35A

Of course I do. Thanks, Mike. The perils of posting late at night!

Another lovely set from my old ECML stamping ground. Always good to see the aerial views of High Dyke sidings - I only ever got to see them as we sped past, usually occupied by two or three of the tablet catcher fitted batch of class 31s (D5670-D5676). J2517 - a nice shot of "Gordon Highlander". At this point she was the last remaining Deltic to carry the D prefix in her number. Later in the year she was outshopped from Doncaster with a new coat of blue and, uniquely, with the numbers in a slightly higher than standard position, which lasted until renumbering.

Thanks to both Clive & Stationmaster - very informative. This was my stamping ground for nearly 25 years, on a daily basis. History of track layouts always fascinates me, in much the same way that I can study a detailed road atlas for hours!

It was - http://www.abandonedstations.org.uk/WidenedLines.html gives a better view of the crossover. ICBW but I believe that it was last used in the 1960s when the occasional freight still ran along the Metropolitan and it used this to gain access to the Snow Hill route.

Those 1971 Crewe photographs remind me of my first visit there in July of that year, which covered three consecutive days, on a 3D Rover ticket. Nice to see some electrics in nearly original condition but it's the pairs of 50s on the Glasgow trains that I remember (plus some scruffy class 24s, in pairs on coal trains). On one day I clocked up nearly half the class, plus class 74 no E6105 running light back south to the Southern Region, after a works visit. Those three days also included my first visit to Reddish. Apart from the usual collection of class 76s, the depot was hosting a Merseyrail class 503 and class 50 no 414. I've been to Crewe many, many times since - but that first visit (well, actually three times in three days) is firmly implanted in my mind. Thanks, as always, for the memories, Dave.

I can confirm that 08s were definitely, on occasions, moved by train, back in the days before their restricted speed caused the switch to road transport. However, it was certainly normal practise to remove the coupling rods, which (I believe) increased their maximum movement speed. On more than one occasion during the 1970s I saw 8E12, the class 44-hauled Toton to Whitemoor coal train, with an 08 in the formation, as is being disputed here. Sadly I don't have any photographs. If I trawl my Excel spreadsheets I can probably find an example or two. I would guess that this was when shunters that had been overhauled at Derby were being returned or on transfer to East Anglia. 8E12 was a very leisurely-paced train whenever and wherever I saw it, the occasions that it had an 08 in the formation it was not running significantly late - of course, in the days before Real Time Trains I couldn't confirm that it didn't make an early start from Toton! Given that, I wouldn't be surprised if this was an ex-Derby move back to base, perhaps. It does seem unusual, though, for the coupling rods to still be in situ. Loughborough had an 08 or 10 most of the time, it might have been heading back there, in train - or being returned to Leicester. Maybe, on this occasion, running at 15mph with the rods on was not an issue, given the distance and the presence of relief lines?

I checked The Railtour Files on Six Bells Junction and couldn't find any reference to a York to Chester excursion that day. However, there was a BR Merrymaker on 7th April '79, trundling around South Yorkshire and the Woodhead route, which reached York later in the day en route back to ChesterFIELD, but that is recorded as being headed by 40 013.

Interesting to see D1513 (in J1660) on the Midland. The ECML "Generators" did not tend to stray very far until the tail-end of their careers, when they became more wayward. This would have been taken at the time when the ECML was concentrating on keeping air-braked members of the class at the south end and those that were not yet fitted were exchanged with Immingham or, in this case, Tinsley examples until such time as they went through works. D1513 was sent north in 1967 and stayed away from the main line at Tinsley until it was dual-braked and blue-liveried at the end of 1969, at which point it was transferred to York and back on to ECML duties. The Deltics suffered similar treatment, with four of the Finsbury Park racehorses banished to Haymarket, in exchange for four air-braked Scottish examples, in order to keep air-braked locos at FP initially. I remember walking onto Swansea High Street station in 1986 and my surprise at finding 47 418 (D1517) at the head of a parcels train, a couple of months after withdrawal of the first examples of the original batch of Brush 4s had commenced.

