Jump to content
 

Class 56's in West Wales


Metr0Land
 Share

Recommended Posts

  • RMweb Gold

Overnight Tue/Wed this week we had 6C42 Crewe-Clarbeston Road TnT 56.094/56.302 on a rake of ballast hoppers.

 

I've been here since May 2014 and we've had no 56's save for a LE working to/from Carmarthen once.  Looking on the interweb there doesn't seem to be any photos of 56's west of Carmarthen but I've been told they did work oil trains to/from the Milford Haven area.  I thought the trains were 2 x37 until the 60's arrived but took less interest in this far away place at that time.

 

So the questions are:

a/ Did 56's work down here on a regular basis?

b/ If they did, does anyone have a definitive answer as to when they finished?

 

(There may have been a charter with a 56 to the area since the finish of normal workings but I'm principally interested in when regular working stopped, though confirmation of a charter date would be useful - it's difficult using 6 Bells Junction without something to home in on)

Link to post
Share on other sites

I thought that class 56s were quite common on oil traffic from the Milford Haven area in the 1980s, they regularly worked from Robeston to the Murco depots at Westerleigh and Theale for example,

 

cheers 

  • Agree 1
  • Thanks 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Metr0Land said:

Thanks.  Do you know when they finished?

Sorry no.

I took a few photos of the train in the 1980s, but looking on Flickr Carl Brunnock (the Cwmbran Creature) regularly photographed the Murco tanks with a class 56 passing the Newport area in 1984/85/86. The latest photos I could see after a quick look were June 1986.

 

cheers

  • Thanks 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

I have a copy of the WR Freight Train Loads book dated May 1987 which includes Milford Haven.

 

It seems that the use of class 56s was mostly on the Robeston-Theale service, the only other loads quoted for a class 56 at that date are for Langley and Micheldever.

Note the load to Theale including loco is:-

1240t for cl.47, 1576t for cl.56, 1638t for 2 x cl.37.

 

I think the Westerleigh terminal did not open until 1988 or thereabouts, (I went to an opening ceremony there as a representative of Bristol AFC),

 

cheers   

  • Informative/Useful 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold

I'm fairly sure they'd finished on the Theale tanks by 1989 because when we were having reports about problems in the Severn Tunnel the train was being worked by pairs of 37s in order to get the heaviest possible load.  the complaint was they were down to walking pace climbing out from the bottom of the tunnel and I had a Traction Inspector ride the train several times to get a proper assessment of what was happening.  The train was indeed down pretty near to walking pace once it was all off the falling gradient and had lost impetus but it wasn't causing a problem for the locos and  it wasn't losing time to any noticeable extent so we didn't reduce the load.

Edited by The Stationmaster
Typos corrected (thanks WA)
  • Thanks 1
  • Informative/Useful 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...