Class 47 photos

[D826]

Ah, thank you there Rugd1022. 

 

Oh for a time machine.  I'd go down west and watch the procession of variety of traction (and freight) at Dawlish. 

 

 The 'Like' reaction is never good enough for the original western 'namer' Brushes.  Love that shot.

 

Cheers.

 

Matt W

[Halvarras]

1 hour ago, Rugd1022 said:

Photo by Peter Cooling : trusty WR namer D1660 at Paddington with a BP set, 16th August 1971, fifty years ago tomorrow....

 

 

Note - the 'Old Oak Common' depot sticker below the data panel, both being of the early style introduced i n1968.

 

 

I saw 1660 'City of Truro' actually at Truro on 30th July 1971, still in two-tone green on an up working (1A25) which helps pinpoint its date of repainting into blue. In the absence of info to the contrary I've always assumed its home depot Old Oak Common was responsible for this, er, less than perfect paint job - check out the wobbly numbers! (Curiously Laira repainted Warship 826 in a similar manner around this same time, followed by 868). The use of the old block serif style on blue made 1660 unique amongst Class 47s, and the positioning on the cabside was also unusual, although OOC later did the same to 1647 & 1661 'North Star' but with later style numerals. 1661 lacked arrow logos though, and 1647's quickly began to peel off! Another unusual aspect of 1660's repaint was that the bufferbeam cowls were also painted blue - AFAIK the only other blue 47 treated this way was the XP64 loco D1733. It lost its uniqueness during a general overhaul in summer 1973, and although it only ran with 1660 bodyside numbers for about 8 months before becoming 47076 I managed haulage behind it twice during that time, the second time from Exeter to.......Truro!

 

At the time of the photo Truro Yard was being remodelled and would reopen on 7th November 1971, an event which 1660 would attend being parked in the down sidings at the east end of the station - I had a temporary job in Old County Hall just up the road and popped down at lunchtime to see what was going on. That was when I discovered 1660 was no longer green.

 

D1660 was named at Truro on 8th June 1965 and as such was almost certainly the first Brush Type 4 over the Tamar. I became interested in railways in 1966 and D1660 would elude me until 22nd April 1970! For reasons which I hope will be obvious I've followed the fortunes of this machine and thought the game was up when withdrawn on 4th March 2004 with nothing more serious than dragging brakes, but after three years in scraplines Colas rescued it on 4th April 2007 and reinstated it for further use with an anticipated end date in 2013. Incredibly, eight years later it's still going strong!!! I hope preservation beckons.......I know where I'd like it to end up but they already have one, even if an inappropriate former East Midlands coal-hauler 

[Halvarras]

PS I think that pattern of depot allocation sticker first appeared in 1971, I recall seeing them stuck to Newton Abbot Class 43 Warships in their final year. I don't recall seeing them in 1970. The data panels first appeared in autumn 1968.

[younGGuns7]

2 hours ago, Rugd1022 said:

Photo by Peter Cooling : trusty WR namer D1660 at Paddington with a BP set, 16th August 1971, fifty years ago tomorrow....

 

 

Note - the 'Old Oak Common' depot sticker below the data panel, both being of the early style introduced i n1968.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Come on Heljan @61661 or Bachmann please

[Rugd1022]

21 minutes ago, Neil Phillips said:

 

I saw 1660 'City of Truro' actually at Truro on 30th July 1971, still in two-tone green on an up working (1A25) which helps pinpoint its date of repainting into blue. In the absence of info to the contrary I've always assumed its home depot Old Oak Common was responsible for this, er, less than perfect paint job - check out the wobbly numbers! (Curiously Laira repainted Warship 826 in a similar manner around this same time, followed by 868). The use of the old block serif style on blue made 1660 unique amongst Class 47s, and the positioning on the cabside was also unusual, although OOC later did the same to 1647 & 1661 'North Star' but with later style numerals. 1661 lacked arrow logos though, and 1647's quickly began to peel off! Another unusual aspect of 1660's repaint was that the bufferbeam cowls were also painted blue - AFAIK the only other blue 47 treated this way was the XP64 loco D1733. It lost its uniqueness during a general overhaul in summer 1973, and although it only ran with 1660 bodyside numbers for about 8 months before becoming 47076 I managed haulage behind it twice during that time, the second time from Exeter to.......Truro!

