EddieK

I see that the building above the last couple of coaches of the train has yet to gain the timber beams on the gable end. Also, I wonder what the electric cable is for that is trailing alongside the down main line?

From memory and based on where I was working at the time, Yellow OHL flashes date from 1998, give or take a year. Railtrack changed the Railway Group Standard so that the warnings on rolling stock were consistent with the warnings on electrical cabinets and similar.

To quote a popular phrase: "Bu***r! How did I miss that?!?" Looking forward to the 1981 photo 8)

Are you sure of the date? That looks exactly like TS410 set that ran on the branch in August *1981* formed 50331-59125-50313, not just the livery details but the orientation of the TSL relative to the power cars. I was still living alongside the branch as at 1982 and would be upset if this had snuck past without my knowledge....

Apart from the diet of the allocated Cravens 105 units, Bletchley sometimes provided a spot of variety, certainly on the St Albans branch. In the mid 1970s, Class 122 M55009 was a regular performer, also a bizarre formation seen around 1975 (possibly 1976) was when Cravens MBS 50393 ran with GRCW DTS 56295. https://www.railcar.co.uk/images/14427 As the DTS was non-gangwayed, it was often locked out of use, meaning that all passengers had to utilise the 52 seats in the Cravens car, which was not a problem during the day, but at school travel times made things cosy. The reason being that the Guard also sold/checked tickets. I recall a school trip from my Primary School around 1975/6 where the school party was accommodated in 56295, specially unlocked for us. The length of pink ticket roll that came out of the Guard's Almex machine was a sight to see..... A treat in Summer 1981 was a Tyseley based three car Class 101 set. (I may have had a hand in setting the destinations to PWLLHELI and MACHYNLLETH...) As I said above, the new order began around Autumn 1981 when the Class 104s began to appear, and soon the 105s were gone. In late Summer 1983, we were treated to a Tyseley 116 set just ex works from Swindon - the non gangwayed trailer car made fare collection interesting. Around 1986, some ex Allerton Class 108s appeared on the St Albans line, but thereafter there were also guest appearances from oddities such as back to back pairs of Class 115 MBS, and a Class 114 set that had transferred from Lincoln to Tyseley (after LN closed) and that was then loaned to Bletchley. Apparently when the Tyseley Production Manager rang Bletchley to ask if he could have his unit back, he was alarmed to hear that it had extended the St Albans branch by a few feet after it hit the buffers.... The St Albans branch was electrified in 1988, but Bletchley DMUs still ran the Bedford branch and north of Bedford on Midland Main Line. Two of the more bizarre units were Class 108 MBS - Class 115 TS - Class 104 TSL - Class 108 MSL. https://www.railcar.co.uk/images/15646 Returning to Class 105s, it must have been sometime in 1981 when I was returning from North Wales and got as far as New Street to find the only way back to Watford Junction was an all stations service formed of a Class 310. When this reached Bletchley, any passengers travelling further were ushered onto one of our 105s which proceeded south on the fast line complete with catering trolley. (The trolley had been on the Euston - Aberystwyth loco hauled train that morning, but the return working only went as far as Wolverhampton.....)

The colouration of the unit in the above images is typical of how the Bletchley Cravens looked in the 1970s. It seemed the whole exterior took on a brown tinge. One unit was repainted by the depot so the blue bodies and yellow cab ends were shiny, but the bodyside glazing was still ingrained brown. The same brown-ness took over the 104s transferred from Manchester from Autumn 1981. This one is well on the way to brown https://www.railcar.co.uk/images/17093

The best way to get depot allocation histories for First Generation DMU depots is to go to the railcar website and click on "Data" at the top of the page. Then click on "Depots". Scroll down the list and if your chosen depot is coloured blue, click on the link. For each depot with a data section, you can then search for all vehicles ever allocated, or narrow the search by date or class. A very useful source...

