Mattydude

Other workings of interest at my home village of Llanharan back in the late 70's early 80's was the Llanharan to Didcot Power Station MGR Daily Working (Mon-Fri) loaded to 46 wagons. This working started with Test Bed 47901 (Based at Ebbw Jnc) & a canton class 56 for the first workings back in 1981, this then evolved into any traction plus a class 56, so was a very interesting working indeed. Sorry about the quality of the pics but it was a while ago now!! Also included are a few pics of the triple headed iron ore workings with class 37's passing Llanharan on the empties.

I used to watch the iron ore trains pass the second steepest bank on their journey from Port Talbot to Llanwern near my home in Llanharan. Once the class 56's arrived in 1980 and the train length increased from 27 to 30 wagons, on occasions two 56's weren't available. Margam Depot then had a problem so they put plan 'B' in operation and due to the fact 3 x 37's weren't allowed to haul 30 wagons, one 56 was used in tandem with 2 x 37's (So two crews were required). I saw this combination about 30 times, but have never seen pictures published reflecting this. The empties would then return with the single 56 and 37's light engines prior. They would then either haul the next leg of the days roster or as was the case usually another 56 was available so the next service was 2 x 56's. I attach a few images of some workings back in 1980/81 thanks Ian