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Old and new bashing trips by Cowley

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Kite159

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Really enjoyed that Cowley! Good read and full of nostalgia. It's amazing the moves that used to be possible that just aren't any more.

All the loco hauled stuff replaced by MUs, especially the 47s. At least the 37s have sort of made a comeback in Cumbria & Norfolk
 
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Cowley

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Really enjoyed that Cowley! Good read and full of nostalgia. It's amazing the moves that used to be possible that just aren't any more.

Thanks Noddy. Glad you enjoyed it, it's nice to remember it and record it properly. I'd probably never have got round to it if it wasn't for being on here.

Kite - Yes, you could still do a lot of the country on loco hauled stuff in then, obviously with sectorisation thing generally stayed on their own duties but places like Crewe and Reading had loads of loco hauled trains still passing through.
I don't think 47s will have a second coming like the 37s did though.
 
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fowler9

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Thanks Noddy. Glad you enjoyed it, it's nice to remember it and record it properly. I'd probably never have got round to it if it wasn't for being on here.

Kite - Yes, you could still do a lot of the country on loco hauled stuff in then, obviously with sectorisation thing generally stayed on their own duties but places like Crewe and Reading had loads of loco hauled trains still passing through.
I don't think 47s will have a second coming like the 37s did though.

I used to be able to spend a whole day out on a Network Northwest Day Ranger and got 1 or at most 2 units all day. Ah well.
 

Cowley

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I used to be able to spend a whole day out on a Network Northwest Day Ranger and got 1 or at most 2 units all day. Ah well.

I wish I'd spent a bit more time bashing around Liverpool. I did a bit in 94 and it was pretty awesome.
 

AJM580

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Thanks Noddy. Glad you enjoyed it, it's nice to remember it and record it properly. I'd probably never have got round to it if it wasn't for being on here.

Kite - Yes, you could still do a lot of the country on loco hauled stuff in then, obviously with sectorisation thing generally stayed on their own duties but places like Crewe and Reading had loads of loco hauled trains still passing through.
I don't think 47s will have a second coming like the 37s did though.

You'll start me off again - Reading, happy memories of 50s & 47s on Oxfords and the like while Crewe was good for almost anything back then. Remember bailing off an 87 straight onto 31160 & 31285 vice 37 in 1993. The Coast & Peaks rover was my favourite as you could do the North Wales stuff and Manchester as well.
 

Ash Bridge

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Seeing as Mr Cowley has once again set us all off on a big nostalgia trip, does anyone remember doing these on Preston-Barrow services during the early 90s?
 

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Cowley

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Nothing like a bit of nostalgia chaps :D.
Mr Bridge those photos are class. I didn't ever get to Barrow unfortunately (excuse my ignorance but do the 37s go there at the moment?)
I did have a couple of 31s in the area in 1994 though and they looked pretty fine in Regional Railways colours too.
Look at those semaphores. Are they still there?
 

Ash Bridge

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Nothing like a bit of nostalgia chaps :D.
Mr Bridge those photos are class. I didn't ever get to Barrow unfortunately (excuse my ignorance but do the 37s go there at the moment?)
I did have a couple of 31s in the area in 1994 though and they looked pretty fine in Regional Railways colours too.
Look at those semaphores. Are they still there?

That was roughly speaking the early 90s equivalent to today's 10:04 Preston-Barrow 37 hauled working, bit of an anticlimax that day though as I recall the onward service from Barrow to Ravenglass where I was heading turned out to be a 153 <( and yes these days those semaphores Iam pretty certain are much as they were in that shot, the main difference of course being that a 37 would be now standing where the 31 is.
 

Cowley

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That was roughly speaking the early 90s equivalent to today's 10:04 Preston-Barrow 37 hauled working, bit of an anticlimax that day though as I recall the onward service from Barrow to Ravenglass where I was heading turned out to be a 153 <( and yes these days those semaphores Iam pretty certain are much as they were in that shot, the main difference of course being that a 37 would be now standing where the 31 is.

Which when you think about it, nearly twenty five years later is pretty amazing...
 

Ash Bridge

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Which when you think about it, nearly twenty five years later is pretty amazing...

Indeed, I don't think anyone back then could have possibly predicted that first generation diesel locomotive hauled mainline passenger services would still exist, as you say it really is just amazing.
 

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Wow what an awesome trip into the past there! 87s on the sleepers, oh my that would be great fun now! Lots of stuff in there I'm well jealous of, things like Dover Western Docks would have been great to do now. 47 thrash through the Southern Region would be simply hellfire in 2017!

