Cornwall Railway Society
  • LATEST INPUT , NEWS & OLD PICTURES ETC.
  • INDOOR & OUTDOOR MEETINGS PROGRAMME
  • Submit your photos and news
  • CORNWALL RAILWAY SOCIETY GENERAL INFORMATION CONTACTS & WEBMASTERS MEMBERSHIP FORM ETC.
  • Railtour Calendar
  • CORNWALL GALLERIES
  • DEVON GALLERIES
  • North & East of TAUNTON & HONITON
  • ​Extracts from the diary of a lifetime enthusiast - Michael L. Roach
  • Features - 2025 Part 1
  • Features - 2024 Part 2
  • Features - 2024 Part 1
  • Cornwall Resignalling Programme 2024
  • FEATURES, MAIN INDEX & OUTDOOR EVENTS REPORTS.
  • Military and Industrial Tramways & Light Railways
  • Pleasure Tramways & Light Railways
  • RAILTOURS, AERIAL VIEWS ,MISCELLANEOUS
  • Railtours 2022 to July 2023
  • Railtours August 2023 onwards
  • CORNISH RAILWAYS WAR DIARY
  • LOCAL YOUTUBE
  • Historical Outdoor Events INDEX
  • ARCHITECTURE
  • INDEX TO ARTICLES WRITTEN BY COLIN BURGES
  • ARTICLES SECTION.
  • ENGINEERING PLANT DIARY
  • News reports Jan to Aug 2012
  • Links
  • MAPS, PHOTOS, AERIAL VIEWS
  • Official Documents available to the General Public
  • Public notices and posters collection

8th March 2020

8/3/2020

 
Picture
A repeat of this months Home Page picture taken by Clive Smith, copyright. N.B. 'This picture dated 9th February 1985'
In the late 1970s and 1980s British Rail offered special Saturday  cheap day bargain fares from Devon to a number of long distance destinations as far afield as Derby, Crewe, Swansea, Oxford and Portsmouth. The latter destination was attractive as a stepping stone to the Isle Of Wight and I made two outings there that decade on these fares. However on this date the weather took a turn for the worse and I decided to abort my journey at Southampton Central station largely spending time in the buffet or waiting room for warmth, occasionally stepping out to take a photo . This was one such and quite a rarity. I believe set L401 consisted of W51333, 59485, 51375. I have no idea what this working was as there were no DMU diagrams at Southampton for the best part of two decades if my knowledge is correct, only Southern DEMUs. This being a Reading allocated set and with poor weather, it could have been a stop gap  additional on the cross country route but my notes show the inter- regionals were running and not heavily delayed. Bit of a mystery. 
Regards, Clive Smith.  ​
To the above we are very pleased to add the following additional comment by Civil Engineer John Roberts who gives even more details of traffic at the time and his own experience in Southampton tunnel.
Thanks for an interesting March home page. I was struck by Clive Smith’s suggestion that there hadn’t been any DMU diagrams in Southampton since c1965. The Swindon Inter-Cities were built for the Cardiff-Portsmouth axis and operated 1963-68 as 8-cars with buffet, but by the time I made my first rail trip to Southampton c1969 they’d been replaced by Hymeks, initially with Mk1 6-buffet sets but later reduced to 5-non-buffet and then 4-sets. When I started at Fratton Depot in 1973, these had just been downgraded to a mix of Swindon Cross-Countries and DEMUs displaced from recently-closed branches. There were some 6-car, but mostly 3-car with consequent crowding and limited lavatories which led to further downfall of the route. So in 1976 a few Inter-Cities reappeared and then they went back to loco haulage, initially Cl 31, but by the time I was working in Southampton Tunnel in 1983 we were being asphyxiated by Cromptons and the occasional Brush 4. We complained to the Chief Medical Officer and he sent a team down to measure their emissions, but we were told that Diesel exhaust wasn’t harmful. Finally in 1988 they went over to the new-fangled Sprinters (155, 156 and now 158) which continue to this day.
However, strange things happened at weekends when peak stock was freed from elsewhere, especially in Summer or during engineering work, eg loco-hauled sets from East Grinstead or Hastings units on the Brighton-Exeter. I don’t recall ever seeing a high-density DMU at Southampton, but a Bristol or Cardiff set could have been turned out to cover. The fact that L401 was always based at Reading makes me wonder if Clive’s spot had come down the main line, either as an excursion (unlikely in February) or driver-training, or because of engineering work somewhere.
Best wishes, John.


Many thanks to both John and Clive.
Nunney Castle
Ian Morton
Picture
11 5029 Nunney Castle passes Long Rock Signal Box. Copyright Ian Morton
Thanks Ian
Night Sleeper & Thoughts
Andrew Rigler

I am a fairly regular user of the Night Riviera service the 23:45 ex Paddington. Normally, this gets into Plymouth for 05:11 but, last night things did not go to plan with 57 602 Restormel Castle, failing as it took up the load leaving Paddington. After more than two hours we were finally on our way with DRS Class 57 306 dragging the disgraced 57 602 all the way back to Penzance. As it was a sleeper train and I had a cabin, it was no big deal for me, but if I only had a seat, sitting around for a couple of extra hours overnight would not have been so much fun. However, the staff on the train were excellent as usual.
 
My thoughts and conclusions. First, it took a couple of hours to find and deliver, a replacement loco. I’m sure that in the days of Ranelagh Bridge Depot and Old Oak Common, we would have not needed to wait a so long to leave London, but that’s progress! Also, 57 306 appeared to really struggle with the load over the wet Devon banks. I thought at first it was slowing deliberately, but no, the train sped away up every time it hit a downgrade. Finally, the noise 57 306 made leaving Plymouth heading for Penzance at 07:02, so nearly two hours late, was pretty impressive and included a bit of horn! 
 
Best wishes, Andy.  Andrew Rigler, Manager UK & IRL


Picture
DRS 57306 at Plymouth 7th March 2020 Copyright Andrew Rigler
Picture
152D 57602 dead at Plymouth with 57 306 taking the load. 7th March 2020 Copyright Andrew Rigler.
Many thanks for your report Andrew. From other reports the night sleeper seems quite prone to problems these days. From my very limited experiance on the sleepers mamy years ago as an enthusiast  sleep is difficult as you lie there waiting for the next bridge or tunnel!
Dawn at
Redruth
Martin Scane

Picture
On the 7th March 2020 Martin Scane witnesses the arrival of the 06.46 to Penzance; This train was formed of 43040 St Mawes Castle on the front with 43094 on the rear. Copyright Martin Scane
Many thanks Martin.

Comments are closed.

    Archives

    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011