Memories of extreme cold spell in 1987

[nw1]

A seasonal thread here.

Does anyone have any memories of unusual traction or service patterns during the extreme cold and snowy spell around this time of year in January 1987?

I do remember significant disruption and cancellation at the height of the spell on the Portsmouth Direct. While some days there were no trains at all if I remember right, I do remember one memorable journey. The Direct had no working electric rails, so one evening I travelled southbound in a 4VEP hauled by a Class 33 - my only 33 haulage at any time, in fact. This was severely delayed at Guildford but eventually left and was one of the few trains to run south of Guildford that evening.

North of Guildford they were able to operate a half-hourly stopping shuttle service to Waterloo on the '75' using normal, non-hauled EMUs, but presumably due the gradients it was difficult south of Guildford.

I have vague memories of 3Hs also being used on the Direct, though I don't think I travelled in one.

 

[32475]

If my memory serves me correctly it was then that I remember a very slow morning commute from Glossop to Manchester Piccadilly through the snow and ice, but being particularly impressed at Piccadilly to see a class 37 with snow ploughs hauling a dmu from Buxton. Any locomotive or rolling stock with snow and ice stuck to the front looks good!

 

[Strathclyder]

@32475 Then you may appreciate this one.

This thread rang a distant bell of a image of a pair of SPTE Orange/Black 303s at Motherwell in awful working conditions from around this time. A quick Flickr search pulled up precisely what I was looking for:

Trying to get trains running

Motherwell, January 1987.

www.flickr.com

(all copyrights remain with Flickr's Bob Avery)

 

[32475]

@32475 Then you may appreciate this one.

This thread rang a distant bell of a image of a pair of SPTE Orange/Black 303s at Motherwell in awful working conditions from around this time. A quick Flickr search pulled up precisely what I was looking for:

Trying to get trains running

Motherwell, January 1987.

www.flickr.com

(all copyrights remain with Flickr's Bob Avery)

Thanks Strathclyder. That’s just what I remember except for the GMPTE livery of course! Cheers.

 

[Andy R. A.]

I remember a Class 119 DMU, that were used on the Tonbridge to Reading services at the time, making a run down to Hastings and back late one evening.

 

[Strathclyder]

Thanks Strathclyder. That’s just what I remember except for the GMPTE livery of course! Cheers.

No bother, glad it brought back some pleasant memories for you.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Being a good BR employee and living in Wimbledon , I "helped out" locally during this atrocious and challenging cold snap. Apart from digging out points at Motsput Park and getting stalled C stock on the move locally (quite a challenge but all a learning experience) , I took a message from a good and keen driver that he had had an infernal journey coming back from Hampton Court with the standard 8x455. Not much had gone down there and there was severe iceing. So we had words with Waterloo and they swopped his next run for an 8xVEP , he was very thankful when we saw him ....

 

[randyrippley]

I'm trying to work out the dates.......is that the storm which knocked down just about every telegraph pole between Salisbury and Yeovil?
Trains had to run with pilots for weeks until they got temporary signal cabling working - an unprotected cable trailed alongside the track, which lasted several years

 

[nw1]

I'm trying to work out the dates.......is that the storm which knocked down just about every telegraph pole between Salisbury and Yeovil?
Trains had to run with pilots for weeks until they got temporary signal cabling working - an unprotected cable trailed alongside the track, which lasted several years

Not sure. It became a little cold on about Jan 5th, seriously cold on Jan 10th (a Saturday) and then the whole of the following week, 10th-17th, including the weekend of 17th/18th, was extremely cold with much snow.

The snow persisted, I think, for a further week after that on the ground but it was less extremely cold with time, the week of the 19th being above freezing. But due to the dry weather it took a good while for the snow to fully thaw.

If it was a storm which knocked down poles though, that sounds more like the October 16 1987 windstorm.

 

[Darandio]

I was only 6 at the time so don't really have any memories of it but i've heard about the January 1987 snow referred to plenty of times over the years.

