19810110_ZD_GerardFletcher

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D5611 Barford This is one of my all time favourite Brush Type 2 shots and I am indebted to Chris Burton for giving me permission to share it with you., 1B31 09.10 Skegness - King's Cross which ran on Saturdays only from 18th June to 3rd September is whisked past milepost 50 at Barford, just south of St. Neots behind D5611 on July 23rd 1966. , The loco was one of Finsbury Park's faithfuls arriving there new in 1960 and not moving depot until May 1979 by which time it had become 31188. This was yet another 31 to undergo a short life in preservation, deemed surplus to requirements at the Wensleydale Railway it was scrapped in 2008. Here it is just fresh off a Doncaster Works general overhaul where it had it received a new English Electric power unit to replace its Mirrlees engine in April 1966., 1B31 was the first of a dozen loco hauled trains diagrammed to depart from Skegness on Summer Saturdays in 1966, there being a second London departure at 11.56 code 1B36. The other destinations for returning holidaymakers were in order of departure : Manchester Piccadilly, Nottingham Midland, Doncaster, Sheffield Midland, Leicester London Road, Birmingham New Street, Chesterfield, Westhouses, Leeds & Bradford, and Derby Midland. In addition there were three loco hauled dated trains from Mablethorpe. Most of these trains would have been powered by Brush or BR Sulzer Type 2s and like 1B31 would have included a variety of cinderella stock, speaking of which, isn't that third coach a Thompson or Gresley vehicle ? Somebody more familiar with coaching stock will I'm sure let us know.
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E50626, E59384, E50636 March In the previous shot, we saw the southbound lunchtime service over the joint line. This is the corresponding northbound train on 15th May 1982, the 13.55 Cambridge - Doncaster seen arriving at March formed of a Derby Works 3 car dmu E50626+E59384+E50636 allocated to Leeds Neville Hill. The set was refurbished later in 1982. It was not uncommon to see sets from Neville Hill and even South Gosforth on the joint line trains, although most of the time the Derby Heavyweight Class 114s and Cravens Class 105 sets held sway.
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D5559 Norwich This image by Brian of Norwich Thorpe is rather unusual in that it is taken looking in the opposite direction to most. The border in front of the houses in the background in Lower Clarence Road was later to become a car park from which generations of railway photographers (including myself) have practiced their art. This shot is taken from the old Norwich motive power depot with passenger yard box on the right., In January 1965, March based Brush Type 4 diesels had taken over the Norwich to Liverpool Street workings and one is seen hiding behind the star of the show, Brush Type 2 diesel no. D5559 in what can only be described as stunning condition following overhaul at Doncaster works. , , D5559 was new to Ipswich in October 1959, but in football terms did the unthinkable in June 1961 when it was reallocated to Norwich ! Here it has just arrived from Doncaster after its General repair and has been fitted with a new English Electric power unit (number IH6510) replacing Mirrlees unit no. 5443-12., General overhauls were major affairs and would see locomotives emerge with a completely different set of refurbished equipment. In this case D5559 received new Power Unit, Main and Auxiliary Generators, Bogies, Traction Motors, Turbo-Blowers and Steam Heating Generator. , The loco was released on Friday 26th March 1965, so I am guessing this picture may have been taken the following day. A cast 32A Norwich shedplate can be seen beneath the loco number and builders plate, but its tenure here was about to end as all re-engined Class 31s were being concentrated at Tinsley and Stratford, so a couple of weeks later D5559 became a Stratford loco. In February 1974 it was renumbered 31141 and it lasted in traffic until 1989, being one of those examples which never received railfreight livery and was withdrawn in blue. , Completing the picture in the left background is a lone Derby Lightweight dmu car seemingly in a lighter version of the then standard green livery., , Photo copyright : Brian Dyes / Ipswich Transport Museum.,
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31 326 March South Looking perfectly healthy, this was 31326 on 31st May 1981 - the day it was withdrawn from operating stock !, It is seen at March South Jn heading west on the 13.40 (Sunday) Norwich to Birmingham New Street. It had been a March based engine since 1968 having previously been at Norwich. As D5861 it was the penultimate 31 to enter traffic in October 1962., Far from being the end though it survived a sojourn at Swindon Works - the deathbed of so many locos at this time - to eventually become 31970 at Derby RTC and according to Harris was not dismantled until March 1997.
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08 014 & 08 216 Derby On a bitterly cold January 10th 1981, the Inter City Railway Society paid a visit to Derby, Toton and Saltley. Using a very grainy 400ASA film the winter sun highlights this pair of Class 08 shunters in a line of condemned stock alongside Derby Works., 08014 had been withdrawn from nearby Burton the previous May and left here for Booths scrapyard in November 1981. 08216 left just 4 days after this picture was taken, for storage at Swindon. It ended up with Sheerness Steel from 1983 and in 1996 was acquired by the SYRPS who used it for spares. It was eventually dismantled in 2001.
