PHILIPE
Veteran Member
We used the line regularly in the 1960s-70s, from Liverpool to (inevitably) Taunton. I realise I haven't actually been on it since. The Swindon-built 120 dmus monopolised the Newport-Shrewsbury workings which were not long distance expresses from when they were built, about 1959, right until the Sprinters came along, that included the Central Wales line, for which a few were fitted with special headlights. By the 1980s some of these were turned over to loco haulage, as described above, but not all. The locals on to Crewe were run initially by 108s, there being a longstanding divide at Shrewsbury which only the couple of loco hauled services a day crossed. Very slowly after the LMR 1963 transfer this division was broken down, but it lasted a long time. The Cambrian lines dieselised quite late on, after the LMR takeover, and used various spare dmus, mostly Met-Cam, which however were generally integrated with Wolverhampton services from Shrewsbury, rather than Crewe.
Very first trip was actually with a Castle, the longest loco run on the WR, on the Plymouth-Liverpool day train, a lodging turn for, strangely, a Newton Abbot loco and crew, who took over from a Plymouth loco and worked through to Shrewsbury, where it was loco change to an LMR Black 5 to Crewe, and then another change to an electric for the last lap to Liverpool. Old boundaries died hard. Warship diesels took over and ran for a few years, all the way from Plymouth to Crewe. This was a bit too far for their tank capacity, especially in the winter with the train heating boiler in use, and next trip the Warship failed in the open country between Shrewsbury and Whitchurch, having run out of fuel, so we were eventually propelled forward and then taken on to Crewe by a Shrewsbury Black 5 anyway! After a couple of years Class 47s took over from Bristol TM to Crewe (crews west of Bristol only signed hydraulics for many years), and were long associated with the route for the major expresses, and most of the freight, although the expresses were notably reduced after about 1970, passengers being rerouted via Birmingham.
Us too, we took the car in 1966. Class 47 all the way from Earlestown West Curve to Newton Abbot. What hauled us the first two miles from Newton-le-Willows to the reversal at Earlestown, though? A Warrington Black 5, sent up to get the train marshalled the right way round. Anyone else had the family car steam hauled?
The Plymouth to Liverpool was a lodging turn for Shrewsbury footplate crews as well as Newton Abbot working on alternate days with Shrewsbury and Newton Abbot locos . I can recall the Shrewsbury turn, for which they used their best Castles, being covered on occasions by Halls and Counties if no suitable Castls available. The most used Castles, the pick of the bunch, were 5097 of Shrewsbury and 7000 Viscount Portal from Newton Abbot.