To give an idea of how bad it was in places this was Isle of Sheppey.

1987 Snow 03

Heavy snow fell overnight on the 11th January 1987. The Isle of Sheppey was cut off from the mainland. Here's our street first thing in the morning.

flic.kr

 

[randyrippley]

Not sure. It became a little cold on about Jan 5th, seriously cold on Jan 10th (a Saturday) and then the whole of the following week, 10th-17th, including the weekend of 17th/18th, was extremely cold with much snow.

The snow persisted, I think, for a further week after that on the ground but it was less extremely cold with time, the week of the 19th being above freezing. But due to the dry weather it took a good while for the snow to fully thaw.

If it was a storm which knocked down poles though, that sounds more like the October 16 1987 windstorm.

The one I'm thinking of was an overnight gale with heavy snow, which froze to the poles, overloading them

 

[Gloster]

I was commuting in from Harrow & Wealdstone to Paddington and on at least one day the Bakerloo was badly disrupted: I travelled in the very crowded brake compartment of a 313 to Queen’s Park. As a BR employee I did my minuscule bit to help by standing by the door with my head placed so that no passenger could accidentally knock against the door controls.

 

[Bald Rick]

I was only 6 at the time so don't really have any memories of it but i've heard about the January 1987 snow referred to plenty of times over the years.

To give an idea of how bad it was in places this was Isle of Sheppey.

1987 Snow 03

Heavy snow fell overnight on the 11th January 1987. The Isle of Sheppey was cut off from the mainland. Here's our street first thing in the morning.

flic.kr

Kent was particularly badly hit, so much so that Chris Green insisted on buying a Snow Blower for NSE, which had no use whatsoever as it didn’t snow badly again for years!

 

[181]

There were also noticeably snowy spells in the early weeks of 1985 and 1986, but 1987 was the most extreme one.

Living in a house with the main line out of Waterloo on an embankment at the end of the garden, we were treated to some quite impressive displays of sparks in the evenings.

At the time I was commuting for school from Surbiton to Clapham Junction, and I remember one day when the journey in took something like 2 hours door-to-door. I can't remember the details, but I think much of the time was spent on a crowded, often stationary train (a 455, I think) rather than on the platform. My younger brother commented afterwards that somebody had been resting their newspaper on his head whle reading it -- presumably he was just the right height for this to be convenient. I can't remember anything about the journey home, so I presume it was less noteworthy -- unless that's the occasion I saw a chalked message at Clapham Junction saying something like 'Situation in Kent deteriorating rapidly. Do not travel unless essential'. School was then suspended for a few days.

I think it was probably that cold snap in which I saw one of the only two revenue-earning freight trains that I've ever seen at Surbiton -- possibly on one of the days when school was closed, although it could have been at a weekend. A container train hauled by a diesel locomotive (possibly a 47) arrived from the Woking direction and stopped outside the house; after a long pause, presumably whle the locomotive ran round, it departed the way it had come. I don't know where it was going or why it was there -- maybe frozen points prevented it from using the curve between Byfleet and New Haw and Addlestone.

It was reported that BR were bringing a snowblower down from Scotland for use in Kent (later leading to the purchase mentioned by the previous poster).

And finally, I heard some years later that some mountaineers had taken the opportunity to pioneer a new ice-climbing route up the side of St. Pancras station where an overflowing gutter had provided the necessary ice.

 

[Magdalia]

The 10-17 January 1987 week is a sore point for me. I commuted into London from the north side, and, although it was very cold, we did not actually have much snow. There was some disruption, but I was able to get to and from work each day.

On the other hand, Kent was very badly hit, and my boss was snowed in at home all week, so that I had to do the work of two people. There was no internet and WFH in those days!

 

[ChiefPlanner]

There were also noticeably snowy spells in the early weeks of 1985 and 1986, but 1987 was the most extreme one.

