Sometimes
things are all the better for being unexpected. Not knowing beforehand where you
could end up. In this story I’ll take you back in time to the dark, uncertain
days where bashing 40’s was done without the aid of TOPS gen lists or contacts
in various regional control offices and where most your bashing days would turn
out to be very unpredictable. The Days before anyone could ‘fix’ a train to
be a particular class or arrange some ADEX to have a particular kind of traction
at its head. Hard to comprehend perhaps, but that’s how it used to be.
During
1974-1975 class 40’s south of Scotland had little booked passenger work during
the winter months. Whatever may have been diagrammed previous was now in the
hands of 45’s & 47’s now surplus to requirements due to reduction in
freight traffic. Appearances of 40’s on passenger trains in winter were to be
relished like some rare, almost forbidden delight. These were the days of just
roaming about with the aim of finding a train with a 40 up front and just
getting on. Days when you’re best hope was to position yourself strategically
and wait and see what may produce. With any luck (and a lot of hope) someone
would be around with some gen as to what was about, but that’s the best you
could get. You would go out at the weekend expecting nothing and if anything
turned up it was a bonus.
If
you were into Deltics, Peaks or 50’s or if your interests lay with 47’s,
37’s and even Cromptons you stood good chance as diagrams where these engines
were employed existed. But 40’s, no such luxury. They were really the ‘last
choice to anything at all engines’ at this time.
It
was March 1975 and the middle of a very cold snap. I was living in Bolton,
Lancashire and during the week would probably end up each evening covering the
loco hauled turns or portions around Manchester. Generally a 40 produced perhaps
once a night so there would be enough around to keep you active even if only on
one of the Blackpool diagrams or a short jaunt Preston-Liverpool. On a Friday
though I would make my way back home to York on the 17.05 Lime Street-Newcastle,
joining the train from Manchester, with the inevitable class 46 up front.
York
was probably as best a place as ever to sit out your Vigil. Hoping that perhaps
a 40 would be about on an ECML overnight or even more rarely drop onto a
‘Pennine diagram (though these were the protected domains of the Gateshead
Peaks or alternator duffs) because of the usual Friday night shortage of power
at Gateshead. The one great hope you held out on was 1M41 (The York - Shrewsbury
mail) would produce, as it was a kick-out from the shed. This particular
freezing, snowy night (so far) my luck was in. As we Waggoned to a stand at York
on platform 15 over on platform 8 the 18.05 Newcastle Liverpool (about 15 late)
was whistling to a halt with 40085 at is head. These trains had only recently
gone over to air-braked Mk2’s and the misted up windows coupled with the
obvious lack of any steam from the engine or leaking from the stock was not a
good sign. I dashed down the platform to get to the front only to see the second
man already walking back to get the engine wired off at Leeds as no heat. No
ways with it as cold as this would it go further. Resigning myself to at least
25 miles of thrash this weekend and despite now heavily falling snow I front
window hung the flail all the way. 40085 on only 290 tons and a driver who would
let rip hurtled the 25 miles to Leeds in just as many minutes, easily hitting 90
plus mph on the downgrade towards Neville Hill. My adrenaline rush was short
lived. We arrived to the sight of a split box 45 waiting centre road, adding
insult by blowing off steam sky-high. No sooner had we drawn to a stand than
40085 was uncoupled and away into the night. With no prospect of anything
producing from here I DMU ‘d back to York. By the time got back there was a
good 6 inches of snow on the ground and though the stock of the 21.50 York Mail
was stood in platform 11 with no engine was at its head. A few minutes later the
telltale twinkle of the marker lights of 40047 running off shed, its boiler
safety vales gently steaming gave away it was to be the power for the train this
evening. So far this weekend my luck was in.
The York mail was a curious train. About 6 TPO’s & vans, then four passenger vehicles then another couple of vans making it load 12/13. A pretty weighty proposition really. The train split at Stalybridge, the back 2 coaches and vans going into Manchester while the rest went on to Stockport where the diesel came off and an electric came on to Crewe. The diesel returned on the back working (the Shrewsbury-York mail) after a wait of 40 minutes or so, due away from Stockport at 00.51, getting into York at about 03.20. With plenty of time allowed at each station it called at you had the impression it was timed for a milk float, while in the event this was far from the case. Even from the 7th coach (the nearest you could get to the engine) you could hear 40047 was having her work cut out tonight as she noisily headed off into the strangely snow-lit dark. Her boiler was performing OK and I settled down in the subdued light and warmth of my compartment to enjoy the journey. Very noticeable from the noise the engine was making was the extra effort it had to make with its heavier proposition to the fleet-of-foot 40085 earlier this evening. High spots of the trip were the climbs away from Leeds, Dewsbury and over the Pennines from Huddersfield. Forced to view the engine from quite a way back in the train had its benefits as 40047 stuck in on the gradients and ploughed though the night and the ever-deepening snow with lots of noise, slipping wheels and steam shrouding the engine. At Stalybridge some anonymous 47 was skulking around to take the Manchester bit forward and within a short time we were in Stockport. Here the engine ran off onto the middle road to await its return. Semi-sleep overtook me on our journey to York, though memories still remain of standing at Huddersfield. Here another couple of other class 40’s were stood on early morning paper and parcel trains. The combined sound of whistlings echoed round the roof like some ghostly lament adding to the howl and moans of the wind round the rafters...
Back
at York 40047 was soon gone in a snow-flurried flash back onto shed, leaving me
feeling strangely remote. I checked up with a couple of hard-case Deltic bashers
who were still about to find that most overnights had been 46’s or Duffs and
nothing 40-ish had worked (hard luck if I had missed anything) but they
hadn’t. 1N12 (the 00.02 from Kings Cross) to Newcastle pulled in on time with
a 31 up front but a late running southbound service got me Deltic-ing to
Doncaster. Here I could at least find out what was on the Manchester-Cleethorpes
news and if any good I would pick up an early morning run in from Grimsby. I was
hoping this would really be a very, very last, last resort move but would at
least get me a further 40 miles of 40’s.
