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DMU drags

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AY1975

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It used to be quite common for locos to rescue failed DMUs (which could be done with first generation DMUs), but I also believe that some services, such as the summer-only Derby-Llandudno in the late 1980s, were occasionally worked by a pair of Class 20s hauling, or "dragging", a DMU.

Does anyone know of any other examples of services that were worked by a DMU that was being used as hauled stock, and was this done because the DMU had failed or because no conventional loco-hauled stock was available? Or were the locos just added to attract more enthusiasts to travel on that train?
 
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Harbornite

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Some DMU's were dragged up the Lickey incline by steam locos as banking them wasn't permitted.
 

xotGD

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I've been on dragged units where the service was running on time. This suggests that the unit was a known failure, with time to organise a loco before it left the depot. Likewise, while some drags would be a single service following a rescue, in other cases the loco would work the rest of the diagram with the unit in tow.

The biggest unit drag I missed out on was the afternoon a 26 arrived into Newcastle from Carlisle on the front of a unit and then operated a service to Durham and back. I was at home :'(
 

randyrippley

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I can remember seeing a Hymek drag a DMU up the hill toward the tunnel coming out of Weymouth. Would a DMU with an engine out be able to climb that hill? At the best of times they used to crawl up it
 

Journeyman

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Sometime in the late nineties, I rode on the Hastings DEMU on a service out of Bristol (hired for extra capacity for Glastonbury), and to avoid the need to train drivers on it, it was hauled by a class 37. Engines were ticking over for lighting.
 

RichmondCommu

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This is a rather tenuous example but an example nevertheless. During the 1975? Rainhill celebrations a class 25 was hauling steam loco's to the event along the Hope Valley route. Ahead of them a DMU had failed at Chapel. On arrival at Chapel the 'Rat' deserts the steam loco's to haul the DMU towards Manchester. The steam loco's are left to make their own way to the 'knees up'.
 

Czesziafan

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In 1971 the 12.40 SO Weston Super Mare - Birmingham NS was a dmu. Picture from the Railway Magazine of Sept 71 with the unit being dragged up the Lickey by 2 Hymeks.DMU ON LICKEY 1971.jpeg
 

Cowley

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I think we have a winner.

Were Hymeks regulars at New St or was this super-rare?
I’m not sure about that, but I’d have thought that they would have appeared at New Street from time to time from Cardiff or Paddington? @Taunton would know.
I think the Hymek bankers (like these two) that were stabled at the foot of the Lickey had their 1st gears locked out to prevent them from surging when pushing heavy trains up the bank.
I suppose being based where they were they quite possibly could have been used for other rescues at times?
 

Peter C

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I’m not sure about that, but I’d have thought that they would have appeared at New Street from time to time from Cardiff or Paddington? @Taunton would know.
I think the Hymek bankers (like these two) that were stabled at the foot of the Lickey had their 1st gears locked out to prevent them from surging when pushing heavy trains up the bank.
I suppose being based where they were they quite possibly could have been used for other rescues at times?
I don't know loads about this topic, but that sounds right about the bankers had their 1st gears locked out. I can't remember if that is something I read online or just heard somewhere, though! :)
I've never heard anything of Hymeks at Birmingham New Street - I always assumed that they were confined to the GWML or the Cornish Riveria.

-Peter
 

Czesziafan

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On checking the pubic timetable for 1971/2 the description in the RM seems to have a typo - the train is in fact the 12.04 from Weston. This appears to have been the return working of the 09.00 from New St to Weston (arr 11.22). That arrived in Temple Meads at 10.57 - pretty good timing assuming it was a regular dmu working.
Hymeks were far from unknown at New St - in the early 70's they were diagrammed for the 06.45 Paddington - New St and 10.20 return. They also came up from Worcester and Hereford on local passenger and parcels traffic.
 

xotGD

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On checking the pubic timetable for 1971/2 the description in the RM seems to have a typo - the train is in fact the 12.04 from Weston. This appears to have been the return working of the 09.00 from New St to Weston (arr 11.22). That arrived in Temple Meads at 10.57 - pretty good timing assuming it was a regular dmu working.
Hymeks were far from unknown at New St - in the early 70's they were diagrammed for the 06.45 Paddington - New St and 10.20 return. They also came up from Worcester and Hereford on local passenger and parcels traffic.
Thanks for the gen!
 

Czesziafan

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The leading unit looks like a Metro-Cammell. In 1971 where was it likely to have been based in the Birmingham area?

The noise and vibration from one of these as it struggled up the 1 in 37 gradient must have made for an interesting experience for the passengers to say the least!
 

Taunton

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I’m not sure about that, but I’d have thought that they would have appeared at New Street from time to time from Cardiff or Paddington? @Taunton would know.
Actually not; I rarely passed through, though I never noticed one [a Hymek]. Others say they were regular.

The Lickey bankers were a WR responsibility, the regional boundary with the LMR was just beyond the top of the hill. I was surprised to find that, given it is virtually in the Birmingham suburbs, after Bromsgrove depot closed the bankers and men came not from Worcester, but from Gloucester. Eventually the Hymeks were supplanted as bankers by Class 37, still from Gloucester.

The noise and vibration from one of these as it struggled up the 1 in 37 gradient must have made for an interesting experience for the passengers to say the least!
Having some experience by the 1970s of Met-Cam dmus up the 1 in 36 from Glasgow Queen Street to Cowlairs, which they did every 30 minutes, it was not a really dire performance. Sure, only got up to about 20-25mph, dependent on load, but it didn't really shake your teeth out.

The one where you did notice it was on the Edinburgh to Carstairs connection. It's a long about 1 in 70 drag all the way up to the halfway summit, steeper towards the top, and speed would fall gradually, at noisy full power, from maybe 60mph down to 40 or so, once or twice changed down gears. Over the top and things rapidly picked up to 70, it's quite curved and the Met-Cam would really sway about on the descent.
 
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I think in about 1973-75 there was a regular diagram involving a Class 37 hauling a three car DMU (Swindon built Cross Country I think) from Cardiff or Newport to Gloucester and return. It was in Gloucester Central in the early evening. Unfortunately I never managed to travel on it.

John Prytherch.
 

Shimbleshanks

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Back in the mid-1970s I remember going to see a friend of the family off from Bangor on an all-stations DMU to Chester that was announced as 20 minutes late from Holyhead. When the train eventually appeared, it was a two-car DMU hauled by a Class 25. The loco with its lightweight load shot of the station, before slowing down for the curve at the end of the loop, and disappeared off into the tunnel. According to our friend, it was virtually right time at Chester.
 
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