Garry Morris

A role previously performed by Class 22s; the Summer Saturday station pilot for Paignton. 7574 resting in Queens Park Sidings 22/7/72. There was still enough work to be done in the early 1970's to warrant a loco from early morning until the evening. Only a few were still in GFYE that came to the South West.

D1015 Western Champion at Paignton 25/8/73 Platform 1

New information 4 minutes before my last post! Total 3 seen in Devon! Thanks for the info. I have never seen any other pictures of 24061's visit.

D5054 (ADB 968008) Carriage Heating Unit (4/80) noted at Newton Abbot (as referenced in post #397). The equivalent unit at Exeter was housed in a vehicle that resembled the old horse box wagons and was used to heat the sleeping car that was attached to the up sleeper. I am not aware of sleeping cars being attached at Newton Abbot so am not sure of it's precise role. I believe it remained in situ for the duration of it's stay at Newton. As one of the last survivors it has been preserved. Four still exist of a class of 151 with 5032 and 5061 on the North York Moor's Railway, 5054 on the East Lancs and 5081 G & W Rly. I believe this concludes the complete history of Class 24's in Devon!

Never mind the quality this picture has a touch of mystery about it! This is the AT300 series Hitachi train replacement for the HST. I am currently raising awareness along with the Facebook Group :'Save The Buffet' to highlight the fact that these trains have no catering vehicles in the formation. This is a downgrade to the quality of service to the Westcountry both in terms of food provision and variety. An airline style trolley that can't get down the gangway because of standing passengers just doesn't match with the other mainline services out of London. MPs have been alerted (they like Buffet cars!) and at least one is meeting with the Minister of Transport about how this downgrade got through. Local radio stations should be on the case soon! Sorry to hijack the thread but it is topical!

Plenty of activity at Buckfastleigh and some sunshine as a bonusb. D6501 beautifully restored running round The Drewry and another 0-6-0 shunter maneuvering out on the mainline.The pair of 25's; only the left hand one is operational, waiting to pull into the station from what is normally storage sidings. Buckfastleigh in the fall adds to the colour! 6975 pulls out of Staverton. 5081 leaving Buckfastleigh.

The SDR Diesel Gala star this year is a hired in Class 24 (5081) from the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire railway. Possibly only the second such machine to visit Devon if one counts the carriage heating unit stationed at Newton Abbot for a few years. Did one ever work into Riverside Yard?

Hymeks worked many Paddington\ Plymouth\ Paignton services for one season immediately prior to the introduction of the Westerns and in the wake of the steam ban West of Taunton. A summer Saturday at Paignton could produce half a dozen or more but the delivery of Westerns soon gathered pace. This coincided with some short term allocations to Laira and Newton Abbot however very few went West of Plymouth because of crewing issues. Hymeks were never again seen in numbers in the West, freight produced a few and the Summer dated Oxford to Paignton and the Worcester to Paignton could be relied upon for at least one.

An extremely rare picture. Stock recessed into the turntable line must have been a hazardous manoeuvre. I don't recall this ever happening. The yard must have been full.

A moment's reflection to remember that the 43's left us 45 Years ago today! A big thanks to Mark Alden for sharing the info in this thread. It brings back memories of a fairly unloved class in their day.

D6583 at Exeter St David's (Circa May 1967) - I was on the way to the Devon County Show. Probably on the Brighton arrival. I remember being amazed as a nine year old that these machines could turn up in Exeter! The only picture I have of a loco with no yellow warning panel.

D862 Viking (31/5.69) in Goodrington Yard looking very shabby.

On the same visit as above I was delighted to see a rare Hymek in the shed, so positioned the picture to capture the number through the doorway, D7056. D2178 was one of the few 03's left at Laira by this time. They were used for the Cattedown/Turnchapel trips

D1916 of Cardiff beside D1058 Western Nobleman at the East end of Laira depot (8.3.69).

Laira (8.3.69) in the days when one could just walk in, politely ask the depot manager if you could look around and off you went! it helped to have your dad with you! A trio of Swindon Warships D866 Zebra, D807 Caradoc and D867 Zenith form a backdrop to D6333 which is doing a sprint from one end of the depot to the other propelling 5 plank open, and a flat wagon of some description used to move engine parts around the site.(Denflate?).It does in fact appear to have a substantial piece of equipment on it though it is a struggle to see from this Brownie 127 offering.