As Ash Bridge says, that was a very well written trip report and I can only sympathise with not noting the EMUs on the Southern Region, I regret not noting them in 2004 myself. The odd couple I think I noted after finding the evidence in photos, but wish I'd got into the bashing scene much earlier than I did!
 

Ash Bridge

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I can only sympathise with not noting the EMUs on the Southern Region, I regret not noting them in 2004 myself. The odd couple I think I noted after finding the evidence in photos, but wish I'd got into the bashing scene much earlier than I did!

I think probably most of us are guilty of this Tech, I discovered one of my old notebooks from my teenage bashing days in the early to mid 70s and noted there was an absence of EMU numbers written down on trips to places such as Hastings, Ashford, Southampton and other former Southern Region destinations, oddly though for some reason I seemed to pay more attention to DMUs and AC EMUs, but obviously at the end of the day in that era I was mainly obsessed with the sheer variety of loco's that were still on offer, happy days!
 

Cowley

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Wow what an awesome trip into the past there! 87s on the sleepers, oh my that would be great fun now! Lots of stuff in there I'm well jealous of, things like Dover Western Docks would have been great to do now. 47 thrash through the Southern Region would be simply hellfire in 2017!

As Ash Bridge says, that was a very well written trip report and I can only sympathise with not noting the EMUs on the Southern Region, I regret not noting them in 2004 myself. The odd couple I think I noted after finding the evidence in photos, but wish I'd got into the bashing scene much earlier than I did!

Thanks very much Tech. As Ash Bridge says, we were all guilty of that.
I'm making a note of units I'm taking now (which I never thought I'd do), because I suppose one day we might be saying to younger folks "I remember when trains still had an internal combustion engine, those were the days, pity you never experienced them" :D
 

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I've said it before and I'll say it again but the best I ever had was 56015 just turn up on a Cross Country service from Runcorn to Crewe whilst on a NNW Day Ranger. Before the days of mobile phones and internet gen. Didn't have a clue it was on the service, would have been happy with an 86 or a 47 (Preferably a winner). The Liverpool Cardiffs were amazing as was the period when Liverpool to Man Vic was entirely 31 hauled with a few interesting anomalies.

The best I hope for these days is a 156 on an EMT service. It has lost some of the interest for me. Every generation says that though I guess.
 

fowler9

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Nail on the head Mr 9.
I'd love to seen your face when that 56 came into view with a rake of coaches behind it :)

Ah mate, could see the train on the other side of the Mersey, as it came off the bridge I could tell something wasn't quite right, or rather was massively right. Ha ha. Had the front window to myself and I apologise but I had my head out of the window all the way to Crewe. Seems the gen had got around by Crewe but it got taken off there, can't remember what got put on the front. It was a real highlight of my bashing days, got some other good stuff but it was mostly off gen from mates, a pair of 20's from Huyton to Lime Street for example. It was a tight one making that after school from West Allerton.
 

AJM580

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Nail on the head Mr 9.
I'd love to seen your face when that 56 came into view with a rake of coaches behind it :)
It was probably the same as the spotter I saw at Telford when I arrived off the Cambrian Coast Express, Must have been the pair of Choppers on the front
 

Cowley

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It was probably the same as the spotter I saw at Telford when I arrived off the Cambrian Coast Express, Must have been the pair of Choppers on the front

Wow. Did they work the whole diesel section?
 

AJM580

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Wow. Did they work the whole diesel section?

It was 37429 from Aberystwyth to Shrewsbury, where a 47 usually went forward to Wolverhampton, There must have been nothing else available as the 20s were taken from Coton Hill Yard to work forward from Shrewsbury. I would have gone all the way to Wolverhampton but I wanted to do the 37 again. The bail at Telford worked out as I landed on 47298 back.
 

Cowley

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It was 37429 from Aberystwyth to Shrewsbury, where a 47 usually went forward to Wolverhampton, There must have been nothing else available as the 20s were taken from Coton Hill Yard to work forward from Shrewsbury. I would have gone all the way to Wolverhampton but I wanted to do the 37 again. The bail at Telford worked out as I landed on 47298 back.

Brilliant. What a day. It was great not knowing what was going to turn up on a summer Saturday. A few of us went down to Paignton one day the in about 1987 for a ride on the steam railway and when we got back to Paignton we found 45107 sitting on the front of our train (they were banned west of Bristol by then), we had no idea that it would be there though which was all part of the fun of it back then.
 

