Rugd1022

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...

Pictures Of Lilly - The 'Oooo

Yes, he stormed out on 22nd August and didn't return for a week or two. There were undoubtedly tensions between them during the sessions but there are plenty of photographs of them all getting along at the time too. The 'mad day out' photo session in London on 28th July helped to take the pressure off a bit, they spent the whole day driving round London with snapper Don Macullen in tow, stopping off at various places like St.Pancras, the docklands area and parts of the old 'City of London', larking around quite a bit, they finished up at Macca's house juts round the corner from Abbey Road, one or two of these shots appear on the poster which came with the LP. My uncle still has his original 'stamped' White Album with a number in the low hundreds, I can remember listening to it on family visits in the '70s, crackles and all. It had a short promo spot on German TV...

Another Bescot pic, Driver Eric 'Opple' Burford, c/o retired Bescot legend Tony 'Lulu' Llewellyn... Victoria, 1914... Victoria, 1955... Waterloo, November 1940... Waterloo, 1962... Waterloo, 1964... Wimbledon, 1966...

You Really Got me - The Kinks

No matter where the WR namer Brush 4s went they always found there way home! Most I ever saw in one lace at the same time was six of them round the table at Old Oak, plus one stabled on the coal stage road and one outsdie the factory, in December '83. There's a very nice photo in a book somewhere of IKB and GJC stabled next to each other by the 'table c.1975, I think it's a Brian Morrison or Barry Nicole shot.

Taken during the sessions for the White Album, no sign of Ringo, must have been in the khazi…

My jalopy last night at Bescot…

A much belated 'morning all', hope all's well, I took my (somewhat knackered) camera to work with me last night for the first time in ages, having five hours to kill at Bescot a chap needs something to do of an evening...! What I didn't manage to capture was the gang of lads sorting out a derailment at the south end of the yard (behind me) in the freezing cold, well done chaps!

A lot of stuff recorded in the '60s sounds dated now, but most of the Fab's catalogue still sounds as fresh as the day it was committed to tape. 'Dear Prudence' has got 1968 stamped all over it, but sounds very crisp and new to me.

I've been meaning to photograph this house in Southam Road, Banbury for a while, but someone on Pistonheads posted this shot so I've purloined it... every time I drive past it, it makes me chuckle like a naughty schoolboy...

I've been banked up the Lickey a few times but we were using our works issued mobile phones or back to back radios at the time, I've not used the GSM-R method yet. It's no different really to working something like the HOBC top 'n' tailed, both drivers know their game and know when to open up, shut off and the rear driver will be keeping an eye on the brake pipe gauge anyway. Route knowledge of course comes into play too. It's not unknown to have a red half way up the bank or at the top, it happened to me not that long ago on a ballast job returning to Bescot, I wasn't being banked on that particular job and with just over 1,000 tons in tow I still had it in notch eight approaching the AWS magnet for the red right at the top of the climb, any other position and I'd have been sunk, requiring the banker which was sat on Saltley shed at the time. Luckily the bobby pulled off at the lasty minute and went over the top at about 12mph. I've mentioned this before on other threads regarding the Lickey - even with a good run up from Stoke Works Jcn hitting the platforms at Bromsgrove at 60mph with a heavy train you'll be doing no more than 20mph as you reach Blackwell.

Weeds galore at Washwood Heath down side a few years ago, they're even more prolific now...

Photo by Clive Langston, Norman gets himself captured for posterity at the Castle Cary photo stop on the 'Western Lament' tour, Thursday 24th February 1977 (a tour I bunked off school to be on!)… He made his local paper too...

Photo c/o Geoff Emson : 47 538 at Bescot on northbound tanks, 6th June 1975, I've never quite got to the bottom of why it lost its 'Python' nameplates when it was renumbered into Tops and converted to ETH...