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What did I just see? (Pretty sure it belonged to Network Rail)

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Eagle

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So at 22.20 tonight I saw the headlights of something sat with the engine in the southbound passing loop just up the track from my house in Kenilworth. It was waiting for a Voyager to pass it heading northbound, at which point it turned its engine on (which made a distinctive thukthukthukthukthuk noise) and it passed me. It was dark, so I only saw that it was a single loco or coach, coloured yellow, with lots of open panels down the sides enabling me to see people inside, and the glimpse I got of it doesn't match any of the trains pictured here. There were three headlights of equal brightness, one centred above the windscreen and two below.

What was it, where was it going from and to, and what was its purpose?
 
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Eagle

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6J62 2137 Rugby DED - Hatton WJ

That sounds right, but I thought 6xxx headcodes were freight, which this wasn't.

This route needs two reversals, I'm guessing one in Coventry yard and one in Leamington sidings (rather than at the stations). Also, Hatton West Junction? That's a weird destination, there's literally nothing there except the points!
 

AlterEgo

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I'm assuming that's the sound I heard, then. I think (and I'm really not sure, as the mental image is fading) it might have been a 73.

I don't think a 73 would have been that far away from third rail land. Definitely sounds more like a tamper. They are plentiful up and down the WCML.

I-Spy for five points (people of a certain age will get that!).
 

The Planner

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Lots of yellow plant movements use class 6 headcodes and Id bet this did reverse in the station platforms.
 

trainplan1

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If I've got this the right way round 6J** is usually a tamper and 6U** is usually for railgrinders and stoneblowers so it most likely was a tamper.

There given 6*** headcodes because most are 60mph capable.

The destination was most likely the timing location closest to the possession it was due to enter.
 

O L Leigh

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Or more likely the other way around; that Hatton WJ was the location of the worksite it was travelling to, at which point it had "arrived" and set to work before then getting a new headcode for the trip back to Rugby.

O L Leigh
 

scotsman

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5?! On the west coast, maybe. A definite 15 round my way:lol:

I don't think a 73 would have been that far away from third rail land. Definitely sounds more like a tamper. They are plentiful up and down the WCML.

I-Spy for five points (people of a certain age will get that!).
 

AlterEgo

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The NSE Snowblower was based at Bletchley back when I was a kid - five minutes on the train. I-Spy for 50 points :D
 

The Planner

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Or more likely the other way around; that Hatton WJ was the location of the worksite it was travelling to, at which point it had "arrived" and set to work before then getting a new headcode for the trip back to Rugby.

O L Leigh

Possibly but if the worksite was some random place between two timing points it would always be the preceeding point it would be timed to.
 
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