Loco sheds and other railway buildings...
Discussion
2xChevrons said:
Yertis said:
That's what I expected I guess. The first minute of this little film sum it up nicely I think.
I think it's like any job or way of life (and the steam-era railway was very much a vocation and a way of life for many of those who worked it) - however long, grubby, dangerous tiring, cold, hot, unpleasant or awkward, there are some people who take to it in their very soul. Sometimes it's those ones that seem so especially unpleasant to outsiders that most grab something within others. There was another reminiscence by an engineman (sorry, I'm terrible at browsing books, recalling the picture the words are painting but completely failing to remember the names - used to drive my university tutors mad with my ability to perfectly recall information but not to know where I got it from!) who was a fireman in the last days of steam at Carlisle and became a driver on diesels. He said that he had some absolutely hellish trips up the 'back end' of the line to Settle - not the infamous 'Long Drag' but the 20-odd miles climbing the other way with the same 1-in-100 gradients but interspersed with 'easier' bits, which were still a fearsome challenge on a heavy freight, pulled by a 25-year-old 8F due for an overhaul and with a tender of badly-screened coal. You'd fret and worry all the way up, trying to balance the steam pressure and the water level and continually working away at the fire, pouring handfuls of small coal into the gaps that kept appearing, having your elbows scorched through the open firebox door, your face poached by steam from leaking cab fittings and your back chilled by a following wind, just counting the wheel 'clicks' until you saw the distant signal at Ais Gill and it would all be over, feeling utterly miserable and certain you'd never be a decent fireman and that the railway was a mug's game, and that if you'd taken a factory job you'd have clocked off at 6pm and could be at the cinema or a dance meeting girls right now instead of shovelling coal in a steel box 1000ft up in the fells...and then as soon as you were coasting down towards Settle and you'd got everything back in order, the water was coming up and the safety valves were feathering, you just couldn't wait to have another crack at it.
Edited by 2xChevrons on Friday 4th November 13:10
We do still have our 'moments' on modern(ish) diesels these days, two weeks ago I rather let the side down a bit when working the HOBC (High Output Ballast Cleaner) from Stafford down to Fenny Compton. It's supposed to be double manned with a driver at each end, the tail end man being there to assist over the gradients en route, sadly, due entirely to a rostering error I relieved the train at Stafford all on my lonesome, as the rear driver was coming up from Reading and I was supposed to pick him up at Landor Street Jcn in Brum. The train itself weighed 3,300 tons including both locos and is exactly half a mile long from buffer to buffer, getting away from Stafford was easy enough but being routed via the Grand Junction line I had to pass through the twisty bit at Walsall at 20mph and take the Sutton Park line which includes two very steep gradients. The weather that night was atrocious with torrential rain adding to the usual problem on 'the Park' of having leaves on the line, and so climbing up to the first summit at Aldridge I lost all grip and came to a halt a few hundred yards from the top. I even tried putting the loco into slow speed mode but it wasn't having it, the rails were just too damp and I ran out of sand as well. The gradient and rail head conditions defeated my front loco's efforts to keep going. If my mate had been in place he'd have pushed me up the bank with no trouble at all once clear of the 20mph slack through Walsall, with enough momentum for the next climb out of the dip up to Sutton old town station. Naturally I got on the phone to the Bobby straight away and it was arranged that a Mobile Ops Manager would go and fetch my mate from Landor Street and bring him back to jump on the back loco. That took well over an hour meaning we were late into the worksite down at Fenny Compton, lots of umming and aaarhing ensued and the powers that be decided to cancel the job!
Edited by P5BNij on Friday 4th November 14:30
DickyC said:
P5BNij said:
Happy even though he didn't make it into The Small Faces. 
This shot of him coming off the Chinnor branch at Princes Risborough in '73 appeared in a magazine some years ago...
2xChevrons said:
P5BNij said:
Unusual - not just because the Clayton is (apparently) functional, but it's either propelling a brake van in the right direction or travelling 'wrong-line' with the brake van behind. Any idea what's going on? 2xChevrons said:
P5BNij said:
Propelling in the right direction I'd say, no tail lamp on the brake van, but there is one on the top right corner showing a white lens. Used to happen an lot more in those days
Thanks. I did look for the tail lamp (or lack of), but wondered if the side lamp was the tail lamp. Like you see in photos from the 50s/60s with diesel locos running light or DMUs still carrying a traditional tail lamp on one side (AIUI because, while modern traction was fitted with in-built electric red lamps, it was the presence of the tail lamp itself that mattered to indicate the train was complete). I was also wondering if the chaps would be on the brake van verandah if it was leading - it strikes me as being a rather breezy way to travel!
I can't work out what it is, it looks like two halves of a mock up design, or possibly a simulator for driver training. When I learned Class 66s we went up to Doncaster Works to have a go on their 66 cab simulator.
Some more bits and bobs...
25 301 being cut up at Swindon Works in 1984, the Works would close just two years later, the vast 'A Shop' in the background is now a housing estate...
31 213 at a rainswept Swindon in January 1980...
Crew change at Salisbury in 1986...
The first sighting of a Class 37 in Cornwall in 1978 with 37 142 on a china clay trip job at Liskeard, junction for the winding little branch line down to Looe...
10001, one of the experimental 'LMS Twins' of 1947 / 48 vintage spent its last few years on short freight and passenger turns on the southern half of the WCML, here it is trundling along the down slow line at Carpenders Park with a Euston to Bletchley stopper c.1962...
