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Class 22 areas of operation


TravisM
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I have an old BR(WR) instruction from April 1966:

 

attachicon.gifIMG_0636.JPG

 

In it there are a couple of trains booked for D63xx:

 

Two from Acton

 

attachicon.gifIMG_0637.JPG

attachicon.gifIMG_0638.JPG

 

and one working from Warwick:

 

attachicon.gifIMG_0639.JPG

 

Hope this is of interest to someone?

Thanks for posting this.

Beside the class 22 info it nicely shows the basic priciple of marshalling longer distance freight services

with vacuum portions for each calling yard towards the loco, and unfitted portions for each yard towards the brake van,

 

cheers 

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I have an old BR(WR) instruction from April 1966:

 

attachicon.gifIMG_0636.JPG

 

In it there are a couple of trains booked for D63xx:

 

Two from Acton

 

attachicon.gifIMG_0637.JPG

attachicon.gifIMG_0638.JPG

 

and one working from Warwick:

 

attachicon.gifIMG_0639.JPG

 

Hope this is of interest to someone?

That would explain how D6346 was at Warwick. Petrol tanks were unloaded in Cape Yard to the North of the station, formerly by Regent, later by Shell.  Somewhere in that book there is prossibly an inbound working.

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The Westerns Hydraulics by J K Lewis, mentions the 23 locos that were transferred to Old Oak Common in 1963 and details some of the workings.

As well as internal WR work previously discussed in this thread he also mentions:-

 

"They also assisted with light freight trains across the London Division, ranging from Oxford-Abingdon car trains to block tanker workings

between the oil terminals at Ripple Lane and Staines West." 

 

cheers

I recall seeing Class 22s at Kensington Olympia, but I seem to think now that they came off their trains here and swopped with Southern crews who were equiped with Classes 33, 73 and 74 for the onward journey to Norwood Yard mostly. Although in later years similar workings saw Warships and Westerns go all the way to Norwood yard and work return freights back onto the WR.

 

I have seen Class 22s as far as Stratford and Temple Mills in contributor's photographs. As an aside I recall hearing but not seeing a Class 22 on the Staines West branch one day whilst fishing in a nearby gravel pit it may have been on the regular trip working from the scrapyard on the branch which was usually an 08 turn.

 

Kevin

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Fascinating thread. I could read threads like this all day!

 

Going slightly OT, I know Westerns made it to Bletchley, Wolverton, Northampton, Bedford & Luton, on stone trains, and at least one each of a Hymek & Warship to Bletchley on specials, but I wonder if a 22 ever made it to any of those locations? Does anyone know?

 

Cheers

N

Edited by rodent279
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Fascinating thread. I could read threads like this all day!

 

Going slightly OT, I know Westerns made it to Bletchley, Wolverton, Northampton, Bedford & Luton, on stone trains, and at least one each of a Hymek & Warship to Bletchley on specials, but I wonder if a 22 ever made it to any of those locations? Does anyone know?

 

Cheers

N

Class 22s certainly made it onto the stub of the former GC to Aylesbury in that direction, doubt they ventured any further though.

 

Kevin

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Just had some interesting comments from Mike Thomas in Worcester on operations in 66/67... Many thanks Mike!

 

Can I add a few notes regarding those early diesel classes.

My first sighting of a Class 14 was on sat 14th november 1965 at Abbotswood.It worked a Chepstow-Abbotswood ballast hoppers & returned LE to Gloucester.Loco was D9521.

The next one seen was D9527 on sat.March 5th 1966.Lydney-Worcester ballast hoppers so at least this one made it to Worcester.After that they were fairly regular on either ballast trains or local freights from Worcester-Gloucester.Last one noted was D9502 on sat july 16th 1966.

The D63xx class were kept fairly busy from 1968 to April 1971.I have numerous sightings of them during this period on ballast & concrete sleeper trains mainly.

My earliest sighting is 14 jan 1968 6316 on P.Way train at A/Wood.

6318 was at Ashchurch on may 4th 68 on the clear up after the freight train collision.

On sat 12th april 1969 85A worcester Open Day 6321/6324/6329 & 6342 were present.

Sun 6th july 1969;6320/6348/6352 on Gloucester Shed.Also present were 9514/9518.

As far as I can see my last working of a 63xx was sat 17th April 1971 when 6354 worked a 8B51 ballast to Worcester.

