Strathclyde PTE Class 156 on West Highland Line

[jwphillips]

Have been researching whether any orange and black liveried Strathclyde PTE 156s made it onto WHL. A trawl of Flickr and my various books has drawn a blank. Anyone know? Was wondering whether the forthcoming Dapol could be reasonably included on my N gauge WHL layout? Cheers

[iands]

They would need to have been fitted with RETB to work on the WHL. Doubt if anyone would pay for the fitting of RETB to a Strathclyde PTE 156 unless such a unit was being transferred for a lengthy period. As always though, I'm happy to be corrected.

[jwphillips]

49 minutes ago, iands said:

They would need to have been fitted with RETB to work on the WHL. Doubt if anyone would pay for the fitting of RETB to a Strathclyde PTE 156 unless such a unit was being transferred for a lengthy period. As always though, I'm happy to be corrected.

Excellent point and one I had overlooked. Cheers

[Bon Accord]

1 hour ago, iands said:

They would need to have been fitted with RETB to work on the WHL. Doubt if anyone would pay for the fitting of RETB to a Strathclyde PTE 156 unless such a unit was being transferred for a lengthy period. As always though, I'm happy to be corrected.

 

A non RETB unit did occasionally make it up the line in times past due to failures, but always in multiple and always coupled inside an RETB fitted unit. Four car units were and are generally the preserve of Glasgow-Fort William trains.

Portable RETB sets do exist, although I've only heard of them used on non-RETB fitted locomotives which were visiting the area temporarily. Whether it's practical or permissible to carry and use such a portable unit within the more cramped confines of a unit cab I don't know.

[iands]

8 hours ago, Bon Accord said:

Portable RETB sets do exist, 

In the same way that portable GSMR sets are available now, and portable NRN and CSR sets we're available in the past (until fairly recently I had a portable CSR set, an ASCOM, in my shed), for use on any unit/loco/OTM etc., that required specific radio comms on a given route. 

[caradoc]

My responsibility for allocating and managing Corkerhill's Class 156 sets ended in 1994, when upon privatisation I ended up in Railtrack Control instead of my choice of Scotrail (but things worked out OK in the end !). We made no differentiation between the orange and the other sets, except of course for West Highland diagrams. IIRC the RETB-fitted sets did change over the years, so it is not impossible, although unlikely, that any of the 501-514 batch could have been so treated. Very occasionally a non-RETB set did, by accident, end up on the WHL, as the rear set of a 4-car and only discovered when a split or change of ends was required; Less likely to happen of course with an orange set. Nowadays they are all the same colour......

 

[John M Upton]

In my searchings over the years I have never found a orange/black one over that way but do recall seeing a photo of one of the later liveried crimson and cream versions at Mallaig Junction.  

 

Not impossible I would wager and there is always Rule 1....

[DavidBird]

Certainly one was at Mallaig.  Somewhere I have the photos, but it was the (as John U says) crimson & cream ones.  Also named I think.  I shall try and dig out the photos and scan them, it was in pre-digital days.

[John M Upton]

Bingo!  Found the crimson/cream one!!

http://www.gensheet.co.uk/photo2L/156430_crianlarich.jpg

 

[D9020 Nimbus]

A Glasgow-bound train with the crimson/cream unit trailing — I think the leading unit is blue/grey.

[jwphillips]

On 25/05/2021 at 00:07, John M Upton said:

Bingo!  Found the crimson/cream one!!

http://www.gensheet.co.uk/photo2L/156430_crianlarich.jpg

 

Excellent! Thanks John

[standardblue]

On 25/05/2021 at 00:07, John M Upton said:

Bingo!  Found the crimson/cream one!!

http://www.gensheet.co.uk/photo2L/156430_crianlarich.jpg

 

Note that this unit wasn't one of the original Strathclyde units (501-514) so I don't think would ever have been orange (sorry, 'red'!). Post privatisation, some additional units were painted on carmine and cream, of which this is one.

[Claude_Dreyfus]

Sadly I have no photographic evidence to back it up, but I remember seeing an orange and black 156 at Fort William in late August 1989; the livery was particularly striking, so sticks in my memory. I don't recall which one it was (or the exact date; I was on holiday), although it was coupled to an original liveried example.

 

Sadly from your perspective this is nothing more than hearsay...

 

Edit: Not hearsay though is this picture of 156504 at Mallaig (photo mid way through the page).

 

https://www.angelfire.com/al2/philspage/153.html

 

Edited May 28, 2021 by Claude_Dreyfus
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