 

At the time of the photo Truro Yard was being remodelled and would reopen on 7th November 1971, an event which 1660 would attend being parked in the down sidings at the east end of the station - I had a temporary job in Old County Hall just up the road and popped down at lunchtime to see what was going on. That was when I discovered 1660 was no longer green.

 

D1660 was named at Truro on 8th June 1965 and as such was almost certainly the first Brush Type 4 over the Tamar. I became interested in railways in 1966 and D1660 would elude me until 22nd April 1970! For reasons which I hope will be obvious I've followed the fortunes of this machine and thought the game was up when withdrawn on 4th March 2004 with nothing more serious than dragging brakes, but after three years in scraplines Colas rescued it on 4th April 2007 and reinstated it for further use with an anticipated end date in 2013. Incredibly, eight years later it's still going strong!!! I hope preservation beckons.......I know where I'd like it to end up but they already have one, even if an inappropriate former East Midlands coal-hauler 

 

Great Post Neil. 1660 and 1661 both received their blue repaints in the factory at Old Oak, but for some reason 1661 didn't get the new double arrows, possibly due to a lack of them in the nearby stores building. I've seen 'City Of Truro' several times whilst at work recently, it's quite often stabled on Leicester depot with a few other BR blue 47s. I felt a pang of proper nostalgia when I saw it sat in Wembley Yard about three weeks ago and cabbed it for old time's sake!

 

We've had these Graham Wareham shots of 1660 at Ranelagh Bridge in September '71 already, but they do show the blue buffer beam cowling you mention very well....

 

 

 

A Bachman 4mm or Heljan 7mm attempt at doing 1660 again surely beckons..... 

 

(Edit : notice how dark the 'translucent' centre roof panels appear in the second photo, barely a month after the Old Oak repaint)

 

Edited August 15, 2021 by Rugd1022

[Rugd1022]

'North Star' was still sans BR logos in April '76....

 

 

A May 1975 shot of 'Atlas', the location looks like Haymarket to me....

 

 

Dear old North Star again, at Reading on 9th February 2007, I was quite surprised to see it....

 

[Rugd1022]

Photo by 'Sid Pix' : 'GJC' at Swindon in 1984....

 

 

 

[D826]

Purring with pleasure at the Western namers Rugd1022....made my Sunday.

 

Cheers.

 

Matt W

[Halvarras]

4 hours ago, Rugd1022 said:

 

Great Post Neil. 1660 and 1661 both received their blue repaints in the factory at Old Oak, but for some reason 1661 didn't get the new double arrows, possibly due to a lack of them in the nearby stores building. I've seen 'City Of Truro' several times whilst at work recently, it's quite often stabled on Leicester depot with a few other BR blue 47s. I felt a pang of proper nostalgia when I saw it sat in Wembley Yard about three weeks ago and cabbed it for old time's sake!

 

We've had these Graham Wareham shots of 1660 at Ranelagh Bridge in September '71 already, but they do show the blue buffer beam cowling you mention very well....

 

 

 

A Bachman 4mm or Heljan 7mm attempt at doing 1660 again surely beckons..... 

 

(Edit : notice how dark the 'translucent' centre roof panels appear in the second photo, barely a month after the Old Oak repaint)

 

 

Yes, these are the images which alerted me to the blue cowls, they were typically filthy by the time I first saw it in blue in November. Good job Mr W was quick with his camera!

Here's a pic of it at Oxford 19/5/73 - not long before its general overhaul......

 

And a really poor shot of City of Truro at Truro on 27/12/73 just after it had dropped me off. Bad weather, bad light, cr*p camera and rushed - by the time I had dashed over the footbridge it was already tackling the 1-in-60 climb to Highertown Tunnel. But photos of it in this condition are rare, so.....

 

And a close-up of that damaged nameplate at Reading on 30/12/76 - it was to get worse before it got better, the 'U' and the 'O' of 'TRURO' vanished (my notebook says there was an inspection saloon on the end of its train but I failed to note which one).......

[D826]

Brilliant Neil.  Thanks for posting.

