Locos working from various depots under BR

[12CSVT]

Was the several months away simply because it took it that long to get there and back?

Shunters being taken to and from works for overhaul were often towed in scheduled freights (an 08 with its coupling rods removed could be towed at 45 mph).

 

[alexl92]

Shunters being taken to and from works for overhaul were often towed in scheduled freights (an 08 with its coupling rods removed could be towed at 45 mph).

What was it about the coupling rods that meant they couldn't go that fast D.I.T with them on??

 

[455driver]

Shunters being taken to and from works for overhaul were often towed in scheduled freights (an 08 with its coupling rods removed could be towed at 45 mph).

They had to have the rods removed and the traction motors demeshed so they were no longer connected to the wheels.

If they didnt demesh then the traction motors would have over-sped and exploded.
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What was it about the coupling rods that meant they couldn't go that fast D.I.T with them on??

Nothing much, it was the traction motors which caused the issues.

 

[Oswyntail]

The big difference, of course, is that nowadays there are very few passenger locos. Local services are run by MUs that rarely stray, and the long-distance services - the ones that might have taken a loco off the beaten track - are also run by dedicated fleets of MUs. On the other hand, though freight locos tend only to have a "home" depot on paper, there is more opportunity for the sort of shuffling the OP describes. However, would anyone notice it? If a Shed turns up pottering around off Motherwell for a few days, would anyone really notice it usually worked out of Bescot?

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Some allocations were very far ranging - you could (before sectorisation) - see a Crewe 47 almost anywhere in the UK.....they tended to be sent towards home when a major exam was due !

Likewise Bescot would send a pair of 20's towards Severn Tunnel Junction , knowing full well they would get them home - as very few (probably none) of the Welsh crews worked them.Had it been a 47 - they might have got it back in a month or so ....

 

[theblackwatch]

Some allocations were very far ranging - you could (before sectorisation) - see a Crewe 47 almost anywhere in the UK.....they tended to be sent towards home when a major exam was due !

Likewise Bescot would send a pair of 20's towards Severn Tunnel Junction , knowing full well they would get them home - as very few (probably none) of the Welsh crews worked them.Had it been a 47 - they might have got it back in a month or so ....

At the other end of the spectrum, other depot's locos were as rare as rocking horse away from their home patch. Stratford's 47s have been mentioned in post #30, and - being from Yorkshire - my last 47 for sight was a Stratford one, 47116 which I went to Crewe Works for as we knew it was there for overhaul.

Other locos which I can't remember straying away were Canton's 37s. If you wanted them, you had to go to Cardiff to see them running triple-headed on the Llanwern steel trains. They were later replaced by pairs of 56s (also based at CF) and you'd never see those 56s appear on an MGR train in the midlands.

 

[Saltleyman]

Some allocations were very far ranging - you could (before sectorisation) - see a Crewe 47 almost anywhere in the UK.....they tended to be sent towards home when a major exam was due !

Likewise Bescot would send a pair of 20's towards Severn Tunnel Junction , knowing full well they would get them home - as very few (probably none) of the Welsh crews worked them.Had it been a 47 - they might have got it back in a month or so ....

I think you will find that Saltley sent class 20's towards Severn Tunnel (not Bescot) as the traffic flow in those days was on the NE/SW corridor via Washwood Heath and certainly not Bescot ! As a fireman/driver at Saltley I worked quite a few trains to Severn Tunnel with class 20's and even class 40's which at the time WR crews at Gloucester/Severn Tunnel or Newport/Cardiff did not sign.Conversely the WR would send Class 35's on some trains to the North as Saltley/Toton or Rotherham men were not conversant with hydraulic traction.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

I recall a special for the MOD from Ashchurch to Marchwood (flats with Landrovers on) - Glos put a pair of 20's on - in the hope they might get a run through. They got past Bristol OK - but the loco's were replaced at Salisbury by a local 33 for the last leg. Good effort.

The true sign of a Crewe 47 was the incredible filth - maybe the number would get a wipe over for identification purposes (and I am talking late 1970's) - apart from fuel and an A exam - they were just put back out onto the road for more work...

 

[Saltleyman]

Going back even further in time Saltley men used to work through from Water Orton sidings to Carlisle (Petterill Bridge), and before the coming of the "stoker" fitted 9F's (92165/66 and 92167) based at Saltley from new for these trains,we had a 5 or 6 Black 5's which were maintained in "good nick" for the Scottish services,however it was a usual thing ,especially in the summer for these locos to disappear on arrival at Carlisle ! I have even seen one of "our 21A" locos heading the 06.40 am train from Inverness to Wick, and even glimpsed one on Shed at Oban ! To try and keep these locos from the "grasping hands" of other Depots they were rostered to work only local trippers in the Birmingham area when not used on the Glasgow trains.