First Generation DMUs & Freight Workings

[Fat Controller]

Tail traffic was a feature of the trains from West Wales that passed my classroom windows from 1966 to 1973. It was usually a Class 120 with a BR or SR CCT. There was a period in the early 1970s where one working seemed always to have a 'six-eighter' towing both unit and van; it happened frequently enough for me to wonder whether it was diagrammed to work like that.

Vans for the Central Wales, as it then was, were attached and detached at Llanelli, where the train reversed- the van would be detached from a Down parcels, and stabled in the siding that trailed off the Up Goods until just before the Salop was due, when one of the shunters would place it in the platform.

One of the oddest tails I've seen was a photo of a unit leaving Milford Haven with a 12t 'Pipe' (SOV) on the back- either a reversion to the days of open Fish trucks, or something time-critical for the MoD.

[The Johnster]

They used to do the exact same thing on the Marches line add a bubble car to the cross country unit, lock it out of use for the passengers but fill it with mail, witnessed that at Hereford many times.

 

We used to use the bubble car on this service as traincrew accommodation, as we all had carriage keys, but the purpose was not carriage of mails, though the bubble was certainly used for that, but to bump up the power-to-weight ration of the 120s, which were having difficulty running to time on this hilly route.  The experiment was a failure, and 3 car Swindon Inter-City sets, Class 123 with 230 hp motors, replaced them.  These also failed to cut the mustard, due to higher gearing apparently, and were in turn replaced with Class 25s and 6 mk 1s, over time being reduced to 5 and then 4.  Not until the introduction of the Class 33s at Canton in the 80s did reliable timekeeping occur, with 4 electrically heated mk1s

 

Canton's 120s were well past their sell by in the 70s, and I recall one Bristol working which, despite having all four engines working, was only able to manage 40mph in 3rd gear across the Gwent levels due to headwinds, I kid you not!  It's climb out of the Severn Tunnel can best be described as pathetic.

[br2975]

They used to do the exact same thing on the Marches line add a bubble car to the cross country unit, lock it out of use for the passengers but fill it with mail, witnessed that at Hereford many times.

 

From the 1970 timetable, Canton based Swindon Cross Country (Cl.120) Units, with buffet fitted trailers were diagrammed to work the Cardiff - Crewe service.

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It soon became apparent that the Cross Country units were underpowered, so Canton undertook the simple expedient of using Cl.121 cars as power boosters, arttached to the Cross Country set, but locked out of use as they had no toilet facilities.

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The first two single cars so deployed were drawn from the Bridgend - Cymmer Afan service, and were replaced by a pair of Park Royal (Cl.103) sets, which were underpowered for the Cymmer Afan service, and were reformed into a power-twin (2x DMBS), with the 2x DT cars stored. This lasted less than a month, and at the end of the school term, the Cymmer branch service was withdrawn and the Park Royals sacked to Reading. 

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There was then a shortage of single power cars for the North & West (it was rebranded The Marches Line years later), so Canton split its only two car Cl.116 unit (W50090 and W50132) which were also used as power boosters on the Cardiff - Crewe services until additional single power cars (Cl.121) could be drafted in from other WR depots.

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About the same time 1970/1971 there was also an early morning working of a LMR DPU from Salop to Hereford and return.

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Brian R

[john new]

Immediately after steam finished on the Western/Southern Regions a regular working on Saturday Mornings for a while was a BR (W) unit heading down through Shawford IIRC around 10:30 with a tail load bogie syphon. The working had always been Hall hauled previously. If my linesiding memory after all this time is correct it would have been be a Reading - Southampton Terminus working.

 

I can't remember much more as DMUs didn't particularly rock my boat then, or now, but it wasn't one of the local bog-carts (2H or 3H) definitely a distinctive WR unit.

Edited June 4, 2017 by john new

[anroar53]

I remember one occasion in 1975 of travelling on a Luton to St. Pancras 127 which had a Mark 1 Blue/Grey BSK attached to the rear at Luton. It wasn't in service and was locked out of use. The St. Pancras 08 Shunter was waiting to pick it off on arrival and shunted it down middle siding 8. 

The Working Timetables used to show DMU services that were scheduled to have tail traffic. It was shown as formation/load D1(T) denoting Tail Traffic. Depending on train type the D figure could be 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5.

 

Andy.

[rodent279]

So.....moving on from DMU's.....were EMU's allowed to haul trailing loads, and if so, were any ever diagrammed to do so?

 

cheers N

[anroar53]

So.....moving on from DMU's.....were EMU's allowed to haul trailing loads, and if so, were any ever diagrammed to do so?

 

cheers N

I can remember the Southern MLVs hauling van traffic, around 1988-89. There was a working which called at Ashford in the early afternoon that went to London Bridge. A return working called at Ashford in the early hours of the morning which sometimes had a couple of vans tacked on the back of the MLV.

Then of course there were the famous water runs at the end of the 80s, early 90s. An MLV used to take a couple of 4 wheel tankers to Dover to fill up with water, and then return them to Ashford Down Sidings for use in the Carriage Washer. This was at a time of drought, and I think the water came from wells on BR land at Dover?

 

Andy.

[Fat Controller]

I can remember the Southern MLVs hauling van traffic, around 1988-89. There was a working which called at Ashford in the early afternoon that went to London Bridge. A return working called at Ashford in the early hours of the morning which sometimes had a couple of vans tacked on the back of the MLV.

Then of course there were the famous water runs at the end of the 80s, early 90s. An MLV used to take a couple of 4 wheel tankers to Dover to fill up with water, and then return them to Ashford Down Sidings for use in the Carriage Washer. This was at a time of drought, and I think the water came from wells on BR land at Dover?

 

Andy.

The well at Dover was on the Down side of the curve leading to Dover Priory from Folkestone; I believe the location was called Bulwark Street, and it had been an oil depot.

[john new]

Yes, designed for it if you count REPs plus TC sets as tail traffic. Despite living close to the SW main line 67-72 and 86-date have never seen anything else pulled though as tails. I think a MKi buffet car may have been wired in to one non-standard unit in the early days of steam/EMU overlap but my memory of that is hazy.

[anroar53]

So.....moving on from DMU's.....were EMU's allowed to haul trailing loads, and if so, were any ever diagrammed to do so?

 

cheers N

Having thought about this a bit more the EMU tail traffic would have been a bit of a problem. At a time when tail traffic was reasonably common most of the van tail traffic would have been vacuum braked, while most EMUs were air braked. (The MLVs were fitted with a low level vacuum hose connection). Most of the EMUs had high level brake pipes, which would have required Extension Pipes to couple to a Dual or Air Fitted van. Then later builds of EMUs had different couplers. Have never seen other EMU types with tail loads, but it might've happened?

 

Andy.

[Titan]

Most unusual working I saw was Mentor sandwiched between two class 309's. There had been a spate of de-wirements at the time involving 309's and I guess they were measuring pantograph behaviour with three pans up at 100mph.

[cheesysmith]

IIRC the MLVs, 33/1 and the 73s were dual braked, and could work tail traffic between a EMU and a vac fitted load, as long as they were between them. There was also some BG through wired with the SR MU and air brakes for use as extra luggage on the boat trains, as adding extra MLV would have exceeded the power supply.

[Ed-farms]

My Dad always says the first local Darlington to Bishop Auckland Train of the day, which was worked by a unit (most likely a DMU not a Bubble Car) used to have a mail van attached and they used the Unit to shunt it once it arrived.