If previous experience is anything to go by, my moves will be a subset of yours.
Correct! See below.
Tuesday 20/06/78
I was on my way from home in York to college in Harrogate when I got distracted:
46029 1126 York – Leeds
40155 1206 Leeds – York
DMU York – Leeds
31409 1338 Leeds – Harrogate
You see, I got there eventually!
Friday 20/06/80
After the two required Roarers from Euston to Rugby to Crewe, the rest of the overnight was a bit grim. It was the Liverpool portion of The Joiner to Stafford for the Manchester portion of The Splitter into Piccadilly.
86255 0126 Crewe – Stafford
86213 0300 Stafford – Manchester
From there it was an EMU back to Crewe, for a DMU to Chester to await the main event:
40042 0853 Chester – Cardiff via Wrexham
This was a schoolkids charter originating from Prestatyn, giving some of the local schoolkids an end of term trip to Cardiff to view Cardiff Castle etc. I was with a friend, and we approached a teacher and negotiated a rate of £5 each for the return trip to Cardiff, in our own personal compartment. Result. (We didn’t receive any form of ticket, so I suspect our “fares” went straight into the staff drinking fund). This was all rare class 40 track, and new for me. On arrival at Cardiff we declined their kind invitation to join the teachers spending the day shepherding children around Cardiff Castle, and instead went to visit Woodhams Scrapyard at Barry Island, which at that time still contained over a hundred derelict steam locos, plus two or three diesels. I think we sat and ate our lunch in D6122, which was cut up later that year.
Late afternoon we returned to Cardiff just to see if anything interesting might produce before we took the 40 back north:
31422 1600 Cardiff – Newport
47088 1705 Newport – Cardiff
I needed both locos, so couldn’t complain.
40042 1800 Cardiff – Prestatyn
The return was a memorable trip. We managed to get a compartment to ourselves again. The non-stop passage through Shrewsbury was especially striking; it was a warm evening so we had all the windows open, the signals cleared and the driver suddenly applied full power as 40042 simply battered its way through the middle road. Arrival at Chester was 25 minutes earlier than scheduled. After the Lord Mayor’s Show comes the Dustcart:
47438 2215 Prestatyn – Holyhead
Sunday 20/06/82
I had worked late shift the previous evening at Euston, and had come out overnight in the hope of chasing more class 40s.
85006 0047 Stafford – Crewe
47564 (+85006 dead) 0127 Crewe = Preston via Stockport, Manchester Victoria, Bolton
The usual Saturday night dragging. At Preston there was a rather more attractive loco lined up for the next move:
40145 (+86247 dead) 0406 Preston – Crewe via Bolton, Manchester Victoria, Miles Platting, Stockport
With load 11 + dead electric, 40145 had plenty to shout about on Miles Platting Bank. This was to be my final run with 40145 in BR ownership, but I’ve since clocked up many more miles with it as a CFPS loco. Nowadays it is with LSL on loan.
Back at Crewe, we wanted to return to Manchester to cover the Manchester to North Wales morning departures which were due to be diverted because of engineering works. But where is the Crewe – Manchester EMU? It’s not in the usual north end bay. Eventually we tracked down a DMU sitting in a south facing bay! That was indeed the Manchester train, which set off towards the Shrewsbury lines then stopped at Gresty Lane, reversed, and took the Independent Lines round the back of Crewe station. Novelty bonus.
40143 0950 Manchester Victoria – Llandudno
This train not only produced one of the desirable rare split-box class 40s but was also diverted via Bolton and Wigan Wallgate to Douglas Bank Signal Box, where the loco ran round. We returned via Wallgate onto the WCML to Golborne Jn., then round the curve up to Newton le Willows and Earlestown, picking up our normal path from there.
40143 1420 Llandudno – Chester
I could have stuck with 40143 all the way back to Manchester then headed south, but the prospect of extra class 40 mileage was too tempting, so I alighted at Chester for a second round trip to Llandudno.
40012 1615 Chester – Llandudno
40012 1903 Llandudno – Manchester Victoria
Back at Manchester there was time for a beer before heading over to Piccadilly for The Joiner to take me home to Euston. We’d had a quote (from a normally reliable source) that the 2240 Manchester Victoria – Holyhead was allocated to 47452 tonight, but just thought we’d check on our way back from the pub, just in case it had been swapped.
Hell’s teeth - it’s a 40, in fact it’s a split-box 40 – is it 40143 again? No, it’s 40138. Cancel all previous plans, get on this train and improvise something different!
40138 2240 Manchester Victoria – Holyhead
This was now a big NB rateable class 40 on a high-mileage class 47/4 cyclical diagram. How long could it last? The full diagram was:
ECS Holyhead CS – Bangor
0709 Bangor – Manchester Victoria
ECS to / from Red Bank Carriage Sidings
1045 Manchester Victoria – Holyhead
1517 Holyhead - Manchester Victoria
ECS to / from Red Bank Carriage Sidings
2240 Manchester Victoria – Holyhead
ECS to Holyhead CS / LD to Holyhead Depot for fuel and service
[Repeat]
Wednesday 20/06/84
As a change from my usual commuting moves, I decided after finishing a 12-hour day shift in Leeds Control that I would go home the scenic (and noisy) route:
31434 + 31427 1910 Leeds – Selby (1635 Carlisle – Hull)
47543 2029 Selby – York