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On 20/03/2015 at 22:16, TrevorP1 said:

I was only a nipper at the time but I definitely remember seeing them on the Falmouth branch goods from the window of our B & B in Melville Road, Falmouth. Also, not totally certain on this, but I think occasionally in pairs on the Padd - Falmouth.

 

They worked the Falmouth and Newham branches from the time they displaced the 45XX and 84/94XX until November 1971 when the local goods facilities were withdrawn. If you saw a pair of them on the Paddington-Falmouth between 1959 and 1966 that wouldn't have been that unusual as they often ran in pairs to substitute for a failed Warship. 

 

My abiding memory of them is being at Truro on a Saturday when two of them arrived heading west at the head of a train for Penzance, which included the failed Warship. The weather was bad as it was a westerly gale and the noise they made getting away on the curving adverse grade was unforgettable.

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On 31/10/2016 at 12:19, Tim H said:

 

Weren't some allocation to Laira at one point? Used on the former SR route through Okehampton after the end of steam. 

 

I have a colour slide taken by my father in the summer of 1965 of D7096 on a postal train, at Penzance. Recent curiosity about this led me to look at the Hymek allocations on BR database and this loco was one of a number allocated to Laira at the time. They were also used on Motorail trains in Cornwall (mentioned in the Motorail thread on this site).

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On 19/03/2015 at 15:40, Rugd1022 said:

ume 4A: Gloucester Midland Lines Some 'local' workings involved quite a bit of mileage all within the regular daily diagrams - take the down evening 'local stopper' from Exeter to Newton Abbot c.1971 which departed around 20.10, the 22s booked to it often appeared in pairs on this and started the day working up and down the Paignton branch before working that 20.10 service and after depositing passengers at N.Abbot the whole shebang would go to Laira as empty stock.

 

I noted pairs of NBL Type 2s on holiday in July 67 on Teignmouth or Dawlish sea walls - D6318 (blue FYE) with D6316 (green) on 2C96, and D6318 with D6321 (green) on 2C90 - I haven't a clue what time of day, but on both occasions they were the last trains recorded, suggesting 6 pm or later.

 

Interesting about the introduction of these locos to the Gloucester area - from Volume 4A: Gloucester Midland Lines Part 2: South - D95xx are shown on the Nailsworth/Stroud branch in mid 1966, and D9500 (in several photos, allocated at Bath Road but seemingly working from Gloucester) is quoted as placed in store several weeks later (the branch also closed around the same time), D9500 being reinstated according to the book, about 6 months later. There are photos of several others of the class on the branch. There are also photos of them at Dursley.

 

My spotting notes which I still have date from 1967-69, and every trip from Birmingham to Bristol or Cardiff shows several D63xx recorded - these were either at Gloucester, or at various locations such as Lydney, Dursley branch and others, whilst I was on the train beyond Gloucester. The only D95xx recorded were either at Canton, or in store at Worcester. Is it possible the D63xx ousted the D95xx on these duties in late 1966? This seems to have coincided with an exodus of stock from the WR (EE Type 3; class 116; Railbuses; the first of several class 122 to ScR). A major change in that period was the closure of the withered arm - did this free up class 22s? They were certainly used on the Barnstaple - Meeth workings in the later 60s, until the influx of class 25s to replace them, but were on these Gloucester workings for several years.

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On 14/11/2020 at 17:30, Tankerman said:

 

They worked the Falmouth and Newham branches from the time they displaced the 45XX and 84/94XX until November 1971 when the local goods facilities were withdrawn. If you saw a pair of them on the Paddington-Falmouth between 1959 and 1966 that wouldn't have been that unusual as they often ran in pairs to substitute for a failed Warship. 

 

My abiding memory of them is being at Truro on a Saturday when two of them arrived heading west at the head of a train for Penzance, which included the failed Warship. The weather was bad as it was a westerly gale and the noise they made getting away on the curving adverse grade was unforgettable.

Do you know what goods were carried on the pick-up freight services on the Falmouth branch when Class 22's were operating them? I have seen plenty of Vanfits stored in the sidings at Penryn but never sure what they would have contained.

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11 hours ago, Ben04uk said:

Do you know what goods were carried on the pick-up freight services on the Falmouth branch when Class 22's were operating them? I have seen plenty of Vanfits stored in the sidings at Penryn but never sure what they would have contained.

 

The majority of the vanfits would have contained animal feed, mostly either for cattle or pigs, but also pellets for chickens. There were regular traffic flows from Avonmouth docks where BOCM (British Oil and Cake Mills) and, I think, Rank's and Spillers' had processing plants.

