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Diesel Hydraulics at Shrewsbury

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JoeM

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I was mooching around the internet to see if there were any photos of Warships and Westerns in Shrewsbury, and found a few of both; As far as I know the Warships worked through to Crewe, and the Westerns powered the Birkenhead to Paddington trains, did they get to the town with any other work at any time? And also, in the Shrewsbury Rail Centres book, theres a photo of a Western backing onto the train from Birkenhead, so did they just power them from Shrews forward?
 
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Rugd1022

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Westerns did get as far as Chester on the Birkenhead jobs, there are a few shots of them in the area in the various black and white Bradford Barton albums and elsewhere.

In 1968 four North British Warships were allocated to Bescot for use on West Mids area freight and parcels jobs, one of which was booked via Stafford to Crewe, they did run regularly in this period but try finding a photo of one!

Another very unusual Warship working occured in 1969 when D854 Tiger worked the china clay empties from Bescot and came south through Rugby. A mate of mine who is now the oldest railwayman on our patch was there that day and asked the Bescot driver if he could have a look in the cab when it stopped opposite Rugby 'box on the Up Goods... the Bescot man promptly told him where to go! From Rugby, D854 was routed back onto the WR via Bletchley, Oxford then onwards to St.Blazey.
 

JoeM

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Many thanks for the reply - a couple of days ago I received the book Diesels in Depth - the Westerns, and there are numerous photos of the D1000's in the West Midlands, including one double page shot of D1036 at Gobowen. You would think the class was concentrated in the area from looking at this book, though the author is from Wellington; it appears that the Paddington - Birkenhead service was amongst the first workings of the Westerns. I also managed to get a second hand copy of 'Western Diesels in Camera' and this is an excellent book.
I will try and seek out the Bradford Barton albums, also; would love to find a photo of a Western crossing Chirk viaduct!
 

Rugd1022

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Many thanks for the reply - a couple of days ago I received the book Diesels in Depth - the Westerns, and there are numerous photos of the D1000's in the West Midlands, including one double page shot of D1036 at Gobowen. You would think the class was concentrated in the area from looking at this book, though the author is from Wellington; it appears that the Paddington - Birkenhead service was amongst the first workings of the Westerns. I also managed to get a second hand copy of 'Western Diesels in Camera' and this is an excellent book.
I will try and seek out the Bradford Barton albums, also; would love to find a photo of a Western crossing Chirk viaduct!

My pleasure. Just a tip - that Diesels In Depth volume on the Westerns is full of mistakes, a lot of the captions give the wrong info.... the photos more than make up for them though, it didn't stop me from buying a copy. ;)

If you've not already got the Bradford Barton albums it's a fair bet you haven't got most of the other good Western books either, although you made a cracking start with John Vaughan's 'In Camera'... a very good one this and one of my favourites.

Some of the early Western books are riddled with mistakes which one auther after another has taken as gospel, but those that have been published in the last few years are much better. These are all worth having if you can find them....

* 'Western Memories' http://www.flickr.com/photos/21403537@N00/2357645927/in/set-72157594510358068 a good early one which covers the railtours.

* 'A Tribute To The Westerns' by David Birt, chock full of great b&w photos.

* 'Power Of The Westerns' from OPC, ignore the coloured line drawings showing the livery variations, they are way off the mark, but the rest of the book has great photos throughout.

* 'Profile Of The Westerns' again from OPC, recently reprinted and full of great shots.

* 'Western Dawn' by Adrian Curtis, goes into the background story of the design and build.

* 'Western Liveries' by Adrian Curtis, self explanetary with photos of all . most of the livery variations, plus dates etc, hard to find now though.

* 'Heyday Of The Westerns' from Ian Allan, colour throughout with some great shots of the early days on the B'ham line etc.

* 'The Western Region Diesel Hydraulics' from Ian Allan, as above but covers other classes.

* 'Diesel Hydraulics In The West Country' from Ian Allan, similar to the one above!

* 'Hydraulics In The West' by David Cable, some very rare hydraulic pics n this one.

* 'Westerns In Colour' by Roger Geach, covers the blue period nicely with spot on captions throughout, and his follow up book...

* 'Back To The Old Days - The Westerns', has earlier maroon era shots too, very nicely done this one!

* 'The 74 Westerns - A Personal Reflection' by Roger's mate Bernard Mills, superb collection of shots, proceeds goe to the DTG (D1015 etc).

* 'Western Memories' by Ian Harrison & Roger Kaye, not the same title at the top of the list but another pictorial album with proceeds going to the DTG. Print quality isn't brilliant but the pics themselves are priceless.

