Bletchley Cravens class 105 piffle

[rodent279]

I don't remember the Cravens units that well, I know I had a couple of rides in them along the Bedford-Bletchley branch, and probably a couple of other places too, but my main memory of them is the St Albans branch unit returning back to Bletchley. It would come rattling & burbling through Leighton Buzzard on the DS most evenings at around 9pm, usually making a fairly good pace, as I guess the driver wanted to get home for his tea!

Anyway, a bout of nostalgia, and a little curiosity about whether the Bachmann 105 could legitimately be renumbered as one that was based at BY at some point (I don't think you can get away with it), led me to compile the following list of class 105's that have spent time at BY over the years.

 

Bletchley_Class_105_v1.1.docx

 

 

I've compiled this mostly from old IA/P5 books such as Locoshed, from contemporary mags, and of course from the excellent Railcar site. I'm not claiming it is a complete listing, or that it's infallible. If anyone can add anything, or point out any errors, please do.

 

Cheers N

Edited December 16, 2021 by rodent279

[08221]

The Bachmann Cravens units have different guards van door arrangements, but it wasn’t stopped  me renumbering blue 2 car sets for use on my Bedford to Bletchley based layouts!

 

Happy childhood memories of rattling to and from Bedford in the Cravens sets, noisy, comfy, unreliable but full of character!

 

 

 

 

Edited December 16, 2021 by 08221
Spilling

[MidlandRed]

1 hour ago, rodent279 said:

I don't remember the Cravens units that well, I know I had a couple of rides in them along the Bedford-Bletchley branch, and probably a couple of other places too, but my main memory of them is the St Albans branch unit returning back to Bletchley. It would come rattling & burbling through Leighton Buzzard on the DS most evenings at around 9pm, usually making a fairly good pace, as I guess the driver wanted to get home for his tea!

Anyway, a bout of nostalgia, and a little curiosity about whether the Bachmann 105 could legitimately be renumbered as one that was based at BY at some point (I don't think you can get away with it), led me to compile the following list of class 105's that have spent time at BY over the years.

 

Bletchley_Class_105_v1.1.docx 16.01 kB · 2 downloads

 

 

I've compiled this mostly from old IA/P5 books such as Locoshed, and from contemporary mags, so I'm not claiming it is a complete listing. If anyone can add anything, please do.

 

Cheers N

M50390-4/M56145-9 we’re standard fare on the Bedford to Bletchley services from August 1967. Presumably also the Watford to St Albans. I think they replaced the previously used Derby Lightweights used Oxford to Cambridge, via Bletchley and Bedford - apart from Bletchley to Bedford, the whole route closed to passengers from 1/1/68 - presumably sounding the death knell for the remaining Derby Lightweights at Bletchley. I’ve seen one of A G Denyer’s excellent videos which shows a Derby Lightweight speeding through Hemel Hempstead iirc, presumably also returning to Bletchley from the St Albans branch.

 

In the earlier 60s, when Watford Junction shed was open, several Park Royal units were allocated there and used on the Harrow-Belmont and Watford/St Albans branches - presumably Bletchley took over the St Albans service when Watford J closed - the Belmont service closed around 1964. The Park Royal units joined the other members of the class (temporarily pending electrification) in the Birmingham area, after which they went to Chester. Interestingly the ex Watford units seem to have been the ones which journeyed around the WR prior to early withdrawal. 
 

This batch of five LMR allocated Cravens twin units had the two indicator route blinds rather than three marker lights front panel. 

Edited December 16, 2021 by MidlandRed

[lmsforever]

I rode  these things out of kings Cross the rattling banging of the windows smell of diesel uncomfortable seats they really were an ideal unit for busy services !

[Ken.W]

I recall the Cravens as being unpopular

 

With the sloping desk there was nowhere to stand your cup of tea

[Rugd1022]

These Bletchley - Bedford photos might be of interest, I've had them lurking in the hard drive for ages, the photographer's name escapes me but I believe he is known on here.... the unit is heading away from Bedford and towards Bletchley....

 

 

 

I remember a trip across the branch in one of these one Christmas (1972 or 73 I think) when we were going to stay with relatives in London, for some reason we got off the Euston bound train at Bletchley, caught the Cravens to Bedford and took another train from there to St.Pancras.

 

Edited to add - to me the dreary colour palet in the photos is just how I remember so many train trips in the '70s!

Edited January 1, 2022 by Rugd1022

[EddieK]

One vehicle missing from the list is M50755, which transferred from NH around January 1981. By all accounts, it was not in very good condition, and so was dumped at Bletchley and slowly raided for spares. This vehicle had the "correct" style of Guard's Van for the Bachmann version (see below) but don't think it ever ran from Bletchley.

 

One of the regular Cravens vehicles, M50392 suffered damage in 1980/81 which saw it withdrawn.

https://www.railcar.co.uk/images/19168

 

Back in my childhood days, our garden backed on to the St Albans branch, so I was familiar with the Bletchley based Cravens units. From 1977 until late 1981 (ish) they took me to St Albans every school day.  From Autumn 1981, the six Class 104 units from Manchester started to appear on the branch, and compared to 105s they were positively luxurious, with high backed seats and wooden panelling.

