'Bubble' Car at Fort William

[03060]

https://rcts.zenfolio.com/buildings-and-infrastructure/stations-and-station-buildings-lner/ea0fab2fe

 

https://rcts.zenfolio.com/buildinds-and-infrastructure/stations-and-station-buildings-lner/ea0faae4d

 

I came across these two photos from 1974 the other day whilst looking for pictures of the original Fort William station which clearly show a single unit DMU waiting in the long siding / platform. 

 

So far I haven't come up with much information as to what it was doing there or where it might be going. It's got to be a class 122 or possibly 131 although the window pattern doesn't seem to match a quick reference check against a picture of the Dapol N Gauge model but this may just be down to the angle of viewing.

 

One possibility, that I have read, is that they were converted and used as a 'Sandite' working proceeding the sleeper train, although I got the impression that this was late 1970's. I've more books to look at in the loft for possible info but would be grateful if anybody can shed any light as to what it was doing there.

 

From my point of view this has now become a 'must have' model as with the exception of the 'Mexican Bean' class 104 and the six-loch cruise trains there don't seem to have been that many DMUs working there way up the West Highland, although I have a vague recollection of seeing a photo of a 1970's class 101/111 somewhere before.

 

Regards,

Ian.

 

PS - hope that the links work as I couldn't work out how to copy and paste on my tablet !

[russ p]

Links don't work mate

[RFS]

Links are incomplete. These seem to work - 

 

https://rcts.zenfolio.com/buildings-and-infrastructure/stations-and-station-buildings-lner/ea0fab2fe

 

https://rcts.zenfolio.com/buildings-and-infrastructure/stations-and-station-buildings-lner/hA0FAB2FE#ha0faae4d

Edited November 28, 2019 by RFS

[AJCT]

35 minutes ago, 03060 said:

From my point of view this has now become a 'must have' model as with the exception of the 'Mexican Bean' class 104 and the six-loch cruise trains there don't seem to have been that many DMUs working there way up the West Highland, although I have a vague recollection of seeing a photo of a 1970's class 101/111 somewhere before.

 

 

There's this one from RailScot - https://www.railscot.co.uk/img/33/953/  - athough it's dated 1968.

 

HTH.

 

Alasdair

[coronach]

My supposition is that this is either a driver learning run or possibly an officers special visit to the old FW station shortly before it was closed.

 

[scottystitch]

one of my books has a photograph of a bubble car at perth at around the same period I think. It was one of the (three ?) that had been deployed to Scotland as parcels units, I think they all gained Sc prefixes. Perhaps this is one of those?

[russ p]

My money is on a road learning special 

[Regularity]

31 minutes ago, russ p said:

My money is on a road learning special 

Seeing as it was taken just before the old station was closed, I am more inclined to agree with Coronach, although I suspect it was as much a thinly disguised excuse for a day out as anything else.

[03060]

Thanks for the help with the links RFS, I didn't get chance to try them before having to go out, apologies to Russ P.

 

Just going into the loft to see if I can find anything else out. Route learning was my other thought, also, although I like Coronach's suggestion.

 

Regards,

Ian.

[03060]

Great picture Alasdair, that's possibly the unit that I was thinking of although I think that it was a different location, possibly even on a DVD ....good enough excuse to watch through my collection again ! 

[03060]

Well, no major breakthroughs having looked through my DMU books in the loft, found a nice picture of a refurbished 3-car 101 unit at Oban in 1975 though with it's new coat of nearly all over white looking very smart.

 

The best info that I've come up with is from the Rail-scot site which has 3 of the 8 Scottish based 122/131  units allocated to Eastfield in 1975, these being Sc55002, Sc55005 and Sc55007 so there's a good chance that it might be one of these.

 

The 'Sandite' unit wasn't converted until 1983 for use with the sleeper service and was class 131 Sc55015, renumbered TDB977177 and named 'Sandra' in blue / grey livery and managed to survive until 1988.

 

Two other 'potential' West Highland bubble cars were both class 121s used as Video Survey Units between 2001 and 2004 (in fact thinking about it I may have an article somewhere of one of these on the WHL.) Not sure whether single car Iris made it onto the WHL but I've found a picture of it at Kyle of Lochalsh. I'm also aware that the class 101 and 150 video units both visited the line.

 

Thanks for the comments so far.

 

Regards,

Ian.

[russ p]

I've seen the refurbished 101 picture before possibly on the front of a Ian allan dmu volume but think that was the demonstrator unit been shown to the public 

[Regularity]

12 hours ago, 03060 said:

From my point of view this has now become a 'must have' model as with the exception of the 'Mexican Bean' class 104 and the six-loch cruise trains there don't seem to have been that many DMUs working there way up the West Highland, although I have a vague recollection of seeing a photo of a 1970's class 101/111 somewhere before.

Rather than try to find a “prototype exception for everything” excuse to run DMUs on your layout, just exercise Rule 1 and run them because you like them.

[Nigel N]

For an 80's layout, you can run "Sandra" the Eastfield  based sandite & route learning vehicle!!!

[03060]

Thanks Nigel, great pictures, I wonder if this was the one used to preceed the sleeper train as mentioned on the Railscot site ?

 

That now makes 3 Bubble Cars on the West Highland as I've found the article that I mentioned above - Rail Express Mar 2018 - Two Zulu Two Zero - an account of a ride in class 121 960011 'Pandora' (Video Track Recording Unit) over the West Highland Line in in the 2000s, the livery could be interesting to try and replicate.

 

Thanks for the help,

Regards,

Ian.

[young37215]

Spannerman's Flickr site is your friend here, he has a 1984 picture of Sandra at Ardlui. Unfortunately he also states that the Sandite units were not normally utilised on the WHL although I am tempted at modelling this nevertheless. Spannerman's Flickr site has proven to be a great resource for me and my WHL research, if you are interested in units then I particularly like his capture of the Ultrasonic test train at Craigendorn as it heads up the WHL. You can find this in his DMU album

 

 

 

[03060]

Excellent, thanks for this, I'm always happier to see a photograph as evidence rather than just having a supposition or a maybe (although, as mentioned by Regulariity earlier ....Rule 1 should never be discounted.

 

I'll look forward  to seeing a bubble car on WHL4.

 

Regards, Ian.