The complicated movements to get HST trailer car sets into Devonport Dockyard (and out again) were choreographed by Rod Fowkes, the Operations Manager for Laira Depot. As I recall, from being at Inter City HQ when the contract was awarded, of the four main contractors bidding for the job, three of them were proposing to use Devonport. The access into the site was considered as "difficult" but thanks to Mr Fowkes' dedication, it became possible.

Mick, is this the traffic that also utilised the former "Hybar Ferry" wagons?

Just having a look back through older items in this thread and when I saw this image I became curious as to what was in the sheeted open wagons on the right....

According to the railcar website, Botanic Gardens had an allocation of Class 104 quad sets at the time of the image, but in October 1975 most were transferred away, with the last few vehicles going early in 1976. Question: did these Class 104 quads still appear on the Hull - Scarborough line after the allocated sets left BG?

Happy New Year! The image of Hull is rather topical as exactly 41 years ago, my late father took me to Hull on the train from KX, with HST to Doncaster and Class 101 onwards to Hull. Later in the day, we travelled across to Manchester, though were disappointed not to have a Class 124 unit, having to make do with a 4 car Class 111.

One vehicle missing from the list is M50755, which transferred from NH around January 1981. By all accounts, it was not in very good condition, and so was dumped at Bletchley and slowly raided for spares. This vehicle had the "correct" style of Guard's Van for the Bachmann version (see below) but don't think it ever ran from Bletchley. One of the regular Cravens vehicles, M50392 suffered damage in 1980/81 which saw it withdrawn. https://www.railcar.co.uk/images/19168 Back in my childhood days, our garden backed on to the St Albans branch, so I was familiar with the Bletchley based Cravens units. From 1977 until late 1981 (ish) they took me to St Albans every school day. From Autumn 1981, the six Class 104 units from Manchester started to appear on the branch, and compared to 105s they were positively luxurious, with high backed seats and wooden panelling. As for modelling, the Bachmann 105s have the "other' style of Guard's Van arrangement with two bodyside lights per side, so correct for ER 51254 batch and LM 50752 batch. The 503xx and 514xx Cravens batches had only one bodyside light per side. The LM batch 50390-94 were built immediately following the NER batch that mostly had the 4 lamp cab front. Presumably the factory only had cab roof domes with a mounting area for a marker lamp, as the 50390 batch had these "stumps" on the dome but never a lamp. They had the two marker lamps on the lower cab front and the LM Region version of the Cravens headcode 2 digit box.

I suspect that the large 8 blind is out of a DMU with a 2 character headcode box, such as a 101 or 104...

I worked in InterCity HQ at the time and by 1993, everything was supposedly in fixed set formations. There was usually a week allowed at each location to fit CDL, and complete, planned sets were sent for conversion, occasionally with an odd "spare" vehicle thrown in as well.

In Autumn 1981, Buxton based Class 104 triple 50434-59132-50424 emerged from Swindon Works in Blue Grey livery. Subsequently, 59132 was withdrawn and 59207 became the centre car. 59207 was also Blue Grey but with a different depth of grey panel. Then 50424-50434 were transferred to Scotland to become the "Mexican Bean" unit

As I recall, the GNER Mallard Mark 4s had 3 window bays of Smoking accommodation in Coach B, the TOE vehicle, and one bay (ie 6 seats) of Smoking in Coach M, the PO adjacent to the DVT. In both cases, the Smoking section was at the extreme end of the seated area, so the end of the TOE that coupled to the loco, and the toilet end of the PO, next to the DVT. In both cases there was a new partition added. Ash boxes were fitted into the tables except on "airline" style seats where they were within the armrest (?from memory?) The table top ash boxes were on a spring loaded cable to allow you to unclip the box and tip it out. One of my projects was to oversee the conversion of Mallard sets to totally Non Smoking. This was done mostly at stations, during the day, either KX or at least one Sunday at Stevenage, Changing the signage internally and on the platform side was easy, but the external signage on the offside was a bit more awkward; I developed a skill of hanging out of the offside doorway and applying the new label. At KX, it was sometimes possible to lean on the train in the adjacent platform (apparently). Table top ash boxes were easy to remove by pulling hard so that the retaining wire detached. The Supervisor found some woodgrain effect Duct Tape to stick over the resultant hole, pending a change of table.