Subsequent picture to the one posted above at Ivybridge. One side of D1015 Western Champion carried the number and name D1071 Western Renown. Having previously got photos of this loco as Western Warrior and Western Invader I am wondering how far in the future one can expect to complete the set! No doubt I have missed some already.

Today's visit of Princess Elizabeth (17/09/16) as it saunters through Dawlish. I had imagined spectacular smoke and steam amidst bikini clad young ladies in the shot but neither were to be!

Managed to find what must be the most inaccessible and badly signposted station in Devon to capture the Down Cornishman railtour (17/09/16). I'll let you guess the location as I don't remember ever seeing a picture taken at this place! Nice to see Maroon Full Yellow End making a comeback.

Pulling together various pieces of information. At the beginning of the last week of the Class 43, 9 were potentially in traffic on Monday 27th September 1971. This includes 844 Spartan which was possibly stored at St Phillips Marsh. During the week 835 Pegasus took 852 from Newton Abbot where it had been withdrawn to Swindon on Wednesday 29th October where they both remained out of service. 855 Triumph also succumbed on Friday 1st of October after working 7B14 23.24 STJ - Totnes then light to Laira where it remained until withdrawal. 6 active 43's entered the final weekend...839 Relentless,854 Tiger and 862 Viking finished activities on Saturday 2nd October with 841 Roebuck, 857 Undaunted and 858 Valorous continuing to Sunday 3rd October/ Monday 4th October As already mentioned there were two last opportunities to ride behind 858 Exeter - Barnstaple - Exeter, and 857 Paddington to Westbury. As far as is known these were the last two passenger workings. Challenging earlier notings. One interesting point surrounds 841 Roebuck. It worked 1A72 21.00 Pz - Pad on Sunday 3/10/71 as far as Plymouth. It then went light to Newton Abbot (by now the early hours of Monday 4th October) and took 6326 and 6343 0F73 to Swindon possibly laying claim to be the last one out working on the mainline with a passenger train. Whether it took 1A72 single handed to Plymouth is also an unknown at present. It could possibly be the last one to have been put to store depending on arrival time at Swindon with the Class 22's

One day far off in the future I imagine that the two Swindon 42's will be brought up to mainline standards with jumper cables fitted to recreate a 1968 run to Penzance!

857 went on to work the 23.25 Paddington to Newton Abbot (1B48) 2/10/71 which was the last move for Undaunted. 834 worked to Marsh Junction 26/9/71 and was not seen in action again. D858 Valorous is the one that seems to have escaped the records. It would be interesting to know if anyone has notes taken at Exeter on either the 3rd or 4th of October 1971.

Someone once told me that they travelled on the last known passenger working for this class. The Swindon Class 42 last days are well documented but when it comes to the Class 43, information is hard to track down. They were all gone by October 3rd 1971 so their disappearance was kind of masked by the fact that the Swindon type was still about. 14 examples are listed as stock on the final day but D834 Pathfinder was laid up in Hackney yard for months as I remember, I suspect only a handful were running through September and the beginning of October. The last to work a passenger service according to my source was on an Exeter to Barnstaple run. Can anyone confirm or deny this? The North British Company were very successful with steam but bowed out with a whimper - no farewells for any of their diesel products.

How many of these 3 car units are there? What happened to the other car? I had one down to Exmouth last Saturday also late but due to overloading on the Barnstaple leg of the journey.seemed to perform OK.

Thankyou for sharing all the b&w steam. Interesting to see 1011 County of Chester on the see wall. It was the last County left in late 1964 at Swindon. As far as I can establish it was in charge of the last steam hauled passenger train out of Plymouth on the GW mainline on 24th August 1963. Piloted to Newton Abbot by D6305. All subsequent passenger steam being railtours. I am guessing that this date would have been a Bank Holiday Summer Saturday as very little steam was about in the summer of I963.

The Royal Duchy (07/08/16) worked by 46233 Duchess of Sutherland crossing Lord Morley's Bridge. Unfortunately in poor light giving blur. This locomotive has visited Plymouth before but this is the first visit to Cornwall. With a couple of bursts on the LMS hooter leaving a steam trail it was well into it's stride to attack Hemerdon Bank making very light work of this trip. A very impressive loco at speed. It's no wonder they took 15 up Shap and Beatock in their day.This bridge over the Plym would be good to model it, has so much detail.