SOS Junction. If anything happens would someone wake me up please..

[Mallard60022]

I have spent a considerable amount of time scrolling (yes I know you can get ointment for that) through this pile of carp to find a quick post from someone kind and thoughtful, telling me about a picture on P 74 of a book. It showed a Maroon Bulleid and a Maroon Thompson emerging from the east portal of the caterpillar, hauled by a Spam, in September '64. I now have that book (mint condition I must add) courtesy of the North Devon Hospice, at a very reasonable price. The Bulleid is indeed a Maroon one and is deffo a D2405 Composite Brake and almost certainly one of the half dozen or so gifted to the WR around 1962/3, and so I could narrow down it's number fairly easily. A couple were withdrawn in December '64 and the others somewhat later.

The Thompson is probably a SO or SK, but I have had to ask my esteemed colleague to investigate that item for me as my LNER Harris doesn't appear to mention any transfers (except for the two Thompson Suburbans that went to the Hemyock Branch).

Next challenge is to find the pic I have of two almost identical coaches behind a 80xxx 2.6.4. Tank somewhere in Cornwall/North Devon. Coukd it be the same pair as that pic is 1964 as well IIRC.

It is still raining here so that task may well be sorted today.

P

[Dr Gerbil-Fritters]

Mallard's Loft - a thousand coaches in search of a layout?

 

Discuss.

 

It's raining here too.  Trapped at work.  Send help.

[Clive Mortimore]

9 minutes ago, Dr Gerbil-Fritters said:

I've had exactly the same hairstyle since I adopted it in the early 1980s.  There will be no pictures.

 

Apart from a few ill-advised years of no.1s, at which my wife informed me I looked like mr potato head.

Back in the 1970s the Soviets had a theory about skinheads. The Russian translation of "skinhead" was the same as "baldie" so they concluded, owing to Western advertising where only those with a full head of hair were successful and got all the birds, the trouble caused by the "skinheads" was due to these angry bald men being marganalised  by society.

 

How right they were.

[Clive Mortimore]

10 minutes ago, Bishop of Welchester said:

 

You must have been terribly constipated to have no number twos.

Having worked on a gastrointestinal ward I can talk sh1t for hours.

[Mallard60022]

23 minutes ago, Dr Gerbil-Fritters said:

I've had exactly the same hairstyle since I adopted it in the early 1980s.  There will be no pictures.

 

Apart from a few ill-advised years of no.1s, at which my wife informed me I looked like mr potato head.

I hope Mr York reads this and shuts you down. He had to tell me off the other day as I lost my rag at someone for being  a ####### and misunderstanding my superb scribblings about Dawlish.

Ar$£

[Captain Kernow]

26 minutes ago, Mallard60022 said:

Next challenge is to find the pic I have of two almost identical coaches behind a 80xxx 2.6.4. Tank somewhere in Cornwall/North Devon. Coukd it be the same pair as that pic is 1964 as well IIRC.

 

It's definitely in one of those landscape-format Ian Allan colour albums, but I've got rid of some of mine recently, so I can't be sure if I'd be able to find the picture. But I do recall it and how odd it seemed, to see a Bulleid coach in maroon.

 

[Clive Mortimore]

Yo Phil

 

Tomos sent to the western front

SKs dia 329

W13828E

W13829E

W13831E

W13832E

W13833E

W13834E

W13836E

W13838E

All were ex Scottish allocated coaches.

 

[Clive Mortimore]

21 minutes ago, Mallard60022 said:

I hope Mr York reads this and shuts you down. He had to tell me off the other day as I lost my rag at someone for being  a ####### and misunderstanding my superb scribblings about Dawlish.

Ar$£

Dear Mr Ar$e

 

Your just a biddy trouble maker.

[timbowilts]

One has to question why the Scots wanted rid of them so badly they were sent to the opposite end of this sceptred  isle?

Tim T

[Mallard60022]

14 minutes ago, timbowilts said:

One has to question why the Scots wanted rid of them so badly they were sent to the opposite end of this sceptred  isle?

Tim T

They got some non rotting Bulleids in exchange; I have the numbers of those too.

 

21 minutes ago, Clive Mortimore said:

Yo Phil

 

Tomos sent to the western front

SKs dia 329

W13828E

W13829E

W13831E

W13832E

W13833E

W13834E

W13836E

W13838E

All were ex Scottish allocated coaches.

 

Excellent. You are a genuine encyclopaediatrician and jolly fine fellow of upstandingness. One of those it will most certainly be then. I have the picture, it is the evidence and so it will happen.

