Standard 5s at Croes Newydd, Wrexham

[The Crab]

According to Hugh Longworth's "Allocatio Histories" in summer '65 five Standard 5s were transferred from Nuneaton to Croes Newydd (together with one from Shrewsbury). Most were transferred away by Spring '66. Does anyone know what they were used for?

Bit of a long shot!

 

[contrex]

You can look up the depot allocations and dates of the BR5 fleet on the BRDatabase site and it shows the history of each loco here https://www.brdatabase.info/locoqry.php?action=class&id=746002&type=S&page=alloc

For example 73004 see screen grab below. I found the depot by text search for 'Croes' in the page, as you see by the highlight. In Chrome you can hit f3 key to bring up the search box and then press the key again and again to go through all the hits. Probably Firefox as well.

 

[The Crab]

You can look up the depot allocations and dates of the BR5 fleet on the BRDatabase site and it shows the history of each loco here https://www.brdatabase.info/locoqry.php?action=class&id=746002&type=S&page=alloc

For example 73004 see screen grab below. I found the depot by text search for 'Croes' in the page, as you see by the highlight. In Chrome you can hit f3 key to bring up the search box and then press the key again and again to go through all the hits. Probably Firefox as well.


View attachment 108360

Thank you but I was trying to find what those engines did at Croes Newydd. The Standard 5s disappeared spring 66 and Black 5s didn't appear until autumn 66.

 

[Bevan Price]

I will try to look at my old "Railway Observer"s for that period, but as a first guess, it would be freight originating in the Wrexham area. They were too heavy to use on the Cambrian lines (and the line from Ruabon via Dolgellau had closed by then, anyway), and I don't think Croes Newydd had and regular steam-hauled passenger work at that time. Possibly, if any found their way to Chester or Shrewsbury, they might have been "borrowed" to work the Chester / Shrewsbury section of Birkenhead to Paddington services.

Sometimes, though, locos from depots due to close were transferred to surviving depots with space to "temporarily store" locos until they were needed elsewhere.

 

[The Crab]

I will try to look at my old "Railway Observer"s for that period, but as a first guess, it would be freight originating in the Wrexham area. They were too heavy to use on the Cambrian lines (and the line from Ruabon via Dolgellau had closed by then, anyway), and I don't think Croes Newydd had and regular steam-hauled passenger work at that time. Possibly, if any found their way to Chester or Shrewsbury, they might have been "borrowed" to work the Chester / Shrewsbury section of Birkenhead to Paddington services.

Sometimes, though, locos from depots due to close were transferred to surviving depots with space to "temporarily store" locos until they were needed elsewhere.

Yes, I wondered about temporary storage but I cannot remember seeing any Standard 5s on shed or in the goods yards.

 

[Harvester]

According to Hugh Longworth's "Allocatio Histories" in summer '65 five Standard 5s were transferred from Nuneaton to Croes Newydd (together with one from Shrewsbury). Most were transferred away by Spring '66. Does anyone know what they were used for?

Bit of a long shot!

Three of them 73032/45/96 were only there for a few months, the former then being withdrawn, and the latter two transferred to Patricroft in July 1965. The engines would have been used on freight duties and maybe some local passenger turns, but by the end of 1965 two of the survivors (73004/40) were stored out of use.

 

[Bevan Price]

Three of them 73032/45/96 were only there for a few months, the former then being withdrawn, and the latter two transferred to Patricroft in July 1965. The engines would have been used on freight duties and maybe some local passenger turns, but by the end of 1965 two of the survivors (73004/40) were stored out of use.

Having now looked at Railway Observers for that period, apart from the storage of 73004/40, the only reference to Standard 5s in the Wrexham area was a very brief mention about their use on occasional freight trains from Minera.