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25 300 & 25 278 March Hundred Road By 1981, Class 20s were becoming more common visitors to March than Class 25s. It was nice, therefore, to see this pair on Sunday 8th November, even if this discoloured print gives the impression that the depot car park has been planted with heather !, Next morning 25278 worked the 05.16 and 25300 the 08.02 ballast empties to Croft. Both turns were booked for 31s but it was a handy way to get the 'rats' back to the Midlands. , , 25300 is in Glasgow Works paint style with bodyside numbers after a classified repair there in June 1978. Her time was up in 1985, but 25278 which exhibits the Derby Works livery style applied in January 1981 lasted long enough to have a new life in preservation. Under her old number D7628 she is at the North Yorkshire Moors Railway.
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25 092 & 44 007 Derby Works The rather depressing sight of the Derby works scrapline on January 10th 1981. , A member of the ICRS jots down the details of the locos for probably the last time. Only a few months before 44007 had been a regular sight back at March on the Toton - Whitemoor freights. , 45030 & 46009 are the other 'Peaks' in view, 25092 had the dubious distinction of having been reallocated 25 times in 16 years including spells on the Western and Scottish regions. I guess it never really settled anywhere. It was withdrawn in June 1980 and was dismantled here at Derby in 1982.
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45 116, 46 009 & 25 287 Derby Works Derby Works scrapline from the opposite end to that in the previous scan on January 10th 1981. , Nearest the camera are an externally perfect 46009 & 25287. Why 46009 was parked here is a mystery as it was in traffic until 1983, however it was dealt the unlucky card as it was the loco used in the infamous Old Dalby test track deliberate collision with a nuclear flask, so maybe it would have been better to just condemn it where it stood on this date ?, What of 25287 ? Well this had been reprieved from withdrawal in 1976 after a collision and lived to see another day - several in fact as it lasted until 1985. It seems then that the fact that these two locomotives were parked in what I was told was the scrapline was purely for reasons of space., On the left in the background is 45116 which is in the test house while receiving a classified repair, which saw it last in service until 1986.
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25 295 Derby Works This probably qualifies as the saddest railway photo I've ever taken. I think it was the first time I'd seen a member of a class I'd grown up with in such a derelict condition. , 25295 was withdrawn in 1978 after only 12 years in traffic, so had sat here at Derby Works for a considerable time when I photographed the remains on 10/1/81. , New to Tinsley, it spent a year working off there and Barrow Hill before being transferred to the LMR where it spent most of its career working from Willesden. According to Harris, the loco was finally cut up in October 1981.,
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31124 March On Saturday 2nd August 1980, 31124, unusual in that it was an Old Oak Common loco, was procured to work the 13.16 Norwich - Birmingham which was a well laiden eight coach train. If the front of the loco looks a little uneven, that is how it was as it had just emerged from repairs at Swindon Works following a collision (with 31154 if my memory serves me right). Note the unusual pointed blue stars Swindon applied. , Over on the left a Derby Heavyweight DMU can just be seen forming the 13.50 Cambridge - Doncaster, E56023 (visible) was paired with E50027., I struggled to do anything with this print as it was totally red, so this actually came up half decent in the end.
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25 260 Saltley On January 10th 1981, the Inter City Railway Society organised a tour of depots at Toton, Derby. Burton & Saltley. The highlight was a tour of Derby Works., With light fading rapidly, 25260 of Bescot was considered worthy of a shot as it still retained the four zeros in the headcode panel, some five years after marker lights had become standard. This is Saltley holding sidings. The 47 in the background is 47439.
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E50346 + E56114 March Gloucester RC&W dmu car E50346 had an interesting if somewhat charmed life. It was new in July 1957 and was supposed to be one of the batch which brought the new diesels to southern Scotland, however, it spent a few months on loan to the Manchester and Stoke areas before it finally got there., It remained in Scotland until it was transferred south to Cambridge in May 1968 as part of a fleet to replace the non-standard yellow diamond Derby Lightweight and Metro-Cammell sets. When Cambridge ceased to have an allocation of sets in 1970, E50346 moved to Norwich where it was withdrawn in October 1972. It was then stored at Cambridge until it was reinstated, again at Norwich in March 1975. It then became the power car in Norwich set 68 as shown here., I was more than a little surprised to see it turn up at March on this occasion on a very damp August 17th 1979 in ex works condition with domino style headcode display. After this hasty (and somewhat blurred) photo had been taken, I went down to the platform where further scrutiny revealed a paint date of 29//7/79. It was paired here with a rather less sparkling Cravens trailer, E56114. The trailer itself was noteworthy too though, as being part of the first Cravens dmu delivered to BR in 1956., The set was working the 17.10 Cambridge to Peterborough service and the power car survived at Norwich until October 1980 when (with the other Norwich based Gloucester cars, 51115/25/27) a move to the LMR once again saw it working off Manchester where it had started some 23 years earlier. Harris states that it was out of use at Longsight by June 1982 and it eventually returned to East Anglia where it met its demise at Mayer Newman's scrapyard at Snailwell in May 1984.,
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