'Westerns' that were nearly preserved?

[Peter Kazmierczak]

1 hour ago, br2975 said:

.

Living in Cardiff, between the SWML and the Ninian Park - Radyr freight line gave me an advantage when it came to clearing my thousands.

.

My pre-1970 notes disappared years ago, but here are my sightings of 'Prefect' between late 1970 and 1973.

(not intended to upset you........)

.

 

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo...

Where's me box of tissues?

[Dava]

Hymeks & Westerns had an elan & style which most DEs lacked. Warships & D63xx were sad-eyed losers and class 14 were mutants. Don’t expect many to agree! Dons HVV & leaves….

[Halvarras]

1 hour ago, Dava said:

Hymeks & Westerns had an elan & style which most DEs lacked. Warships & D63xx were sad-eyed losers and class 14 were mutants. Don’t expect many to agree! Dons HVV & leaves….

 

Well.........knowing how I felt about them all originally (not the 14s, irrelevant to the South West) I do sort of agree with you - the Westerns and Hymeks had a modernity the Warships and D63xx lacked. I never really took to the Warships' bulbous noses and the D63xx were........well, there. The D6xx type had more presence and looked somewhat better than their chopped-off smaller brothers. However appearance aside I was always impressed by the D8xx Warship design's astonishing power-to-weight ratio compared to the heavyweight diesel-electric Type 4s, that much could be gleaned from my Ian Allan ABCs - I always thought that their replacement by Class 46s of all things was someone's idea of a joke, twice as many wheels and coming on for twice the weight.

 

Still, never mind - modelling 1973/4 would keep the two stylish designs and neatly sidestep the rest! As long as you don't mind BR banger blue of course......!!

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Though a pair of D8xx on the CRE was always impressive in 1968/69.

[Halvarras]

3 hours ago, Peter Kazmierczak said:

Though a pair of D8xx on the CRE was always impressive in 1968/69.

 

Oh yes, I remember those! Had D819 + D832 for haulage from Exeter to Plymouth, maybe all the way back to Truro, on the evening of 1/11/68 (I'd just seen my first Class 33 there, D6564 in green fye!) The only green Warships I can recall employed on these services were D824/25/66 - D866 quickly went blue but the other two lasted long enough for me to see them paired up just the once, on the up CRE through Truro on 26/8/68. Dates courtesy of my old Jun-Nov 1968 'Ian Allan Locolog Book' - anyone else recall those?!

[Peter Kazmierczak]

I've still got one of those Loco Log Books somewhere. There was a column for comments; so for a new Brush 4 "cop" I'd write "good" or "best" Some old steam loco I'd seen umpteen times was "bad".

[Halvarras]

My entries in the three columns headed NUMBER, CODE & REMARKS were number, headcode and 'GREEN', 'RED' [maroon!] or 'BLUE' - plus 'B/G' for the Class 120 DMUs on blue/grey livery (those described as 'BLUE' must have been in Bsyp livery).

I got off to an early start logging liveries - at some point in 1970 the three main liveries became more descriptive - 'G', 'M' or 'B' with added 's' (small yellow panel) or 'a' (all yellow end) which was also much faster to write, but even this shorthand got overwhelmed during visits to Crewe and Derby Works when the 's' and 'a' got ditched in the panic! By that time the Loco Log books had become insufficient for the increasing number of 'away days' so I'd switched to those pocket-sized hardback cash books instead, which had more space for comments and allocations as well. The livery info I'd recorded would become valuable to certain individuals later on......

 

[Steamport Southport]

On 26/10/2023 at 22:57, Halvarras said:

 

Indeed, I rode behind 1048 on the NYMR in April 1979, in the snow. It was incorrectly painted green at that time, but in immaculate condition.

 

The Landore locos - the first air-braked batch 1013/15/25/26/31/55/61/62/63/66/69 - became extremely rare in the far South West in the late '60s, as did vac-only 1000 which also went to Landore for some reason. I had scored all bar 1015 and 1031 before they departed for South Wales via Swindon Works (and still recall 1000 in maroon with its cast BR crests hurtling through Par on a down train in the summer of '66) - having seen 72 Westerns by the spring of 1969 it took me a few months to catch 1031 (at Exeter 6/9/69) and another 9 months to find 1015 to complete the set, at Truro on 5/6/70 - it had taken me 5 years, with a Class I saw every time I went lineside......bit frustrating! As more Westerns became dual-braked those original locos were allowed to roam, thankfully.

 

My biggest spotting failures were Hymeks 7071/79, Class 33 6597 (33212) and Class 47 1788 (47307) - following withdrawal of the last two and thanks to much better info by then I knew where they were stored but by then couldn't summon the enthusiasm to travel long distances in the hope of finding them.......

