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Celebrity Loco's / EMU's / DMU's

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RichmondCommu

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G'day everyone,

I thought this might make for an interesting thread. Essentially anything can be included if you think it makes a case for being a celebrity!

My nomination is an obvious one but nevertheless at least it gets the ball rolling. 40122 aka D200 was rescued from the scrap line at Carlisle Kingmoor in the early 1980's, nursed back to health and painted green. From memory it was a regular runner on the S &C and I'm assuming that it was based at Kingmoor. However I'm not sure when Kingmoor closed or indeed whether 40122 outlived Kingmoor.

Any suggestions would be very welcome, including class 08's which received fancy paint jobs. I would also appreciate any more information on 40122 and its rescue from the scrap line / allocations. I have a picture of it at Carlisle on the 18.08.83 before it took us south along the S & C on a beautiful summers day. Memories!

Kind regards,

Richmond Commuter!
 
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DerekC

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If we are talking about locomotives brought back to life my vote is for NB No 224, which was rescued from the bottom of the river after the collapse of the Tay Bridge. I have seen a photo of it somewhere, but I forget where.
 

yorksrob

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EPB 5001 was the first of its type. I travelled on it on BR days and it was painted in BR Southern Region Green and was definitely a celebrity being on railtours such as the SEG Green Goddess and the End of an Era railtours.

Sadly, no one felt the need to preserve it and it went to the torch in about 2001.
 

RichmondCommu

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EPB 5001 was the first of its type. I travelled on it on BR days and it was painted in BR Southern Region Green and was definitely a celebrity being on railtours such as the SEG Green Goddess and the End of an Era railtours.

Sadly, no one felt the need to preserve it and it went to the torch in about 2001.

Am I right in thinking that the EPB's didn't have first class or a toilet, as opposed to the HAP's?
 

theageofthetra

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Wasn't there a loco (ironicly US built) that somehow survived the atomic bombs of either Hiroshima or Nagasaki & was put back in service? Will do some digging about.
 

sprinterguy

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47522 "Doncaster Enterprise" was an interesting one as it ran around in a unique apple green livery with yellow cabs during the eighties, this being made all the more notable by the fact that, immediately prior to this, the loco was comprehensively wrecked in a collision at Forteviot in 1982 and it being the opinion of some that the loco was fit only for the scrapyard. Apparently every bit of bodywork, roof and cabs was new after it was rebuilt, although it retained the same engine, bogies and ancillary equipment.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
From memory it was a regular runner on the S &C and I'm assuming that it was based at Kingmoor. However I'm not sure when Kingmoor closed or indeed whether 40122 outlived Kingmoor.
It was indeed based at Kingmoor during this time, having been withdrawn and stored there between August 1981 and April 1983 and remained allocated to the depot following resurrection at Crewe until it moved to Crewe diesel in October 1987. It was presented to the National Railway Museum around six months later.
 
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Ash Bridge

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I'll have to chuck in D7672/25322 restored (at Holbeck ?) to its original two tone green livery complete with working 4 character headcode panels which during the early nineties must have been unique on the mainline, have fond memories of travelling on a service from Carlisle to Leeds behind her back in February 1990, I think she now resides at the Churnet Valley Rly.
 
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30907

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EPB 5001 was the first of its type. I travelled on it on BR days and it was painted in BR Southern Region Green and was definitely a celebrity being on railtours such as the SEG Green Goddess and the End of an Era railtours.

Sadly, no one felt the need to preserve it and it went to the torch in about 2001.

And before that there was the green 4SUB 4732 with Sunshine lettering and all. Not sure it was the original number or exact formation.
 

Peter Mugridge

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4732 and 5001 were green at the same time - there was one instance where a gala at the Mid Hants was being connected to with special shuttles to Alton ( only from Aldershot I think ) and one shuttle rake was 4732 + 2090 and the other was 5001.

4732 was the original number of that particular SUB, yes. Not necessarily the full original formation - it may have had a trailer switched out at some point.
 

yorksrob

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And before that there was the green 4SUB 4732 with Sunshine lettering and all. Not sure it was the original number or exact formation.


Yes indeed. I had the pleasure of travelling on the SUB between Brighton and Seaford once :D

I genuinely hope the modern railway develops a similar practical interest in preserving railway history in situ. With the restoration of the 4 VEP, this offers hope to me today.
 

Harbornite

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This is how D200 looked back in 2014...

12863671863_8749d33b19_z.jpg


https://www.flickr.com/photos/106910975@N06/12863671863/in/photolist-kAHFtV
 

AJM580

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How about 306017. Only survivor of the class, then restored for main line use in the 80s. Remember it doing Colchester - Clacton in connection with the open day at Colchester depot in 1988. Round about that time 302207 was also running around in green, but was not so high-profile.
 

DerekC

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Don't see how any box-on-wheels can be a celebrity, really. We should be talking kettles. Nobody has mentioned Flying Scotsman or Mallard or any of the obvious ones yet. My personal choice is A3 "Woolwinder", but only because of my vivid childhood memory of its nameplate and of its huge wheels going round just outside our window as we passed it in Gasworks tunnel - a result of our N2 hauled departure from the suburban side of KX having the legs of the down "Talisman" for the first mile or so.
 
