Dave F's photos - ongoing - more added each day

[Market65]

Hi, Dave. I like the Midland Railway photo's. In the last one the second vehicle of the parcels train is a Gresley BG. And C217, at Loughborough Midland, is full of interest. The telegraph poles on the left are double poles which are splayed out, which are not seen too often. There are a great selection of industrial buildings too.

 

With warmest regards,

 

Rob.

[robertcwp]

My thoughts too.

Pretty sure it didn't originate E/NE region, so maybe a Manchester/Liverpool - Weymouth or similar?

I think 1O07 in June 1972 may be the 0721 Liverpool Lime Street-Poole. This was 1O07 in the 1974 WTT (I don't have 1972 or 1973). The formation is a pretty close match for the carriage workings but in reverse order. The train was initially listed with 2 x CK but this was amended to a CK and FK. It also gained an additional second at the other end at some point. Catering was RMB and the two brakes were coupled together. Another undated amendment shows it gaining a BG at the leading end from Birmingham.

 

Incidentally, Paddington-Birmingham trains at that time had RMB if they had a buffet car at all. However, they were then still listed with the brakes at or near the ends.

[DaveF]

I think 1O07 in June 1972 may be the 0721 Liverpool Lime Street-Poole. This was 1O07 in the 1974 WTT (I don't have 1972 or 1973). The formation is a pretty close match for the carriage workings but in reverse order. The train was initially listed with 2 x CK but this was amended to a CK and FK. It also gained an additional second at the other end at some point. Catering was RMB and the two brakes were coupled together. Another undated amendment shows it gaining a BG at the leading end from Birmingham.

 

Incidentally, Paddington-Birmingham trains at that time had RMB if they had a buffet car at all. However, they were then still listed with the brakes at or near the ends.

 

 

Many thanks Robert, I've added this to the caption.

 

In addition many thanks to all of you who continue to add information about the trains in this thread.

 

David

[DaveF]

Some more photos from the Cambrian Coast line today.

 

These may be of more use to modellers of the fairly recent scene than to those primarily interested in locomotives.

 

As you will all have realised by now I enjoy photos of anything to do with railways.

 

 

Criccieth Central Trains 158856 up pass 23rd July 01 C25370  I took this from my bedroom window in the hotel where I was staying.

 

 

Barmouth view to viaduct from Llyngwril 26th July 01 C25433

 

 

Talsarnau view north 22nd July 02 C25939

 

 

Talybont view north 26th July 02 C26026

 

 

Talybont view south 26th July 02 C26027

 

 

David

Edited June 7, 2017 by DaveF

[73c]

Think it's quite a long month this one, '' more added 76th June ''  

[DaveF]

Think it's quite a long month this one, '' more added 76th June ''  

 

 

Ooops!  Now changed.

 

It just seems like a long month so far - perhaps it will go more quickly after tomorrow.

 

David

[jonny777]

Photos from Northumberland today taken between 1981 and 1991 in the Cramlington area (between Newcastle and Morpeth).

 

Some, in this case the ones in 1985 and 1991, were taken on Supasnaps slide film (made by 3M) which gave good colours.  Sadly it did not keep well which has led to some scanning problems.

 

 

i Damdykes Class 101 Morpeth to Newcastle Dec 81_C5608.jpg

Damdykes Class 101 Morpeth to Newcastle Dec 81 C5608

 

 

Cramlington South 47528 down Speedlink 5th July 85 C6976.jpg

Cramlington South 47528 down Speedlink 5th July 85 C6976

 

 

jb Cramlington track machine 29th Oct 87 _C9239.jpg

Cramlington track machine 29th Oct 87 C9239

 

 

i Damdykes 47839 Dorset Scot Aberdeen to Poole 10.37 3rd Nov 90_C15487.jpg

Damdykes 47839 Dorset Scot Aberdeen to Poole 10.37 3rd Nov 90 C15487

 

 

i Damdykes Class 143 Morpeth to Newcastle 10.57 9th Feb 91_C15574.jpg

Damdykes Class 143 Morpeth to Newcastle 10.57 9th Feb 91 C15574

 

 

David

 

 

Going somewhat O/T, but vitally important - please everyone, scan your old transparencies/negatives now.

 

They really will not last much longer.

Edited June 7, 2017 by jonny777

[Enterprisingwestern]

Talsarnau with a train!

 

 

1025 Pwhelli - Machynlleth. 21.7.76.

 

Mike.

 

 

[Market65]

Hi, Dave. I like the Cambrian Coast line photos. C25433 at Llyngwril, is a splendid view looking over to the Barmouth viaduct. The rails are looking quite rusty in several of the photos.

