1800 Annan – Glasgow Central

Saturday 18/07/98
47826 0450 Reading – Birmingham New Street via Coventry
An uncommonly early start from home, for an unusual day out:
55022 0700 Birmingham New Street – Margate via Nuneaton, WCML, Kensington Olympia, Factory Jn, Chatham
55022 1138 Margate – Reading via Chatham, Factory Jn, Kensington Olympia, South West Sidings, Acton Wells
This was the “regular” Deltic-hauled summer Saturday Birmingham – Ramsgate, but we only got as far as Margate due to late running, caused by the planned diversion via Nuneaton. The rolling stock was mostly Mk 2e and 2f, which were not compatible with the Deltic’s power control system (like Mk 2d) so on the low-speed sections round south London the air con was constantly switching on and off.

 

[xotGD]

18th July 1984

After the previous day's Hexham move for 37200, it's deja vu time:

37069 Hexham - Newcastle 2E48

IIRC, 'The Rocking Horse' in Hexham provided a suitable venue for the fester.

 

[NorthWestRover]

Saturday 19th July 1980

Still spotting at this time, so this week-long Manchester Runabout ticket is not full of haulage highlights. This first day is not a bad start though. As I've done on other pre-bashing trips, I've included locos spotted as I know some people like to see that in a nostalgic sort of way.

Warrington Bank Quay spotted 86329, 86013, 87005, 47089, 08356, 25156

40121 Warrington BQ to Llandudno Junction, 1M48. Told you it was a good start.

Spotted en route were 08665, 40108, 47448, all at Chester.

40112 Llandudno Junction to Chester, 1J30 The Bangor (my first time on it).

Spotted at Llandudno Junction were 40027 and 40193. En route were 47537 (Colwyn Bay), 25217 (Abergele & Pensarn), 40106 (woo, at Rhyl), 40023 (at Prestatyn), 40141, 40177, 40180 (at Chester).

I took a 2-car unit via Altrincham to Manchester Oxford Road (6268/0985). Stabled at Northwich shed were 25103, 25104, 25191, 40166 and 2 x UID 25, 1 x UID 40. Once at Altrincham, started to pass lots of 304 EMUs. I hopped on 304021 for the short trip to Piccadilly. No time for bouncing!

Spotted at Piccadilly were 45021,86228, 85040, 86003 and lots of units. Walked to Victoria where alongside loads of units I spotted 25211, 08676, 40174, 47519, 40112, 40179, 47202, 47009, 40033, 40121, 45006.

47443 Manchester Victoria to Preston, 1S73

Spotted 08475 at Bolton

At Preston spotted 83011, 81003, 86039, 85010, 86035, 25146, 86248, 86235, 85018, 47437, 08925, 83001, 87015, 40033, 86240, 47426, 85018, 40023, 87020.

87023 Preston to Wigan NW, 1M29
47437 Wigan NW to Liverpool Lime Street, 1M29

Passing Wigan Springs Branch I spotted 25071, 25258, 25322, 47190, 40131, 08284.

47444 passed us on a northbound passenger working

08213 was at Edge Hill and 47430, 86258, 08885 were all at Lime St. Onto the Underground where I took 503 EMU (28676/29706/29275) to Central and swapped onto the Northern Line for 507004 to Sandhills where I changed to 507026 to Kirkdale before returning on 507011 to Moorfields and then 503 EMU (29271/28672/29702) back to Lime St. Two car unit back to Warrington Central having spotted 85028, 81001, 86246 at Lime Street and 85039 plus oodles of units at Allerton.

Monday 19th July 1982

Two years later and my focus had changed. The strikes were over and so I was back to the serious issue of 40 bashing for a week or so before a family wedding and family holiday got in the way.

40020 Warrington BQ to Man Vic, 1J30 11.57 Bangor to Man Vic "The Bangor"
40180 Man Vic to Barrow, 1P27 15.13 off Man Vic
40180 Barrow to Lime St, 1F32 18.30 off Barrow
Unit back to Warrington.

Good to be back and a nice return after the enforced absence.

Tuesday 19th July 1983

Whereas a year later, it was back to the 87s.

