Diesels at Rowsley, help please

[Alister_G]

Hi,

 

I'm trying to track down what diesel locomotives were shedded at Rowsley yard in it's last years before closure.

 

There are accounts in various books that a number of Sulzer Type 2s were shedded there for banking and shunting duties, and even a few indistinct photos, but not of identifiable locomotives, with the exception of a photo of D7570 on shed in 1966.

 

However, the BR Database (brdatabase.info), and the Rail Info site (railuk.info) don't seem to show any diesels allocated to Rowsley at all, and looking up D7570 doesn't show it as being allocated to Rowsley, either.

 

Would locos be stored and used there even though they were allocated to a different shed?

 

Any help would be gratefully received.

 

Thanks,

 

Al.

[jamie92208]

The person to ask is Glynn Waite of the Midland Railway Society, you might be able to contact him vi their website.

 

Jamie

[Fat Controller]

Hi,

 

I'm trying to track down what diesel locomotives were shedded at Rowsley yard in it's last years before closure.

 

There are accounts in various books that a number of Sulzer Type 2s were shedded there for banking and shunting duties, and even a few indistinct photos, but not of identifiable locomotives, with the exception of a photo of D7570 on shed in 1966.

 

However, the BR Database (brdatabase.info), and the Rail Info site (railuk.info) don't seem to show any diesels allocated to Rowsley at all, and looking up D7570 doesn't show it as being allocated to Rowsley, either.

 

Would locos be stored and used there even though they were allocated to a different shed?

 

Any help would be gratefully received.

 

Thanks,

 

Al.

Wasn't it LMR diesel policy that main-line diesels were allocated to Divisions rather to individual sheds. I recollect Toton's huge allocation of Class 20s, for example, were all D16 (Nottingham Division), whilst Crewe's allocation of 24s and 25s were D05 (Stoke Division). Thus, Rowsley's mainline locos, like those of Westhouses, Derby and Nottingham, would have simply been Nottingham Division ones. Shunters, on the other hand, seemed to be allocated to individual depots.

[Alister_G]

The person to ask is Glynn Waite of the Midland Railway Society, you might be able to contact him vi their website.

 

Jamie

Thanks Jamie, I've got his book on Rowsley, but never thought to try to contact him. 

 

Cheers,

 

Al.

[Alister_G]

Wasn't it LMR diesel policy that main-line diesels were allocated to Divisions rather to individual sheds. I recollect Toton's huge allocation of Class 20s, for example, were all D16 (Nottingham Division), whilst Crewe's allocation of 24s and 25s were D05 (Stoke Division). Thus, Rowsley's mainline locos, like those of Westhouses, Derby and Nottingham, would have simply been Nottingham Division ones. Shunters, on the other hand, seemed to be allocated to individual depots.

 

Thanks Brian, that might explain it, as 7570 is shown as being allocated to "Line Power Controller, Derby (ML)" for the period the photo was taken.

 

So if I find out which ones were so allocated I could probably use any of them...

 

Cheers,

 

Al.

[Fat Controller]

Thanks Brian, that might explain it, as 7570 is shown as being allocated to "Line Power Controller, Derby (ML)" for the period the photo was taken.

 

So if I find out which ones were so allocated I could probably use any of them...

 

Cheers,

 

Al.

That's an awful lot of engines..

[Alister_G]

That's an awful lot of engines..

 

 

Yes, I wasn't planning to have all of them... I'd need a layout the size of the real Rowsley to store them all...

 

Cheers,

 

Al

[Alister_G]

Many depots continued operation after the end of steam but without a main line allocation. There was a large number of depots where limited maintenance facilities were provided for visiting locomotives; Wellingborough for example whilst others became stabling points with just train crews but no engineering presence. Rowsley was one of the latter although I have seen an assertion possibly by J.F. Morton, a former Fitter at Rowsley, in his Book "Halcyon Days", that there were plans to build a small service shed there but were shelved as the future for the route became more doubtful.    

 

Hi David,

 

Thanks for your reply. I have also read that there were plans to add diesel maintenance facilities at Rowsley, in the Midland Railway Society book by Glynn Waite and Laurence Knighton, and there is a copy of the proposed plan in there as well.

 

If diesel locos were stabled at Rowsley, would the crews have been local still, or would they have travelled from Derby?

