Incredibly cool photos of trains

[SWTH]

Being a brakesman on the gravity train is certainly an experience. Sat on the edge of an unsprung waggon with just a hand brake - no continuous brake fitted. We had around 60 waggons that day, the longest gravity train run since 1946. 10 brakesmen in total. Back in Victorian times they had just two brakesmen to a 100-waggon train, and they ran along the tops of the waggons pinning down and releasing brakes as required.

[SlowcoachIII]

LNER U1 Class

[P5BNij]

The old and new order at Paddington on 27th March 1965, although in this case the 'new' didn't last very long - 7029 'Clun Castle' and D1020 'Western Hero', the latter would be withdrawn by 1973...

[rs1952]

P5BNij said:

The old and new order at Paddington on 27th March 1965, although in this case the 'new' didn't last very long - 7029 'Clun Castle' and D1020 'Western Hero', the latter would be withdrawn by 1973...

That was actually the Lickey & Midland Railtour" https://www.sixbellsjunction.co.uk/60s/650327ia.ht... Whoever took your photo may well be in shot themselves in photo 2 on that page

The last steam run out of Paddington was on 27th November that year, once again with Clun Castle at the business end for much of the journey: https://www.sixbellsjunction.co.uk/60s/651127br.ht... Interestingly the final leg from Swindon back to Padington was handled by a pair of EE type 3s (that's class 37 if you want it in new money ) which was another short-lived innovation at the time.

However, in the real world there was very little in the way of steam working into Paddington after the end of the summer service in 1964. All services were usually diesel hauled by then with the exception of the Gloucesters, where steam could sometimes be found for a few months more if Horton Road couldn't rustle up a Hymek from somewhere. Old Oak Common lost it's last 3 Castles in August 1964, and they were the last express steam passenger engines left on the WR in London at the time. After the end of the summer service that year the only Castles left at Gloucester were 5042, 7022 and 7029, and the other two had gone by the summer of 1965, leaving Clun Castle as the only survivor. It was sold directly into preservation.

[MBBlat]

W124Bob said:

UP funeral train for George Bush , UP is the oldest US railroad with Lincoln having a hand in it's founding back in 1864.

Oldest surviving maybe, not the oldest by a long stretch, that would be the Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) started in 1830, what's left is now part of Conrail.

They had some big locos to - EM-1

[P5BNij]

rs1952 said:

P5BNij said:

The old and new order at Paddington on 27th March 1965, although in this case the 'new' didn't last very long - 7029 'Clun Castle' and D1020 'Western Hero', the latter would be withdrawn by 1973...

That was actually the Lickey & Midland Railtour" https://www.sixbellsjunction.co.uk/60s/650327ia.ht... Whoever took your photo may well be in shot themselves in photo 2 on that page

The last steam run out of Paddington was on 27th November that year, once again with Clun Castle at the business end for much of the journey: https://www.sixbellsjunction.co.uk/60s/651127br.ht... Interestingly the final leg from Swindon back to Padington was handled by a pair of EE type 3s (that's class 37 if you want it in new money ) which was another short-lived innovation at the time.

However, in the real world there was very little in the way of steam working into Paddington after the end of the summer service in 1964. All services were usually diesel hauled by then with the exception of the Gloucesters, where steam could sometimes be found for a few months more if Horton Road couldn't rustle up a Hymek from somewhere. Old Oak Common lost it's last 3 Castles in August 1964, and they were the last express steam passenger engines left on the WR in London at the time. After the end of the summer service that year the only Castles left at Gloucester were 5042, 7022 and 7029, and the other two had gone by the summer of 1965, leaving Clun Castle as the only survivor. It was sold directly into preservation.

Thanks for that RS. Yes, very little steam activity on the Western by then, although Oxford was still listed as steam shed until January '66 with a handful of Halls and Panniers lingering on until the last minute.

[Yertis]

IIRC, the last steam activity on the Western Region wasn't actually until July '67, with steam-hauled freight from Weymouth to Westbury.

(I should add that I read this – I doubt I was even walking at that time.)

[P5BNij]

Yertis said:

IIRC, the last steam activity on the Western Region wasn't actually until July '67, with steam-hauled freight from Weymouth to Westbury.

(I should add that I read this – I doubt I was even walking at that time.)

And moving the goalposts out a bit - the ex-WR London Transport Pannier tanks continued working on the Met lines into 1971!

[Wacky Racer]

[RichB]

Good God, are they all trying to flog chapatis to the passengers?

Edited by RichB on Monday 7th January 17:05

[FourWheelDrift]

Euston line commuter even after HS2.

[marksx]

Wonder how many people fall off?

[P5BNij]

Looks like a Saltley Depot road learning special...