Ash Bridge

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Brilliant. What a day. It was great not knowing what was going to turn up on a summer Saturday. A few of us went down to Paignton one day the in about 1987 for a ride on the steam railway and when we got back to Paignton we found 45107 sitting on the front of our train (they were banned west of Bristol by then), we had no idea that it would be there though which was all part of the fun of it back then.

I've heard that mentioned before, any idea why the ban was imposed?
 

Cowley

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I've heard that mentioned before, any idea why the ban was imposed?

I'm not sure and someone will probably know but I think it may have been to do with the problem of one breaking down far from their maintenance base where no parts would have been available, at Laira for instance.
Near the end they were very rare visitors but at least three made it down in 1988 their last year. I was on the last one along the sea wall which was 45113 on a rake of intercity liveried mk3s. I even got a droplight, although I only had a view of the cliffs :)
If it was an out and back trip to Paignton they'd occasionally send a Peak if they were short of locos but they wouldn't turn right and head up Dainton towards Plymouth as that was obviously a step too far!
 

Ash Bridge

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I'm not sure and someone will probably know but I think it may have been to do with the problem of one breaking down far from their maintenance base where no parts would have been available, at Laira for instance.
Near the end they were very rare visitors but at least three made it down in 1988 their last year. I was on the last one along the sea wall which was 45113 on a rake of intercity liveried mk3s. I even got a droplight, although I only had a view of the cliffs :)
If it was an out and back trip to Paignton they'd occasionally send a Peak if they were short of locos but they wouldn't turn right and head up Dainton towards Plymouth as that was obviously a step too far!
Ah I see, so it was just something that was imposed towards the end of their careers as reliability dropped away? I have fond memories of having 146 from Birmingham New Street to Torquay and back on a Seaview Special back in 1972, cost just £2.00 from Manchester & Stockport, still got the ticket!

Those 1CoCo1's weighed twice as much as my house is my guess why they were banned.

Only twice as much? Blimey your house must be huge mate! :D;)
 

Cowley

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:D Laira had an allocation of 46s up to the early 80s, I remember seeing them at Redruth when we lived down in Cornwall for a bit in about 1978/79.
Anyway chaps this'll make you chuckle too.

Photo one - A class 45 number daubed on the wall next to Kennaway tunnel (the one nearest Dawlish station), there's a class 46 one just out of shot too, they were painted by Peak bashers so I believe many years ago and have been there for as long as I remember.and that's quite a long time now.

Photo two - Me having my nappy changed on Dawlish station in 1973 while my Dad waits for the optimum moment to press the shutter (the Peak's certainly putting the power down and definitely isn't stopping at Dawlish today!). I can imagine him looking as innocent as possible as the train appeared out of the tunnel behind my mother...
I said my first ever word on Dawlish station apparently, unfortunately for my Mum the word was "train".
And that you see is why I have a bit of an affinity with Dawlish station. I mean what chance did I have really? :lol:
 

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Ash Bridge

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I just love that second shot, and it looks like the Peak is also mildly amused! Btw, who does the honours these days, Mrs Cowley? :lol:
 

Cowley

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I just love that second shot, and it looks like the Peak is also mildly amused! Btw, who does the honours these days, Mrs Cowley? :lol:

Haha. Our kids nappy days are very much over but being a childminder she still gets to do the odd one at Dawlish.
 

fowler9

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Ah I see, so it was just something that was imposed towards the end of their careers as reliability dropped away? I have fond memories of having 146 from Birmingham New Street to Torquay and back on a Seaview Special back in 1972, cost just £2.00 from Manchester & Stockport, still got the ticket!



Only twice as much? Blimey your house must be huge mate! :D;)

The staff at the fowler9 Mansion get given a map. :D
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
:D Laira had an allocation of 46s up to the early 80s, I remember seeing them at Redruth when we lived down in Cornwall for a bit in about 1978/79.
Anyway chaps this'll make you chuckle too.

Photo one - A class 45 number daubed on the wall next to Kennaway tunnel (the one nearest Dawlish station), there's a class 46 one just out of shot too, they were painted by Peak bashers so I believe many years ago and have been there for as long as I remember.and that's quite a long time now.

Photo two - Me having my nappy changed on Dawlish station in 1973 while my Dad waits for the optimum moment to press the shutter (the Peak's certainly putting the power down and definitely isn't stopping at Dawlish today!). I can imagine him looking as innocent as possible as the train appeared out of the tunnel behind my mother...
I said my first ever word on Dawlish station apparently, unfortunately for my Mum the word was "train".
And that you see is why I have a bit of an affinity with Dawlish station. I mean what chance did I have really? :lol:

Ha ha, brilliant mate.
 
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