A pair of Class 20s assisting a failed Class 56 up the bank at Bardon Hill on the Leicester to Burton-on-Trent line in the early '80s...
Waterloo station in 1971 with a pair of NBL D8xx Warships waiting to leave for Exeter Central...
Some more bits and bobs...
25 301 being cut up at Swindon Works in 1984, the Works would close just two years later, the vast 'A Shop' in the background is now a housing estate...
31 213 at a rainswept Swindon in January 1980...
Crew change at Salisbury in 1986...
The first sighting of a Class 37 in Cornwall in 1978 with 37 142 on a china clay trip job at Liskeard, junction for the winding little branch line down to Looe...
10001, one of the experimental 'LMS Twins' of 1947 / 48 vintage spent its last few years on short freight and passenger turns on the southern half of the WCML, here it is trundling along the down slow line at Carpenders Park with a Euston to Bletchley stopper c.1962...
A pair of Class 20s assisting a failed Class 56 up the bank at Bardon Hill on the Leicester to Burton-on-Trent line in the early '80s...
Waterloo station in 1971 with a pair of NBL D8xx Warships waiting to leave for Exeter Central...
RB Will said:
P5BNij said:
And if I’m picturing it right, the building on the right is now a pretty decent restaurant Yertis said:
Is that the shed where a Bulleid pacific was restored?
I believe so, it's also where D1015 'Western Champion' was stored for a while. Some of the lads from the Diesel Traction Group stepped in almost by accident and saved it from the cutter's torch...http://www.westernchampion.co.uk/loco-d1015-histor...
DickyC said:
Jo-say8k said:
Something to do with the Egypt monorail I think....
There's a thread on RMweb I've just seen.
How about that?There's a thread on RMweb I've just seen.
PH sleuthing at its finest. The Cairo Monorail. Rolling stock (sliding stock?) built at Bombardier in Derby.
Some more everyday scenes from photographer Dave Ford -
D1673 'Cyclops' at Pilmoor on the ECML in April '67...
D278 at Pilmoor in May '67...
Unidentified Class 45 at Kegworth in April '66...
Unidentified AL2 / Class 82 at Brinklow in January '69...
A typical view at Paddington in February 1978, the Diesel-Hydraulics have gone...
A nice selection of EE Type 4 / Class 40 nostalgia...
https://www.flickr.com/groups/14754268@N24/pool/pa...
https://www.flickr.com/groups/14754268@N24/pool/pa...
Yertis said:
It's the same in movies of the era, like The Ipcress File or Get Carter. The cities look grimy and tired, but at the same time incredibly tidy – no litter, or graffiti.
I hate graffiti beyond reason.
The irony with Get Carter is that it was shot in the Summer (20/7/70 - 17/9/70) but still manages to look bleak!I hate graffiti beyond reason.
DickyC said:
Currently evacuated from the Steam museum in Swindon finding things to do outside. You know how the railways had a lot of money and built lovely stations and sheds and so forth.
Inverted arches seem a bit extravagant though.
Or did they serve a purpose?
In all the years I've visited the works I've never noticed that - very odd. Must be a reason for it though!Inverted arches seem a bit extravagant though.
Or did they serve a purpose?
My other half's late Dad used to visit the works once a month through his job from about 1956 to 1964, he worked for a photographic company which supplied the drawing office with printing and developing materials and was allowed to wander around on his own each time, he saw the transition period with end of Western Region steam and the new Diesel Hydraulic locos being built and serviced there. On one occasion in late 1962 he came across a pile of 'King' class nameplates stacked up against a wall, he asked a fitter nearby what was going to happen to them and he was told ''take as many as you like, they're £15 each'', he didn't have enough cash on him at the time so declined, they're worth tens of thousands now.
RB Will said:
Going back to a previously mentioned place. Went for another good meal at the Weighbridge in Swindon which is in one of the old works buildings.
Excuse the rubbish pictures, they have these hanging on the corridor to the loos.
And how it is now…
Quite a transformation - the last time I was in the weighbridge was 1984, taking photos of Warship D818 which by then was just a shell, it was cut up the following year because the works was closing. I've been to the museum many times since then but never inside the weighbridge building. I remember seeing D1015 'Western Champion' inside being marked up for the cutting torch, luckily it was saved when a group of enthusiasts blagged their way into the works to negotiate a deal, thankfully they succeeded.Excuse the rubbish pictures, they have these hanging on the corridor to the loos.
And how it is now…
We went over to the North Warks line yesterday to see 'Clun Castle' on the Shakespeare Express, here it is topping the climb out of Stratford-on-Avon at Wilmcote...
A few from the Great Central taken in January 2009...
'City Of Truro' on the Glos & Warks...
Collett 0-6-2T 5619 and 4F 44422...
Here you go Dicky... https://www.lambournvalleyrailway.info/newbury.htm...
The last special which ran as far as Welford Park in '73...
The locos used on the track lifting trains from Welford Park to Lambourne were North British built Class 22 Diesel Hydraulics D6343, D6350 and D6354. I think I've it mentioned elsewhere, but it's well worth seeking out local photographer (and signalman) David Cannings books which cover the Newbury area...
The last special which ran as far as Welford Park in '73...
The locos used on the track lifting trains from Welford Park to Lambourne were North British built Class 22 Diesel Hydraulics D6343, D6350 and D6354. I think I've it mentioned elsewhere, but it's well worth seeking out local photographer (and signalman) David Cannings books which cover the Newbury area...
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