bingley hall

China 1988 - At Longchuan on the single track main line to Jilin it's 0806hrs on 9 April 1988. SL620 with a slow Changchun to Jilin passenger train has been looped to allow the progress of SL664 on the morning fast passenger from Jilin.

Are we talking about the 3 year old CADs here that were said to be a work in progress at the time?

A couple of views from March 1989

A class 108/104 hybrid on a Buxton to Manchester service at Chapel-en-le-Frith in January 1989

Class 108s on a Carlisle to Leeds service depart Garsdale on 4 March 1989

West Ealing in February and March 1989

A trip to Exmouth by DMU over the years.

 

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A class 120 Cross Country set P553 (probably 51574, 59284, 51583) departs Exeter St Davids on the 10.30 all stations service to Exmouth, 8/4/80

 

Not enough love for the 120s and I'm just as guilty as the next man. Apart from some distant shots on the Barmouth bridge I was never switched on enough to grab any decent shots of these.

Having done most of my 'spotting' in the late 60s' and the 70s, in later years I found the use of Class 101s on Paddington suburban services a little incongruous.

A couple of views from February 1989.

On what was a thoroughly miserable Saturday afternoon at Newbury - the passengers of this Reading bound set are about to get the worst of the the First Gen experience as outlined in this thread by previous posters.

Much more pleasant conditions at West Ealing taken a week or two either side of the previous image.

Sadly largely ignored these over the years...

86101 at Euston in February 1989

A Buxton 108 near Dove Holes in March 1989

Class 116 on Matlock-Derby service at Ambergate - 14 July 1983

Class 101 at Barmouth - 13 August 1983

A Melbourne to Adelaide intermodal service climbs the grade out of Callington, South Australia in October 1989

A couple from Sydney's Circular Quay station taken back in June

Another sunny Saturday afternoon in February 1989 at West Ealing.

Railfreight liveried 47350  working what was most likely the 4O89 15.06 SO Ripple Lane FLT to Southampton Maritime Container Terminal.

47320 catches the late evening winter sun as it passes West Ealing with the empty 6V84 SO Salfords to Westbury.

A 119 on a Gatwick - Reading service and a 101 on an opposing service, on a sunny February Saturday afternoon in 1989 at Betchworth.

The platform gas lights were still in use at this time.

. 

A 3-car class 110 DMU featuring 3 different liveries forms part of a 7-car consist on a Scarborough to Leeds services near York in May 1981.

A class 110/101 DMU hybrid forming a Leeds-Morecombe service about to depart a boarded up Hellifield station during March 1989.

In the 70s for us southerners the twenty 2-car DMUs of Class 103 built by Park Royal were rare birds and I ever only managed a couple of photographs. They were mainly allocated to Chester depot where this one was snapped on 7 September 1972. 

The exteriors always looked nicer than the interiors. I travelled on so many in my youth and they were dreadful. No wonder passenger numbers were declining. Recently I went on a 101 at the NYMR and was transported back to a time of awful seats, filthy interiors and absolutely choking diesel fumes. The only positive was being able to see through the cab windows.

 

Today sitting in a 170 with wide windows, comfortable seats and a generally clean environment it seems a world away from the rubbishy DMUs we put up with for so many years.

While I can marvel at the speed, quietness and relative comfort of today's DMUs and EMUs, the grime, the noise and those unkempt interiors was exactly the attraction in my youth - greatly miss those teenage days bouncing around the countryside.

The 4-car Class 127 diesel-hydraulic DMUs were synonymous with St Pancras-Bedford suburban services for 24 years. The overhead wires are already in place and some of the Class 317 EMUs were in service by the time of this May 1983 view taken at St Pancras. The Class 127s only had a couple of months left in service.

.........

 

I was speaking recently with someone who is well connected with one of the major manufacturers who said that a few 'modelling punters' really have no idea just what is involved in the processes of producing models from China and elsewhere and also the constant rising costs of manufacture plus the limits of production runs. Railway models are apparently just a very small part of these companies output.

 

.......  

.........and despite being informed a multitude of times on this and other forums of these various issues.

Where's Billy Goat Gruff when you need him 

British Rail Class 105 Cravens built driving trailer (E56143) 'on shed' at Stratford on 30 April 1974.

Gricers at Manchester Victoria inhale as a BRC & W Class 104 2-car DMU departs with a local service during September 1984.

A Bedford to St Pancras (London) service leaves Luton formed of a familiar 4-car Rolls-Royce powered Class 127 DMU used almost exclusively on these services - 27 October 1977.

Is that the Cravens / Gloucester hybrid unit that used to regularly work the Stockport - Stalybridge service?

If so then I was a regular user of that unit.

 

It was later replaced by a bubble car which, at peak periods, struggled to accommodate all the passengers.

This was then replaced by the "parliamentary" when loco hauled services ceased (via Man. Vic) and were replaced by 2nd generation DMUs via Man Picc thus allowing direct connection with the London trains. (I stopped all train interest, (and use), because of this for the next 15 years!)

 

I've been searching for photos of the Stockport - Stalybridge service ever since!

 

 

Kev.

A couple of shots of the 0826hrs Stockport to Stalybridge service and return taken on 2 November 1983

A couple of Class 117 shots at Paddington - the first taken sometime in 1977 and the second from February 1989

A few from Turkey in 1984..

Southern Region Central Division and South East Division trains pass just outside London Bridge sometime in mid-1977

Frampton Comes Alive!

A recent Flickr upload, EMDs on the Main South in New South Wales - Freightcorp's 8157/8153 with train 5MS2 cross V/Line G532 and Candy liveried Freightcorp 8165 during single line working near the hamlet of Frampton on 24 March 1994.

All the various re-numberings of Southern stock really did my head in.