A
snow bedecked, windswept Doncaster was as inviting as ever but at least the
waiting rooms were warm and had benches instead of hard sit-me-up seats like at
York. Enough people were about to ask after the ‘Manthorpes which had been
(and gone) with a 31 at its head. At this time it often re-engined at Sheffield
so I assume this is what happened tonight. I began to feel a bit defeated. After
such a good start the trail had gone cold. Chances now of picking up a 40 now
were slim. Things were not looking very good. There was no alternative but to
retire into the waiting room and plan my very limited choices further.
To
this day I don’t know why other than thinking it was some reflex action on my
behalf I walked out into the near blizzard outside about an hour and a half
later shaking the sleep from my eyes. But,
as I did the near ghost-white, snow spattered grime blackened hulk of 40065
gently chirped through centre road, running silently its wheels muffled by snow,
stopping at the North End. Walking down the platform in the heavy snow I saw a
second man climb out the front, walk to the back and clamber in the cab to start
the boiler. Something was going to happen after all. ‘London-Leeds (the 03.55
from Kings Cross) is coming in a failure’ the driver shouted over to me as I
questioned what was afoot, accompanied by the clang and hiss of the ‘boiler
being fired up ready. My luck was holding out just a bit more after all. Some
time later (though barely late so slack-timed the train) the couple of coaches
and vans drew in with a totally oil-splattered 47 being towed in by a 37 at its
head. How far it had come in such a state I don’t know but the 47 had gone
bang big-time, the first coach was drenched in diesel. The combination was
hastily uncoupled and 40065 hooked on, steam soon hissing away into the train,
sweeping round in the wind & snow outside, its smell mixing with the heavy
stench of smoke from the burning oil rolling into the air from its steam
generator.
40065
made a strange noise under power. Like a dozen tap hammers banging away,
increasing in speed as the engine was opened up. The fan-howl was immense. The
raw exhaust hollow, yet strident. The four points of her exhaust were jet-dark
with the scars of overwork and long overdue maintenance. How this Huge,
Haymarket Vacuum braked monster had strayed south away from its protected
Scottish haunts I don’t know but its external state was a disgrace.
Weeks-perhaps months of neglect had left her filthy black. Her blue barely
visible and her yellow ends encrusted in grime. Great drifts of goo gobbed in
rivulets down her body sides like spent lava from a long extinct volcano. In
short she looked beautiful
We
whistled to Wakefield and on to Leeds where I said a sad by-by to 40065, and
found myself at a loose end. What to do now, I wondered. The snow-white
half-light of a grey dawn was breaking with the sky suggesting yet more snow and
cold to come and here I was at Leeds with nowhere to go. 40065 hooked-off and
with haste and was off to Holbeck, leaving emptiness behind. At least I knew
that here was the location of one (possibly two) steam-heat 40’s-we passed
40085 on Holbeck shed as we arrived. It could be worth staying in the area on
the off chance one of these two were turned out.
The
next few hours were spent taking refuge against the elements in stabled DMU’s
or pointlessly yo-yoing through the cold between Leeds and York, either covering
the Trans-Pennine diagrams or the odd trains originating at each station or
which may have demanded a re-engine. 40047, from the ‘York Mail the previous
evening was noted on the return Redbank empties so that put it out of the
running. The 07.50 Nottingham-Glasgow over the S&C which occasionally
produced was a run-round of the EH 47 coming in from the South. Yet again it
looked as though the trail (like the whether) had gone colder and my luck had
run out. I was again contemplating giving it up as a bad job. My last
‘cover’ would be at Leeds for the 10.05 Liverpool-Newcastle. This was the
booked return working of the 18.05 from Newcastle the night before, just in case
Edge Hill had managed to loose the 45 that had been turned out in replacement
for 40085 yesterday evening. So, at about 11.50 I was stood, braving the
snowstorm at the West End of Leeds City Station, peering through the snow like
some lookout at the masthead of a sail-driven icebreaker for a 40 to round the
curve. Willing with all my might for the ‘right kind of engine’ to appear.
And very much to my surprise one did. Only it was centre-boxed, black as coal and over the Viaduct from Holbeck, not over Whitehall Junction from Liverpool. 40065 had re-emerged. Now I was confused. The ‘Liverpool was Mk2 air braked stock, but the boiler on the vacuum braked only ‘065 had been fired up. What was it going to do? No sooner had it dropped down to the stabling road between platforms 6 & 8 than the Liverpool drew in, air-braked Mk2’s with the split-box 45 from the night before. Steaming solidly and looking certainly fit enough to continue. What else could there be reason to turn an engine off Holbeck for at this time? A scan of the departure screens revealed the most likely suggestion – the St Pancras to Glasgow, off Leeds at 12.16 and via Settle to Carlisle and forward with an electric. The engine coming in from London wasn’t going to be run-round. 40065 was going forward instead. The premier (at the time), the heaviest, and indeed, the remains of what was the Thames-Clyde express (as was) over the S&C to boot was going to be a 40 forward. Now, this was truly a turn up for the book. A train I had never intended to cover had (probably for the first time for a long time) produced. The reason for the change of engine was soon obvious as it arrived. Instead the EH Midland Line 47 a steam-heat 31 was at its head. No one was about to ask where it had come on but I assume it can’t have been too far south at there was little (if any delay). The train was a big one – all of 11 vehicles and fitting such an important Anglo-Scottish link included a restaurant car. 40065, making more smoke than a coal-fired Clyde tug from its exhaust ran off and took its place at the front.