 

As for modelling, the Bachmann 105s have the "other' style of Guard's Van arrangement with two bodyside lights per side, so correct for ER 51254 batch and LM 50752 batch. The 503xx and 514xx Cravens batches had only one bodyside light per side. The LM batch 50390-94 were built immediately following the NER batch that mostly had the 4 lamp cab front. Presumably the factory only had cab roof domes with a mounting area for a marker lamp, as the 50390 batch had these "stumps" on the dome but never a lamp. They had the two marker lamps on the lower cab front and the LM Region version of the Cravens headcode 2 digit box.

[EddieK]

On 16/12/2021 at 18:51, rodent279 said:

 

I've compiled this mostly from old IA/P5 books such as Locoshed, from contemporary mags, and of course from the excellent Railcar site. I'm not claiming it is a complete listing, or that it's infallible. If anyone can add anything, or point out any errors, please do.

 

The best way to get depot allocation histories for First Generation DMU depots is to go to the railcar website and click on "Data" at the top of the page. Then click on "Depots". Scroll down the list and if your chosen depot is coloured blue, click on the link. For each depot with a data section, you can then search for all vehicles ever allocated, or narrow the search by date or class. A very useful source...

[EddieK]

On 01/01/2022 at 20:09, Rugd1022 said:

These Bletchley - Bedford photos might be of interest, I've had them lurking in the hard drive for ages, the photographer's name escapes me but I believe he is known on here.... the unit is heading away from Bedford and towards Bletchley....

 

 

 

I remember a trip across the branch in one of these one Christmas (1972 or 73 I think) when we were going to stay with relatives in London, for some reason we got off the Euston bound train at Bletchley, caught the Cravens to Bedford and took another train from there to St.Pancras.

 

Edited to add - to me the dreary colour palet in the photos is just how I remember so many train trips in the '70s!

The colouration of the unit in the above images is typical of how the Bletchley Cravens looked in the 1970s. It seemed the whole exterior took on a brown tinge. One unit was repainted by the depot so the blue bodies and yellow cab ends were shiny, but the bodyside glazing was still ingrained brown. The same brown-ness took over the 104s transferred from Manchester from Autumn 1981.

This one is well on the way to brown  https://www.railcar.co.uk/images/17093

[EddieK]

Apart from the diet of the allocated Cravens 105 units, Bletchley sometimes provided a spot of variety, certainly on the St Albans branch. 

 

In the mid 1970s, Class 122 M55009 was a regular performer, also a bizarre formation seen around 1975 (possibly 1976) was when Cravens MBS 50393 ran with GRCW DTS 56295.

https://www.railcar.co.uk/images/14427

As the DTS was non-gangwayed, it was often locked out of use, meaning that all passengers had to utilise the 52 seats in the Cravens car, which was not a problem during the day, but at school travel times made  things cosy. The reason being that the Guard also sold/checked tickets. I recall a school trip from my Primary School around 1975/6 where the school party was accommodated in 56295, specially unlocked for us. The length of pink ticket roll that came out of the Guard's Almex machine was a sight to see.....

 

A treat in Summer 1981 was a Tyseley based three car Class 101 set. (I may have had a hand in setting the destinations to PWLLHELI and MACHYNLLETH...)

 

As I said above, the new order began around Autumn 1981 when the Class 104s began to appear, and soon the 105s were gone. 

 

In late Summer 1983, we were treated to a Tyseley 116 set just ex works from Swindon - the non gangwayed trailer car made fare collection interesting.

 

Around 1986, some ex Allerton Class 108s appeared on the St Albans line, but thereafter there were also guest appearances from oddities such as back to back pairs of Class 115 MBS, and a Class 114 set that had transferred from Lincoln to Tyseley (after LN closed) and that was then loaned to Bletchley. Apparently when the Tyseley Production Manager rang Bletchley to ask if he could have his unit back, he was alarmed to hear that it had extended the St Albans branch by a few feet after it hit the buffers....

 

The St Albans branch was electrified in 1988, but Bletchley DMUs still ran the Bedford branch and north of Bedford on Midland Main Line. Two of the more bizarre units were Class 108 MBS - Class 115 TS - Class 104 TSL - Class 108 MSL.

https://www.railcar.co.uk/images/15646

 

Returning to Class 105s, it must have been sometime in 1981 when I was returning from North Wales and got as far as New Street to find the only way back to Watford Junction was an all stations service formed of a Class 310. When this reached Bletchley, any passengers travelling further were ushered onto one of our 105s which proceeded south on the fast line complete with catering trolley. (The trolley had been on the Euston - Aberystwyth loco hauled train that morning, but the return working only went as far as Wolverhampton.....)

