Prototype for everything corner.

[jonny777]

This DMU formation is not something that I saw everyday.

 

 

[corax67]

I love images like this - if you ran a configuration like this on a show layout you would be lambasted by the "expert" railway aficionados but if you can provide proof like this it is a guaranteed promotion to smugville.

[jonny777]

Yes. Exactly.

 

I am not quite sure where this photo has been taken, but I think it is in South Wales between Newport and Severn Tunnel Junction. The liveries of the units makes it more noteworthy in that case, as NSE liveried DMUs rarely ventured that far west.

[Fat Controller]

Yes. Exactly.

 

I am not quite sure where this photo has been taken, but I think it is in South Wales between Newport and Severn Tunnel Junction. The liveries of the units makes it more noteworthy in that case, as NSE liveried DMUs rarely ventured that far west.

I think that Magor station was situated at about the point where the photographer was standing; my mother used to get the train to there to visit her grandparents pre-WW2. The bridge in the background is the one that links Llanwern to the M4, isn't it?

[The Stationmaster]

Yes. Exactly.

 

I am not quite sure where this photo has been taken, but I think it is in South Wales between Newport and Severn Tunnel Junction. The liveries of the units makes it more noteworthy in that case, as NSE liveried DMUs rarely ventured that far west.

Very definitely not South Wales, in fact nowhere at all on former (post 1963 years) WR territory.  It is somewhere on the LMR as was, possibly the Midlands..

[jonny777]

Very definitely not South Wales, in fact nowhere at all on former (post 1963 years) WR territory.  It is somewhere on the LMR as was, possibly the Midlands..

 

Oh, ok. If you say so.

 

I only assumed the South Wales link because the previous image to this one was of an HST taken in very similar conditions with a background of a large steelworks, and the Met-Camm unit had a Cardiff set number on the front.

 

I must admit that I couldn't see the viaduct where the slow lines crossed the fast in order to access Severn Tunnel Junction up yards. It ought to be in the background somewhere.

 

This is the previous image:-

 

 

It appears to me to have very similar features to the DMU one. Mind you, I cant see the flyover on this one either.

[multiprinter]

Do you have a date for the photos?

[jonny777]

Sadly not. There is nothing on them at all.

 

Judging by the liveries I would guess at the early 1990s.

 

EDITED: to say that the more I look at the profile of the steelworks, the less it looks like Llanwern.  Could it be Port Talbot?

Edited November 8, 2013 by jonny777

[caradoc]

A long way from South Wales I'm afraid. This is the Midland Main Line between Chesterfield and Clay Cross Jc, and the works in the background is Avenue Coking Plant. Not sure what an NSE DMU is doing there, however.

[The Stationmaster]

Sadly not. There is nothing on them at all.

 

Judging by the liveries I would guess at the early 1990s.

 

EDITED: to say that the more I look at the profile of the steelworks, the less it looks like Llanwern.  Could it be Port Talbot?

I repeat - the picture(s) were NOT taken in South Wales - and having worked at both Port Talbot and Llanwern any resemblance to either is no more than passing, the lie of the land being very different (in both cases for a start) apart from any railway features.  I suspect it might be the Erewash Valley but i don't know it well enough to make anymore than a guess based on the infrastructure - but it is definitely on the LMR, not the WR (or possibly LMR bordering onto ER?).

 

Thanks to Caradoc for clearing it up - makes some of this post a bit redundant now! 

Edited November 8, 2013 by The Stationmaster

[jonny777]

Right, thanks very much for that info. There were a few things that didn't quite add up to WR. The position of the slow lines for one, because near Magor they are slow, fast, fast, slow towards Severn Tunnel Junction.

[multiprinter]

The reason I asked about the date is that there is a relatively short timescale available:

 

The DMC of C853 was 51808 and was officially transferred Landore to Canton 08.87 and Canton to Tyseley 05.88.  It had been a power twin at Landore with 51799 as C806 and was renumbered to C853 when it went to Canton and became a triple (with, from memory, 59694?) I forget what set number it carried at Tyseley but at least the C would have been removed fairly quickly.

 

Caradoc has now identified the location,so what would WR dmus be doing there?  The answer is that they are returning from a visit to Doncaster works but that poses the question as to why 51808 as C853 had been to Doncaster after transfer to Canton when it had been given a C3 overhaul in 02.87

 

It might be that the photo dates to 05.88 and the transfer from Canton to Tyseley was via a C4 overhaul at Doncaster but at this stage in their lives there was usually a good bit longer between overhauls.

Edited November 8, 2013 by multiprinter

[Velopeur]

Looks like the DMUs have just been repainted to me - and are being moved back south to go back into service?

Edited November 8, 2013 by Velopeur

[caradoc]

Thanks to Stationmaster for pointing me towards the right track (ha ha !). There is a Midland 'essence' to the track and signals in the first photo, and I identified the location from a photo in the 'North Midland, Portrait of a Famous Route Part 1' (Runpast, 2000); The skyline of Avenue is unmistakable. Incidentally, I read somewhere that the site of the plant is the most contaminated piece of land in Europe.

[TheSignalEngineer]

Looks like Avenue Coking Plant near Chesterlield.

 

Just beaten to it.

Edited November 8, 2013 by TheSignalEngineer

[The Stationmaster]

Thanks to Stationmaster for pointing me towards the right track (ha ha !). There is a Midland 'essence' to the track and signals in the first photo, and I identified the location from a photo in the 'North Midland, Portrait of a Famous Route Part 1' (Runpast, 2000); The skyline of Avenue is unmistakable. Incidentally, I read somewhere that the site of the plant is the most contaminated piece of land in Europe.

One thing is dead easy - the signals are pure LMR, nothing like them on any other Region, especially that signal ID plate in the picture of the dmu.

[Michael Delamar]

nice shot of a class 40 and DMUs

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/96859208@N07/10542158846/

[TheSignalEngineer]

One thing is dead easy - the signals are pure LMR, nothing like them on any other Region, especially that signal ID plate in the picture of the dmu.

And if you enlarge the picture the bridge over the main lines into the coking plant is visible, along with the gantry signal in front of it. The signal with the route indicator is of the type used on Saltley and Trent resignalling in 1969.

[Michael Delamar]

BR 3 Car hybrid DMU formation approaching Edinburgh, September 1973. by Crewcastrian, on Flickr

[keefer]

great pic Michael - the ScR was fond of mix'n'match formations in the 70s. quite often in a mix of liveries too. maybe not so much when unit numbers came in, but by the 90s it was lash together anything that was left and still working

[Enterprisingwestern]

Not UK I know, but prototypical use of set track.

 

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=458640&nseq=14

 

Mike.

[BR(S)]

Found an image of this unusual formation of a DMU power car + Mk2, so thought I'd resurrect one of the "prototype for everything" threads:

 

https://flic.kr/p/dXjS8D

[Market65]

Interesting. A class 110 DMSL and a  Mk2 BSO. Would not get away with that on a layout!

 

With regards,

 

Rob.

[jonny777]

That is an excellent photo.

 

I have never seen that combination before.

[40044]

https://www.flickr.com/photos/72996689@N02/23069766266/in/dateposted/