Living in a house with the main line out of Waterloo on an embankment at the end of the garden, we were treated to some quite impressive displays of sparks in the evenings.

At the time I was commuting for school from Surbiton to Clapham Junction, and I remember one day when the journey in took something like 2 hours door-to-door. I can't remember the details, but I think much of the time was spent on a crowded, often stationary train (a 455, I think) rather than on the platform. My younger brother commented afterwards that somebody had been resting their newspaper on his head whle reading it -- presumably he was just the right height for this to be convenient. I can't remember anything about the journey home, so I presume it was less noteworthy -- unless that's the occasion I saw a chalked message at Clapham Junction saying something like 'Situation in Kent deteriorating rapidly. Do not travel unless essential'. School was then suspended for a few days.

I think it was probably that cold snap in which I saw one of the only two revenue-earning freight trains that I've ever seen at Surbiton -- possibly on one of the days when school was closed, although it could have been at a weekend. A container train hauled by a diesel locomotive (possibly a 47) arrived from the Woking direction and stopped outside the house; after a long pause, presumably whle the locomotive ran round, it departed the way it had come. I don't know where it was going or why it was there -- maybe frozen points prevented it from using the curve between Byfleet and New Haw and Addlestone.

It was reported that BR were bringing a snowblower down from Scotland for use in Kent (later leading to the purchase mentioned by the previous poster).

And finally, I heard some years later that some mountaineers had taken the opportunity to pioneer a new ice-climbing route up the side of St. Pancras station where an overflowing gutter had provided the necessary ice.

Probably one of the Maritime to Barking ACT / OCL container trains - ironically possibly carrying fresh fruit from South Africa. Handy when vitamin C was in high demand.....

Never , ever , have I been so cold when working outside (even beat Lowestoft previously) - had about 10 layers on - OK - maybe 6. Clearing points was like something out of A Tolstoy book....

 

[ANDREW_D_WEBB]

Remember seeing reports of class 56s hauling EMUs on London Bridge services.

 

[4COR]

I was at primary school at the time - we lived on the North Downs where it was perishingly cold. One day didn't get above -9C in Warlingham, and from the historic weather readings at my school, it dropped to -13C or so overnight). I don't recall any trains on the Oxted line for a time though it was just pre-electrification. The snow was 2-3ft deep in the valley where we were and drifting up to 2-3m on the hills.

My dad even walked from Whyteleafe to Croydon to get to work one day (!) as roads were blocked and there was no transport at all - he said he did good trade surprisingly! Have a feeling he knew someone who worked for BR and worked on the Beilhack snow blower the Southern Region bought after the event and he moaned a lot about the difficulties of getting it working (something about the fan height?). Of course in 1991, the wrong type of snow came and it was useless (and then didn't really snow much for the rest of the decade in the South).

Of course, we also had Oct 1987 later in the year with the storm that wreaked a lot of havoc in the same area.

 

[ls2270]

Remember it well…I was at secondary school in Orpington. My train got as far as Petts Wood, where there was an announcement that our train from Victoria (formed of EPB stock) couldn’t get any further and that there was no guarantee of any trains home that evening. So we trudged through the deep snow on the pavements back to Bromley. But if we thought we were badly off, we later discovered that our fellow pupils on the train from Charing Cross had been stuck on the train behind between Chislehurst and Petts Wood for several hours not in a station!

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Remember seeing reports of class 56s hauling EMUs on London Bridge services.

Not just hauling... but propelling as well. The picture at the bottom of this post is the back of the train... and it was two EPB units it was propelling. Later the same day I had a 47/3 between Waterloo East and Canon Street pushing a pair of CEPs.

I have more pictures of that same day than I could reasonably get away with posting on here... I just hope you can see enough on these thumbnails to get an idea of it all?

 

[Cowley]

There’s some great footage in this video of 33061 being rescued in 1987 after getting stuck on snowplough duties and then being absolutely buried!
A nice bit of snow blower action as well…

 

[Strathclyder]

I was only 6 at the time so don't really have any memories of it but i've heard about the January 1987 snow referred to plenty of times over the years.