 

 

 

I think I've still got a certificate saying I own a tenners worth of 1048!

 

It was when it was in storage at Southport and the owners were trying to raise funds for it's repairs after the water damage.

 

Obviously it's been through a few owners since.

 

 

Jason

[ISW]

On 26/10/2023 at 10:06, jools1959 said:

including 1035 Western Yeoman but it was found to be in poor condition, so they bought 1010 Western Campaigner instead.

You mean this one, as I photo'd in 1983 at Merehead Quarry:

 

Ian

[Halvarras]

52 minutes ago, ISW said:

You mean this one, as I photo'd in 1983 at Merehead Quarry:

 

Ian

 

The real D1035 was Crewe's first one (D1034 was its last.....!) and Crewe-built Westerns had the driver's name card holders below the cab side windows which were absent on Swindon's output - a clue that this was not really D1035.

Note also that this end acquired a new lower valance panel, which had a more angular look with single rather than double side step holes, which AFAIK it carries to this day (after all, spare ones a bit hard to come by 😉!)

[adb968008]

Wasnt D1058 supposed to make it also ?

[Rivercider]

8 hours ago, adb968008 said:

Wasnt D1058 supposed to make it also ?

 

D1058 was one of the Westerns I saw at Swindon in November 1978.

D1058 Western Nobleman in Swindon scrap yard, with diesel brake tender B96409? on the next road, 12/11/78

 

cheers

[Ray M]

4 minutes ago, Rivercider said:

 

D1058 was one of the Westerns I saw at Swindon in November 1978.

D1058 Western Nobleman in Swindon scrap yard, with diesel brake tender B96409? on the next road, 12/11/78

 

cheers

If i remember rightly,  it didnt look much better than that, when it was working.

[kevinlms]

On 27/10/2023 at 08:02, br2975 said:

.

Living in Cardiff, between the SWML and the Ninian Park - Radyr freight line gave me an advantage when it came to clearing my thousands.

.

My pre-1970 notes disappared years ago, but here are my sightings of 'Prefect' between late 1970 and 1973.

(not intended to upset you........)

.

Didn't do much work, only 14 viewings in 3 years!

 

😇

[Peter Kazmierczak]

This one never made it...

Motorail bound for Totnes and St Austell | Cl.52 D1038 Weste… | Flickr

Edited October 29, 2023 by Peter Kazmierczak

[rogerzilla]

Shame D1000 wasn't kept for the National Collection, in desert sand with the cast lion emblems.

[Hesperus]

On 26/10/2023 at 14:27, andyman7 said:

 

 D601 being cut up by Barry in 1980 meant that not a single NBL diesel made it to preservation , 

 

Not entirely true, at least one NBL diesel shunter lives on.  It was at Telford Steam Railway last time I saw it.

[Halvarras]

5 hours ago, Hesperus said:

 

Not entirely true, at least one NBL diesel shunter lives on.  It was at Telford Steam Railway last time I saw it.

 

Indeed, D2767 and D2774 live on. Maybe some industrial locos too? I think @andyman7 probably meant mainline types.

 

When I saw D601 and D6122 at Barry in February 1974 they already looked beyond saving, however if the determination displayed for proposed new-builds these days had existed back then, who knows? But it's hypothetical, and the fact that we still haven't had opportunities to ride behind D5705 or D8233 yet, and these two were way more intact than those two, shows how difficult and time-consuming (and expensive!) these projects are. 49 years ago just one mainline diesel had been privately purchased for preservation (D821) so there was never any real prospect of the NBL pair being saved. Nobody seemed interested in rescuing them for cosmetic restoration either - that approach doesn't seem to be doing 18000 any favours......

[Downendian]

On 26/10/2023 at 18:49, Peter Kazmierczak said:

It still hurts, after almost 49 years, that one "Thousand" eluded me; 1066 Prefect. It spent a lot of time at Landore and was the first to be fitted with dual brakes I believe.

I feel the same regarding the early casualties - specially as I had started spotting in 1972/3 and lost the numbers before buying my first combine. I’d probably seen most of them plus a few extra Hymeks and maybe even Warships.

My true records began in July 1974 and I copped D1066 at Winterbourne on 25 July, seen her again at Paddington working on 26 October, and then defunct at Swindon works on 26/1/75. I’m grateful for those 1974 memories however, several I saw only a handful of times whilst in service, including D1061, copped a day or two before withdrawal. 
Neil

Edited October 31, 2023 by Downendian

[andyman7]

9 hours ago, Hesperus said:

 

Not entirely true, at least one NBL diesel shunter lives on.  It was at Telford Steam Railway last time I saw it.

Yup, meant to say 'main line diesel'...84 001 survives as an electric loco