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which Class do you most miss from today's mainline running


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Given Classes: 20, 31, 37, 47, 50, 56 and 73 (plus other one off or a couple of locos) had clung on long enough into the 1990s to still be around today in revenue earning traffic. Which classes of loco do you feel ought to have seen a similar come back in revenue earning traffic.

 

For example, given how many Class 25s were built (and they had that 25/9 proposal) a fleet of a dozen or so with a large pool of spares could have been assembled from those around in the late 1980s....

 

A large number of Class 45s made it into the late 1980s and had they been rounded up and clung onto could have been a nice little fleet...?

 

Had the 58s not been robbed and sent abroad in may cases, may they ought to have been around today?

 

 

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A pair of blue Class 42 Warships with 10 blue/grey Mk1’s on, going like a bat out of hell.  That’s my earliest recollection being about 8 or 9, on the bus with my mum as we crossed over the humpback bridge on the Weston-super-Mare avoider.

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Class 50s  on the WCML north of Weaver Junction. They were originally English Electric Type 4s, so to differentiate between the new ones and the old ones, we called the new ones DP2s without ever having seen the prototype.

Edited by 96701
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Class 71.  Brilliant engines.  With the benefit of hindsight the SR should not have done the Class 74 conversions.  Instead the 71s should have been used on the Bournemouth Line.  Contemporary reports indicated it was feasible to fit them with the SR 27 way multi working system and with some typical of the period SR lateral thinking the problem of working into Southampton Docks could have been solved very easily.  And as it turns out any pre-planned workarounds to get round not having the diesel engine would have been far less of a nuisance than the regular failures which the 74s suffered.

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Another vote for the WR 8xx "Warship" class here among diesels - for preference a brace of class 43 NBL-powered ones though the older 6xx remain a firm favourite too.

 

If we include all traction then the as-built Bulleid light Pacifics of the nominally identical West Country and Battle of Britain classes.  I detest the term "unrebuilt" so while "as built" implies ex-works without any modification it is taken in this context to mean the air-smoothed versions rather than the more traditional style as rebuilt.  And if pressed I would say those with a West Country name had the edge over their BoB classmates.

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Yes a small fleet of classes 42 or 43 would be great. I love seeing Greyhound on the SVR but a pair running together on the mainline would be awesome. I'm sure I read somewhere that there wasn't enough space to add air braking which would have been a problem. I look upon the double heading of premiere services on the Western Region as a step along the way to the HSTs. They certainly showed what great acceleration and hill climbing you can get with 4,400 horses!

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This is surely all down to personal nostalgia, so although I was mightily impressed by both Deltics and Westerns, for different reasons, my vote would be for Class 33, clattering along with a few Mk1 on a summer evening, with my bike in the brake van, on the way back from some long, tiring cycle ride. The sound of a Class 33, even simply ticking-over, is nostalgia.

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18 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

This is surely all down to personal nostalgia, so although I was mightily impressed by both Deltics and Westerns, for different reasons, my vote would be for Class 33, clattering along with a few Mk1 on a summer evening, with my bike in the brake van, on the way back from some long, tiring cycle ride. The sound of a Class 33, even simply ticking-over, is nostalgia.

I was still entitled to half-fare when I made a weekly pilgrimage into Brighton after school on the returning Exeter train headed by a 33 and with eight Mk1s in tow.  On the first couple of those trips I was able to cross briskly over to the east coast side of the station and hop aboard a 33-hauled 3-set bound for Oxted though such workings ceased with the closure of Lewes - Uckfield.  

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For me, it’s the 310s. Sent several years commuting from Bletchley to Euston on them. So comfy, warm and reliable.

 

Even better a pre-refurb one without the gangway at the guards van end of the motor coach and the original wooden panelling - happy days!

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I moved into my new house at the side of the West Coast mainline north of Wigan back in 1993.

 

What do I miss loco wise ?

 

Class 47's

Class 31's

Class 20's

Class 56's (sometimes double headed on MGR trains)

Class 37's

HST's 

 

Some of the above only recently gone (or very rare).

 

And the electrics, 85's, 86's, and the dear old 87's - all fantastic locos.

 

We have some new types - but boy are they ugly !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Brit15

 

 

 

Edited by APOLLO
typo
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2 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

hop aboard a 33-hauled 3-set


A pleasure that was still possible on the Redhill-Tonbridge section of an evening well into the 70s, possible the early 80s.

 

As I said, this is all very personal - at least one train that is named above in glowing terms I thought was the draughtiest heap of old scrap-iron ever put on rails!

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Class 33s are technically still in use, as WCRC have a couple. They are great little locos, and always had a soft spot for them having driven one in the confines of Thame station at the age of 13!

 

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Hi Folks,

 

  1. Class 81's roaring through Preston with a Motorail or better still snatching a long rake of empty OAA's after a signal check and hearing the couplings banging like a machine gun.
  2. Class 40's giving it the beans with thirteen Mk1's.
  3. Double headed class 37's on a strip coil train on Greyrigg, best in the evening with a good glow flaming out of the turbo chargers.

 

Gibbo.

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1) Class 40 working hard in the night on a long freight train on a long up gradient - unforgettable sound. 

2) DMU train accelerating from a station stop with gear changes creating wierd exhaust sounds. 

3) Class 81-85 on express passenger - classic ott roaring sound in a station platform. 

 

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