 

With warmest regards,

 

Rob.

[mark54]

 C2871 The Class 45 at Trent Lock was almost certainly on the 14:10 Sheffield-St Pancras (with the unusual arrangement of a TSO between the 2 FO's).

[DaveF]

 C2871 The Class 45 at Trent Lock was almost certainly on the 14:10 Sheffield-St Pancras (with the unusual arrangement of a TSO between the 2 FO's).

 

 

Thanks again Mark.

 

The time that train would pass Trent lock fits in with the other photos I took that day and the direction of the light.

 

David

[Enterprisingwestern]

 C2871 The Class 45 at Trent Lock was almost certainly on the 14:10 Sheffield-St Pancras (with the unusual arrangement of a TSO between the 2 FO's).

 

 

Thanks again Mark.

 

The time that train would pass Trent lock fits in with the other photos I took that day and the direction of the light.

 

David

 

1M28.

 

Mike.

[DaveF]

Mostly the West Coat Mainline this afternoon, often in poor weather.

 

 

Brackley LNWR Banbury branch bridge girder Oct 70 J2401

 

 

Cathiron Class 86 up Jan 71 C459

 

 

Kilsby Tunnel south portal Class 81 up Jan 71 C465

 

 

Elmhurst Class 86 down ex pass Jan 76 C2577

 

 

Dudswell Class 86 down ex pass Feb 76 C2601

 

 

Norton Bridge Class 304 up 11th Aug 79 C4806

 

 

David

Edited June 8, 2017 by DaveF

[Market65]

Hi, Dave. I like today's selection of photo's. In C2601 at Dudswell, the second coach is a non air conditioned MK2 - I aren't sure whether it is a Mk2b or c.

In C465, the Kilsby tunnel portal is of interest. The main part of it is rather grand stonework, whilst the wings are just ordinary brickwork! Penny pinching I wonder?

 

With warmest regards,

 

Rob.

[uax6]

Hi, Dave. I like the Midland Railway photo's. In the last one the second vehicle of the parcels train is a Gresley BG. And C217, at Loughborough Midland, is full of interest. The telegraph poles on the left are double poles which are splayed out, which are not seen too often. There are a great selection of industrial buildings too.

 

With warmest regards,

 

Rob.

 

Rob,

Those poles are known as A poles, and the Midland used a fair few, but never a popular choice as they were difficult to install.

 

Andy G

[DaveF]

Photos of trains at Abbot's Ripton and Peterborough for today.

 

As always just the everyday trains which happened to pass while I was there with a camera.

 

 

Peterborough 31219 and ano Skegness to Kings Cross 27th July 74 C1712

 

 

Peterborough 31101 pass to Skegness 27th July 74 C1717

 

 

Peterborough Class 105 Norwich to Peterborough 27th July 74 C1726

 

 

Abbots Ripton Class 47 up ecs July 75 C2192

 

 

Abbots Ripton Class 47 08.50  York to Kings X July 75 C2195

 

 

David

Edited June 9, 2017 by DaveF

[Market65]

Hi, Dave. I like the Peterborough and Abbots Ripton photos. The first two photos are good ones of 31's on trains to and from Skegness. And that last photo of a 47 at Abbots Ripton as a great feel of power and speed to it - 90 mph for the 47.

 

With warmest regards,

 

Rob.

[Swindon 123]

Hi, Dave. I like the Peterborough and Abbots Ripton photos. The first two photos are good ones of 31's on trains to and from Skegness. And that last photo of a 47 at Abbots Ripton as a great feel of power and speed to it - 90 mph for the 47.

 

With warmest regards,

 

Rob.

The 47 would have to be on top form to be doing 90MPH with 10 on. 4 miles at 1 in 200 climb to Abbots Ripton on the Up road, (3 mile of it on the Down), so you could easily loose 10MPH on the climb, even with a good 47. I'd expect him to be more like 80-85 MPH at the point in the photo.

 

As a lot of Davids photos are from this area I've included my old route maps to give people an idea of the terrain. Down lines run Left to Right. The coloured bar along the bottom denotes gradients. Red denotes rising in the Down direction, falling in the Up. Blue is falling in the Down direction, rising in the Up. Purple is level track. Numbers indicate the gradient.

 

ECML 41 MP to 50 MP, (Biggleswade to just short of Sandy).

 

ECML 50 MP to 60 MP, (just before Sandy to Huntingdon).

 

ECML, 60 MP to 70 MP, (just after Huntingdon to Connington).

 

Paul J.

 

Addendum. Note these maps are accurate for the period 1979-1984, when I worked out of Kings Cross. I know the track layout changed after I left, but I don't know the date my maps would have no longer been accurate. ( Also edited to correct a couple of silly mistakes and to add another page.).

