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Jamesb

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Posts posted by Jamesb

  1. Not been on here for a while, so time to make amends.

     

    66 054 at Strand Road crossing with the Liverpool bulk terminal behind. Just arrived light engine from Arpley to bring the scrap empties out of the EMR sidings.

     

    20161129_205331.jpg

     

    66 138 on 6M88, Middleton towers - Ince and Elton sand. On this particular day, the ground staff rostered to the job had gone sick 24 hours earlier and no replacement was available. I sat at West Cheshire Jnc for nearly three hours before someone turned up!

     

    20161212_081438.jpg

     

    And to add insult to injury, the conveyor belts in the unloading plant were clogged solid with sand from the last train. The ground staff member and I, assisted by a staff member from the works itself, found three shovels and dug the compacted sand out before I could start unloading..  :O

     

    20161214_075442.jpg

     

    There is a 66 in this one, honest! Arpley sidings with a 66 lurking outside the shed.

     

    20161130_215425.jpg

    • Like 10
  2. It's been a while since anything was posted in this thread, but I've got some pics to add, so why not..

     

    Apologies for already posting this pic in the class 37 thread, but 31 296 at Buxton.

     

    image.jpg

     

    31 143 at Manchester Piccadilly with a short parcels working.

     

    image.jpg

     

    Buxton again? Surely not...31 180 and un-identified Immingham friend..

     

    image.jpg

     

    No idea....

     

    image.jpg

     

    Well the scrawled inscription on the back of the print says Peterborough 1989, so somewhere in the East between 1988 and 1991!  :sarcastichand:

     

    31pboro.jpg

     

    Same back of the pic inscription, but this time its 31 187 with some engineers wagons.

     

    31187.jpg

    • Like 13
  3. Ohh blimey, since finding this part of the site I've gone plain old picture posting crazyyy...(sort of).

     

    Buxton late 80s.

     

    37 676 & 47 295

     

    image.jpg

     

    The same pair, looking from the other side.

     

    image.jpg

     

    Well there's one 37 in there, so it counts.. 37 414 (note the odd sized numbers), 31 296, 47 050 and a 150.

     

    image.jpg

     

    37 414 again, this time with an un-identified class mate (possibly 37 422, see below).

     

    image.jpg

     

    37 422 (as I didn't keep any records, it's just a possible that it was with 414).

     

    image.jpg

     

    Finally 679 & 681 (lurking inside). 

     

    image.jpg

    • Like 16
  4. Digging around has found me three more. Well, two more and one that is sort of, well...

     

    Again all pics are 1988-91

     

    47 214 on stands and minus bogies at a Crewe works open day. I actually went for an interview there to become an apprentice. The fact that I arrived late and then told the interviewer that "I liked trains" saw me following a different career path for the next 27 years... :whistle:

     

    47214.jpg

     

    At the same open day, its a green duff this time. Any ideas why it was repainted? An early preservation candidate?

     

    green47.jpg

     

    And for those of you who like your train pictures with more sky and boats than trains, it's an unidentified 47 at Evesham. I only know it's at Evesham because a) I remember we had a canal boating holiday that started there and b) it says it on the big blue boat....

     

    Evesham47.jpg

    • Like 8
  5. A few ones from me (if I can remember when and where...)  :O All pics are 1988/89.

     

    No idea which duff, but it's definitely at Penzance...

     

    image.jpg

     

    Another unidentified IC duff (but it's a different one, just look at the bufferbeams..) at Penzance again.

     

    image.jpg

     

    Ohhh, guess where!!?? 47 547 in revised NSE livery with a parcels service.

    image.jpg

     

    Let's head north for a change. Manchester Piccadilly and 47 448 in large logo livery, departing from platform 13/14.

     

    image.jpg

     

    Quickly followed by 47 439, again in large logo livery with a 'liner train from Trafford Park.

     

    image.jpg

     

     

    And lastly, heading into the hills its 47 594 and 438 trying to break the class 37 monopoly at Buxton. Nice try lads...

     

    image.jpg

    • Like 9
  6. With all respect I really don't understand this almost obsession that people have on the internet for deriding anything of a previous era. No, things weren't as quiet, smooth and advanced as they are now. That is progress for you.

     

    They may well not have been as "exciting" as loco+stock that they replaced, but they did the job. How many of them actually caught fire? Out of how many built?

     

    MInd you there was someone recently who asked why first generation locos weren't built to the same pattern as the modern locos, after all "they're miles better". Sadly, he wasn't joking and really did not understand why they did not employ 2016 technology in 1962. Sigh, Darwin was right about regression of the species.

     

    I suspect that there is a world of difference between people who worked on them back in the day and people who rode on them as passengers. In 20 or 30 years time when we are lamenting the loss of the 66's, I will have a different view of them having worked on them! 