[08221]

15 hours ago, EddieK said:

The colouration of the unit in the above images is typical of how the Bletchley Cravens looked in the 1970s. It seemed the whole exterior took on a brown tinge. One unit was repainted by the depot so the blue bodies and yellow cab ends were shiny, but the bodyside glazing was still ingrained brown. The same brown-ness took over the 104s transferred from Manchester from Autumn 1981.

This one is well on the way to brown  https://www.railcar.co.uk/images/17093

The 105's were certainly dirty, here's a failed Cravens unit (50390 & 56482) at Bletchley with Class 115 DMBS 51886 leading on  a very soggy 7 August 1981 - my photo!

 

 

 

[08221]

14 hours ago, EddieK said:

Apart from the diet of the allocated Cravens 105 units, Bletchley sometimes provided a spot of variety, certainly on the St Albans branch. 

 

In the mid 1970s, Class 122 M55009 was a regular performer, also a bizarre formation seen around 1975 (possibly 1976) was when Cravens MBS 50393 ran with GRCW DTS 56295.

https://www.railcar.co.uk/images/14427

As the DTS was non-gangwayed, it was often locked out of use, meaning that all passengers had to utilise the 52 seats in the Cravens car, which was not a problem during the day, but at school travel times made  things cosy. The reason being that the Guard also sold/checked tickets. I recall a school trip from my Primary School around 1975/6 where the school party was accommodated in 56295, specially unlocked for us. The length of pink ticket roll that came out of the Guard's Almex machine was a sight to see.....

 

A treat in Summer 1981 was a Tyseley based three car Class 101 set. (I may have had a hand in setting the destinations to PWLLHELI and MACHYNLLETH...)

 

As I said above, the new order began around Autumn 1981 when the Class 104s began to appear, and soon the 105s were gone. 

 

In late Summer 1983, we were treated to a Tyseley 116 set just ex works from Swindon - the non gangwayed trailer car made fare collection interesting.

 

Around 1986, some ex Allerton Class 108s appeared on the St Albans line, but thereafter there were also guest appearances from oddities such as back to back pairs of Class 115 MBS, and a Class 114 set that had transferred from Lincoln to Tyseley (after LN closed) and that was then loaned to Bletchley. Apparently when the Tyseley Production Manager rang Bletchley to ask if he could have his unit back, he was alarmed to hear that it had extended the St Albans branch by a few feet after it hit the buffers....

 

The St Albans branch was electrified in 1988, but Bletchley DMUs still ran the Bedford branch and north of Bedford on Midland Main Line. Two of the more bizarre units were Class 108 MBS - Class 115 TS - Class 104 TSL - Class 108 MSL.

https://www.railcar.co.uk/images/15646

 

Returning to Class 105s, it must have been sometime in 1981 when I was returning from North Wales and got as far as New Street to find the only way back to Watford Junction was an all stations service formed of a Class 310. When this reached Bletchley, any passengers travelling further were ushered onto one of our 105s which proceeded south on the fast line complete with catering trolley. (The trolley had been on the Euston - Aberystwyth loco hauled train that morning, but the return working only went as far as Wolverhampton.....)

Here's a photo of mine showing a 3 car class 101 unit stabled at Watford Junction in August 1982.

 

[w124bob]

On 01/01/2022 at 16:11, Ken.W said:

I recall the Cravens as being unpopular

 

With the sloping desk there was nowhere to stand your cup of tea

I'll second that, by the time I arrived at Newton Heath they'ed all gone bar one hybrid 100/105 two car. Flickr group pictures here https://www.flickr.com/groups/1362082@N24/pool/

 

[EddieK]

On 04/01/2022 at 12:50, 08221 said:

Here's a photo of mine showing a 3 car class 101 unit stabled at Watford Junction in August 1982.

 

Are you sure of the date? That looks exactly like TS410 set that ran on the branch in August *1981* formed 50331-59125-50313, not just the livery details but the orientation of the TSL relative to the power cars. I was still living alongside the branch as at 1982 and would be upset if this had snuck past without my knowledge....

[08221]

42 minutes ago, EddieK said:

Are you sure of the date? That looks exactly like TS410 set that ran on the branch in August *1981* formed 50331-59125-50313, not just the livery details but the orientation of the TSL relative to the power cars. I was still living alongside the branch as at 1982 and would be upset if this had snuck past without my knowledge....

Yes Eddie, I have it recorded in my notebook and on the print.

 

I also have a photo of a 3 car 101 at Bletchley in 1981 (I’ll post it when I get time to scan it), so it must have visited twice 

[EddieK]

14 hours ago, 08221 said:

Yes Eddie, I have it recorded in my notebook and on the print.

 

I also have a photo of a 3 car 101 at Bletchley in 1981 (I’ll post it when I get time to scan it), so it must have visited twice 

To quote a popular phrase: "Bu***r! How did I miss that?!?"

 

Looking forward to the 1981 photo   8)

 

[Rugd1022]

From the disused stations site, photos by Alan Young and Geoff Dowling respectively....

 

Lidlington, February 1977....

 

 

Lidlington, October 1979....