Yo!

Ar$£

[Clive Mortimore]

Whoops missed one

 

W13852E

 

7 minutes ago, timbowilts said:

One has to question why the Scots wanted rid of them so badly they were sent to the opposite end of this sceptred  isle?

Tim T

At about the same time the ScR received a dozen of Mr Bulleyed's TSOs, which they repainted in Midland railway Crimson Lake. And boy didn't they look smart in that nice dark red with the gold and black lining. The Eastern region also got some TSOs which they also painted into maroon.

 

The WR appears to have been given a handful of Bullyboy's shortie BSKs (Hornby) and long semi-open BSKs (Bachmann).

 

Mr Duck has the same book I have been looking at so can find his own numbers.

[great northern]

16 minutes ago, timbowilts said:

One has to question why the Scots wanted rid of them so badly they were sent to the opposite end of this sceptred  isle?

Tim T

The Eastern/ Scottish regions seem to have been awash with surplus Thompsons, given the numbers that were only diagrammed to work on summer Saturdays, if I have read the coach formation books correctly.  Going into the '60s they would only have been ten to twelve years old, so no doubt there was a need to get more mileage out of them. Would that make them ideal for a transfer to a place where stock was in short supply?

[Mallard60022]

33 minutes ago, Captain Kernow said:

It's definitely in one of those landscape-format Ian Allan colour albums, but I've got rid of some of mine recently, so I can't be sure if I'd be able to find the picture. But I do recall it and how odd it seemed, to see a Bulleid coach in maroon.

 

North Devon Hospice in Barnstaple by any chance?

P

[31A]

I should think the Thompson coaches might have been useful for replacing clapped out pre BR coaches on other regions as their Buckeye couplings and Pullman gangways made them compatible with BR Mk 1s, without the need for gangway adaptors.  Gresley gangwayed coaches also had these of course, but the Thompsons would have been quite a bit newer.

 

From about 1968/9, I have a distinct memory of seeing a green coach fairly often in the carriage sidings opposite platform 4 at Cambridge station, which I assume was one of the transferred Bulleids.

 

Presumably all these were 'seen off' by the introduction of BR Mk2s (as well as line closures etc.).

 

[Clive Mortimore]

8 minutes ago, great northern said:

The Eastern/ Scottish regions seem to have been awash with surplus Thompsons, given the numbers that were only diagrammed to work on summer Saturdays, if I have read the coach formation books correctly.  Going into the '60s they would only have been ten to twelve years old, so no doubt there was a need to get more mileage out of them. Would that make them ideal for a transfer to a place where stock was in short supply?

A large number of the SKs went to the LMR with a few CKs

 

I have just found another two transfers the Great Western Region both are Tomo BCKs dia 345, W10163E and W10166E again both ex Scottish ones.

Edited June 14, 2019 by Clive Mortimore

[Mallard60022]

4 minutes ago, Clive Mortimore said:

A large number of the SKs went to the LMR with a few CKs

 

I have just found another two transfers the Great Western Region both are Tomo BCKs dia 345, W10163E and W10166E again both ex Scottish ones.

Think those are the two that went to Hemyock but ICBA to check.

P

[Clive Mortimore]

9 minutes ago, 31A said:

I should think the Thompson coaches might have been useful for replacing clapped out pre BR coaches on other regions as their Buckeye couplings and Pullman gangways made them compatible with BR Mk 1s, without the need for gangway adaptors.  Gresley gangwayed coaches also had these of course, but the Thompsons would have been quite a bit newer.

 

From about 1968/9, I have a distinct memory of seeing a green coach fairly often in the carriage sidings opposite platform 4 at Cambridge station, which I assume was one of the transferred Bulleids.

 

Presumably all these were 'seen off' by the introduction of BR Mk2s (as well as line closures etc.).

 

Quite a few SR steam heated Mk1s were swapped with LMR and ER dual heated ones so the remaining loco hauled trains on the SR could be dragged around by class 33s which didn't have boilers. I can recall the odd green coach in a mixed train of maroon and blue-grey at Bedford when train spotting. Conversely maroon coaches on the SR  prior to the electrocution of the Bournemouth services.

Edited June 14, 2019 by Clive Mortimore

[Mallard60022]

I think these Tomo's were safer and the 'management' had, IIRC, ordered the regions to do away with coaches built before a certain date and with wooden bodywork frames. I could be talking out of an orifice of course but I am sure I have read that.