 

Cheers,

 

Al

['CHARD]

Hi David,

 

Thanks for your reply. I have also read that there were plans to add diesel maintenance facilities at Rowsley, in the Midland Railway Society book by Glynn Waite and Laurence Knighton, and there is a copy of the proposed plan in there as well.

 

If diesel locos were stabled at Rowsley, would the crews have been local still, or would they have travelled from Derby?

 

Cheers,

 

Al

 

Depends really if the Rowsley 'link' converted to Diesel in its last few years of existence.  I suspect that the majority would have been Derby men by this time.  

 

A bit like Woodford Halse, Hawick etc, I'd guess there was a diesel shunter allocation, driven by depot based crews, but the main line visiting locos' crews were attached to the major links who maintained the greater route and traction knowledge, especially as most of the local trip and target work on the secondary main lines was practically dried up by then.

[18B]

Many depots continued operation after the end of steam but without a main line allocation. There was a large number of depots where limited maintenance facilities were provided for visiting locomotives; Wellingborough for example whilst others became stabling points with just train crews but no engineering presence. Rowsley was one of the latter although I have seen an assertion possibly by J.F. Morton, a former Fitter at Rowsley, in his Book "Halcyon Days", that there were plans to build a small service shed there but were shelved as the future for the route became more doubtful.    

 

That's a most interesting point that there were plkans for a small servicing point there, I;d like to see some further details of that, those early days of diesel points is most interesting and at the same time hard to fathem why for examples, Burton on Trent came to be built so close to Derby and yet Coalville soldiered on without

[Fat Controller]

That's a most interesting point that there were plkans for a small servicing point there, I;d like to see some further details of that, those early days of diesel points is most interesting and at the same time hard to fathem why for examples, Burton on Trent came to be built so close to Derby and yet Coalville soldiered on without

Didn't Burton have integrated facilities for both loco and MGR wagon maintenance? I don't remember Derby being over-provided with loco-facilities either- Etches Park was simply a through shed, largely used for DMMU exams, I recollect. Derby would have been a large train-crew depot, however; these were often not coincident with where locos were based.

[TexChem]

Didn't Burton have integrated facilities for both loco and MGR wagon maintenance? I don't remember Derby being over-provided with loco-facilities either- Etches Park was simply a through shed, largely used for DMMU exams, I recollect. Derby would have been a large train-crew depot, however; these were often not coincident with where locos were based.

Burton did have both loco and wagon repair facilities, but they were quite separate. The shed was on the Birmingham side of the town, whereas the wagon maintenance facility was on the Derby side.

['CHARD]

I never could reconcile Derby's relative lack of presence in the diesel era, where running allocations were concerned.

 

When it came to steam, it was a different matter altogether:

 

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2068058

 

Mind you, Swindon and some other Works towns were never bestowed with vast diesel sheds.

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Before the introduction by the LMR of allocation to "Lines" (ie Midland Line ML, Western Line WL) and later Division (ie Stoke Division D05, Nottingham Division D16 etc) Derby (17A) did have quite a large allocation of mainline diesels, notably "Peaks" (and Co-Bos for a short period, though we don't mention those.....)

['CHARD]

I was aware of the Sulzer allocation, but it did seem to be transferred away early on.  I suppose what surprised me was that whereas Yorkshire and the West Midlands seemed to retain a large number of depots with diesel allocations, the Midland Lines went in a subtly different direction.  Really it was Cricklewood and Toton and that was pretty much it.

[Peter Kazmierczak]

And of course the Fell was allocated to 17A.....

['CHARD]

That makes a lot of sense.  17A was forever damned once that deviant beast had set up its roost there....

[Peter Kazmierczak]

I might have actually seen the Fell in service, as apparently when I was a baby in the pram I'd be taken to a bridge over the Derby - Trent line; probably to keep me quiet.

 

So it might've passed on a Manchester - St Pan train and I saw it; though obviously not realising what it was.

 

Can I count it as a "cop"?

[Enterprisingwestern]

I was aware of the Sulzer allocation, but it did seem to be transferred away early on.  I suppose what surprised me was that whereas Yorkshire and the West Midlands seemed to retain a large number of depots with diesel allocations, the Midland Lines went in a subtly different direction.  Really it was Cricklewood and Toton and that was pretty much it.

 

Although not written down as such on paper, D30, D41, D52, D55, and a few others to a lesser extent, "existed" on the eastern region, inasmuch as loco's from A sheds could turn up anywhere else in the pool, including shunters.

 

Mike.