86314 WBQ to Wigan, 1P16 06.25 Birmingham to Lancaster
87035 Wigan to Crewe, 1A18 06.30 Carlisle to Euston
86245 Crewe to Runcorn, 1F11 07.40 Euston to Lime St
87005 Runcorn to Crewe, 1A32 10.00 Lime St to Euston
87019 Crewe to Preston, 1P18 08.35 Euston to Blackpool
87030 Preston to Crewe, 1M57 09.20 Glasgow to Birmingham
86256 Crewe to Lime St, 1F22 12.00 Euston to Lime St
86208 Lime St to Crewe, 1O23 15.20 Lime St to Poole
87010 Crewe to Wigan, 1P63 14.00 Euston to Carlisle
86102 Wigan to Warrington BQ, 1K32 15.25 Barrow to Crewe

Saturday 19th July 1986

And then in 1986 back on the Goyles...

31282/31464 Warrington C to Birchwood, 1E85 10.45 Lime St to Yarmouth
31422 Birchwood to Warrington C, 1M32 10.22 Sheffield to Lime St
Bus??
31461 Birchwood to Warrington C, 1M33 12.18 Cleethorpes to Lime St
31448 Warrington C to Oxford Road, 1E64 18.45 Lime St to Cleethorpes
Unit home to Padgate

282 and 461 were required.

 

[CW2]

Saturday 19/07/80
My summer job pushing a trolley around for Travellers Fare came good today:
86236 1025 Euston – Crewe
Here I prepared to alight to top up my urns, in anticipation of a class 47 backing on. Instead, I found a pressing need to stay on the train regardless:
40177 (required!) 1242 Crewe – Rhyl
40121 1415 Rhyl – Chester
After a quick trip into Chester buffet to top up with hot water, more class 40 mileage:
40035 1540 Chester – Rhyl
40177 1638 Rhyl – Crewe (I’m back on diagram again - rare!)
86236 1809 Crewe – Euston

Tuesday 19/07/83
5305 1858 York – York via Leeds, Harrogate “Scarborough Spa Express”
47447 2234 York – Shrewsbury via Stalybridge, Guide Bridge, Stockport, Crewe
I travelled fairly often on the York – Shrewsbury, known as the “Bangor Mails” in previous years, particularly when it was an out-and-back working to Stockport, which often produced a class 40. Nowadays it is a through ETH 47 to Shrewsbury, and this was the only occasion on which I did the train throughout.

Friday 19/07/85
Another afternoon trip with a required 37 to Annan, this time with a required 25 on the return:
37103 1545 Glasgow Central – Annan
25089 1800 Annan – Glasgow Central
The 25 was already 10 minutes late at Annan, and performed quite poorly, arriving 33 minutes late into Glasgow Central.

 

[xotGD]

19th July 1986 - a day that started well then.....

37092 Newcastle - York 1E90 (Glasgow - Scarbados relief)
45128 York - Newcastle 1E08
47610 Newcastle - Darlo 1M32
47402 Darlo - Newcastle 1E63

 

[barrowjack]

19/07/1986
For some unknown reason on a summer Saturday, a visit to Carlisle Upperby Depot open day. Somehow now I think the day could have been better spent.

108xxx Barrow In Furness - Lancaster
87003 Lancaster - Preston
87027 Preston - Carlisle
54247 / 53964 Carlisle - Upperby Depot (Green 108)
53964 / 54247 Upperby Depot - Carlisle
81013 Carlisle - Preston (Only highlight of the day!)
86412 Preston - Lancaster
108xxx Lancaster - Barrow In Furness

19/07/1989
Might be a day out either way on this one as no longer have my ticket and haven’t recorded the date. However a great return trip on he West Somerset Railway with “Evening Star” seen departing on its next journey in the pic. Also had 6412 here in 1987 and one (or maybe both?) of the Park Royal units in 1982.

92220 Minehead - Bishop's Lydeard
92200 Bishop's Lydeard - Minehead

 

[xotGD]

19/07/1986
For some unknown reason on a summer Saturday, a visit to Carlisle Upperby Depot open day. Somehow now I think the day could have been better spent.

You could have spent the day bashing 31s with @NorthWestRover !

 

[barrowjack]

You could have spent the day bashing 31s with @NorthWestRover !

