Rugd1022

A'noon all, Damp and fogworthy hereabouts, but still pleasant enough where I've just driven down the back lanes around Stoneleigh with the Autumnal colours much in abundance, leafy Warwickshire always provides some lovely views if a visual a pick me up is needed (Herself is booked into a clinic for an eye operation the week before Christmas, not the best time of year to be poked and prodded but needs must). Stay safe / warm / upright folks.

Lovely set of Pilmoor shots Dave, I'm looking at the first one J784 thinking how much it looks like a very well executed N gauge layout. It's a great snapshot of the period though, with plenty of maroon stock still about with the odd blue & grey vehicle starting to appear.

Caveat required! Brush Type 2 D5578 was painted all over in Monastral Blue for a while, I think it received this livery even before the experimental XP64 blue was applied to Brush Type 4 D1733. And some folk think BR blue is boring...

Yes Mike, they should really be a lot closer to the shade of 'off white' used on the window pillars of all of the maroon Westerns (apart from D1001's which were stark white).

In a couple of episodes the Shado Mobiles were deployed from articulated trucks and a Hercules style transport aircraft... you're right though, it's funny how they always ended up in a dense forest just outside Slough... I've just started watching the whole series again, well the nights are drawing in aren't they...

For those of a certain age, this one is from the hand of modeller Mark Craig... Genuine studio models...

Preston, April 1971...

Random photo found in my hard drive, origin unknown...

Photo c/o John Goodale : 47 157, boiler fully operative, awaits departure for the South West at Bristol TM, 30th December 1983...

Photo by Ian Parish : 50 041 calls at Reading in September 1980...

Oxford North Junction, a quick shot before climbing back into a nice warm cab...

Photo c/o Craig Donald, 1773 at Wellingborough c.1972...

Photo c/o Westbury man Kevin Stokes...

Shot From Both Sides - Magazine

I think it is his cap yes, but Biggs had nothing to do with assaulting Driver Mills, he was sitting in one of the gang's two Landrovers at the time and never entered the cab of D326. It was Buster Edwards who koshed him over the back of the head.

Slave To The Rhythm - Grace Jones

Rich, apologies for veering off the topic of the (fabulous looking) 43xx, but do my eyes deceive me or have Heljan modified the tooling of the 7mm Western slightly? Reason I ask is in your blog photos the headcode panel on the blue / syp version looks like it's been raised to the correct height. It's a difference of only 2mm or so but it makes quite a bit of difference, either that or my eyes need checking!

Very nice shot that, Hymek D7093 was involved that day working a set of Pullman stock into the Works yard.

Before Rugby was resignalled during the WCML upgrades earlier this century there was an AWS ramp about twenty yards ahead of (ie : beyond) RY63 signal on the Up Slow / Northampton line, in the shallow cutting between the GC Birdcage bridge and Clifton Road bridge. Nobody ever explained to us when we were road learning why it placed there! There is still a 'shed test' AWS magnet as you come off Bletchley TMD.

A couple more early AL6 shots at Rugby Midland, taken on 4th February 1967, c/o Roger Norfolk... steam was all but dead, the new traction was making its mark and The Beatles were about to unleash 'Strawberry Fields Forever' onto an unsuspecting record buying public... And these gems from the lens of Northampton area snapper John Evans. c.1967 : Look at the contrast between the already dirty blue on E3130 against the newly applied blue & grey on the Mk1 coach at Roade... E3147 and E3176 both passing through Northampton Castle...

A few more while I wait for the phone to ring (I'm on call, I hope it doesn't ring!)... London Euston of old... Bridego Bridge, Buckinghamshire on the morning of 8th August 1963... And further down, at Cheddington station that same morning... Driver Jack Mills, seen in happier days at Basford Hall Yard, Crewe...

For the past week or so 'Les Ross' has been sat in the old No.8 bay platform at Rugby (Midland to give it its correct moniker!), each time I see it I think it looks fabulous, a bit too clean but a great reminder of the thrusting new modernised WCML of the mid to late '60s. Since we're talking AL6 liveries here area few more nuggets of corporate electrickery… An unidentified one with a filthy white cab roof on the blocks at Euston in June '69... E3146 at Crewe in the early '70s... E3101 wearing the red, yellow and white treatment on the Down Slow at Northchurch Tunnel, date unknown... E3196 with the wrong headcode at Northampton (Castle) c.1972... E3109 on the Up Fast at Nuneaton TV in 1970, about as modern as it gets for the time... E3108 at Preston in March '74 with rubber grommeted headlight... Photo by Grahame Wareham, E3106 on the Up Fast at Bletchley in May '69... E3112 at New St, an undated shot and it appears to have no BR logo on the side... E3122 somewhere down the Trent Valley... Another Grahame Wareham photo, E3128 seen in May '69... E3149 on an exhibition train stabled in the old No.3 bay at Rugby Midland in 1966... Another Grahame Wareham shot, E3167 stabled on the down side at Bletchley in May '69... Line up of AL6s at Euston on 25th March '67... A Grahame Wareham portrait shot of E3191 at Willesden TMD in April '69...

Mike - not sure of the date for the Bescot presentation shot but it looks like the early '70s to me. As for the Moocher Green shot I'm pretty sure it's him in the photo. Sometimes though, when old hands post photos on the various staff related facebook groups memories can get a little bit hazy when it comes to identifying old colleagues, I remember one on the Old Oak group a while ago where two retired hands were each adamant that the chap they were trying to pin down in the cab of a Thousand at Padd were two completely different blokes! Photo c/o Alex McCullam of Ayr Depot, seen here aboard a ScR Type 1 with his driver Jim Moodie...

Very welcome news and not something I was expecting at all. There are a couple of extra livery variations possible which aren't listed in Andy's opening post - early blue with or without small yellow warning panels plus the white cab roof treatment, as per these two photos... E3165 at Rugby in 1965... E3140 brand new at Doncaster, yellow paint on the headcode box just visible...

Some Westbury area photos, c/o Stanley Tout, Nigel Miles and Paul Ratnett… George 'Pongo' Morley aboard D7011 in 1973... Fitters on the shed... On a Westbury - Botley stone job... Somewhere on the Bridport branch... Driver Frank Green aboard D1041 in maroon...