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Steam between Gourock and Bishopton


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I had never seen film of steam on the Gourock line until I found this Gourock line steam icon_thumbsup2.gif . It's probably late 1966 - possibly very early 1967 - Ladyburn shed is empty, the wires are up but (obviously) not yet energised. All the Fairburns appear to have gone, unfortunately, but Stanier 5, Standard 5, Standard 4 tank and what looks like a Standard 4 mogul are shown. The opening shots, looking over the Gamble bridge at Gourock, took me back 43 years in a big hurry!

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Guest Max Stafford

Boys, the footage is from CineRail's 'Railways of Scotland-Glasgow part one' and is truly marvellous. The feature actually runs all the way into central. I think the opening sequence is the last steam-hauled Gourock to Glasgow on 28/04/67 - my third birthday. Wish I'd had a ride on that as my present! :) The loco on this run was Kingmoor's 44899 as shown here. There's some more footage on Scottish Byways (pt 1) which also shows 5MT/EE3 and EE1/EE3 pairings on non-gangwayed stock!

Marvellous and a surprisingly modellable bit of line!

 

Dave.

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Dave, I presume you've got that tape/DVD and are reading off the notes? I don't think 44899 had the last steam-hauled Gourock-Glasgow, though April 28 1967 was the last day of steam service. I've always understood Fairburn 42274 headed the last one - the 17.03 that afternoon. WAC Smith has several photos of it at Bishopton and Central. (It also is supposed to have been the last passenger train scheduled for steam haulage to originate in the Scottish Region.)

 

I did wonder if that footage was from a professional film. It's better than most amateur film from the time and 44899 is filmed at several places that no one person could have got to in the time available, so there was more than one person involved.

 

I agree about parts of the line being very modellable - I proposed Greenock West as a possible in the 'Stations that should have been modelled by now' thread. And it wasn't just big tanks and non-corridors. There was a lot of freight into the 1960s, when the sugarhouses and shipyards started to close, there was a named train that ran on summer Saturdays (CTAC Scottish Tours Express - there are a couple of headboards in the NRM) and that train, engines running in after works and any temporary shortage of power at Polmadie could turn up all sorts of engines - Brit, Scot, Jubilee (including a rebuild!), Clan, 75xxx, K1 and Patricroft Caprotti Standard 5 among those I can remember without looking at notebooks.

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Guest Max Stafford

Point taken about the Fairburn Peter, 42274 was the last. I've seen a photo of 44899 on a Gourock-Central job which I'm pretty sure was on the last day too. I suppose it could have been a turn earlier in the day or maybe the previous day. My information came from the caption rather than the sleeve notes of the DVD. Somebody out there knows for sure! :D

 

Dave.

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