Class 47's in Railfreight Distribution Livery

[Marky B]

Hi,

 

Can anybody tell me if any of the Railfreight Distribution liveried Class 47's ever worked over Western Region metals and more specifically, down into the South West in the Cornwall area? I'm building a ficticious 1990's Cornwall china clay branchline with passenger traffic as well. I have it in my mind that quite some time ago, when researching photos of locos in the region, on china clay and general traffic, I saw one of the said Class 47's, but now can't find it. I have the Bachmann 47365 "Diamond Jubilee", which I'm happy to renumber to any of the class in that livery if they did venture South Westwards.

 

Regards,

 

Mark

[pheaton]

western region metals yes all the time  but as far north as gloucester is classed as western region... there are phots of 47s on clay tigers but not around Cornwall, but its not beyond the realms of possibility that they got that far down...

 

The sapper was stored down in st blazey for a long time...

Edited September 12, 2020 by pheaton

[plarailfan]

There's this one at Dawlish and looking through Flickr, I even found one on a, cross country passenger train, under the wires and apparently heading for Plymouth 

 

 

Edited September 12, 2020 by plarailfan

[rob D2]

Ok,

so the once weekly clay train to Dollands moor , used one or a pair, but I believe they came off  at Exeter For a SB 37. Fertiliser train to lapford, of course got no further than Exeter.

 

Later on 47306 ( in same European livery as your 365 ) went to st blazey for a staff open day. And then sat their for years rotting away. I’ve never seen any photo of it actually working a train down there .

[Marky B]

Thanks for your replies guys, given there's a remote chance they did, I think this one might go down to "modeller's licence" and "It's my layout!". I have found out also that the RES liveried 47640 "University of Strathclyde" went down there and did work on china clay trains, as part of driver training for the upcoming TPO services. I've got 47745 "The Royal London Society for the Blind", which has a slightly different RES livery, so I'll do a quick respray and I've already bought and received the replacement nameplates and some cast arrows from Fox Transfers. 47640 lost the arrows at some point, which I'm still to determine when, so I bought them in case I do need them.

 

Regards,

 

Mark

[rob D2]

Wouldn’t bother respraying it. After EWS did this driver training ( as the servicing of the mail trains moved to SB ), There were many instances of EWS 47s taking CDAs to Tavistock junction for Plymouth as a way of avoiding a light engine move 

[Stuart A]

I'd saved some references from the late Tim Hall's website, one entry includes:

 

[BetweenTheTunnels]

Yes, they did.  Some would have got swapped at Gloucester or Birmingham I suspect, but there is a shot on the Taunton Trains website - see https://www.tauntontrains.co.uk/photos/gallery/class47/8 showing 47344 working a Liverpool - Paignton service with a West Coast DVT set.

 

A couple of shots further down shows 47307 (RfD) and 47226 (RfD European livery) working the Exeter - Dollands Moor China Clay service.  Clicking on the number in the caption on that page takes you into the Taunton Trains Database Archive of workings, which shows 47226 worked in 1997 and 1998 down there - see https://www.tauntontrains.co.uk/workingslog/byloco/47226

 

So yes, a few workings to be on west on the Western Region, south of Bristol.

 

Richie

[rob D2]

I think there is a distinct difference here between the start of the 90s and the end.

 

As evidenced above by stuey, there was a 47 diagram right in 1990.

 

By EWS years the only time they got past Exeter was replacing cross country and virgin ( later ) passenger trains when the 47/8s couldn’t make it .

Edited September 14, 2020 by rob D2