  7. Earlier in the thread, Tyseley's single-car units were mentioned. Here's one still with an SC prefix substituting as part of a 3-car unit at Leicester, 1982/83:

    attachicon.gifN12_0016-SC55005-Leicester.jpg

     

     

    And a few livery variations from the collection...

     

    Tyseley black cab windows, 1982/83 at Leicester:

    attachicon.gifM5_0010-M53315-Leicester.jpg

     

    Bedford-St Pancras hydraulic 127 repainted into green and on its way back south from overhaul and repainting (at Derby?). Also 1982/83 at Leicester:

    attachicon.gifN29_0023-M-51591-in-green-Leicester.jpg

     

    GW-style chocolate and cream on the Greenford shuttle, 1985:

    attachicon.gif1985prints_0045-W55020-Greenford.jpg

     

    More green nostalgia on a Carlisle 108 at Seascale/Sellafield in 1987:

    attachicon.gif87-8-20-Seascale.jpg

     

    The green liveried class 127 is the same one that both myself and PhilMc posted. Your shot shows it prior to conversion to parcels use. So we've got it in service in passenger use, in service in parcels use and in preservation as well! A famous DMU!

     

    The red plaque behind the drivers door is explained here...

     

    http://www.railcar.co.uk/images/class-127/vehicles

    • Like 1
  8. So, a quick search through some old photos found these. Ok, Ok, I know some of the pics are a bit ropey, but I was just a kid, man! I'm pretty certain there are more to come, but as to where they are is another story...

     

     

    Unidentifed 101 at Wroxham, 1989.

    101_1.jpg

     

    Norwich, 1989. Crown point's Set 66 (I think its 56354 in shot).

     

    101_2.jpg

     

     

    Stokesby this time, with another unidentifed 101. It's actually Crown Point's set 70 but I don't know the individual numbers. 1989 again.

     

    101_3.jpg

     

    Let's have a change of area! Wilmcote now, probably 1989-91, but I'm not sure. Tyseley set T025, which if the website I've cribbed the info off is correct, meant it was 54039+53003

     

    114.jpg

     

    Finally (for now) a preservation era shot of a class 127 at Butterley. I think this is the erstwhile set 920 (55966+55967) after they had the full yellow ends painted out. Mid 90's I'd guess.

     

    127.jpg

    • Like 15
  9. I wish the smart phone had been invented when these units were still around. I have some great memories of the odd livery combinations that used to turn up. I recall waiting for a train back from my Grandparents house (nearly always a class 304 EMU), when a two car 108 turned up instead. The leading car was in freshly applied (or so it seemed) BR Blue and the trailer was in 'candy stripe' white/blue, but absolutely filthy. Probably about 1983 ish I'd guess.

     

    The Buxton units were always a favourite, firstly the 104's with white cab roofs and then the 108's with white cab roofs AND black window surrounds! Exotic! 

     

    128's were always a nice sight to see, just because they were so unusual.  

     

    Towards the end of the first gen DMUs life, I remember seeing a four car Class 115 at Manchester Oxford Road and a hybrid 101/110 two car. The 110 had a huge hole in the underframe part of the exhaust and the radiator cap was missing as well, so fumes and steam were blasting up from below the platform edge!!

     

    Great days.

    • Like 2
  10. I'm ashamed to say it, but I don't  have many pics from 'back in the day' of 'proper' DMUs. Considering how many times I travelled on them and how much I loved them then (and still do now), I have surprisingly little in the way of photos! I need to start checking out my old prints and start scanning any in that I find. As an appeasement to the DMU gods, I offer this one, taken by my brother, at Penzance. No idea which particular 122 it is, but any one who can ID it gets a prize*

     

     

    *No actual prize given ... :mosking:

     

    image.jpg

    • Like 12
  11. Wil have to look out for this "sand train" now at Helsby :good:

     

    Nice photos...

     

     

    cheers neil.

     

    Thanks Neil. The train is booked to run Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Booked departure time is 07.02 on Monday and 07.12 Wednesday and Friday. The empties are booked to depart Ince and Elton at 13.54, but in reality, it always leaves early. Probably dinner time (ish) is the best time to see it at Helsby.

  12. A few more from me. This time the subject is 66 053 and the service is the 6M88 Middleton Towers - Ince and Elton sand and return working (via Warrington Arpley), 6Z42.

     

     

     

    All done and waiting to go home.
     
    20160803_113331.jpg
     
     
    Gratuitous detail close up 1
     
    20160803_113403.jpg
     
     
    Gratuitous detail close up 2
     
    20160803_113410.jpg
     
     
    Waiting for the road.
     
    20160803_115645.jpg
     
     
    *Edited to make the pics bigger!
    • Like 7
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