That's just a sample list, there are several others about!

The first Westyerns to work on the Birmingham route went to Tyseley, Oxley and Old Oak for crew training in the early part of 1962, their first booked workings being on 10th June with the full timetable kicking in on 10th September. They held sway on the Brum, Wolves & Birkenhead route until the LMR took over these workings in 1964 once they had enough newfangled Brush Type 4s to cover them all. The Westerns then moved onto Bristol, South Wales and West Country diagrams, not returning regularly to the Brum route until well into 1974.

Hope that helps!

(apologies for aweful typos!)



;)
 
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JoeM

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wow what an amazing list, many thanks again! Maybe a few to put on the Christmas list amongst those! There were a couple of other titles I had been looking at as well, which also covered the other hydraulic classes as well, which are:

The Western's Hydraulics by J.K Lewis

and

Westerns, Warships, and Hymeks at Work by Geoff Endacott

I thoroughly enjoyed the 'HSTs at Work' book, especially the chapter describing the day in the life of one of the trains - I find this sort of thing really interesting, and was a bit disappointed the same thing wasn't in the Deltics at Work title.

There is also the 'Looking back at...' series by Strathwood - these look quite good, have you any experience of these (and the above)?

All the best,
Joe
 

Rugd1022

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wow what an amazing list, many thanks again! Maybe a few to put on the Christmas list amongst those! There were a couple of other titles I had been looking at as well, which also covered the other hydraulic classes as well, which are:

The Western's Hydraulics by J.K Lewis

and

Westerns, Warships, and Hymeks at Work by Geoff Endacott

I thoroughly enjoyed the 'HSTs at Work' book, especially the chapter describing the day in the life of one of the trains - I find this sort of thing really interesting, and was a bit disappointed the same thing wasn't in the Deltics at Work title.

There is also the 'Looking back at...' series by Strathwood - these look quite good, have you any experience of these (and the above)?

All the best,
Joe

Morning Joe,

Glad you find it all useful! Geoff Endacott's book is excellent, with some quite rare shots, particularly of the Warship liveries. The J.K.Lewis one is well worth having too, there aren't so many photos in it but the background info it goes into is spot on. I've got all of the Strathwood Western Region / Hydraulic books, they are very good, although quite a few of the captions have silly mistakes in them... don't let it put you off them though as the pics are excellent with one or two rareties in each one.

A couple more worth tracking down are two mid 70s titles frm OPC... 'Diesels Western Style' and 'Westerns, Warships and Hymeks', tere are some 'official' Swindon Works portraits in these two, taken whenever a new version of a particular livery was tried out on the hydraulics.

;)
 

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tirphil

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* 'Westerns In Colour' by Roger Geach, covers the blue period nicely with spot on captions throughout, and his follow up book...

* 'Back To The Old Days - The Westerns', has earlier maroon era shots too, very nicely done this one!

* 'The 74 Westerns - A Personal Reflection' by Roger's mate Bernard Mills, superb collection of shots, proceeds goe to the DTG (D1015 etc);)

Roger Geach. A top man. Used to be a power controller with EWS. Is the Bernard you mention also an ex EWS power controller. I remember a Bernard who used to be a senior powerman and he usually covered the RES desk. He was from Crewe originally.
 

Rugd1022

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Roger Geach. A top man. Used to be a power controller with EWS. Is the Bernard you mention also an ex EWS power controller. I remember a Bernard who used to be a senior powerman and he usually covered the RES desk. He was from Crewe originally.

Roger is now in FLHH Control at Ferrybridge, but the Bernard Mills I refer to used to be in the booking office at Plymouth back in the late 60s / early 70s.... not sure what he's doing these days though.

;)
 

tirphil

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Roger is now in FLHH Control at Ferrybridge, but the Bernard Mills I refer to used to be in the booking office at Plymouth back in the late 60s / early 70s.... not sure what he's doing these days though.

;)

Definately a different Bernard then!! Thanks for getting back to me. Pass my regards onto Roger from this ex Knottingley man. BTW, some good guys at FLHH down at Ferrybridge, I know a few of them from meeting up at ASLEF Branch meetings.
 

Rugd1022

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Definately a different Bernard then!! Thanks for getting back to me. Pass my regards onto Roger from this ex Knottingley man. BTW, some good guys at FLHH down at Ferrybridge, I know a few of them from meeting up at ASLEF Branch meetings.

Will do.. Rog and I exchange emails now and then ;)
 
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