Jump to content
 

Hymeks on the Severn Valley line? (And suitable headcodes!)


eetype3

Recommended Posts

Hello!

 

I bought my Dad a trainset for Christmas; Bachmann's 3205 and Collett coaches (well, he's retired, a rail enthusiast with a passion for the WR and a lapsed railway modeller; the gift list kinda wrote itself...). He's now planning a layout based on the Severn Valley line as it was in the transition period, i.e. 1960-66.

 

I'm building him a budget Hymek - his favourite WR diesel loco - which will be a mix of ancient and modern Hornby components and a Westward detailing kit ex-eBay, plus a few of my own electrical/electronic tweaks along the way. The livery choice is obvious: green with small yellow panels - or possibly no yellow panels - see below...

 

I'm hoping that you DH expert types will be happy to help me with getting the identity and the headcodes right, so I have a few questions for you if I may please: 

 

1. Did Hymeks ever appear on the Severn Valley line? If so, which examples?

 

2. If they did, can you suggest suitable headcodes for those duties please? Ideally, I'd like to fit a trip-freight or through-freight headcode at one end, and a local passenger service headcode at the other.

 

3. A photo of such workings would be great, if you have one!

 

I'll post pics of the project as I go. Any help much appreciated, as always!

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

The best person to ask would be Dave Postle at Kidder Railway museum, who has alot of information relating to the line before closure.

As the line shut in 63 I would have thought their operation if they came would have been to either of the power stations at Ironbridge or Stourport, or on coal trains from Alveley colliery which did not shut until the early 70s.

 

Sorry i cant be of more help.

Link to post
Share on other sites

There is a classic local legend, possibly apocryphal, of Hymeks being used to deliver the weekly wages to the signalman at Highley whilst Alveley colliery (across the river but linked by tunnel to Highley) was still open.

 

What has never been made clear is whether the signalbox was only manned to receive its own wages shuttle, or whether coal was still going out by rail at this stage!

 

Over on another thead, we have established that Stourbridge was frequented by Hymeks circa '66, so it's not outside the bounds of probability that they worked through Bewdley.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks chaps! I get the impression that Dad's layout will be "generally Severn Valleyish" rather than a slavish replica, so Stourbridge/Kiddy is definitely near enough.

 

Does anyone know the headcode for the Snow Hill to Kiddy stopper? I know nothing of it, apart from rumours of its existence :nowink:

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold

Jim,

 

I would use 9Txx or 8Txx (T for trip working). If you can find some eyewitness or photographic evidence then you may be able to be more accurate.

 

Cheers

 

Dave

Dave

 

The meaning of the letter T will be different on each region and possibly time period, for the Western in the early '60s it denoted a train destination of the Newport and Gloucester Districts.

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold

Dave

 

The meaning of the letter T will be different on each region and possibly time period, for the Western in the early '60s it denoted a train destination of the Newport and Gloucester Districts.

Not quite correct - when initially introduced 'T' did indeed mean Newport and Gloucester Districts but from the commencement of the Winter 1960/61 timetable it was altered and applied to the Newport and Cardiff Districts while the Gloucester District was henceforth incorporated into the 'H' code which had hitherto applied to the Birmingham and Worcester Districts  (probably changed due to abolition of the Worcester District?).

 

However 'T' was used for local trips running as Class 9 in a number of areas (but it should not have been used for that purpose with a Class 8 train).

 

As far as Hymeks are concerned they were definitely the booked loco on the 19.53 Kidderminster- Paddington parcels in 1967 (I know that because I travelled on it on several occasions at that time although that was only in the London Division so a loco change at Worcester was a possibility - a faint possibility).

Link to post
Share on other sites

As far as Hymeks are concerned they were definitely the booked loco on the 19.53 Kidderminster- Paddington parcels in 1967 (I know that because I travelled on it on several occasions at that time although that was only in the London Division so a loco change at Worcester was a possibility - a faint possibility).

 

That's interesting Mike - which way was it routed at the time... did it depart south and go via Worcester / Gloucester or Worcester / Oxford, or did it go north and take the long way round via Stourbridge / Snow Hill etc...? A service I don't think I've yet seen a photo of anyway!

Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold

That's interesting Mike - which way was it routed at the time... did it depart south and go via Worcester / Gloucester or Worcester / Oxford, or did it go north and take the long way round via Stourbridge / Snow Hill etc...? A service I don't think I've yet seen a photo of anyway!

Ran via Worcester and Oxford Nidge - all sorts of unexpected depots involved in working it, Worcester, Oxford and then Reading men worked it from Didcot to Paddington where it arrived around 02.00 ish if I remember rightly (I know the Reading men travelled back passenger on the 03.25 Padd 'papers, having travelled AP to Didcot in the first place after their original outward working had vanished, no wonder they weren't popular with Didcot men at the time!). 

 

And of course for much of the year it ran in the dark so pics are likely to be rare.

Link to post
Share on other sites

The WR did use "T" in trip headcodes in the Birmingham Division but only for the Stourbridge and Oxley "Bank" trains, so No.1 Bank train, which worked from Stourbridge to Blowers Green, Kingswinford Jn and Bromley Basin became 9T01.

 

Most other local trips used a destination code, in this case Alveley Sidings was A00, Bewdley A02, Bridgnorth A08, Foley Park A24, Kidderminster A38, Stourport A57. Empties to Alveley Sidings ran as 9A00, loads to Stourport as 9A57 etc.

 

The through freight ran as 8J38 1025 Hartlebury-Salop and 8H27 1100 Salop-Kidderminster (0820 on Sats). All were still steam hauled with a Kidderminster 43xx or 22xx I think.

 

The same headcodes applied after the LM takeover in Jan 1963 until June 1964. The LM then numbered the trips as "Txx".

9T73 and 9T74 were the two branch trips, still steam worked. Diesels probably took over in 1966 with Stoubridge based BR Typw 2s or EE Type 1s.

 

I would be very surprised if Hymeks worked the line as I doubt very much Kidderminster men knew them as they would be LMR by the time the Hymeks turned up on the parcels Mike mentions which would have been Worcester men.

 

Regards

Mike

Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks chaps for some great information, and a history lesson! I'm a frequent flyer on the SVR but knew very little of its late history. I didn't know it closed in '64, for example, which makes the early DMU workings through to Bewdley in support of SVR open days even more remarkable - I can't imagine modern rail regulations allowing operation over tracks basically disused for 10 years or more...

 

I think I'll create some "might've been" headcodes for Dad's Hymek; 9A00 at one end and 2A38 at the other, on a similar 'sort of nearly right, maybe' theory that I'm also applying to my '70s/80s Cheshire layout!

Link to post
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...