I transferred to Wembley Carriage Depot in August 1989. A month or two prior to this, set WB08 had a mishap where the Motor Alternator fell off the underside of one of the Mark 3 TSO vehicles. I don't think there was a derailment (but my memory is not the best) but most of the other TSOs in that set suffered damage to the bogies and underfloor equipment. In order to get the set back into traffic, some Mark 1 TSOs were borrowed from the IC Special Trains people, and the resulting formation was Mark 1 BG - 2x Mark 3a FO - Mark 3a RF - Mark 3a TSO (accessible toilet) - 5x Mark 1 TSO. WB08 was kept on an "out and back" diagram so that it returned to Wembley every night. Also, around 1989/90, I recall travelling to Crewe for some reason on (from memory) one of the sets WB01-03, which at that time had Mark 3a First Class and Buffet, but Mark 2f TSOs, but the set had a Mark 2 PV coach and a Mark 1 TSO in it. As I recall, the ride to Crewe in the Mark 1 was very comfy also very warm with the heater on full power beneath my seat.

Further to the above, RCTS book for 1978 refers to the (A) suffix as being something to do with a BR standard gangway. Need to dig deeper on this...

I recall that the BR coaching stock fleet was categorised into A, B and C. (Nothing to do with marks of coach!). On the vehicle end, the vehicle type would have a suffix to denote which fleet it was in, for example FK(A). I believe this dated back to when BR had to provide coaching stock for works holiday specials and similar, so the "A" fleet were used intensively all year, the "B" fleet had an easier life and the "C" fleet spent most of the year sitting in sidings until six weeks or so of frantic activity taking the citizens of the local industrial towns on their Summer holidays. Maintenance and overhaul (including repaints) were tailored to suit the levels of activity.

The second class Pullman cars by Met Camm had 2+1 seating as built. It was an easy job to turn them into "ordinary" FO stock. https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/55591376626903286/ The First Class Pullman cars were 1+1 seating layout, with loose armchair seats. Around 1967, the First Class Pullman cars were rebuilt and upseated featuring new seats bolted to the floor, and these seats were subsequently used in Mark 2c and 2d FO stock. Not only did they recline, but they had a degree of fore and aft adjustment as well. My last job involved looking after some Met Camm Pullmans. Two retained the 1967 fixed seats, but the third was returned to traffic with the loose armchair seating as originally built.

I admit responsibility for 33023's livery. In 1988, I was on my Graduate Engineer placement at Selhurst, and 023 came to the Repair Shop following fire damage on the underframe that also scorched the bodysides. Battery fault from memory. As the loco needed a repaint, I asked the Depot Manager if we could have a go at a special livery. The image shows the result. The painting was undertaken by the Repair Shop painters, as distinct from Selhurst Paint Shop's painters. The latter had at least one special loco livery to their name, 73005.

An unusual configuration with shunter plus van in front of Class 31 plus other vehicle(s). The Old Parcels Office (as it is now) must be just out of shot to the left, so I presume that will still have been in railway use at that time? The building in the background, just to the right of the stabled carriages, still stands, but not for much longer. In relatively recent times, it was a Comet retail outlet and currently contains a "pound shop" but I believe it is due for demolition as part of plans for the new Gateway to Scarborough.

Good find. If the bus is LAG 188V (cannot see registration properly as my eyes are getting old), it is a vehicle I have driven in preservation.

Thanks for pointing out that subtle difference! One of the generators that ran through the area modelled on my layout was 417, which has the 5 rib grilles and the black headcodes, as per Out of interest, does anyone supply replacement cantrail grilles with just the one strengthening rib? Or do I need to practice my skills at precision filing??