Would have been time better spent than what I did! Shameful

 

[CW2]

Sunday 20/07/80
Back on the Train Trolley, this time I had to stick to my booked departure from Euston at 0855, as my trip on the 0835 (getting the class 40 from Crewe) the previous week had not gone unnoticed.
86247 0855 Euston – Stafford
47112 1113 Stafford – Crewe (+ 86247 dead)
47443 1149 Crewe - Chester
That’s enough Duff mileage, thank you. Time to re-charge the urns …
40112 1314 Chester – Llanfairfechan
40170 1518 Llanfairfechan – Rhyl
Here things went slightly off-piste. Rather than wait for my booked return train, the 1553 Holyhead – Euston, my attention was drawn to the fact that 40023 had worked a Mystex from Nuneaton to Rhyl that morning, and was standing at Rhyl waiting to work back all the way to Nuneaton. I decided that the hungry day trippers on the Rhyl – Nuneaton Mystex could probably benefit from the presence of a catering trolley on their train …
40023 1655 Rhyl – Nuneaton
On arrival at Nuneaton the stock was going ECS back to Crewe. Some “passengers” who had been (ahem) “overcarried” from Crewe asked the station supervisor if they could travel back to Crewe on the stock. A phone call was made, and an additional Nuneaton – Crewe was authorised. It also had a buffet trolley!
40023 1938 Nuneaton – Crewe
After Stafford we slowly overhauled 86233 which was on a passenger train on the Down Slow adhering to the 75 mph speed limit, whilst we slogged noisily by on the Down Fast at 82 mph. All good fun, but I’m now in Crewe when I should be in Euston, and the last southbound service of the night has gone. I’ll have to improvise …
87004 2221 Crewe – Manchester Piccadilly
I pushed the tea trolley through the streets of Manchester to Manchester Victoria:
(Monday 21st July 1980)
The 0055 Manchester Victoria – York ran as a passenger service on Mondays Only, the remainder of the week it was solely a newspaper train. It was booked for a class 40:
47214 0055 Manchester Victoria – Leeds (not quite what I had in mind)
31188 0218 Leeds – York
47272 0338 York – Kings Cross
The ECML overnight service also benefitted from a tea trolley, much to the bemusement and delight of the passengers. After that, it was only a question of pushing the trolley along the Euston Road and depositing it in Euston station before the boss arrived, then going home for a good long sleep! (I didn’t claim any overtime, but there was a small percentage commission paid, so that certainly helped).

Wednesday 20/07/83 “The Wellington – Whitby”
The Wolverhampton Area Manager had organised a midweek ADEX from Wellington to York and Whitby, which prompted a lot of speculation as to what the traction would be. The default would be a class 47 unless some reason could be found for it not to be. I had a quiet word with the person doing the timing and diagramming for these specials on the Eastern Region. I suggested to him that he might request his counterpart at Crewe (who was already a party to this cunning wheeze) to specify a class 40 for the train, as the 40’s longer fuel range would mean it wouldn’t have to run light engine back to Thornaby to take fuel, and therefore save a path on the single line to Whitby. “Hmm, yes, that’s a good reason” was his reply. So, with this little helpful priming, the tickets on the midweek ADEX quickly sold out. (The train was limited to 8 vehicles because of the length of the loop at Battersby where the loco had to run round).
47485 0650 Shrewsbury – Wellington
40131 0740 Wellington – Whitby, via Wolverhampton, Perry Barr, Soho, Birmingham New Street, then main line to Northallerton, and Middlesbrough.
40131 1715 Whitby – Derby
… and time to go home:
43186 + 43xxx 2157 Derby – York

Friday 20/07/84
After a late shift Friday, and with Saturday off, I decided to chance my luck with another trip to Stranraer. This is how it started:
47708 2200 Glasgow Queen Street – Edinburgh
26005 2315 Edinburgh – Carstairs (to Paignton)
(Continued tomorrow)

Thursday 20/07/89
On my way home to Crewe from a railtour in Poland, I travelled back overnight from Hoek van Holland on the St Nicholas to Harwich:
86215 0745 Harwich Parkeston Quay – Liverpool Street
90004 0945 Euston – Crewe
Whilst I had been arriving at Harwich, a Llandudno to Manchester DMU had derailed at Warrington, blocking the route, and triggering dragging diversions via Manchester. I had to have a little dabble:
31237 + 31445 (load 13 + 87032 dead) 1235 Crewe – Wigan North Western via Manchester Piccadilly, Bolton
31123 (load 10 + 86251 dead) 1457 Wigan North Western – Crewe via Bolton, Manchester Piccadilly
I needed all three of the class 31s.