Which would suggest that J2524 was probably taken on Saturday 13th March 1971, when 9000 was confirmed as working 1S35.

You're right on J2524, Dave. That's definitely D9000 - the blanking plate over the original headlight with the squarer, smaller footstep (above the bufferbeam) gives it away. The previous picture, J1773, of the Deltic on the down "Flying Scotsman", is more difficult to identify. It's clearly a racehorse. D9001 was in works at the time. I'd suggest that the length of the plate rules out D9003, D9007 and probably D9020. It could be D9009 (and, in fact, "Napier Chronicles" records it as working 1S17 on July 12th), D9012, D9015 (which was recorded on 1S17 on July 26th) or D9018.

Although set numbers were allocated to consecutively numbered power cars (although not to the spare power cars) and despite the WR generally managing to keep its power cars working in pairs well into the 1980s, almost from the offset the ER and ScR gave up on the principle - from late 1978 it was very rare to see an HST formed with consecutively numbered power cars and usually just coincidence if you did. Maintenance requirements made it almost impossible to keep pairs of power cars together. The ER and ScR ultimately erased the set numbers from their HSTs and replaced them on the front with the power car number. Whilst discussing HSTs, I can't remember the exact date but one of the rarest formations that I observed was on 1S42 (16:00 KGX - EDB) one night, when it ran behind a single power car, with a BG at the rear of the formation in place of the power car! A great excuse for artistic licence when modelling.

C4323 - ah yes, the days when staff used to wander about, crossing the track anywhere and without HVVs. Elfin safety would be apoplectic today. It's a good job that we don't have wheeltappers still, in 2016!

I'd say that you are on very safe ground with 1111 on 1L09 in the caption to J2383. From December '69 to May '71 it was a 55A Holbeck loco, before moving on to 55B York. Having expanded and sharpened it as much as I can before losing resolution I would agree with you totally. Re J2448, the fly-ash trains were almost exclusively Type 4 powered (except in the later years when class 56s took over - then 58s on the Ratcliffe fly-ash). Class 45s generally headed the Ratcliffe trains and class 47s the West Burton. Additionals from the Midland would sometimes produce a pair of class 20s. Pairs of 31s could occasionally be found on the West Burton but, very rarely, a 40. I would hazard a guess that the 40 was the train engine and had, perhaps, failed and been topped by the 31. Once class 56s took hold on the Ratcliffes (and later class 58s) it became common over the Christmas and New Year period to double-head, as insurance, given the reduced levels of staffing in the depots.

I think that you're right on that. I've got a picture of 76 022 in July 1977, at Rotherwood, still with a lion and wheel. OT - but was 24 021 the last 24 (blue with a lion and wheel)? I've a picture of that, paired with 24 022 (blue with a double arrow) at Sheffield, in late 1975.

I remember my first visit to the west coast of Scotland, in 1971. We parked the motor caravan and spent the night in a layby, midway between Crianlarich and Oban. The evening was spent watching green class 27s threading around the mountains, as the valley echoed to the sound of Sulzer engines thumping away. I was fascinated by the fact that the passenger services ran with a motley collection of freight wagons on the back. Happy days!

The WR named locos did, occasionally, stray onto the ECML. I've mentioned in an earlier post how the first one that I saw was 1673 "Cyclops" at Peterborough in 1971. At that time D1676 "Vulcan" and D1677 "Thor" would have been likely candidates (they often turned up on the Wrenthorpe to Dagenham car trains circa 1970/71), as they were transferred to Stratford for a couple of years. In fact, as 47 085, "Mammoth" was also a Stratford loco for a considerable time - although not as early as 1969.

Hi Dave. The Deltic in C1840 is 55 022 "Royal Scots Grey" (identifiable from the footwell above the buffer beam on the nose end).

