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last days of the class 505s


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  • 3 years later...
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Thanks Mike and apologies to the previous poster. As I mentioned, it was the class 506 "Glossop" set that I wasm thinking of. Didn't realise any MSJA stock survived.

It once again underlines the issue of non preservation of much of our heritage EMU stock, no matter or rare or worthy. It seems bizarre that we can have a bit of Japanese bullet train in the NRM at York, yet an iconic Merseyside EMU was left to rot unseen and unaccessible in military sidings, then transported to one of the wettest and most inhospitable locations to deteriorate further. The same goes for the only (practical) example of British double deck railway stock, and what about the PEP stock - arguably the most important grandaddy of ourEMUs of today, particularly 313,314,315,507 and 508.

 

 

Rant over

Spot on. I raised much the same question in the End of Diesels thread elsewhere on here. I don't doubt the Bullet car deserves it's place in York-but so does/did the PEP train, a SUB/EPB etc.

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I hadn't realised they got converted to AC. I would have thought it was barely worth converting them given their life expectancy.

I don't believe they were, hence their withdrawal when the line was converted to AC...

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I don't believe they were, hence their withdrawal when the line was converted to AC...

You are correct, I remember reading about them now, in a book somewhere stored in the loft. As detailed further up the thread, Stone-Faiveley pantographs were fitted, to match the different mechanical characteristics of the 25kV OHL.

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You are correct, I remember reading about them now, in a book somewhere stored in the loft. As detailed further up the thread, Stone-Faiveley pantographs were fitted, to match the different mechanical characteristics of the 25kV OHL.

The class 506 units remained DC until withdrawal. The Great Eastern variant (306) started out very similar before conversion to AC.

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  • 1 month later...

I haven't posted on RMweb all day , purely because I was at the ELR for the Class 40 60th bash.

 

But luckily for me, I managed to bag a set of three OO Graham Farish pre-grouping compos there for £12 each (with a bit of discount too).

 

When I did some further research I realised that although they are the perfect start for one of these sets, they are in fact approx a foot short.

 

If I could live until 200 years old I'd probably fret about it.

But I won't, thus time to get stuck in. Same reason as I'm happy with OO!

Life's too short to be worrying about whose name is cast into bullhead chairs...

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  • 8 months later...

What a cracking video, cheers for posting this.

I wasn't aware that an attempt was made to preserve a full set, EMUs don't seem to do too well in preservation circles do they.

 

I believe I've asked this before, but has anyone ever seen one of these, or photos of one, at Reddish or indeed anywhere on the Manchester side of the MSW? Surely they must've visited there occasionally for the wheel lathe, as 502s 503s and 504s did.

Or were there facilities for tyre turning at Altrincham?

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What a cracking video, cheers for posting this.

I wasn't aware that an attempt was made to preserve a full set, EMUs don't seem to do too well in preservation circles do they.

 

I believe I've asked this before, but has anyone ever seen one of these, or photos of one, at Reddish or indeed anywhere on the Manchester side of the MSW? Surely they must've visited there occasionally for the wheel lathe, as 502s 503s and 504s did.

Or were there facilities for tyre turning at Altrincham?

 

would there have been a lathe at Longsight? Not too far off the regular patch and probably wouldn't raise too many eyebrows being there so may not have been recorded as much

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Didn't Longsight end up receiving Reddish's on closure? It could be my memory playing tricks,

 

Edit: Clearly my mind was playing tricks given the comment below!

 

However if Longsight had had one then the list of locos and units using Reddish's would presumably have been a lot shorter.

 

Simon

Edited by 65179
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I don't think so, as far as I'm aware it was left in situ after closure for the scrotes to trash, although I'd be delighted to be proven wrong.

 

I heard a story that it was reallocated to Allerton but my colleague says not, he was a workshop supervisor there so he would know, I suppose! He did say that some Matterson jacks and so on were taken to Allerton though, perhaps they were divvied up across LM depots. There is a lathe at Allerton, but it's a more modern Hegenscheidt machine which I used to maintain occasionally many years ago.

 

The 'wheel lathe' at Reddish was more of a milling machine, and unlike a conventional lathe was more adept at correcting ovality.

The wheel lathe at Longsight is a fairly new installation, originally intended for Northern Eurostar services I think. I don't know if there is/was another one at Longsight TMD, the 'Eurostar' one is across the way.

 

Which doesn't answer the question, where on earth did the DC Alty sets go for tyre turning? I wonder.

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This is a cracking thread. I think I only saw one of these sets in Manchester in 1968 when I made a few-weeks-too-late visit in search of the last steam workings. If I were a bit older I would have paid more attention to the various EMU and DMU types that were also on their last legs at this time.

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