 

[NorthWestRover]

Sunday 20th July 1980

Day 2 of my Manchester Runabout ticket.

Spotted at Warrington BQ were 86013 and 25156 before I hopped on a unit to Preston. Spotted 47562 dragging 86245 on 1A10 at Golborne Junction, then 40181, 47190, 08304, 47366, 47377, 40131, 08126, 08284 at Springs Branch, 08815 at Wigan NW, 08624, 40033, 40154 at Euxton Junction.

Spent some time spotting at Preston where I saw 83013, 86320, 85010, 85016, 25167, 47451 dragging 86211 on 1S46, 47009 dragging 87030 on 1S41, 47202 on an ADEX to Morecambe (11 x Mk1s). Took another unit from Preston to Man Vic passing 40024 at Bolton.

First loco haulage of the day...

47422 Man Vic to Lime St on 1M67 passing 47549 on the way out of Vic. Excitement at Olive Mount Junction where we passed LMS Jubilee Class 5690 "Leader". Then at Edge Hill we saw 86246 and 85024. Arriving in Lime St we saw 25325 and 40092.

47409 Lime St to Man Vic, 1E27

Passed 25198 at Edge Hill and spent an hour spotting at Victoria where I saw 47451, 45016 (cop), 25290, 40024, 47457, 47214, 40057.

47451 Man Vic to Preston, 1S73

Leander appeared on an 11 coach special (1T15) and also saw 47431.

87013 Preston to Lancaster, 1S73

Ladywell sidings held 47453, 47112, 86246, 25192.

At Lancaster we saw 86254, 47202 on the return ADEX, 87101 (woo), 86211 before...

85016 dragging an unfortunately dead 83013, Lancaster to WBQ, 1K19. I only had 4 83s, not including 013 but did have 85016 again. Ah well.

Spotted 86010, 47410, 47528 at Preston, 86240 at North Western, 25300, 25146 at Springs Branch and home.

Tuesday 20th July 1982

Whistling away...

40194 WBQ to Man Vic, 1J10 07.09 off Bangor
Fill in moves...
45046 Man Vic to Stalybridge, 1E93 09.95 Lime St to Scarborough
47427 Stalybridge to Man Vic, 1M62 07.45 Scarborough to Lime St
40194 Man Vic to Prestatyn, 1D29 10.45 to Holyhead
40020 Prestatyn to WBQ, 1J30 11.57 Bangor to Man Vic "The Bangor"
40124 WBQ to Llandudno Junc, 1D57 13.45 Man Vic to Bangor
40194 Llandudno Junc to Man Vic, 1J53 15.17 off Holyhead
45109 Man Vic to Lime St, 1M77 16.00 off Scarborough
Unit home.

Nice day with 281 miles behind 40s.

Wednesday 20th July 1983

Day on the electrics...lots of long runs. 508 miles in total.

86328 (required!) WBQ to Preston, 1S53 08.07 Birmingham to Glasgow
87035 Preston to Oxenholme, 1S49 07.27 Nottingham to Glasgow
87018 Oxenholme to Crewe, 1M57 09.20 Glasgow to Birmingham
87008 Crewe to Oxenholme, 1S39 07.35 Plymouth to Glasgow
85018 Oxenholme to Crewe, 1M06 10.38 Stranraer to Euston
86221 Crewe to Lancaster, 1P25 15.45 Euston to Carlisle
87035 Lancaster to Crewe, 1M52 17.10 Glasgow to Euston
86324 Crewe to WBQ, 1P49 19.15 Euston to Carlisle

 

[xotGD]

20th July 1984 - another trip to Hexham for the evening Type 3:

37196 Hexham - Newcastle 2E48

(This working is missing from the Class37 gen site)

20th July 1985 - it's Saturday again...

