Dave F's photos - ongoing - more added each day

[beast66606]

Current view of 31109

 

https://goo.gl/maps/vaPRGQEYJtk

 

Sun position in mid August 1974 - scroll the date / time to see it's behaviour

 

http://www.suncalc.net/#/52.7965,-0.5263,14/1974.08.15/12:00

[DaveF]

Today we have some more ECML photos, this time on the Northumberland coast at Alnmouth.

 

The first one shows the signal box with an HST on the viaduct over the River Aln to the north of the station.

 

Alnmouth Class 254 HST up on viaduct Nov 81 C5590.

 

 

Alnmouth Class 40 down ICI tanks Haverton Hill to Grangemouth Aug 82 C5810

 

 

Alnmouth Class 254 HST up Aug 82 C5811  This shows the original NER building on the up platform.

 

 

Alnmouth Class 101 Newcastle to Alnmouth Aug 82 C5833  This is taken looking across the harbour/river at Alnmouth to the railway.

 

 

Alnmouth 16th June 84 C6524 These were the temporary station buildings, since replaced by a brick built structure.

 

 

David

Edited August 2, 2017 by DaveF

[Market65]

Hi, Dave. I like the Alnmouth photos. They bring back happy memories of a trip to Holy Island back in June, 1973. We went by rail as far as Alnmouth, then bus to Holy Island.

The HST in C5811 makes a fine sight in its original condition and livery. But you can see why the deflectors were needed with less exhaust going down onto the cab front.

 

With warmest regards,

 

Rob.

[mark54]

As for J3999, which I also wonder as to whether it was from Skegness, I think it was taken in the late morning as the sun is just on the far side of the line which at Swayfield runs roughly NNW to SSE so the sun crosses the line before noon.

A possibility is the summer months formation of 1A11 the 08:25SO Newcastle-KX, which matches closely except for the FK at the front. Very unusual to have 31-haulage though, I would have thought.

Edited August 2, 2017 by mark54

[balders]

Definitely a 31/1. The multi working jumpers are 31/1 configuration. The 31/0's were completely different. I think the loco is 31109, as it was air brake fitted and still retained the bodyside steps until 1976 at least, so goes someway to fitting the bill.

 

Paul J.

Cheers Paul. I haven't got great resolution and i had tried to rationalise how the blue stars could look like that given the apparent air brakes.

 

Many thanks

 

Guy (on a dodgy internet connection in South West France!)

[DaveF]

A visit to the coast of souith east Scotland today with some photos of trains around Burnmouth on the ECML in May and August 1974.

 

 

Burnmouth Class 55 up May 74 J3702

 

 

Burnmouth Class 55 up May 74 J3703  10.45 Aberdeen to Kings X  "The Aberdonian"

 

 

Burnmouth Class 55 55007 down  10.00 Kings X to Edinburgh "The Flying Scotsman" May 74 J3704

 

 

urnmouth Class 40 up freightliner Aug 74 J3995  probably 40145  Edinburgh FLT to Cardiff FLT

 

 

Burnmouth Class 40 up freightliner Aug 74 J3996

 

Thanks again to mark54 for extra information - which I have added to the catalogue.

David

Edited August 3, 2017 by DaveF

[leopardml2341]

First bags at guess the Deltics:

 

J3702 = 55019

 

J3703 = 55016

Edited August 3, 2017 by leopardml2341

[sir douglas]

while we're in that area, did you or your dad ever go down to Eyemouth?

 

me & Shez are thinking of building a layout of it

[Market65]

Hi, Dave. An excellent set of photo's of Burnmouth in 1974. The Deltic hauled expresses look superb, and the class 40 hauled Freightliner makes a sight for sore eyes.

 

With warmest regards,

 

Rob.

[Swindon 123]

First bags at guess the Deltics:

 

J3702 = 55019

 

J3703 = 55016

I'll bags first go at the 40 on the Freightliner then. 40145 is my suspect. The blue patches and air braked give me a good chance with that one. See these links.

https://flic.kr/p/ek8nkK

 

And this one in colour showing the green repaint patch on the body towards No 1 end.

https://flic.kr/p/u3UaDc

 

Paul J.

[45125]

I'll bags first go at the 40 on the Freightliner then. 40145 is my suspect. The blue patches and air braked give me a good chance with that one. See these links.

https://flic.kr/p/ek8nkK

 

And this one in colour showing the green repaint patch on the body towards No 1 end.

https://flic.kr/p/u3UaDc

 

Paul J.

 

The headboard brackets are very good clue too................

[sb67]

Love the phot of the green class 40. Fantastic!

Steve.

[flapland]

Love the open loads on the Freightliner especially what looks like a beer barrels. Didn't realise they used to do that. 

[DaveF]

while we're in that area, did you or your dad ever go down to Eyemouth?

 

me & Shez are thinking of building a layout of it

 

 

Both of us visited Eyemouth at various times, but the railway was long gone by then.

 

David

[Mark Saunders]

Love the open loads on the Freightliner especially what looks like a beer barrels. Didn't realise they used to do that. 