[Mallard60022]

2 minutes ago, Clive Mortimore said:

Quite a few SR steam heated Mk1s were swapped with LMR and ER dual heated ones so the remaining loco hauled trains on the SR could be dragged around by class 33s which didn't have boilers. I can recall the odd green coach in a mixed train of maroon and blue-grey at Bedford when train spotting. Conversely maroon coaches on the SR  prior to the electrocution of the Bournemouth services.

Did some Mk1s go to electric units on the SR as well?

 

[Mallard60022]

11 minutes ago, 31A said:

I should think the Thompson coaches might have been useful for replacing clapped out pre BR coaches on other regions as their Buckeye couplings and Pullman gangways made them compatible with BR Mk 1s, without the need for gangway adaptors.  Gresley gangwayed coaches also had these of course, but the Thompsons would have been quite a bit newer.

 

From about 1968/9, I have a distinct memory of seeing a green coach fairly often in the carriage sidings opposite platform 4 at Cambridge station, which I assume was one of the transferred Bulleids.

 

Presumably all these were 'seen off' by the introduction of BR Mk2s (as well as line closures etc.).

 

That was a mouldy one wasn't it?

P

[Clive Mortimore]

1 minute ago, Mallard60022 said:

Did some Mk1s go to electric units on the SR as well?

 

Yes, the 4 TCs were all rebuilt from Mk1s and the middle coaches on the 4 REPs were.

[Clive Mortimore]

9 minutes ago, Mallard60022 said:

I think these Tomo's were safer and the 'management' had, IIRC, ordered the regions to do away with coaches built before a certain date and with wooden bodywork frames. I could be talking out of an orifice of course but I am sure I have read that.

I think that came later. The SR EMUs were wooden framed as were the Gresley and Thompson Buffets and they lasted for yonks after other pre-nationalisation designs.......except the multitude of 4 Subs and 4 EPBs.

Edited June 14, 2019 by Clive Mortimore

[Mallard60022]

1 hour ago, Mallard60022 said:

I have spent a considerable amount of time scrolling (yes I know you can get ointment for that) through this pile of carp to find a quick post from someone kind and thoughtful, telling me about a picture on P 74 of a book. It showed a Maroon Bulleid and a Maroon Thompson emerging from the east portal of the caterpillar, hauled by a Spam, in September '64. I now have that book (mint condition I must add) courtesy of the North Devon Hospice, at a very reasonable price. The Bulleid is indeed a Maroon one and is deffo a D2405 Composite Brake and almost certainly one of the half dozen or so gifted to the WR around 1962/3, and so I could narrow down it's number fairly easily. A couple were withdrawn in December '64 and the others somewhat later.

The Thompson is probably a SO or SK, but I have had to ask my esteemed colleague to investigate that item for me as my LNER Harris doesn't appear to mention any transfers (except for the two Thompson Suburbans that went to the Hemyock Branch).

Next challenge is to find the pic I have of two almost identical coaches behind a 80xxx 2.6.4. Tank somewhere in Cornwall/North Devon. Coukd it be the same pair as that pic is 1964 as well IIRC.

It is still raining here so that task may well be sorted today.

P

Yo; tis done (see below)

1 hour ago, Captain Kernow said:

It's definitely in one of those landscape-format Ian Allan colour albums, but I've got rid of some of mine recently, so I can't be sure if I'd be able to find the picture. But I do recall it and how odd it seemed, to see a Bulleid coach in maroon.

 

Steam on West of England Main Lines Peter W. Gray. P69 Just found my other pic of the Tommo and Bullybeef coaches...approaching Tresmeer behind 80041on the 3.10p.m. Padstow Okehampton, 22nd August '64. Great book; recommended. Same book, page 77, is a Spam in 1959, at Plymuff with a Bulleid shorty set as first three coaches of the train heading for Friary. Full of gorgeous WR and SR pics for the desperate and excuse to obtain more coaches. (That will make 1003 Gerbil F!)

P

[TheSignalEngineer]

When a lot of the WR trains were changed to Mk1 stock they seemed to get quite a few Thompsons which were sometimes in the normal formation but also as dated strengtheners.  A few used to appear on the Snow Hill line. I remember a picture of one on the Down Cornishman in the West Country at a time when the regular coaches were all Choc and Cream.

[TheSignalEngineer]

Thinking back to the West Country holiday trains, I remember c1963 travelling from Taunton to Birmingham Snow Hill in a Gresley Compo which had 'For the use of Passengers Travelling 2nd class' stickers on.  The compartment was still intact with LNER carpet, lamps, mirror and pictures, 15 years after Nationalisation.