47473 Newcastle - Darlo 1M73
37115 Darlo - Newcastle 1N35
47455 Newcastle - Durham 1M76
47277 Durham - Newcastle 1E71

20th July 1999 - a day doing electrics on a North East Rover

91023/01/03/21/11/05/24 all sampled, plus:

90036 Wakefield Retford & Wakefield - Leeds
89001 Leeds - Retford

I'd first had the 89 back in 1988 when it was working the Peterborough commuter turn out of KX

 

[Tryfan]

@CW2 love the stories of pushing the trolley through Manchester and London….hilarious and 10/10 for ingenuity.

No wonder you racked up all those unusual moves and I dare say without the need of a ticket

 

[CW2]

@CW2 love the stories of pushing the trolley through Manchester and London….hilarious and 10/10 for ingenuity.

No wonder you racked up all those unusual moves and I dare say without the need of a ticket

Oh I had a ticket all right, stapled to my stock list. Unfortunately it would say something unhelpful like "Euston to Holyhead and return". A certain amount of brass neck and ingenuity was called for, along with dispensing the occasional free tea to a guard!

 

[NorthWestRover]

Monday 21st July 1980

Day 3 of Manchester Runabout...

85037 WBQ to Preston, 1P16

Springs Branch - 08355, 40181, 25060, 25071, 47377
Wigan NW - 47445
Preston - 87020, 86240, 86320, 40035, 47528, 87020, 86322, 86213, 47112, 08624, 40171

86221 Preston to Lancaster, 1S45

Lancaster - 25199, 47437, 87030, 87020

47532 Lancaster to Barrow

Carnforth - 25322

2-car unit, Barrow to Ravenglass

Park South - 47543

Ravenglass - various mini-kettles, 47562, 40175

2-car unit, Ravenglass to Lancaster

Carnforth - 40017, 40132, 25284, 925 "Lord Nelson", 4498 "Sir Nigel Gresley"
Lancaster - 86215, 40132, 86209, 85005

2-car unit, Lancaster to Oxenholme

Carnforth - 85001

4-car unit, Oxenholme to Windermere and back to Lancaster

86204, Lancaster to Preston, 1M40

Preston - 47453, 87017, 40100, 47455, 87002, 86031, 86207, 25199, 47347, 87003, 08624

87028, Preston to WBQ, 1M47

Farington Jct - 81008
Springs Branch - 08423, 08130, 47355
Bank Quay - 81012 and double heading 1J40 were 40079 and 40023 (!!!)

Wednesday 21st July 1982

The first of two near identical consecutive days, with the same six 40 moves on each day with just a cool fill in move tomorrow to differentiate.

40194 WBQ to Man Vic, 1J10 07.09 off Bangor
40155 Man Vic to Blackpool, 1P10 09.45 off Man Vic
Unit to Poulton and back
40001 Blackpool to Preston, 1A55 12.33 to Euston and four minutes behind...
40155 Preston to Man Vic, 2J64 12.37 off Blackpool
40126 Man Vic to Barrow, 1P27 15.13 off Man Vic
40126 Barrow to Preston, 1F32 18.30 to Lime St
86224 Preston to WBQ, 1M47 17.50 Glasgow to Birmingham

Nice day...

Thursday 21st July 1983

...and a year later, it was back to electrics, mainly 87s...

86218 WBQ to Wigan, 1P16 06.25 Birmingham to Lancaster
47543 (required) Wigan to Preston, 1S45 07.41 Lime St to Edinburgh
08846 on stock shunt
87032 Preston to Lancaster, 1S45
87029 Lancaster to Crewe, 1M33 07.20 Glasgow to Birmingham
87002 Crewe to Preston, 1S61 06.45 Paddington to Glasgow
87015 Preston to Crewe, 1M57 09.20 Glasgow to Birmingham
86220 Crewe to WBQ, 1P62 10.40 Euston to Blackpool
86229 WBQ to Crewe, 1A57 12.59 Blackpool to Euston
87029 Crewe to Preston, 1S71 14.05 Birmingham to Glasgow
86206 Preston to Crewe, 1V18 13.20 Glasgow to Paddington
87015 Crewe to Preston, 1S87 18.00 Birmingham to Glasgow
87016 Preston to Crewe, 1M47 17.20 Glasgow to Birmingham
86248 Crewe to WBQ, 1P79 18.05 Euston to Blackpool

Zing....

