Pictures of short trains with MK2 D/E/F coaches

[montyburns56]

My thread about class 31s with MK 2 D/E/F coaches has led me down a rabbit hole of pictures of short trains with MK2 D/E/F  coaches on Flickr and I thought I'd just start a thread as they might be inspirational for others. Feel free to add your own or other's pictures but a few ground rules.

 

Don't talk about Air Con Club

They must be five coaches or less

The majority of the train should be MK 2 D/E/F coaches

It must be a service train I.E. not an ECS

 

Paddington - Wolverhampton 1990 by Stephen Dance

 

 

Hull-Sheffield 1984 by The Cycling Signalman

 

 

 Hull to Sheffield 1984 

 

 

Hull - Brighton 1986 by Paul Smith

 

[45125]

31417 at Doncaster waiting to depart with 1D28 which is the Hull portion of 1306KGX Bradford.This will later work back with this formation to Donny and reattach to the same set coming from Bradford.  Earlier in the day it would have done a similar working .

 

 

Photo by Mr Bushy on Flickr.

 

Edited June 10 by 45125

[giz]

Kyle of Lochalsh to Inverness July 1987 (Paul Clark on Flickr):

 

 

 

Edited June 10 by giz
The third coach looks to be a downgraded FO (seven windows)

[nightstar.train]

For a while Wessex trains hired in a set of Mk2 air-cons to help with capacity. Topped and tailed by two class 31s usually. Usually four coaches, with the brake in the middle oddly, but could sometimes be 5. 

 

 

 

Edited June 10 by nightstar.train

[montyburns56]

19 hours ago, giz said:

Kyle of Lochalsh to Inverness July 1987 (Paul Clark on Flickr):

 

 

 

 

Nice. Yet another reason for modelling Kyle Of Lochalsh!

[giz]

3 hours ago, montyburns56 said:

 

Nice. Yet another reason for modelling Kyle Of Lochalsh!

In Tom Heavyside's book 'Classic Diesel Years Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh and Wick' there are a couple of photos taken in 1988 on different days of Kyle trains consisting of 4 aircon FOs and a BG, none of which appear to be downgraded. Real prototype for everything territory.

[franciswilliamwebb]

 

47746 "The Bobby" at Stafford on 07/06/03 (my photo)

[franciswilliamwebb]

 

47798 "Prince William" at Stafford on 13/08/03 (my photo)

[rodent279]

45140 stands in Hull station with a 3 coach load for Sheffield, forming the Hull- Brighton service. It hooked up with the Leeds - Brighton portion at Sheffield, 08857 doing the honours, and was taken forward to New Street by 31435.

The loco weighs more than the train!

 

 

Edited June 12 by rodent279

[adb968008]

4 hours ago, rodent279 said:

45140 stands in Hull station with a 3 coach load for Sheffield, forming the Hull- Brighton service. It hooked up with the Leeds - Brighton portion at Sheffield, 08857 doing the honours, and was taken forward to New Street by 31435.

The loco weighs more than the train!

 

 

Scotrail mk1 next to it looks interesting…

[rodent279]

24 minutes ago, adb968008 said:

Scotrail mk1 next to it looks interesting…

The Scotrail mk1s were on an incoming Adex from Dundee, with 45070 on the sharp end. I need to check the dates on these two, I have 45140 down as 08/04/1986, 45070 down as 23/11/1985. One of them must be wrong!

 

[Steven B]

Portion working looks to be the key to finding shorter rakes of air-con Mk2.

 

There was a working from Manchester Victoria to Glasgow (combining at Preston with a Liverpool-Edingburgh service for the run up the WCML, splitting at Carstairs). The ManVic-Glasgow portion often ran with a Mk1 buffet at the front and a BG at the rear, making up a six coach train.

On this day however the train was 100% Mk2, with 4/5 being air-con Mk2s:

47639 Bolton Trinity Street by David Chamberlain, on Flickr

 

This could be the Liverpool-Edinburgh portion a few years earlier:

(Bruce Galloway on Flickr)

 

Steven B

Edited June 12 by Steven B

[Mol_PMB]

Not my photo but I did travel on one of these trains, I think the Arriva Northern S&C services in 2003/4 would fit the bill for this thread.

