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Class 33 Photos


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4 minutes ago, SED Freightman said:

Do you happen to have a date for the Reading MGR photos ? I remember sending a load of rejected coal from Hither Green (ex Ridham, originally ex Thamesport) to Didcot Power Station and wonder if these could possibly have been the empties off that working.

Sadly not, I never took notes or records. It will probably have been early/mid 1980's.

 

They look empty and with two 33's on the front that suggests it originated in the SR somewhere. and as WA said MGR trains were not common at Reading. So looks like a very possible candidate, although doesn't explain the odd movements?

Edited by ruggedpeak
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I’d tentatively suggest later 80s, as the 33/2 has its number on the front, which I don’t remember seeing when I was spotting in 33/2 land until the start of 1986.  1982 was the intro date for the HDAs visible in the photo. 
Edit: only a short rake too? 17 wagons?

Edit2: I meant that I never saw a number on the front like that and I left the area in early 86. 

Edited by eastwestdivide
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On 12/09/2020 at 20:39, eastwestdivide said:

I’d tentatively suggest later 80s, as the 33/2 has its number on the front, which I don’t remember seeing when I was spotting in 33/2 land until the start of 1986.  1982 was the intro date for the HDAs visible in the photo. 
Edit: only a short rake too? 17 wagons?

Edit2: I meant that I never saw a number on the front like that and I left the area in early 86. 

Having had a dig through my notes, the train I was thinking of was loaded at Thamesport on 30/11/1992. After problems with slow discharge due to the coal sticking in the wagons, UK Paper asked for the remaining loaded MGR's to be removed as they were in the way, so not a full train.  The wagons were moved to Hither Green for storage until British Coal sold the remaining load to Didcot PS. A special using SR locos took the wagons to Didcot, probably the only time a HG crew worked into the power station, albeit with a conductor from Reading.  If by chance the photos show this working (December 1992?), I suppose the locos may have been removed at Reading to run light to Theale for cement empties.

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45 minutes ago, SED Freightman said:

Having had a dig through my notes, the train I was thinking of was loaded at Thamesport on 30/11/1992. After problems with slow discharge due to the coal sticking in the wagons, UK Paper asked for the remaining loaded MGR's to be removed as they were in the way, so not a full train.  The wagons were moved to Hither Green for storage until British Coal sold the remaining load to Didcot PS. A special using SR locos took the wagons to Didcot, probably the only time a HG crew worked into the power station, albeit with a conductor from Reading.  If by chance the photos show this working (December 1992?), I suppose the locos may have been removed at Reading to run light to Theale for cement empties.

Sadly I was definitely not trainspotting at Reading in 1992, having moved to the other end of the country and had given up on trains at that point! So it wasn't that one. The mystery continues.................

 

The photos are definitely pre-1988, and probably some years before that.

Edited by ruggedpeak
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It's been a while since I caught up on this thread. Talk of ploughs a few pages back was interesting. I would appear the Western where happy to use the class 33s on all sorts of turns and not just the ones they where diagrammed then complain about the centre ploughs.

 

When I worked as a shunter at EH Depot we did a turn in the ground frame. One night shift I had set the road for a light engine when the sky lit up. It was a plough fitted class 37 and one of the ploughs had hit the juice rail. I reported this to the Foreman as was the instruction.

The fitters would either remove raise them remember of course if they had been on a loco for some time this might be hard to do. 

 

Cheers Peter.

img243 (800x533).jpg

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On 03/08/2021 at 19:26, jonny777 said:

D6562 and D6515 await departure with an Exeter to Waterloo service in 1970. Photographer unknown, my collection. 

 

 

IMG_5739.jpg.391d29f8d1ba679f6b8787c592cd2bdf.jpg


Being double-headed and not headcode 62, is it more likely to be the Brighton?

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35 minutes ago, brushman47544 said:

Being double-headed and not headcode 62, is it more likely to be the Brighton?

According to

https://sremg.org.uk/headcodes/eheadcodes/eheadcodes01.html

the Brighton/Exeter was G2 in 1971. Fairly unusual for an SR train of that period to have a wrong headcode. Dunno.

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In the 1970s I was a semi-regular traveller on the Reading - Redhill line as far as Blackwater. Of course the 3R 'Tadpole' units were the usual fare but some services were worked by Class 33s on short Mark1 formations and I was fortunate to get such haulage from time to time.

Here are what appear to be the only three photos I took of Class 33s on this line, all in March/April 1977, probably because I never put much effort into figuring out when they'd turn up so it was a game of chance!

 

33049 approaching North Camp with a parcels train on 5/3/77.....

124262893_770305_33049NorthCampnp.jpg.e685ae019e88b3fa56c2187cd0d2c1ac.jpg

(I didn't usually venture in this direction but I visited a model shop here on this day and purchased a blue Wrenn Class 08 shunter - 30 years ago I detailed this up but used a new unpainted body I'd picked up for a quid. I still have it. By pure coincidence the original body has just been awoken from its 3-decade slumber and is sitting within reach on my work bench in the process of resurrection on a decent Lima chassis, as the wasp stripes I applied in 1977 are too good to pass up!)

 

33021 passing Earley on 1/4/77 (no joking, it really is 33021....) heading for Reading (I'm a poet and I don't know it!)

182418296_770401_33021Earleynp.jpg.6aa730f41460825598eaaac42051514e.jpg

 

And 33025 passing under the A30 and about to call at Blackwater station, Reading-bound on 19/4/77 (hey, that was my birthday.......nope, not sayin'!)....

1374402162_770419_33025Blackwaternp.jpg.f03c6d2ee76a7fbaafc50c8fbdacaa72.jpg

 

And while I'm here, I found this view of 33043 at Reading on a rather dull 22/1/77 (that's my excuse, although I think this image still needs a tidy-up) , I believe it was a special but the inclusion of Mark 1 Pullman E314E was eye-catching - I think it was the only time I ever saw such a thing.....

871689058_770122_33043PullmanE314EReadingnp.jpg.05a0264741b7ad073663034f01b11c0a.jpg

 

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