Rugd1022

Down on the Glos & Warks yesterday...

Photo c/o Robert Chester who is also in it, 31 413 inside the Factory at Old Oak getting a repaint in 1976...

Some depots do have ground signals controlling movements within the depot area, Bescot is one example where certain moves from one road to another at the north end require a signalled move off the depot, into the neck then back towards the depot again.

Two of the remaining sidings are still in use, or were until fairly recently, for a DB train which recesses there while the driver has his PNB.

The part you wrote in brackets Mike has reminded me that our newest arrival at Rugby found himself moving here from Peterborough almost by accident a few weeks ago for a similar reason!

Photo c/o Pete Leigh, Preston, 1972...

Photo c/o mark Norrington, Glasgow Queen St, 1982...

Just before Christmas I was up at Basford Hall waiting for a loco swap in the 'middle' cabin with a few other drivers, I was chatting with a young hipster looking lad who I wrongly assumed was a new graduate driver, he was actually the mentor driver for the forty five year old graduate sitting beside him. It pays not to make assumptions in this job! This morning I cadged a lift from Lawley Street back to Rugby on a light engine driven by an ex-Old Oak colleague, of course within minutes we were chatting about the good old days at 81A and remembered how some of the drivers looked down at us young pups, not believing we were old enough to be on the footplate, never mind driving round the place on our own. On the Summer only Saturday jobs down to the West Country we'd often find ourselves upstairs in the mess room on platform 1 at Exeter St.Davids surrounded by men in their fifties who were still not passed drivers.

More great pics Dave, wonderful stuff. The Brush Type 4 in J3132 looks like 1508 to me, one of the original 'generator' batch with the ETH gubbins mounted below the bufferbeam skirt, not 1523. Loving the fog...!

I don't know which firm the 37 driver will be from but yes, you can have a driver with the correct route knowledge conducting another driver over a route, or part of a route.

Most likely a shunting accident at Old Oak, Acton Yard or on the Park Royal trips whilst being driven from the wrong end. It was a very common cause of collision damage on a lot of the hydraulics back then.

James Dean and Marlon Brando have so much to answer for...

Yes, 50 006, released in 1980.

Photo c/o Jim Hardwick, taken from the signalbox, 50 007 coming off the Cov branch at Leamington Spa on 20th March 1982... the 'box and the Ford foundry are now gone and the field sidings in the vee of the junction have long since been disconnected from the mainline...