 

Scottish and Newcastle used to load out of Follingsby and there were times that these trains were raided for the beer and on one occasion a would be thief lost an arm trying this!

 

Mark Saunders

[The Johnster]

A Freightliner train waiting for the calling on signal to enter Danygraig terminal at Swansea lost an aluminium ingot worth several hundred thousand pounds during my time on the railway in the early 70s; the job was in my link but I was not the guard on that occasion.  He had no idea; that part of the train was around a the curve from Jersey Marine and out of sight.  There was also rumoured to have been a container full of 50p coins, allegedly £2million worth, from the Royal Mint at Llantrisant which went walkabout somewhere in North London off a Cardiff-Stratford liner; somebody's gas meter was topped well up!

[hmrspaul]

Always interests me how these Freightliner trains lack much, if any privately owned containers. Marine and Domestic services were run separately but I don't know when this senseless split ended. Freightliner gave advantageous rates to companies that backloaded -so beer kegs (and in my day Schweppes crates) went out loaded and returned with the empties. Non deposit stopped a lot of that, to the considerable detriment of the environment (although handling empty crates that had been stored for weeks in a pub backyard with the owners dog was not pleasant!).

 

Paul

Edited August 3, 2017 by hmrspaul

[The Johnster]

I think that, in the early days when a fair amount of 'traditional' freight handling was still taking place, shippers were happy to hire the containers from Freightliner rather than buy and brand their own, but of course as time went on and container routes became more established, the current much more colourful situation developed.  Container shipping was for a while seen as a premium fast service and commanded a premium rate, the exception rather than the norm it has become.

[Fat Controller]

I think that, in the early days when a fair amount of 'traditional' freight handling was still taking place, shippers were happy to hire the containers from Freightliner rather than buy and brand their own, but of course as time went on and container routes became more established, the current much more colourful situation developed.  Container shipping was for a while seen as a premium fast service and commanded a premium rate, the exception rather than the norm it has become.

The boxes in the photos have 'Twistlock' fittings, but are not fully ISO-compatible, as they weren't designed to be stacked five or more high when loaded. Because of that, they wouldn't have been much use for transport by ship, especially on deep-sea runs. Deep-sea container operations from UK ports only really started to become significant from the late 1960s; older readers might remember the series of Dockers' strikes during the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in protest at job losses caused by modern freight handling methods.

There were some boxes that were liveried for particular customers, some of these liveries being carried by the early Hornby models. One, I recollect, was lettered 'Scotch Beef for Sainsbury's', others included 'Pickfords'. However, many customers were attracted by the anonymity of the grey and red box, especially for high-value items such as spirits.

[mark54]

1E78 Can't find any reference to this. Not a usual ECML reporting number, so probably an extra.

J3703 (assuming 1S17 was taken the same day) would be 1E17 the 10:45 Aberdeen-KX, The Aberdonian.

4V73 was the Edinburgh FLT to Cardiff FLT.

[hmrspaul]

The boxes in the photos have 'Twistlock' fittings, but are not fully ISO-compatible, as they weren't designed to be stacked five or more high when loaded. Because of that, they wouldn't have been much use for transport by ship, especially on deep-sea runs. Deep-sea container operations from UK ports only really started to become significant from the late 1960s; older readers might remember the series of Dockers' strikes during the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in protest at job losses caused by modern freight handling methods.

There were some boxes that were liveried for particular customers, some of these liveries being carried by the early Hornby models. One, I recollect, was lettered 'Scotch Beef for Sainsbury's', others included 'Pickfords'. However, many customers were attracted by the anonymity of the grey and red box, especially for high-value items such as spirits.

Pickfords was a nationalised company after the early blacking of private containers. But Dave's photos are much later than all of that argy bargy. The early freightliner official photos show various private owners.

 

Paul

[sir douglas]

im confused as to why you rated my question with thanks

[Fat Controller]

A Freightliner train waiting for the calling on signal to enter Danygraig terminal at Swansea lost an aluminium ingot worth several hundred thousand pounds during my time on the railway in the early 70s; the job was in my link but I was not the guard on that occasion.  He had no idea; that part of the train was around a the curve from Jersey Marine and out of sight.  There was also rumoured to have been a container full of 50p coins, allegedly £2million worth, from the Royal Mint at Llantrisant which went walkabout somewhere in North London off a Cardiff-Stratford liner; somebody's gas meter was topped well up!

There was, I recollect, a road accident on the old road from Swansea to Carmarthen via Pontardulais, involving a lorry carrying whiskey from Fishguard to Danygraig, sometime in the 1970s. There was a large police and Customs presence, but it turned out that at least some of these were more concerned about liberating a few bottles than anything else.

[auld_boot]

im confused as to why you rated my question with thanks

I think it is simply good manners, nothing to be confused over.

[Fat Controller]

Pickfords was a nationalised company after the early blacking of private containers. But Dave's photos are much later than all of that argy bargy. The early freightliner official photos show various private owners.

 

Paul

Pickfords (and Hay's Wharf) had been owned by the GWR at some point, I believe. They were Nationalised post WW2, and then sold off in 1982- Thatcher's first privatisation.