 

Ps your comment on the Laira repaint of D826 Jupiter above resonated.  826 was in a terrible state before that repaint.  Always had a soft spot for 826 though.

 

Matt W

[Davexoc]

On 15/08/2021 at 16:43, Rugd1022 said:

'North Star' was still sans BR logos in April '76....

 

 

Is that a prototype for everything shot? That nameplate looks wonky to me.

I checked my pics, and although the Cosham shot is of the same side, its too dark and low an angle to gauge it. I guess someone on the Southern applied the white dots???

 

 

 

The other side seems to be OK, apart from the dodgy patch painting....

Edited April 7, 2022 by Davexoc
Photo restored

[Davexoc]

Another WR namer, but at this time it had defected to the ER (only temporarily (10 yrs) mind) who stamped their mark on it....

 

Edited April 7, 2022 by Davexoc
Photo restored

[Halvarras]

Stratford gained custody of D1676 Vulcan & D1677 Thor from Dec 68 until Dec 70 and were responsible for the red-backed nameplates on these green locos. Lacking data panels Bachmann's model of D1677 in Gfye livery is strictly only accurate from 12/68 until around Easter 1969, by which time most locos had received these. 

Here's 1661 North Star as Reading station pilot on a date I just can't seem to identify in my notebooks!......

 

Also at Reading, 47081 Odin on 2/8/74 - as D1666 this was the very first Brush Type 4 to carry a name, from 12/3/65, I believe it only ran nameless for one week from new! As such it beat D1661/2's official namings on 20/3/65, so was this thunder-stealing an administrative c*ckup?! By the date of the photo I don't think these plates were original, I seem to recall examining them close up and finding that they were white plastic (fibre-glass?) replicas, does anyone know for sure? This plate certainly looks newer than the rest of the loco!.....

(Heavens, how I wish I'd invested in a better camera)

 

By 3/1/75 I had moved up to a Zenit-E (don't laugh, they were actually pretty good) so was able to take this sharper shot of 47079 with its original longer plate on a by then much rarer visit to my 'second home' at Truro......look, BRUTE trolleys, yay!...... 

 

And here's 47087 Cyclops heading for Oxford at Didcot North on 27/5/78......

 

 

[Halvarras]

Sorry, me again - when I get this rather slow laptop up and running I like to make the most of it!

 

Following on from the photo of 47087 at Didcot North, here are some more shots from the same day - 47508 at Didcot North and two of 47510 at Oxford, with 47509 at Reading two days later. All looked like they had been prepared for naming ceremonies but this wouldn't happen until Spring the following year (508 Great Britain, 509 Albion and 510 Fair Rosamund - interestingly these had been built as D1952/3/4, only the first of which had originally been green)......

Edited August 15, 2021 by Neil Phillips
Correction to 47508's location

[Halvarras]

And finally for now (I'll let others get a look-in!) - how many 1s can you get into a photo of a single Class 47?.......

Answer - 7. A pity the crew hadn't dropped the 'L' a bit, it would have been a full house!  'All the ones' at Kings Cross 25/7/70.

 

Edited August 15, 2021 by Neil Phillips
Added location/date

[The Pilotman]

8 hours ago, Neil Phillips said:

Sorry, me again - when I get this rather slow laptop up and running I like to make the most of it!

No need to apologise when you’re posting stuff like that!! 

[Rugd1022]

More excellent photos there Neil - thanks for sharing those! The grainy one of 1660 at Truro in that rare livery variation is a real gem, it's far better to have images like this than none at all. Regarding 47 081's 'ODIN' plate, I think it was a replica at the time as there's a photo knocking about of the original plate with a corner missing, where someone obviously tried to jemmy it off with a crow bar or something. 

 

As for 508, 509 and 510s sparkling condition, this was down to the regular tarting up treatment they received in the factory at Old Oak.

 

Some more WR 'namer' shots from the hard drive, apologies for the lack of photographer credits but my file naming system is, pardon my French, utter crap! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Halvarras]

1 hour ago, Rugd1022 said:

More excellent photos there Neil - thanks for sharing those! The grainy one of 1660 at Truro in that rare livery variation is a real gem, it's far better to have images like this than none at all. Regarding 47 081's 'ODIN' plate, I think it was a replica at the time as there's a photo knocking about of the original plate with a corner missing, where someone obviously tried to jemmy it off with a crow bar or something. 