 

[CW2]

Saturday 21/07/79
The downside of getting a job working in the station buffet in Manchester Victoria was that I would have to spend most of my Summer Saturdays at work during prime 40-bashing season. The upside was I was in pole position to see all the comings and goings. After an early shift, it was time to go and scoop up some 40s:
40073 1635 Manchester Victoria -Preston
47540 1817 Preston – Manchester Victoria
DMU Manchester Victoria – Warrington Bank Quay
40107 2024 Warrington Bank Quay – Earlestown
40125 2150 Earlestown – Manchester Victoria
DMU Manchester Victoria – Preston
… and off to Preston to cover the overnight dragging …

Wednesday 21/07/82
86217 1255 Euston – Crewe
47503 1524 Crewe – Prestatyn
40194 1636 Prestatyn – Flint
40180 1707 Flint – Bangor
40180 1925 Bangor – Chester
47474 2148 Chester – Holyhead
Why let 40180 go and take a 47 into Holyhead? Because there is a relief Holyhead – Euston running, booked for a 40:
(Thursday 22/07/82)
40104 0100 Holyhead – Crewe
81013 0330 Crewe – Euston … and straight into work.

Saturday 21/07/84
85023 0005 Carstairs – Carlisle
At long last, the 2045 Euston to Inverness and Stranraer produced a 40 on the Stranraer portion:
40160 0125 Carlisle – Stranraer via Kilmarnock
Despite only being a “portion”, this was load 9, which was plenty to make the 40 work hard south of Girvan. On arrival at Stranraer the stock was due to go ECS back to Carlisle. There was a feeling amongst the bashers that it would be very convenient if we could travel on the ECS. Just then, two very tired and bleary-eyed teenaged French girls on Interrail tickets approached me and uttered the immortal words “Is this where we change for Inverness?” (They’d obviously travelled in the wrong portion, not realising the train split at Carlisle). First, I got out a passenger network map to explain (in my best schoolboy French) where they were, and next I helpfully escorted them to the station supervisor’s office. There, phone calls were made to Control, and the ECS to Carlisle was arranged to run class 1 throughout, to assist those passengers who weren’t where they wanted to be. That included a couple of sleepy French tourists - and a significantly larger number of bashers who enjoyed the delights of a class 40 daylight run over the Stranraer road and all the way back to Carlisle!
However, that wasn’t the end of matters. Allocated to the Blackpool – Stranraer was the biggest 37 of them all, 37292. This was the loco which was experimentally uprated to 2000 hp, usually to be found working heavy freight trains in South Wales. I’d never had it, and now it was falling into my lap on a train all the way from Carlisle back to Stranraer:
37292 1200 Carlisle – Stranraer
Just to finish me off entirely, there was another required 37 out on the Glasgow – Stranraer circuit, which I connected directly into at Stranraer:
37155 1835 Stranraer – Glasgow Central
An absolutely top day on the Stranraer line.

Sunday 21/07/85
One year on, and Stranraer features again for a Sunday afternoon jaunt:
37017 1505 Glasgow Central – Stranraer
37017 1830 Stranraer – Paisley Gilmour Street
EMU to Gourock

Tuesday 21/07/87
I had stayed overnight in Plymouth and was meeting the Exeter AYM to carry out an audit of the Ellesmere Port bitumen traffic in Exeter Basin and Yard.
43020 + 43191 0753 Plymouth – Newton Abbot
50027 0837 Newton Abbot – Exeter St Davids
The audit and discussions only took a couple of hours, so I was looking for a way to get me back to Crewe. I was a little surprised to see a pair of 33s being lined up for passenger work, and enquired further. It seems there was no class 50 for the 1105 to Portsmouth Harbour, so it was double 33s instead. That’ll do nicely.
33026 + 33008 1105 Exeter St Davids – Portsmouth Harbour via Salisbury, Southampton
33008 + 33026 1530 Portsmouth Harbour – Waterloo via Guildford, Woking
86103 1740 Euston – Stafford (I could never resist an 86/1)
87015 2008 Stafford – Crewe

Wednesday 21/07/99
An after-work leap to pick up a required 90 working on the ECML:
91011 1730 Kings Cross – Peterborough
90036 1833 Peterborough – Kings Cross
The 90 wasn’t hanging around. It did Peterborough – Stevenage in 29 mins 17 secs, and Stevenage – Kings Cross in 19 mins 30 secs, Start to Stop in both cases.
Incidentally, 90036 is one of two class 90s that I’ve had at three different London termini on service trains; Euston, Kings Cross, and Liverpool Street in the case of 90036, and Euston, Kings Cross, and St Pancras with 90022.

