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Banking Of Passenger trains.

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delt1c

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Lost in history, but memories of being banked out of Glasgow Queen St, or stopping at the bottom of the Lickey to banked to the top, but the ultimate for me was an overnight on the WCML stopping to be banked over Beatock. Memories that unfortunatly can not be experienced today in uk
 
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delt1c

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The ultimate was being on a 101 in the rear coach being banked by a 27, ultimate view as 27 dropped back at the top
 

hexagon789

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Lost in history, but memories of being banked out of Glasgow Queen St, or stopping at the bottom of the Lickey to banked to the top, but the ultimate for me was an overnight on the WCML stopping to be banked over Beatock. Memories that unfortunatly can not be experienced today in uk

Not quite the same, but aren't some charters banked? And some freight still, or has that ended?
 

delt1c

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Might be , but not quite the same as regular banking in the 70's.
 

delt1c

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In my day it was 27's ( or ocasionally 25 or even rarer 24 or 26). Something that had to be appreciated. My ultimate had to be 08.35 to Oban which had a 27 + 24 on front ( 24 was ex works as far as Crianlarich) with a 26 banking
 

ChiefPlanner

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The Bristol - Glasgow overnighter - some sleepers on board - was banked up the Lickey in the late 1970's. A hefty train of load 12 or so.
 

RT4038

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Earlier this year I travelled on a steam hauled passenger train banked in rear by diesel between Grosmont and Goathland.
 

alistairlees

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The Bristol - Glasgow overnighter - some sleepers on board - was banked up the Lickey in the late 1970's. A hefty train of load 12 or so.
1S19. Was to both Edinburgh and Glasgow. And load 15 or 16 if I remember. Included vans as well as sleepers and seated coaches in each portion. Banked until well in the 1980s.
 

Taunton

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In regional divisions the Lickey lay just over the border in the Western Region, although all trains banked up were headed into the LMR at the top. The loco point at Bromsgrove was closed when unassisted climbing became common, but various services still were, for which a Class 37 (sometimes two) was sent all the way from Gloucester to assist, and then back afterwards.

I recall banking out of Glasgow Queen Street in the 1970s. For hauled services it was the loco that had brought in the stock, whatever that might be. A climb in a well-loaded 3-car Met-Cam (I was never banked with one) was a painful experience, maybe 20mph at the top. In parallel to this line was that from Bellgrove (and southern Glasgow) up through Springburn to Cowlairs, which had some notably heavy and not well powered freights, particularly the coal MGRs from Ayrshire collieries to Longannet power station in Fife, with just 2 x Class 20, whuich came up the hill full throttle at a fast walking pace - there must have been a plan for if it didn't make it, they could never have got restarted again.
 

xotGD

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I did the Bristol - Glasgow a number of times in the mid to late 80s. Used to get 2x37 banking on a Friday night and 1x37 on a Saturday. Usually the bankers were sat at the bottom of the bank, but you needed good eyesight to see what they were. One time we got to the bottom with no banker in sight - the unknown 37 then appeared from the south to shove us up the bank.

Some years earlier I was on the Class 40-hauled 'Christmas Cracker' railtour that was banked up the Lickey by 45146.
 

delt1c

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Wonder what was the last scheduled passenger service to be banked in the UK
 

Bedpan

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All steam trains out of Waterloo were banked out of the station, so that would take us to July 1967. Just a question of what was going on in the North West after that date.
 

brad465

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I've seen videos on Youtube of charters with steam engine banking up Lickey earlier this decade, albeit they're not "regular passenger trains".
 

Harbornite

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And some freight still, or has that ended?


Still happens on Lickey and "Owd 'ill" banks, mainly the former with workings like the Margam-Corby coils and Cornwall-Stoke china clay. 66055-059 were modified for banking with additional headlights and remote-release couplers. Whichever loco is on banking duties is stabled at Satley or Bescot.
 

delt1c

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All steam trains out of Waterloo were banked out of the station, so that would take us to July 1967. Just a question of what was going on in the North West after that date.
Waterloo Isnt as far as recall on an incline. Think the rear loco that had brought the stock in was following the train out to save a path. Was quite common even in diesel days at many busy termini.
There was an earlier thread on here which mentioned it.
 

52290

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possibly something out of Weymouth?
It was a common practice on the Isle of Man Railway up to closure in 1968 on both the Port Erin and St Johns lines out of Douglas. I'm sure it still happens on the surviving line.
 