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Strathclyder

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In the same vein as 306017, 303032.

The last of the legendary 'Blue Train' EMUs, currently preserved at Bo'ness. To be pedantic, it is a hybrid of 303032 (outer driving coaches) & 303023 (motor coach), but that doesn't take away from the fact that this is the last of a revolutionary EMU type. If only there was the will, money and drive to get it restored and back to mainline standards (extensive modifications for it's cabs may be required to bring it up to current standards, though).
 
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RichmondCommu

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Right, here's another one that might jog a few memories. At the end of the 1980's (and with my interest in railways long on the wain) I'm pretty certain that I saw a class 502 in LMS livery at Southport. I'm interested to know how long the class 502 ran in that livery and ultimately what happened to it.
 

yorksrob

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Right, here's another one that might jog a few memories. At the end of the 1980's (and with my interest in railways long on the wain) I'm pretty certain that I saw a class 502 in LMS livery at Southport. I'm interested to know how long the class 502 ran in that livery and ultimately what happened to it.

Is that the one that went to the Coventry railway museum, along with the 4SUB and Tyneside EPB?
 

Ash Bridge

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Right, here's another one that might jog a few memories. At the end of the 1980's (and with my interest in railways long on the wain) I'm pretty certain that I saw a class 502 in LMS livery at Southport. I'm interested to know how long the class 502 ran in that livery and ultimately what happened to it.

I think it was sometime during 1989 when it was finally withdrawn and by then it was just retained for special workings/events, currently it is stored at the Merseyside Transport Trust site and is under the custodianship of the 502 Group who aim to eventually fully restore it, before this I remember it spent several years exposed to the harsh Cumbrian elements at Tebay.
 

GatwickDepress

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Yes indeed. I had the pleasure of travelling on the SUB between Brighton and Seaford once :D

I genuinely hope the modern railway develops a similar practical interest in preserving railway history in situ. With the restoration of the 4 VEP, this offers hope to me today.
It's a pity third rail mainline running is so difficult to achieve. I dearly hope to see the Brighton Belle rattle and shake down the Brighton line in my lifetime.

Don't see how any box-on-wheels can be a celebrity, really. We should be talking kettles.
How precious...
 

D6975

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91132 is another double crash survivor.
There were numerous other dmu and emu livery specials not mentioned yet.
Dutch 321, GWR 117 and 121, Telecom yellow 118 spring to mind.
IIRC there was a yellow 312/2 as well.
 

sprinterguy

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IIRC there was a yellow 312/2 as well.
Yes, 312204 painted canary yellow in 1985 at a time when the West Midlands PTE were struggling to settle on a corporate identity for their sponsored rail services prior to settling on the "Centro" brand. The unit, as well as being garish, was notable for the fact that the light canary yellow shade replaced the correct warning yellow on the cab fronts.

WMPTEs' livery experiments also led to a much more attractively liveried class 121 bubble car in a three tone blue livery.
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Is that the DMU that was operating stopping services on the Hope Valley route in the 1990's?
Yep, that'll be the one, as well as appearing across other class 101 strongholds around the North West in their latter days including sojourns on the North Wales coast and Ffestiniog branch. IIRC 101685 was one of two units to feature a centre car (the other being Regional Railways liveried 101683) during the mid nineties for services during the summer season on the Ffestiniog branch, although they were shortened to two carriages during the winter and permanently towards the millennium.
 
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sprinterguy

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66001 and 08001. Started some of the most numerous locos on the rails.
I don't think either loco would typically be considered a celebrity though (even if 08001 had been the first), precisely because of their classes' ubiquity in both cases.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Don't see how any box-on-wheels can be a celebrity, really. We should be talking kettles.
It's something that I considered when first seeing the topic of this thread. For example, certain express engines seemed to be attached to far more of the glamour workings even within small batches dedicated to certain services. On the LNERs' “Silver Jubilee”, the three Kings Cross allocated locos were expected to work the train in turn (although for the first fortnight, “Silver Link” was the only streamlined loco available and worked the train faultlessly each day), with the loco that worked the train back up to Newcastle at 5:30pm on Friday night returning to Kings Cross with the Up “Flying Scotsman” on Saturday. However, the fourth loco of the quartet, 2511 “Silver King”, was shedded at Gateshead in order to stand pilot in case one of the other three was unavailable, but such was the reliability of the other three locos it rarely had the opportunity and hence didn't often visit Kings Cross. Assuming that it wasn't needed to work the “Silver Jubilee” it had its' own 408 mile diagram, running from Newcastle to Edinburgh, Edinburgh to York and then back to Newcastle.
 
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RichmondCommu

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Right here's another for the list, and which requires a little more information. From memory in the late 1980's I recall two class 20's which were painted in green. By this stage I was no longer a rail enthusiast but I do remember seeing them at Derby station. I'm guessing that they were based at either Toton or Tinsley. Any ideas?
 
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