 

If my memory is correct there were what were effectively block trains of vanfits, mostly Warship hauled, which dropped off wagons at Liskeard, St Austell, Truro for Newham and Penryn, and ended at Penzance. I'm not sure about the Helston branch, but I think that vanfits carrying such loads went to Nancegollan, possibly up until it closed to goods traffic in October 1964. Penryn was used in preference to Falmouth as the access to the local road network was much easier and closer to the local feed merchants.

 

On the Falmouth branch in addition to the van traffic there was the occasional load of coal in 16 ton minerals. The main coal merchants in both Penryn and Falmouth had premises adjacent to the harbours and most coal was brought in by coastal ships.

 

Other traffic at Penryn consisted of some broccoli and cabbage in their season and varied loads in opens. One other traffic, which from memory ceased about 1960, were tank wagons carrying oil of some sort, I think either Paraffin/TVO (Tractor Vaporising Oil) or diesel for a small fuel depot situated on Treliever Road by the junction with Browns Hill. The end of pipe was under a locked cover to the left hand side of the goods yard entrance and ran down to the depot from there, allowing gravity discharge.

 

Travelling through Penryn there were refrigerated meat vans or containers for the ship provision cold store at Falmouth Docks, vanfits carrying shot blast granules, used for cleaning the ships hulls before repainting, bitumen tanks, there were heated tanks near the head of No 1 dry dock, steel plate for hull repairs, the quantities varied depending on how busy the Docks were and the nature of the repairs being carried out and various vans and opens with all the items necessary to run a ship.

 

I hope this has been of some help.

 

 

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1 hour ago, Tankerman said:

 

The majority of the vanfits would have contained animal feed, mostly either for cattle or pigs, but also pellets for chickens. There were regular traffic flows from Avonmouth docks where BOCM (British Oil and Cake Mills) and, I think, Rank's and Spillers' had processing plants.

 

If my memory is correct there were what were effectively block trains of vanfits, mostly Warship hauled, which dropped off wagons at Liskeard, St Austell, Truro for Newham and Penryn, and ended at Penzance. I'm not sure about the Helston branch, but I think that vanfits carrying such loads went to Nancegollan, possibly up until it closed to goods traffic in October 1964. Penryn was used in preference to Falmouth as the access to the local road network was much easier and closer to the local feed merchants.

 

On the Falmouth branch in addition to the van traffic there was the occasional load of coal in 16 ton minerals. The main coal merchants in both Penryn and Falmouth had premises adjacent to the harbours and most coal was brought in by coastal ships.

 

Other traffic at Penryn consisted of some broccoli and cabbage in their season and varied loads in opens. One other traffic, which from memory ceased about 1960, were tank wagons carrying oil of some sort, I think either Paraffin/TVO (Tractor Vaporising Oil) or diesel for a small fuel depot situated on Treliever Road by the junction with Browns Hill. The end of pipe was under a locked cover to the left hand side of the goods yard entrance and ran down to the depot from there, allowing gravity discharge.

 

Travelling through Penryn there were refrigerated meat vans or containers for the ship provision cold store at Falmouth Docks, vanfits carrying shot blast granules, used for cleaning the ships hulls before repainting, bitumen tanks, there were heated tanks near the head of No 1 dry dock, steel plate for hull repairs, the quantities varied depending on how busy the Docks were and the nature of the repairs being carried out and various vans and opens with all the items necessary to run a ship.

 

I hope this has been of some help.

 

 

 

That's very interesting. Thank you.

 

I was only young but I remember ordinary containers being unloaded by hand crane at Falmouth station c1962/3. I'm very clear on this because I used to stand there with Dad watching the poor blokes wind the crane up and down! There were Scamell Scarabs with trailers 'at the ready'. I presume that meat containers for ship provisions would have been unloaded in the docks?

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2 hours ago, TrevorP1 said:

 

That's very interesting. Thank you.

 

I was only young but I remember ordinary containers being unloaded by hand crane at Falmouth station c1962/3. I'm very clear on this because I used to stand there with Dad watching the poor blokes wind the crane up and down! There were Scamell Scarabs with trailers 'at the ready'. I presume that meat containers for ship provisions would have been unloaded in the docks?

 

Hi Trevor.

 

As far as I'm aware they were as one of the lines in the docks ran next to the building where the cold stores were.