Edited June 9, 2017 by Swindon 123

[DaveF]

The 47 would have to be on top form to be doing 90MPH with 10 on. 4 miles at 1 in 200 climb to Abbots Ripton on the Up road, (3 mile of it on the Down), so you could easily loose 10MPH on the climb, even with a good 47. I'd expect him to be more like 80-85 MPH at the point in the photo.

 

As a lot of Davids photos are from this area I've included my old route maps to give people an idea of the terrain. Down lines run Left to right. The coloured bar along the bottom denotes gradients. Red denotes rising in the Down direction, rising in the Up. Blue is falling in the Down direction, rising in the Up. Purple is level track. Numbers indicate the gradient.

ECML 50 MP to 60 MP, (roughly Sandy to Huntingdon).

ECML, 50-60 MP.jpg

 

ECML, 60 MP to 70 MP, (just after Huntingdon to Connington).

ECML, 60-70 MP.jpg

 

Paul J.

 

 

Paul,

 

Thank you very much for posting this, I am certain RMWebbers will find it very useful - I certainly will.

 

David

[LNERGE]

The 47 would have to be on top form to be doing 90MPH with 10 on. 4 miles at 1 in 200 climb to Abbots Ripton on the Up road, (3 mile of it on the Down), so you could easily loose 10MPH on the climb, even with a good 47. I'd expect him to be more like 80-85 MPH at the point in the photo.

 

As a lot of Davids photos are from this area I've included my old route maps to give people an idea of the terrain. Down lines run Left to Right. The coloured bar along the bottom denotes gradients. Red denotes rising in the Down direction, falling in the Up. Blue is falling in the Down direction, rising in the Up. Purple is level track. Numbers indicate the gradient.

ECML 50 MP to 60 MP, (roughly Sandy to Huntingdon).

ECML, 50-60 MP.jpg

 

ECML, 60 MP to 70 MP, (just after Huntingdon to Connington).

ECML, 60-70 MP.jpg

 

Paul J.

 

Addendum. Note these maps are accurate for the period 1979-1984, when I worked out of Kings Cross. I know the track layout changed after I left, but I don't know the date my maps would have no longer been accurate. ( Also edited to correct a couple of silly mistakes).

My office is in Peterborough and i drive along the nearby A1 several times a week. You can pretty much guarantee whatever the weather is doing it's doing something different just here. This section of line has many tales to tell from wandering signalboxes, accidents and other goings on. I've heard tales of trains being slowed by the wind here and of the complete opposite. The trackplan is largely the same apart from the up slow is missing from Connington to Huntingdon and a few of the smaller crossings have gone.

 

I wasn't aware of the restrictions on Freightliners mentioned in the notes. Why was it in place?

[mark54]

1A09 was the 08:50 York-KX

5N68 was presumably ecs for an extra northbound train to the Newcastle Division, as I can't find any reference to it. Regular services didn't usually have such high reporting numbers.

1B23 would in theory have been an ER train terminating in the KX Division (A Skegness train would have had a headcode with a "D"). I can't find any reference to 1B23 though.

[BoD]

Photos of trains at Abbot's Ripton and Peterborough for today.

 

As always just the everyday trains which happened to pass while I was there with a camera.

 

David

And what would we give for a few of those 'everyday trains' today?

[The Johnster]

My office is in Peterborough and i drive along the nearby A1 several times a week. You can pretty much guarantee whatever the weather is doing it's doing something different just here. This section of line has many tales to tell from wandering signalboxes, accidents and other goings on. I've heard tales of trains being slowed by the wind here and of the complete opposite. The trackplan is largely the same apart from the up slow is missing from Connington to Huntingdon and a few of the smaller crossings have gone.

 

I wasn't aware of the restrictions on Freightliners mentioned in the notes. Why was it in place?

 

Abbot's Ripton is historically infamous for causing problems with inclement weather!

 

I was the guard on a train brought to a stand by the wind once, not here but on the WR at Stoke Gifford, or to be more exact on the high embankment of the down South Wales Main Line between there and Patchway.  This would have been probably 1972, and we were working a train of empty 21ton mineral hoppers back from Swindon, which had originated at Acton; we'd relieved Old Oak men at Swindon.  It was a dark and stormy night, as the story always starts, and I'd been aware of the train being noticeably held back by the force of the wind at various places along the Badminton cutoff, only to regain a more normal pace in the tunnels.  The loco was a Hymek, and the train IIRC was a trailing load of about 350 tons, not a particularly onerous task for the loco you'd have thought.  