 

As for 508, 509 and 510s sparkling condition, this was down to the regular tarting up treatment they received in the factory at Old Oak.

 

Some more WR 'namer' shots from the hard drive, apologies for the lack of photographer credits but my file naming system is, pardon my French, utter crap! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great collection Nidge, some really interesting views there!

In the top photo of 47076 the replacement 'U' & 'O' can just be detected. Until recently I had assumed these and the missing rimming had been repaired during its 1984/5 overhaul when it was ETH'd to become 47625, but no it was done during a previous works visit around 1980.

With four Os wound up 47079 must have been close to having those lovely long nameplates criminally truncated.

47080 has an oddly long paint patch-up job, I saw something similar on 37162 carried out at Swindon Works in the mid-80s (a 37 in Swindon? That's nothing, 20192 & 27040 turned up as well!)

47081 nameless again by 1976/7  (the four Os displayed).

The close-up of 47484's number shows remnants of a really peculiar temporary paint job it received around 1980, where the logo and number were grouped at this end, but on the other side the logo was at the other end. Stranger still, the nameplates appear to have been painted orange with rimming and lettering picked out in black! I was alerted to this ages ago when a poor b&w photo of it at St Pancras 9/9/80 (I think) appeared in the DEPG's house magazine 'Inter City Express', but in those pre-internet days it remained a mystery - it was ex-works standard blue by June 82 following collision damage repairs but this paint-over suggests the fancy decoration quickly met with managerial disapproval! Even now photos of the short-lived variation prove hard to find but they do exist (I have a few but copyright unknown). 

Amazon with painted-over rimming is unusual too - it's not widely known that this one received replacement nameplates in the new corporate style, IIRC it had them by June 86 but it met a premature end so photos seem to be uncommon.

 

I also took to photographing the original WR namers in the 1980s whenever I came across them, unfortunately to date I haven't got around to scanning my negatives beyond 1979 but I've just discovered a possible shortcut - the camera on my smartphone is pretty good at photographing photographs.....!

[Rugd1022]

484 suffered a couple of major front enders within the space of a couple of years which is why the cab at number one end ended up with the 'flush' treatment. In my time at Old Oak all of the WR namers received preferential treatment, inside and out, many's the time I cleaned out their cabs with cotton waste whilst my driver filled up the mash can before going off shed. During quiet spells on the shed turns some of us would grab one of the metal step ladders that used to be left round the 'table and clean up the nameplates, great care was taken and much time expanded on getting both plates of 'IKB' looking ship shape, besides it helped to pass the time! I remember cleaning one of Cyclop's plates inside the servicing shed on a Sunday morning and kept hearing a whining sound from inside the loco, I went inside to have a look and Dipstick, one of the two depot cats had crawled into the engine room after one of the fitters had left all the doors open, the poor thing was covered in warm oil!

 

Photo by RMWebber Ray M : 'George Jackson Churchward' at Leeds in August '73....

 

 

 

Edited August 16, 2021 by Rugd1022

[Rugd1022]

Photo by 'Wobble Winter' : 'Odin' sans plates at Old Oak in September '76, note the semaphores still in place in the distance for coming off the carriage sidings....

 

[montyburns56]

D1720 Derby 1964 by KDH Archive

 

 

[montyburns56]

47357 Bordesley Junction 1974 by Geoff Dowling

 

 

[Rugd1022]

7 minutes ago, montyburns56 said:

47357 Bordesley Junction 1974 by Geoff Dowling

 

 

 

I shall very likely be sat in the same goods loop tomorrow with 4E18, waiting for my relief to turn up at Landor St! In amongst the weeds beyond the loop on the down side is a Cartic wagon which has been marooned there for several years.

 

'Odin' again at Old Oak, sans plates....

 

 

 

 

 

[montyburns56]

47148 at Widney Manor 1975 by Geoff Dowling

 

 

[Rugd1022]

51 minutes ago, montyburns56 said:

47148 at Widney Manor 1975 by Geoff Dowling

 

 

 

Curious thing about this shot is that it's a down train with an up train's headcode!