To give an idea of how bad it was in places this was Isle of Sheppey.

1987 Snow 03

Heavy snow fell overnight on the 11th January 1987. The Isle of Sheppey was cut off from the mainland. Here's our street first thing in the morning.

flic.kr

Blimey, seeing cars buried like that always drives home the severity of such weather events for me more than anything else. The only snow event that's come anywhere near close in the last few years is the Beast From The East back in February/March 2018 (attached image is my own).


(White Noise - The Beast From The East - 1st March 2018)

 

[ac6000cw]

There’s some great footage in this video of 33061 being rescued in 1987 after getting stuck on snowplough duties and then being absolutely buried!
A nice bit of snow blower action as well…

If you want to enjoy some serious railway snowfighting, I can thoroughly recommend the American Pentrex "Battle for Donner Pass" DVD - it's one of the best railway videos I've ever seen (including using spreaders, vintage rotary snowploughs, blasting cord and shotguns to deal with ice inside tunnels, bulldozers, dealing with a derailed snowplough set etc.)

 

[Cowley]

If you want to enjoy some serious railway snowfighting, I can thoroughly recommend the American Pentrex "Battle for Donner Pass" DVD - it's one of the best railway videos I've ever seen (including using spreaders, vintage rotary snowploughs, blasting cord and shotguns to deal with ice inside tunnels, bulldozers, dealing with a derailed snowplough set etc.)

There’s a bit of footage here:

It does put things into perspective somewhat!

 

[75A]

I remember the Jan 87 snowstorm well, I was on my honeymoon in a different continent.
Bit of a surprise when we got back to Heathrow.

 

[ac6000cw]

There’s a bit of footage here:

It does put things into perspective somewhat!

Yes, it does.

This video from 2017 shows what a big rotary plough can do. The blade is powered by four traction motors geared together, with electricity (and steam for the rams) supplied by the converted old 1500hp EMD F-unit behind it. The rotaries were originally built in the 1920s and have now been rebuilt twice!

 

[Cowley]

Yes, it does.

This video from 2017 shows what a big rotary plough can do. The blade is powered by four traction motors geared together, with electricity (and steam for the rams) supplied by the converted old 1500hp EMD F-unit behind it. The rotaries were originally built in the 1920s and have now been rebuilt twice!

Amazing.

 

[181]

I heard some years later that some mountaineers had taken the opportunity to pioneer a new ice-climbing route up the side of St. Pancras station where an overflowing gutter had provided the necessary ice.

Further to what I said yesterday, I've found an old e-mail with information about the source for this story. Apparently it's on page 252 of Scotland's Winter Mountains by Martin Moran, published in 1998 by David & Charles (Newton Abbot). The relevant paragraph is in a chapter about the development of ice climbing in Scotland, and is as follows:

'The proximity of the chalk cliffs of Dover played a major role in training the Londoners to the highest standards of performance on ice, the soft rock being climbed with axes, crampons and ice screws for protection and belays. Only the Scotish cold is absent. After one abortive weekend in Torridon, Mick [Fowler] even found better ice conditions in his own city. This was in the big freeze of January 1987, and St. Pancras's station wall had developed a magnificent spout of ice from a broken drain. With his second belayed to a parking meter, the icicle was duly climbed, but protracted negotiations with British Rail police followed.'

 

[XAM2175]

There are some great photos in John Turner's 1987 collection here:

c.01/1987 - Rainham, Kent.

Best viewed Original size. Two more views of unidentified class 33s dragging EMU stock at Rainham (Kent) - c.01/1987. © 2017 - 53A Models of Hull Collection. Scanned from the original 35mm colour transparency. - - - - - -

www.flickr.com

(attached image is my own)

Splendid!

 

[GRALISTAIR]

Remember seeing reports of class 56s hauling EMUs on London Bridge services.

That is what I remember vividly too.