I suppose what constitutes 'cool' is very subjective but this one gets my vote - Stanley Baker's mob with English Electric Type 4 D318 during the filming of 'Robbery' in early '67, on the old Rugby - Market Harborough line...





(D318 aka 40 118 is still in existence at Tyseley Railway Museum)

Edited by P5BNij on Monday 7th January 19:55

[rs1952]

Yertis said:

IIRC, the last steam activity on the Western Region wasn't actually until July '67, with steam-hauled freight from Weymouth to Westbury.

(I should add that I read this – I doubt I was even walking at that time.)

I would query that because I doubt that there were any watering facilities left in place along that line by then. That said, I did see a West Country in steam in the yard at Warminster in early 1967 - that would have come from Salisbury, and Salisbury would be somewhere a steam locomotive could get back to from Westbury in those circumstances.

The WR was very keen to see the back of steam back then. Both the LMR and the SR still had some but the WR didn't want "yesterday's men" detracting from their new modern image. The absolute end of WR steam was supposed to be at the end of 1965 and this was achieved but for the 9-week reprieve that the Somerset & Dorset got from closure after a bus operator withdrew their application for a licence to run replacement services. That closed in March 1966.

There were no coaling facilities at all on the WR from 1966, and the only fixed watering facilities I can remember were at Gloucester and Oxford. Ther was also an emergency arrangement whereby they agreed to shove a hose in the tende of anything that got beyon Gloucester at Briustol Bath Road and, whilst I have heard of a couple of engines getting that far in the early days, even that was over by the Spring of 1966, and over for good anyway when the LMR got rid of steam at its southern end (Birmingham) when WCML electrification south of Crewe was completed in March 1967.

[Yertis]

Well, as I'm sitting in my study...

Dorset Steam, pub. Capital Transport 2004 states that on 9th July (paraphrasing from here) "three trains of perishable goods from Weymouth to Westbury, the 10.20 hauled by 34095 Brentor, the 14.20 by 34052 Lord Dowding, and the 15.00 by 73092."

Maybe they were positioning moves as much as anything, and scrapped from Westbury.

[rs1952]

Yertis said:

Well, as I'm sitting in my study...

Dorset Steam, pub. Capital Transport 2004 states that on 9th July (paraphrasing from here) "three trains of perishable goods from Weymouth to Westbury, the 10.20 hauled by 34095 Brentor, the 14.20 by 34052 Lord Dowding, and the 15.00 by 73092."

Maybe they were positioning moves as much as anything, and scrapped from Westbury.

That's a different matter, and I would go along with your final sentence. Weymouth wouldn't have wanted them back at that stage

Another possibility would have been that there was a practice at that time when a rake of withdrawn steam locomotives were being sent for scrap, that the best one of the bunch was steamed and used to tow the rest. One might say a bit like having to carry your own cross...

[RichB]

There's a picture of 73092 at Waterloon in 6th July 1967 heading a boat train to Southampton

https://www.rail-online.co.uk/p304530418/h22F127A1...

[rs1952]

RichB said:

There's a picture of 73092 at Waterloon in 6th July 1967 heading a boat train to Southampton

https://www.rail-online.co.uk/p304530418/h22F127A1...

And here's one of mine showing the engine (aka steam leak on wheels by then, as so many were) at Weymouth on Saturday 8th July working the 1212 stopper to Bournemouth:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/93122458@N08/8467960...

That report from Yertis is also confirmed in another way. All redundant SR steam that survived until the end were gathered together at Salisbury depot by the start of the next week. I went down on the Thursday (14th July 1967) and none of the locomotives he lists were there.

Salisbury
14/07/1967
D6331
D6503
30072
30064
34006
34056
76067
73155
73043
73118
34032
80143
73093
30069
80139
30067
73065
76005
34018
73029
34021
80133
80152
41312
80071
80146
76006
34024
34025
34089
76011
34087
76007
82019
34108
80015
34090
34104
34098
75077
76066
76031
34060
75074
80016
82029
D6585
D6594

Edited by rs1952 on Monday 7th January 23:55

[rs1952]

rs1952 said:

I did see a West Country in steam in the yard at Warminster in early 1967 - that would have come from Salisbury, and Salisbury would be somewhere a steam locomotive could get back to from Westbury in those circumstances.

PH always like to see the evidence

https://www.flickr.com/photos/93122458@N08/8688899...

And apologies for the previous statement - it wasn't in steam!

[ianrb]

MBBlat said:

Oldest surviving maybe, not the oldest by a long stretch, that would be the Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) started in 1830, what's left is now part of Conrail.

They had some big locos to - EM-1

Interesting photo! At first glance I took it to be a UP 4-8-8-4 Big Boy, but it's obviously not. I didn't know so many large articulated locos had been built. I can see my morning disappearing as I chase down links in Wikipedia.