Posts

The Rhins & Machars Crompton (17th) - 18th May 2002

Image
Over 5 years since our last tour (the Robin Reliant of 15/02/1997), I was rather hoping to hang up my hat where 33111 Charters were concerned - other people in our  Class 33/1 Preservation Society  had other plans!  I agreed to look into the planning & timing side of things but passed the advertising/bookings & seating plan operations over to Dave Fry (thanks Dave).  We were taking the opportunity to use one of our own loco's (33108, on hire to Fragonset) on the tour which would feature a pair of class 33's from the Fragonset mainline pool with Riviera stock from Crewe CS. As I had been involved in the Epic that was the "Skirl o'the Bagpipes" in 1995 which took Crompton's North of the Border for the first time, we would take the chance to turn left at Gretna Jn & bash all new track for class 33's all time! To achieve this end an overnight start was required to give us the time we needed once in the South West of Scotland, so not wanting to leav
Post a Comment
Read more

Push-Pull until something more interesting comes along.... 18/11 to 20/11 then 25/11 to 28/11 1988

Image
The Portsmouth to Cardiff services had finished in May of 1988, I and many of the Crompton roadshow couldn't face the prospect of just shuttling up & down on the Waterloo - Salisbury push-pull trains formed of class 33/1 "Bagpipes" & TC stock just yet.  I for one started a summer of leaping to Brum on Friday evenings, via any Electric loco scratches that were available, for a few beers then try get my head down in one of Birmingham New Street's waiting rooms - the waiting room at the South end of platform One soon became known as "Poodle's Kennel"! Then at about 0330 upstairs for "The Gen" which would normally appear in the form of a raft of Tops printouts normally in the safe hands of Mr Bernie McDonaugh! I would return to Euston last thing Saturday night, for a stroll over to Waterloo for the 0130 Sunday Bagpipe to Yeovil Jn, normally on my tod unless the train was diverted via anywhere interesting, in which case a few "faces&quo
Post a Comment
Read more

All Line & Wessex Rovers combined 11/07/1987 to 26/07/1987

Image
Although I started the noble art of Trainspotting at the age of 13 (or roughly September 1978) this mainly involved after school visits to Sittingbourne railway station & Saturday daytrips to Gillingham (Kent) where most of the loco's from Hoo Jn would stable at the weekend, plus the EMU depot there would be stacked out with units. It wasn't until my 16th Birthday that I was allowed out on weekend trips to the more far-flung parts of the UK! This would see me depart after my paper round Saturday morning and would often involve an overnight at places like Doncaster, Crewe or Bristol where a stream of overnight trains & newspaper/mail trains meant the station buffets were open all night. Sometimes overnight trains were involved - if I could make them part of my ticket's validity of course. It wasn't until the January snows of 1987 in Kent where I felt the need to start Bashing my favourite class 33's in earnest as their sphere of operations were starting to de
Post a Comment
Read more