30907

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Waterloo Isnt as far as recall on an incline. Think the rear loco that had brought the stock in was following the train out to save a path. Was quite common even in diesel days at many busy termini.
There was an earlier thread on here which mentioned it.
Assistance was only provided as far as the platform starter, as at many termini. Banking of boat trains towards Grosvenor Bridge was common at Victoria (Eastern), but that ended around 1961.
Lickey and the sleeper outlasted anything else by several years, while the last steam banker may have been at Weymouth.
 

theageofthetra

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Assistance was only provided as far as the platform starter, as at many termini. Banking of boat trains towards Grosvenor Bridge was common at Victoria (Eastern), but that ended around 1961.
Lickey and the sleeper outlasted anything else by several years, while the last steam banker may have been at Weymouth.


How late did they have steam banking at Folkestone Harbour? There were certainly a couple of charters in the 1990's which had one.
 

hexagon789

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Still happens on Lickey and "Owd 'ill" banks, mainly the former with workings like the Margam-Corby coils and Cornwall-Stoke china clay. 66055-059 were modified for banking with additional headlights and remote-release couplers. Whichever loco is on banking duties is stabled at Satley or Bescot.

Good to hear banking on the Lickey hasn't ended, as I imagine are drivers of heavy freights! ;)
 

Bevan Price

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All steam trains out of Waterloo were banked out of the station, so that would take us to July 1967. Just a question of what was going on in the North West after that date.
Probably confined to a few freights at locations such as Manchester Victoria, Copy Pit, and (just possibly) Shap. From what I recall, steam passenger trains over Shap had largely ceased by late 1966 (one of the last being a Footex in December 1966).
Few, if any, steam railtours went that way in 1967. The last "regular" scheduled steam passenger services over Shap finished at the end of the Summer 1966 timetable.
 

Brush 4

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All those 1966 references are about 1967. The footex was on Boxing Day 1967, hauled by 70013, not banked because nothing was available at Tebay
 

Bevan Price

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All those 1966 references are about 1967. The footex was on Boxing Day 1967, hauled by 70013, not banked because nothing was available at Tebay

Sorry - yes, I "lost" a year. And it was 1968 when there were few - if any - steam railtours over Shap; I think the exceptions were one or two by Flying Scotsman in Autumn 1968, and they only ran because the late Alan Pegler had a contract to allow Scotsman to run steam tours.
 

Taunton

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Assistance was only provided as far as the platform starter, as at many termini. Banking of boat trains towards Grosvenor Bridge was common at Victoria (Eastern), but that ended around 1961.
Lickey and the sleeper outlasted anything else by several years, while the last steam banker may have been at Weymouth.
As I have written before, we were actually assisted up to Grosvenor Bridge on a Dover boat train in, it must have been, 1961. After departure we came to a stand on the climb to the bridge, and had to wait some minutes for the ECS loco to come up behind before we could get going again. I wonder if special signals were provided for this. Rain. Spam Can.....

For the last steam banker, I would have thought this would be Tebay, where the special shed for banking locos lasted right to the end in 1968. They presumably banked passenger services from time to time, a Class 40 with a heavy train would be a nuisance climbing Shap on its own. Further north, at Beattock, banking locos not only survived the steam era, but on into electrification a few years later, where 2 x Class 20 were based to push up to the summit. I was never banked there, but the train in front was, in 1975, which had failed, and the bankers had been called out to push from behind; we finally passed the cavalcade in the loops at the summit
 

30907

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How late did they have steam banking at Folkestone Harbour? There were certainly a couple of charters in the 1990's which had one.
Folkestone was electrified summer 1961 IIRC (Kent Coast Stage 2) and the need for regular bankers ceased, along with all steam working except at Ashford Works which retained 3? C class - one of which was used for snowplough duty around Orpington in early 1963 (I remember being shown the photo in the local paper).
 

randyrippley

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Were trains from Yeovil Pen Mill to Evershot banked or piloted? I've got one reference that says a class 22 was kept as a banker at Yeovil shed, another as a pilot loco. And where did it come off?
Were diesels ever used as bankers at Weymouth?
 

30907

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Were trains from Yeovil Pen Mill to Evershot banked or piloted? I've got one reference that says a class 22 was kept as a banker at Yeovil shed, another as a pilot loco. And where did it come off?
Were diesels ever used as bankers at Weymouth?
Looking at the 1961 WTT, which is perhaps a bit earlier than you are asking about, most passenger trains booked for assistance took it at Yetminster and at least some of them were banked, as light engine workings back from Evershot appear. There is one Sunday morning train (ex Yeovil Town, so SR stock?) which stops at Evershot NOT Yetminster, so I assume was assisted from Pen Mill and I suspect that was piloted.
But reading working timetables can only get you so far....
 
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