 

We were turned into the reception road at Stoke Gifford (by the way, this all takes place at about 3 in the morning) for me to perform the necessary examination prior to going through the Severn Tunnel, and the Hymek never really go hold of them pulling away from that stop.  The wind was a very strong southwesterly, and as the train went around the curved embankment and presented it's full side area to the force of the gale, the little speed we'd picked up fell away and I could see sparks coming from the Hymek's spinning driving wheels.  Once stopped, a few attempts to move off being unsuccessful, I could see the secondman's lamp as he made his way back to confer with me.  We decided to request Bristol panel not to send any trains over the up line as the wind was rocking the hoppers alarmingly; the weather side wheels were lifting and banging down on the rail, with the empty wagons amplifying the sound into loud booms.  This went on for about 20 minutes until the wind eased enough for the loco to drag the recalcitrant train off the embankment; once in the shelter of the BAC buildings at Patchway speed picked up as if nothing untoward had happened.  We were slowed again on the next high embankment at Pilning, but had no further problems as the storm had eased down a little by the time we came out of the Tunnel on the Welsh side.  Destination was Radyr IIRC.

[35A]

5N68 was presumably ecs for an extra northbound train to the Newcastle Division, as I can't find any reference to it. Regular services didn't usually have such high reporting numbers.

 

1B23 would in theory have been an ER train terminating in the KX Division (A Skegness train would have had a headcode with a "D"). I can't find any reference to 1B23 though.

 

Ditto re 5N68 (or 1N68).

 

The SO 09:25 King's Cross - Skegness was 1D01 in summer 1974. Perhaps the route indicator had not been reset from a previous suburban working on the Friday?

[Swindon 123]

My office is in Peterborough and i drive along the nearby A1 several times a week. You can pretty much guarantee whatever the weather is doing it's doing something different just here. This section of line has many tales to tell from wandering signalboxes, accidents and other goings on. I've heard tales of trains being slowed by the wind here and of the complete opposite. The trackplan is largely the same apart from the up slow is missing from Connington to Huntingdon and a few of the smaller crossings have gone.

 

I wasn't aware of the restrictions on Freightliners mentioned in the notes. Why was it in place?

After I passed out as a relief driver at Kings Cross, the first loco I did a conversion on was the Class 31's. The week after I learnt them I was booked as the D/A on KX turn 112/212 SO, 0015 on to work 1N00, 01.00 to Leeds. This was a solid class 31 turn at that time, so I was on the ball with them. Good job as out of the 4 days I worked the job, we failed 3 times, all with 31's and all of the failures were not in the "Faults & failures for 31's manual". One was fault lights wired up wrong so they couldn't show a fault when one existed. Another was water header tank sight glass isolated with the handles put on the wrong way so you didn't notice it unless you really looked carefully. The remaining failure was a split lub oil pipe to the Woodward governor on the engine. The didn't show up with the engine idling, but as soon as you  went to power up, they oil pressure forced open the split and oil pi**ed out. You only spotted it when stood in the engine room whilst power was applied. This last failure happened at Abbots Ripton (I got there in the end), and I had to walk forward to lay down detonator protection, and then go on to meet the assisting engine. By the time it arrived I'd got as far as Wood Walton, and almost to Connington. I can attest to how windy and cold that length of track could be, even on a June morning.

 

With regards to the Freightliner restrictions, I believe it was to do with the fact that under some of the bridges between Sandy and Huntingdon, when the geometry of the fast lines was altered to get 125 MPH running, the clearances for the boxy containers was not considered adequate. I can't remember if the 8'6" containers had also started to appear around that time. On the down I think it was the skew overbridge just after St Neots station, the B4103 Huntingdon Road, that caused the problem there. In the Up direction I believe it was a couple of the bridges just north of Sandy that caused the problems on the Up Fast. Most of these would have been rebuilt for when electrification came. As well as these restrictions, there were other freightliner restrictions for individual bridges, something that got even worse when the 8'6"x 8'6" containers came into being and even worse with 9' containers, although the last had to have special wagons to carry them. Even to this day there are a few restrictions on certain lines, and when i retired in 2010, loaded freightliner wagons were not permitted to run between Shrewsbury and Wrexham, except those strange low tarpaulin covered coil carrying containers used for a while by EWS.

 

With regards to trains being slowed down by the wind, I experienced it a couple of times between Newport and Cardiff, whilst working a Class 108 power and trailer B9xx set. They had a notorious reputation among Hereford drivers for being under powered and poorly maintained, and with a good westerly wind against you, you would struggle to get the unit into 4th gear/above 40MPH on the level between Newport and Cardiff. We were not sorry to see the back of them.

 

Paul J.