 

[NorthWestRover]

Our different 1982s show how good it was then for 40 bashing.

 

[xotGD]

21st July 1984 - another summer Saturday in the North East:

37079 Sunderland - Newcastle 1N35
37064 Newcastle - Chathill 1S15 (Thank you Gateshead for chucking this out!)
47210 Chathill - Newcastle 1E19

That's all from me today.

 

[NorthWestRover]

Tuesday 22nd July 1980

Day 4 of Manchester Runabout

5-car unit WBQ to Man Vic

WBQ - 86015, 83014, 25258, 25300, 86255
Eccles - 47408
Man Vic - 47455, 47410, 40031

47451 Man Vic to Preston, 1P26

Salford - 40057
Bolton - 08084, 25036
Preston - 86204, 25290, 86258, 87010, 81012, 47532, 47426, 86258, 08925, 86240, 47550, 08624, 40009, 81022, 86223, 85015

47451 Preston to Blackpool N, 1P14

Blackpool - 47455, 08744, 40011, 45048

3-car unit Blackpool N to Kirkham & Wesham

Poulton - 40097, 47426

2-car unit, Kirkham to Blackpool South and back
47451 (third time!!) Kirkham to Preston, 1A55

Preston - 25186, 86103, 85020, 81012

86250 Preston to Lancaster, 1S39

Lancaster - 25322, 81022, 87032

Then a number of units from Lancaster to Carnforth, Carnforth to Morecambe, Morecambe to Lancaster

Carnforth - 40175, 81014, 86227
Carnforth Steamtown - 1000, 4472, 44932, 44871, 45407, 6201, 6441. I know 4472 is Flying Scotsman, the rest I haven't a scooby.

86218 Lancaster to Wigan NW, 1M54

Lancaster - 87028
Preston - 85020, 86254, 82007 (woo)
Wigan NW - 85014, 85018, 87033, 86014, 47448

2-car unit Wigan to Lime St (via St Helens Shaw Street, as Central was then called).

Springs Branch - 25296, 25060, 25047, 08273, 47377
Ince Moss Tip - 08355
St Helens Shaw St - 08304
Prescot - 47562
Roby - 40149
Lime St - 87001, 47408, 47448

47528 Lime St to Man Vic, 1E93

Walked to Picc

Piccadilly - 87005, 86223

304009 Picc to Oxford Road

Oxford Road - 85033, 47452, 83008

2-car unit Oxford Road to Padgate

Glazebrook - 08463

Thursday 22nd July 1982

And a repeat of the previous day's moves...

40194 as it was on 21st, WBQ to Man Vic, 1J10 07.09 off Bangor
40124 Man Vic to Blackpool, 1P10 09.45 off Vic
Same unit fill in to Poulton and back
40155 (four minutes earlier than on 21st) Blackpool to Preston, 1A55 12.33 to Euston
40124 Preston to Man Vic, 2J64 12.37 off Blackpool
Then a cool move to Bury and back on a class 504 EMU
40181 Man Vic to Barrow, 1P27 15.13 off Vic
40181 Barrow to Preston, 1F32 18.30 to Lime St
87018 Preston to WBQ, 1M47 17.50 Glasgow to Birmingham

Another great day behind 40s in 1982 and more to come tomorrow with a change of scenery (well, a little).

Tuesday 22nd July 1986

Evening Ned leaps...

31448 Warrington C to Birchwood, 1E53 19.45 Lime St to Sheffield
47463 Birchwood to Warrington C, 1M61 19.22 Sheffield to Lime St

Duff was required. And rare to get a Duff on these services.