randyrippley

1 minute ago, Gwiwer said:

Whilst I would never suggest that I saw every train or every move I never ever saw such a move at Salisbury even with Warships. 

You missed out then, happened every time I went to London prior to the 33s

On 29/02/2020 at 21:14, acourtrail said:

This is very useful information Gwiwer, especially regarding later on after the line from Exeter to Plymouth via Okehampton closed.

 

When the Brighton service ran as a Brighton - Exeter train (and used one set of coaches for both the outward and return workings) there would be no point in changing the locomotive, so working it with a class 33 throughout would make sense.

 

However, in the early years of the Warship era, when the train ran right through to Plymouth, it DID have Warships west of Salisbury.  Circa 1966.  Heading west, the Warship allocated to the 1B43 11.00 Waterloo - Salisbury (arriving at Salisbury at 12.46) would then wait at Salisbury for the 10.12 Brighton - Plymouth (arriving at 12.57).  The class 33 would come off, and the Warship would take over for the run to Plymouth (departing Salisbury 13.06).  The class 33 would then wait at Salisbury for the 1O86 10.40 Plymouth - Brighton (arriving at Salisbury at 14.27).  The Warship on that train would come off, and the class 33 took over for the run to Brighton (departing Salisbury at 14.45).  The Warship taken off that train would then work the 14.36 Salisbury - Waterloo.

When did the SR start converting coaches to steam/ETH dual heat? Switching from steam to ETH at Salisbury must have restricted the available coaching stock to dual heat onlyl

21 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

My memory and records don’t go back to the mid sixties on this route but I never observed a loco taken off at Salisbury for the purpose of adding coaches. 
 

The Waterloo - Exeter sets had settled into 8 or 9-car rakes once diesel haulage was universal and (other than the night-time “passenger and news” trains) seldom varied. 

It only happened with the Warships, the practice stopped with the switch to class 33

Just a thought on this - engine changes eastbound would have been easy to fit in anyway as at Salisbury the loco routinely came off, picked up extra carriages and then backed on again. Westbound they were dropped off the back. Exchanging a sick loco would not have increased the time.

My personal experience was that you were almost as likely to get a change as not, simply because the Warships were so likely to fail.

One duty which has been overlooked is banking at Evershot between Yeovil and Dorchester.

In the early 1960s a 22 was outstationed (not allocated) at Yeovil shed for this.

I remember one occasion when after a day out at Weymouth with my mother we arrived at Pen Mill on a late running DMU to find the last Taunton connection had gone.

The stationmaster rapidly called the 22 from shed, matched it to a scratch set and sent the two of us on the way home.

You'd think that they would have used another 22 at the other end, banking between Weymouth and Dorchester but it seems a Hymek was  used instead. 

Jack, that model is an incredibly close representation of the original while it was at Yeovil.

You've got the feel of it just right

Just came across this collection of photos

https://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/48ds/

this one is close, but not faded or dirty enough

https://www.flickr.com/photos/34938158@N02/3252088589/in/photolist-TtbrFc-gDTpiz-gBwTcV-bcnVUT-c4n48y-oys1Pg-spomxZ-oXcV2D-ocd3oV-dTyFUY-AkjHH6-oSDhv1-bdWqCp-VLt1Q1-kYDBk1-ATa7SY-AUueRu-pUoMSS-AVmbet-b33PKF-ffF6j1-coWCWf-fSokBW-5XnNCV-b33PKT-5XAyQX-9T2p5J-oVEv2H-eH34ua-fcgTfL-nVXWB7-nM2MVh-eH3dbp-o2v3kY-f9tb7Q-aLbmAg-5XEFLh-avvHVs-RRom14-euWUdm-67WDEp-exxPTd-fc2BdR-dS7xX8-e1Ve8y-b9s69t-cQtgXN-6yh5dT-dTyD2Q-aeazu8

Just a few more thoughts on this

1) The "Observers Book of Railway Locomotives" for 1964 shows this locomotive as having the yellow nose paint. It also shows all doors / windows completely covered

2) The nose cowl is curved (as in the picture I linked to earlier) without a Ruston logo on the nose.

3) The book claims the loco was built by Bristol Aeroplane (not by Ruston) in 1946, and I've also read that comment elsewhere. Is it possible Bristol knocked it together from mechanicals supplied by Ruston? In 1946 Bristol had a lot of spare capacity and would have been struggling for work. I can see it being built as an experiment

I saw this little engine many times in the early 1970's at Yeovil. The photo at http://railphotoprints.uk/p852530460/h63ED4264#h63ed4264 is a fairly good representation of how it looked close to the end of its life.

It was a very dirty  faded flat matte pale green. I've seen other Ruston industrial locos in the same colour, though in a better state  (e.g. at Radstock in the 1970's number 20 or 24)

I strongly suspect it was never repainted from new. It wasn't olive, it wasn't BR green. The yellow on the bonnet was almost certainly a locally applied DIY job with whatever cheap yellow paint was available - it was faded to dull off-white, with rust stripes.

The end of the loco came because it was rusted so badly the roof fell off in ~1972. Rumour had it that it was used for a few days roofless before health and safety kicked in. It sat at Yeovil Junction for nearly three years wrapped in a tarpaulin before it was finally scrapped. I've read somewhere that it was scrapped in 1972 - thats clearly wrong, it was still laid up at Yeovil in 1974