C7371: 37 073 was one of that unlucky batch of Thornaby locos. Prior to this incident, along with 37 074 and 37 077 (IIRC), it had already had it's original 'split-box' headcode panels & connecting doors replaced by the later flush-front, central headcode style nose ends. They seemed to be very accident-prone!

Hi Dave, J567 is definitely not D9009 - the nameplate is a giveaway. My immediate thought was that it was "The Durham Light Infantry", from the shape of the plate, and enlarging the picture confirms that the number ends in a 7. Gateshead locos were renowned for their filthy external condition. I remember an anecdote told to me by the shed foreman at March in the early 1970s. They had had a Gateshead class 40 on shed for a while, in an appalling state externally. One of his colleagues had instructed that it be put through the washer. That done, it was not much of an improvement, so they put it through a second and third time, before despatching the loco back north (I could be wrong but I vaguely think that he said that it was sent back on 1S38, the Colchester - Glasgow, which changed from Type 3 to Type 4 traction at March, each evening). A couple of days later the foreman in charge received a call from his opposite number at Gateshead, laden with expletives, telling him in no uncertain terms to leave their locos alone and that they might be filthy externally but they were kept in pristine condition internally!

Indeed. At that time (1970), other than the Deltics, the mainstay of the ECML passenger fleet was the 'Generator' 47s - D1500 to D1519, along with D1100 to D1111, D1760 to D1766, D1970 to D1976 (the Haymarket batch) and D1989 to D1999. Higher D15xx series locos (below D1582) also put in appearances, mainly Immingham locos on Grimsby/Cleethorpes services, plus the occasional stray from Tinsley or Stratford (or further afield - I remember D1673 "Cyclops", then a Bristol loco, turning up on a down Leeds/Bradford service one evening, the first "namer" that I'd seen).

That would make your Dad four days younger than my Mum! I've just returned from celebrating her birthday and I'm just catching up with the thread. Had I realised, I would have raised a glass to your Dad as well - no matter, I shall do so when I next crack open a bottle of red, in grateful thanks for this wonderful catalogue of stunning pictures that thrills us every day, capturing an era when I was (very slightly) too young to fully appreciate what was happening on (and off) the railway! Cheers!!!

Apologies for asking, in case this has been covered in the preceding pages, but is there a reason why you have simplified the exit from bay platforms 4 & 5 (between the water hoses in the first pic of the previous post)? Is it just for practical/modelling reasons? I could never understand why the approach was so complicated 'in real life' for a pair of bay platforms - or why it stayed that way until 1972, by which time the bays were only used for holding relieving locos or failures removed from down expresses. I'm getting quite hooked on regular visits to this thread now, to reminisce on how things were when I was a nipper!

Lovely to see the class 120s, also to see them before the original centre (buffet) vehicles were replaced by spare Metro-Camm class 101 trailers. They bring back many fond memories to me - although not so much when they were doing the Norwich - Birmingham runs, which could be a little tedious (and rattly!), especially the evening services, which used to stop at every pillar and post in East Anglia. Interesting that the class 154 is in two-car formation - I don't recall ever seeing it without the centre car.

What a fascinating thread. I've spent ages reading through just a fraction of it tonight. Your layout brings back very happy memories of the station that I spent many, many hours spotting at, as a schoolboy, between 1969 and 1978. It's a very impressive representation of what was (mainly) still there up until the reorganisation of 1972. It brought back memories of the cold, foggy winters of 1970 and 1971 and of huddling up in front of the coal fire that raged in the waiting room between platforms 3 and 6 - until the sound of something approaching drew us out into the cold again to view the passing train. I shall look forward to taking some more time, another day, to catch up with it further!

Ditto, I've upgraded a couple of desktops with only one major problem - and that is an HP one, in that they have (in their wisdom) decided not to provide a Windows 10 driver for their HP 710C printer (which my mother has). Yet, ironically, they still support my old backup, near 20-year old, HP Deskjet 640C! Other than that it's just been a case of switching off a lot of the unwanted bells and whistles and unnecessary junk that comes with 10 and not using the insecure Edge browser that they're trying to foist on us.