45125

Having worked with many ex Dairycoates staff, both drivers and maintenance, the general option of them was that they were not bad locos. The reliability of them was reasonable, with most of the issues down poor manufacturing of some of the components (cylinder heads, starter motor,turbo brackets and gearbox reversing mechanism) as well as the poor brake. Many of the jobs that they worked often relied on double heading due to the poor brakes, so required double manning, consideration was given to fitting MU equipment, but due to the downturn in traffic this was dropped. When the fleet was sold on for industrial use, a couple of Dairycoates staff spent sometime with the NCB and Stewart and Lloyds getting the staff familiar with them, as well as isolating some of the troublesome safety devices (reverser standstill etc). Most train crew liked them as the cab was a vast improvement over the WDs that the Paxman's replaced , the only crumble was the brakes. Al Taylor

The sleeper derailment at Paddington is one of the examples of lack of running brake test in freezing weather.

The shot of 6789 on KGD is one of the handful of dual braked Type 3s Dairycoates had.

That is more than likely a KGX service, as the Cardiff had finished by that date.

Was always told that it was a money saving idea,,,.

It would be nice if they did a rerun of the inner and outers, with no containers. And the containers of all variants as separate items. Al Taylor

I wasn't talking about the ventilators of the hot water expansion vents. As with the variety of vehicles this alters depending on type.

The roof pattern for the 2D,E and F are the same. The D and E have Stones equipment (with the odd exception. The F have Temperature equipment ( with odd exception). The differences are on the underside, stones have two fans (one on a brake vehicle) on the condenser, Temperature have one large fan on the condenser. There are detail differences on the underside between D, E an F variants like some of the equipment boxes, the compressor on temperature vehicles is boxed in, the 2D M/A control box has an under slung box on it which the other variants don't have. Al Taylor

There will be a fair few photos of 24/1s working in Scotland. 24/1s started with 5050 and this was a Scottish loco from around 1966 when the Eastern sent their 24s north. I have seen a photo of 5066 double heading with a 50 at Perth. Al Taylor

The majority of DMUs had six sets of air/axle and engine lights, so that would be enough for a twelve car set. Any power powered vehicles the driver would have no idea of what engines would be running or if a final drive had thrown correctly on the other cars. There was a small number of driving cars that only four sets of air/axle and engine lights. Al Taylor

Is 60004 actually 60003, it was said that 60004 was to be the training loco for the maintenance staff, and was due to be delivered by a set date in 1991. However 04 was nowhere near ready but 03 was and there identities were swapped over to conform to contract. Al Taylor

^The 56s weren't too bad, it was just the work they were but on. MGR trains with lots of plodding along at Low speed and long periods of low engine speed didn't do the power units much good. When used on some other flows they were a lot happier.

A standard buckeye couples to the an alliance coupler. But as yo need to move things with a loco that has a draw hook and screw shackle you need a barrier vehicle. Al Taylor

The Mirrlees lump was was quite a well thought design, the big end was removable without disturbing other items, cylinder head and big end bolts were all easily removed and refitted by stretching the bolts and tightening/loosening the nuts by hand.. The only drawbacks with the 60s was the max speed and size of the fuel tank. Immingham to Langley couldn't be done without going for fuel whilst at Langley. First couple of runs expired around Lincoln on the return when out of Fuel. Al Taylor

The nose grills are two piece hinged units, not a single unit. 37/4 have some very subtle differences to all the other differences to the other refurbs, they load up differently, and like all locos it depends on who set the max load min speed setting up.

I was a Technical Instructor on the 60s when new, they did have a few issues when first introduced. some of this was. due to staff been unfamiliar with them, plus certain items weren't quite up to the the duties required of them. The doppler radar was a slight problem on certain surfaces, plus it original position picked up thing it should have done.... the Woodwward governor was a problem with various mods done to them over the years.There was a fuel contamination problem when new on some locos, mainly a bacterial infection. Once they settled down they became very reliable. One suspects that once the Red empire took over things went done quite the same way as a previous years. Have had a few cab trips on them on oil trains from Lindsey to Leeds, I always found them to be solid performers on such trains moving 2800t trains with ease, it was just getting to 60mph took a while but once there they would stay there for ages. Also had a couple of rides on the iron ores to Santon including a start on the bank, very impressive. A shame that none were ever geared for 75mph , admittedly that would problably led to a load reduction. Al Taylor

Those items were conveyed at one time in those tanks. Some other odd items were conveyed from Saltend in lagged tanks, even the 'vinegar ' tanks had lagging on them, remember rerriveting some of the panels back on them when an apprentice as well as other jobs on those tanks

That's okay it was just a typo. Most of those ended up as modified with chains after use on Tartan Arrow work, all bar one appear to have reverted to vac braking, the one that remained dual braked (94711) by 1976 had become vac braked when fitted with chains. All the BG(B) by 74 had all become vac only and according to the RCTS list by 1976 some had the gangways refitted.

There were 23 CCTs and 4 LMS BGs that were dual braked that would have worked the Tartan Arrow services not all in Tartan Arrow livery. CCTs numbers 94151,70/1/27, 94212/29/46/90, 94304/71/84, 94418/52/4, 94711/3/72, 94808/45/67/8/72, 94911. BGs 31368/82/9, 31409. Al Taylor

Those are lagged tanks so will be used for products which require to be kept warmish. Coming from Salted they could be Gas Oil, Methanol, Isopropanol or Isopropyl Acetate. Al Taylor

The emergency lighting point has an arrow pointing towards the charging socket. the gas overhaul date will be on both sole bars next to the gas pressure gauge. The BC will be BO for brake overhaul followed by the date. Hope that helps . Al Taylor

Should be SHO, steam heat overhaul and the date is the overhaul date. Sole bar dates are the overhaul/maintenance done dates.

Glasgow works wasn't known for the quality of its workmanship in certain areas. It doesn't help the Birmingham RCW (also known as Birmingham Rust and Corrosion Works) didn't quite get the joining of the fibre glass domes and the steel work spot on the vehicles they built like this.

Even that had its issues.............

I regularly used to travel on the 1628 Doncaster to Hull service (2H62) in 1975/6 and this often conveyed a CCT, it was usually formed of a Lincoln Heavyweight DMU. Also the 2038 Hull Leeds (1L52) and the 2135 Hull Doncaster (1D62) both conveyed CCT and GUVa along with a couple of MK1s for passenger accommodation , the reverse works also conveyed the same. There was also at one time a couple of Hull York workings that conveyed a right mixture of GUVs and CCTs with passenger vehicles thrown in for good measure. Even when the 1708 ex York became a Trans Pennine DMU CCTs would be conveyed. There was also a KGX Leeds working that stopped almost everywhere also conveyed a right hotch potch of NPCCS including CCTs and GUVs Al Taylor