Class 33s on the Bristol to Weymouth line

[Robin1966]

Hi guys, calling any Yeovil, or former Yeovil-based, ex-train spotters and/or rail enthusiasts and/or former members of Yeovil Railway Circle, or anyone who may have been taking details of Class 33 diesels at Yeovil Pen Mill in the early 80s or actually at any time when 33s worked the Bristol to Weymouth line. I am interested in potentially writing an article on the subject for Rail Express magazine and thus I am wondering who else used to train spot at Pen Mill, or along that same line.

Unfortunately, with an article like this, it has to be 'really geeky' such as this (and this is straight from the editor) "when (what year) 33s started on the line and what they replaced, when they finished and what replaced them, a list of services/diagrams, any rare appearances, the situation today etc". Any chance of this or am I really hoping with this one?

If not enough information about 33s on the Bristol to Weymouth line, I could possibly broaden my pitch out a bit to include other classes, as I seem to remember Class 31s worked this line as well, and a number of DMU types. However, I remember I always liked seeing the 33s when I used to spot there myself around the age of 13-16....

 

[JN114]

There’s certainly been some videos doing the rounds recently on Facebook of 33+8TC on Summer Weekend Bristol - Weymouths. No firm details of diagrams came forward despite requests.

 

[Robin1966]

There’s certainly been some videos doing the rounds recently on Facebook of 33+8TC on Summer Weekend Bristol - Weymouths. No firm details of diagrams came forward despite requests.

Okay, thanks

 

[Taunton]

The Bristol-Weymouth trains were for many years a mix of loco hauled and DMU, it seemed to no particular pattern althrough doubtless there was one. Right from 1962 when the first Hymeks came to Bath Road depot, they seemed to mix in with Bristol-based dmus, which themselves were a mix of Swindon and Gloucester cross-country units, and Derby suburban ones. St Philips Marsh dmu depot seemed very arbitrary, and would send a suburban unit to Weymouth and put a Cross-Country on Severn Beach. This pattern persisted right through the Hymek, then the replacing Class 31 and 33, and Class 47 at the end, loco-hauled services, until the current generation of dmus came along. The one thing about the loco services was there were more in the summer than the winter.

 

[randyrippley]

I'd moved away by then, but on my visits back I never saw a 33 on that route. Hymeks, 31, 25, 37 yes but that's all. Never saw a type 4 or a 33 along there on passenger duty.
What was interesting on that route was the use of old GWR maroon-painted non-corridor stock tagged on the back of the cross-country DMUs. In the early 60's summer saturdays would see a pair of these (a B-set maybe?) tagged on the back of a six car DMU. Performance was poor - almost down to walking speed on the hills. I've seen suggested elsewhere that these may have been Taunton-Weymouth through coaches - though maybe not advertised as such.

What may also be of interest is that a class 22 was outbased at Yeovil Town shed (until it closed) for banking / pilot duties between Yeovil and Maiden Newton.

 

[Taunton]

What was interesting on that route was the use of old GWR maroon-painted non-corridor stock tagged on the back of the cross-country DMUs. In the early 60's summer saturdays would see a pair of these (a B-set maybe?) tagged on the back of a six car DMU. Performance was poor - almost down to walking speed on the hills. I've seen suggested elsewhere that these may have been Taunton-Weymouth through coaches - though maybe not advertised as such.

Interesting to have TWO coaches on the back. I did understand that only one was allowed, and it had to be a 6-car set with all engines working. And all the ones (not many) that I saw were Hawksworth corridor coaches.

B-sets were non-corridor. Taunton had quite a number allocated and the Yeovil line used them to its last day, along with SR green ones from the Yeovil end. Now Weymouth was a favourite destination from Taunton, and in the summer there were through excursions on Thursday afternoons (Taunton half day closing, very significant for a small shop oriented place) and Sunday, reversing at Pen Mill, always a substantial formation of about 8 coaches. I never recall any through timetabled service. Maybe the coaches branded as such gave rise to the suggestion.

 

[randyrippley]

the DerbySulzers site has some of the required info - see the entries for 1980/1 and later
https://www.derbysulzers.com/class33b.html