Southern, locos and EMU's on the GN

[manna]

G'day Gents

The headline says it all! and yes they did on a fairly regular basis, in the early 70's I saw plenty of VEP's And CIG's stabled at East goods yards awaiting collection, (brand new from York) usually by a class 33, and at that time some were still in green, although not many, they usually turned up, in the late afternoon/early evening, I often saw them whilst working ECS into the 'cross, we were often put in to East goods yard to get us out of the way, so they were only a couple of sidings away.

Another time I was with a driver sent out to Hornsey to pick up a loco to bring in some ECS from Hornsey CS, when we arrived at Hornsey there was a spotless class 33 sitting on shed?? what it was doing there I don't know, but there was no crew for it, we thought it would be alright to have a look around it, the engine room was also spotless, light and airy, nothing like our class 31's, nearly always dark, and covered in oil, years later when I worked on the Southern I found that nearly all there 33's were as clean inside as that one at Hornsey.

I also worked a odd stock train from Eastleigh to Ferme Park CS and took a train load of odd stock back to Eastleigh, so they must have carried out repairs at Eastleigh to some of the Eastern coaching stock, this would have been about 1986/7.

manna

[strang steel]

I would have liked to have seen those trains of new emus, but must have been unlucky as I never did. I wonder if they came straight down the ECML or whether they were subject to speed restrictions and went via the GN&GE during less busy times (maybe in the early hours?) which would be one reason I never saw them.

On a slight tangent, there is an excellent video of Nottingham Victoria (maybe on one of the B&R video releases) where in the middle of the sequence a grubby WD stops in the through road while towing a shiny brand new SR electric loco (later class 71). So the SR locos also went down the GC. I would love to replicate this on a model layout, because it is a legitimate excuse to have 'foreign' stock on an ER layout.

It is sad that the one emu that is currently available is the 4 CEP/BEP type because they were constructed at Eastleigh, so would not have been treated to a trip on Gresley's wonderful railway.

However, in the faint hope that one day someone will bring out a green 4 CIG with small yellow panel, does anyone have any details of the formation of these delivery trains? Loco, route and how many units were usually conveyed from York at one time?

[rob237]

...Nottingham Victoria (maybe on one of the B&R video releases) where in the middle of the sequence a grubby WD stops in the through road while towing a shiny brand new SR electric loco (later class 71)...

Always understood that several of the North British Warships were hauled to Swindon for commissioning, via the GC.
Have read a report on a pair of them being towed to Woodford by B1 Geoffrey Gibbs.
Cheers
Robt P.

[strang steel]

...Nottingham Victoria (maybe on one of the B&R video releases) where in the middle of the sequence a grubby WD stops in the through road while towing a shiny brand new SR electric loco (later class 71)...

Always understood that several of the North British Warships were hauled to Swindon for commissioning, via the GC.
Have read a report on a pair of them being towed to Woodford by B1 Geoffrey Gibbs.
Cheers
Robt P.

Please tell me this is true.

I would love to have a 4mm re-creation of this, but I always assumed they went to Gloucester and then Swindon.

[52D]

There was discussion in another place recently about Hymeks being delivered from Beyer Peacock down the GCR to Gresley Was Right metals

[jwealleans]

Didn't we have a discussion some years ago on the delivery of the King Arthurs from North British to the Southern between the wars?

[manna]

G'Day Gents

I don't suppose Hornbys VEP will be to much longer! and as long as they come out in blue and grey. The strange thing about the delivery's is that I never saw any on the open main line, so they were probably delivered to East Goods yard during the night, and usually in an eight car formation. On more than one occasion, there was more than one eight car formation at East goods yard.

I would assume that these trains would then travel via the North London line to the Southern region.

manna

[52D]

JW i think that discussion was in another place, but it has also been mentioned here.

[Andy W]

I remember those VEPs in East Goods - in my spotting days it used to be a favourite trip of mine to go KX to Fin Pk to "cop" the latest arrivals - cleared a lot of the VEPs that way. Never saw them en-route anywhere north too.

The 1986/7 trips to Eastleigh arose out of the closure of Swindon - they took on the "overflow" ER work. There always used to be stuff going south before 1981, chiefly SR design NPCCS being returned for repair. These used to go via the Mills and the LM to Clapham, I believe.

When I was at Hornsey EMU we covered for the Wimbledon wheel lathe repair periods and, on occasion, had quite a few VEP or 455 units to deal with. We also did some electrical commissioning work on the 455 units with the 508 trailers when they were en-route from York to the SR - we were more used to the ways of PEP style cars than York were.

On one of those occasions we had a VEP on the wheel lathe and a 455 in the shed. A SR cl 33/1 arrived with two SR translator barrier vehicles to stable for a couple of days while we sorted out both units. Of course we had to try to make everything work so we had, in order, VEP, translator, 455, translator and the 33 at the back. We cranked the Crompton up and had a full working brake from the VEP! I can't comment how it made it back to the SR but the SR drivers were up for the challenge we set them.

The 33's were always very clean inside and you had plenty of room to move, unlike other classes. Mind you they never did either the miles or hours the 31's did in between shopping. The 33's used to see Eastleigh Works every 2 years but our 31's went to Plant every 4 years. Not having a boiler in them also helped keep the dirt down. Lovely, lovely engines.

[strang steel]

And broadening the subject somewhat, where did the GE units go for maintenance? Was it Wolverton? I remember seeing them in sidings at Watford from time to time.

[adge]

There was discussion in another place recently about Hymeks being delivered from Beyer Peacock down the GCR to Gresley Was Right metals

I remember playing schools football on Bulwell Common, Wednesday afternoons, and seeing Hymeks coming through the station. Usually two together as I recall.

[hq1hitchin]

The VEPs were also stabled in the Top Yard at New Southgate. I remember this very well because our Divisional Operating Manager at the time, Fred Walmsley (who died far too young - a good man) told the Deputy Chief Controller on my shift in KX Control to make every effort to get the units moved to the Southern as soon as possible. He told him that it wasn't right that GN suburban passengers in our clapped out trains should have to look at 'these lovely new trains' standing idle any longer than was necessary.

[robertcwp]

Hymeks on the GC:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/robertcwp/ ... 3653181775

[Mickey]

I've got a picture of a Southern Q1 (Biscuit-tin) just outside HARRINGAY UP GOODS also a class 73 electro-diesel loco decending the Harringay flyover towards HARRINGAY UP GOODS s/box sometime in the 1970s both from a book on the Kings Cross area.

Also up until about 1999 or 2000 we use to get a stone train come up from the Southern region heading for Kings Cross good yard usually headed by a couple of Southern class 33s at Camden road, i'm fairly sure i was at Camden road s/box on the night turn when the return working back to the Southern with said couple of class 33s on the front made it's 'last run' from Kings Cross goods yard with the return 'empties' up the Kings Cross incline to reach the North London line for the final time at about 03:15hrs one Saturday morning before they finally closed the 'goods yard' for re-development for the st Pancras Euro-star link.

[manna]

G'Day Gents

I'm pretty sure I've seen a class 33 going up the incline from KX goods yard to the NLL, but that was back in the early 70's.

manna