This pic from Dave McDigital on Flickr:

 

[Dagworth]

1 hour ago, Steven B said:

Portion working looks to be the key to finding shorter rakes of air-con Mk2.

The Parkestone-Glasgow/Edinburgh service (The European) was a ten or eleven coach train for most of the journey but split into two portions at Carstairs. 
 

Andi

[Mol_PMB]

Then of course the early formation of the WAG Express would also fit the brief, as seen in this photo from Neil Harvey on Flickr:

 

[Mol_PMB]

2 minutes ago, Dagworth said:

The Parkestone-Glasgow/Edinburgh service (The European) was a ten or eleven coach train for most of the journey but split into two portions at Carstairs. 
 

Andi

 

Thusly! Photo from Bruce Galloway on Flickr.

 

[The Pilotman]

1 hour ago, Steven B said:

Portion working looks to be the key to finding shorter rakes of air-con Mk2.

Another source of trains that fit the OP’s specifications were those that utilised the seating coaches of the Paddington-Penzance sleeper train for a daytime local to Plymouth and back. 

 

 

 

 

[nightstar.train]

39 minutes ago, The Pilotman said:

Another source of trains that fit the OP’s specifications were those that utilised the seating coaches of the Paddington-Penzance sleeper train for a daytime local to Plymouth and back. 

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately I can't find a picture of that. But I did find this picture of ex-FGW coaches being used on  Bangor to Manchester service in 2003. By that time the Cornwall sleeper had gone over to entirely Mk3 operation after Virgin retired their Mk3s and FGW acquired some. 

 

 

[montyburns56]

3 hours ago, Steven B said:

This could be the Liverpool-Edinburgh portion a few years earlier:

(Bruce Galloway on Flickr)

 

Steven B

 

And here's an even more interesting version of it...

 

Liverpool - Edinburgh at Lostock Junction 1985 by Alan Sherratt

 

 

[hexagon789]

The second rank ScotRail push-pull sets of 1985-1990 would be a good fit for a load 5 all Mk2D/E/F train, as many of the sets were booked:

2 Mk2D TSO, Mk2D TSOT, Mk2E FO, Mk2F DBSO - thus having at least one vehicle of each Mk2 air-con type.

[Mol_PMB]

I've been on a regular Virgin XC train on the Bristol-Birmingham axis which was short-formed with a green 47 and just 5 air-con Mk2s. I was on my way home from Glastonbury, along with half a zillion others and all our muddy luggage, and a short-formed train was not welcome! Mind you, it probably had more capacity than a 220!

[Mol_PMB]

Of course, this sort of thing ran on Bedford-Bletchley for a while, photo by Jason Cross on Flickr:

 

[Cruachan]

3 hours ago, nightstar.train said:

 

Unfortunately I can't find a picture of that. But I did find this picture of ex-FGW coaches being used on  Bangor to Manchester service in 2003. By that time the Cornwall sleeper had gone over to entirely Mk3 operation after Virgin retired their Mk3s and FGW acquired some. 

 

 

Mark 3 seated stock entered service on the Cornish sleeper during the first half of 2006: The ex-FGW mark 2s that found employment on the North Wales coast prior to this were sourced from FGW's four recently withdrawn daytime mark 2 rakes.

[keefer]

The most ridiculous ( I think) use of brand-new cl.68 super-power - 6000+ hp on three knackered Mk2f(?) coaches! I believe it was a regular service for a while?

DRS Class 68 no. 68019 "Brutus" at Norwich, 08/04/2017 by MKT Transport Photography, on Flickr

Edited June 12 by keefer

[hexagon789]

21 minutes ago, keefer said:

The most ridiculous ( I think) use of brand-new cl.68 super-power - 6000+ hp on three knackered Mk2f(?) coaches! I believe it was a regular service for a while?

DRS Class 68 no. 68019 "Brutus" at Norwich, 08/04/2017 by MKT Transport Photography, on Flickr

Except the rear one was always dead in direction of travel, unlike the Class 37 sets where both locos did power, so only(!) 3,755hp. ;)

 

The Mk2s weren't capable of through multi with 68s, different MU system on the 68s to the Blue Star of the 37s and the Mk2s.

Edited June 12 by hexagon789