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Hi Trevor,

 

Apologies, I've been remiss as I forgot to mention the Cornwall Railway Society website. It has a number of photographs of the Dock railway, some of which shows the tank wagons and refrigerated vans. In addition there is a lot of information about Cornwall's railways both past and present.

 

I think you will enjoy browsing through it.

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A quick question

 

Train trip from Gloucester to Falmouth in mid to late 60s. Memory is definitely before 1969 (due to Neil and Buzz). 90% sure before the Warship on mixed maroon/blue grey memory, which is also pre moon landing.

 

What is the chance that I would have seen one of these?

 

I remember seeing lots of dirty locos, I think I saw some steam locos (grubby with coupled wheels), (I have been told I have seen some when in push chair).

 

I would have been between 2 and 5.

 

Thanks

 

Martin

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7 hours ago, MJI said:

A quick question

 

Train trip from Gloucester to Falmouth in mid to late 60s. Memory is definitely before 1969 (due to Neil and Buzz). 90% sure before the Warship on mixed maroon/blue grey memory, which is also pre moon landing.

 

What is the chance that I would have seen one of these?

 

I remember seeing lots of dirty locos, I think I saw some steam locos (grubby with coupled wheels), (I have been told I have seen some when in push chair).

 

I would have been between 2 and 5.

 

Thanks

 

Martin

I think you'd have been very likely to have seen class 22s on your journey - Gloucester, Bristol, Exeter, Newton Abbot, Plymouth and anywhere in Cornwall were their haunts. 

 

Rather less likely that you'd have seen steam, as it finished on the Western Region in 1965, but in 1967 you might have seen withdrawn Southen Region steam locomotives being hauled to South Wales scrapyards.

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So I can safely say then that I have seen 3 or 4 classes of NBL Diesels (not a 16) two in South Wales, and must have seen a 22 and 43 in service as in later years you must have seen a 50 on a similar trip.

 

I know that I had commented on steam locos around Gloucester when still in service.

 

1965 I would be be 3 going to 4

 

So possibly it was what is now known as an 08.

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10 hours ago, MJI said:

A quick question

 

Train trip from Gloucester to Falmouth in mid to late 60s. Memory is definitely before 1969 (due to Neil and Buzz). 90% sure before the Warship on mixed maroon/blue grey memory, which is also pre moon landing.

 

What is the chance that I would have seen one of these?

 

I remember seeing lots of dirty locos, I think I saw some steam locos (grubby with coupled wheels), (I have been told I have seen some when in push chair).

 

I would have been between 2 and 5.

 

Thanks

 

Martin

 

You wouldn't have seen any steam locos west of Plymouth as they were replaced by diesel locos/multiple units by the end of 1962. One of the reasons for this being that it was a lot cheaper to transport diesel than coal to the wilds of Cornwall.:)

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9 hours ago, MJI said:

I know that I had commented on steam locos around Gloucester when still in service.

 

1965 I would be be 3 going to 4

 

So possibly it was what is now known as an 08.

 

Although the Western Region had no steam locos of its own  after the end of 1965*, I guess Gloucester - being a kind of frontier town - might have seen steam workings penetrating from the LMR for a while longer. I'd be interested to know any details.

 

*Somerset & Dorset (and Meldon Quarry) excepted.

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All I can remember is seeing some trains out of right side. Compartment window was right. A couple of lines and some vague train shapes.

 

Sorry for lack of detail. But one of my earliest memories.

 

Earliest strong memory with trains was warship with blue grey maroon set mix. When my dad went to Sharja

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3 hours ago, Andy Kirkham said:

 

Although the Western Region had no steam locos of its own  after the end of 1965*, I guess Gloucester - being a kind of frontier town - might have seen steam workings penetrating from the LMR for a while longer. I'd be interested to know any details.

 

*Somerset & Dorset (and Meldon Quarry) excepted.


MIAC year by year has some details... Worcester not Gloucester but as no yards between the two Gloucester workings are easily deduced.

 

 

 

 

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One duty which has been overlooked is banking at Evershot between Yeovil and Dorchester.

In the early 1960s a 22 was outstationed (not allocated) at Yeovil shed for this.

I remember one occasion when after a day out at Weymouth with my mother we arrived at Pen Mill on a late running DMU to find the last Taunton connection had gone.

The stationmaster rapidly called the 22 from shed, matched it to a scratch set and sent the two of us on the way home.

You'd think that they would have used another 22 at the other end, banking between Weymouth and Dorchester but it seems a Hymek was  used instead. 

Edited by randyrippley
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