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Banking Hawick to Whitrope


Richard Hall
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Does anyone have any information regarding the extent to which banking engines were used on the long climb from Hawick to Whitrope?  I have been trying to research this but the evidence seems contradictory:

  • "District Controller's View" suggests that almost all heavy freights had a banker, and the diagrams in the book seem to bear that out, at least for the mid 1950s.
  • On the other hand, most photos I can find of steam-hauled freight trains on that section appear not to be banked.
  • Peter Handford's recordings on "The Railway to Riccarton" have the "Waverley" banked out of Hawick and two V2-hauled heavy goods through Stobs - one banked, one not.

I am wondering whether the use of bankers started to tail off after the mid-fifties. Regardless, my list of locos for my Shankend (or possibly Stobs) layout will have to include a couple of J36s - an unpowered one to hang on the back of up freights, and a powered version to run light in the opposite direction.  Although given that my track plan has the Up and Down fiddle yards stacked one on top of the other and a fairly prototypical gradient through the scenic area, my freights might actually need banking...

 

Richard

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As you will know from the DCV there were only 2 daily booked V2 workings each way in 1953.

 

Of the 2 Up trains 575 was banked and 557 only 25 minutes later wasn't.

 

Of the 2 Down trains 767 wasn't banked from Newcastleton but 618 some 61 minutes later was.

 

I don't know what year is involved in the instances you quote, but it certainly explains why in 1953 you could have "conflicting" photos (albeit in the dark at 22.20 off Hawick).

 

Why not go for 1953?!

 

Alternatively perhaps later years' WTT's will clarify matters?

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It was certainly going on in 1961 when Peter Handford was making his recordings in the area. There is one track that features a V2-hauled freight being banked by one of the 2MT. Unsure of the location but the sound of a large number of crows just prior to 'blast-off' suggests either Riccarton or The Holm. My money is on the latter for a couple of reasons of local knowledge.

 

D.

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Possibly the use of bankers declined as more powerful locos became available.  At the start of the 1950s most freights were worked by K3s: ten years on they had been largely displaced by V2s and Pacifics of all types.  That photo of the 2MT is just beautiful.

 

Richard

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It was certainly going on in 1961 when Peter Handford was making his recordings in the area. There is one track that features a V2-hauled freight being banked by one of the 2MT. Unsure of the location but the sound of a large number of crows just prior to 'blast-off' suggests either Riccarton or The Holm. My money is on the latter for a couple of reasons of local knowledge.

 

D.

 

It's on that fabulously evocative LP "The Railway to Riccarton", Side 2 Band 1: the sleeve notes say the location is Stobs station and the train had been stopped by signals at Acreknowe - Stobs Camp box, presumably - and the locos are said to be 60840 and 78047.  Side 1 Band 1 has "The Waverley" hauled by 60043 Brown Jack being banked out of Hawick by 65330.

 

Alasdair

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It's on that fabulously evocative LP "The Railway to Riccarton", Side 2 Band 1: the sleeve notes say the location is Stobs station and the train had been stopped by signals at Acreknowe - Stobs Camp box, presumably - and the locos are said to be 60840 and 78047.  Side 1 Band 1 has "The Waverley" hauled by 60043 Brown Jack being banked out of Hawick by 65330.

 

Alasdair

 

Not a location I had down as a banking station in truth. I wonder if the crew realised they had more on their plate than previously thought and had requested assistance from the Hawick pilot? The wooded surroundings at Stobs would certainly explain the crows. I'm guessing that Peter must have taken position at one of the occupation bridges further up 'The Hidden Valley'.

 

D.

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It's on that fabulously evocative LP "The Railway to Riccarton", Side 2 Band 1: the sleeve notes say the location is Stobs station and the train had been stopped by signals at Acreknowe - Stobs Camp box, presumably - and the locos are said to be 60840 and 78047.  Side 1 Band 1 has "The Waverley" hauled by 60043 Brown Jack being banked out of Hawick by 65330.

 

Alasdair

I bought that LP from the National Railway Museum shop, I would have been about twelve years old. I still have it. 

 

Richard

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Lovely old document, a real piece of history and thank you for sharing it. Interesting to see the Hawick - Whitrope bankers also did station pilot duties, I believe this arrangement continued into BR days, with a brace of Standard 2MTs replacing the J36s which had done the job for so long. Two more bankers based at Riccarton for the long slog north from Newcastleton, although I suspect these were made redundant earlier than the Hawick ones. The northbound climb wasn't so tough and most freights got a run at the bank, unlike Hawick where they were into a 1 in 75 climb from a standing start.  The WR really was a horribly difficult and expensive railway to operate.

 

Richard

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