The LNER Encyclopedia

Due to the current situation in the UK and a lack of lorry drivers to drive oil tankers reminds me of a time when 'oil trains' were seen quite often travelling around the railways although in recent years maybe over the last couple of decades they have gradually disappeared from the railways. At one time either the large oil tanks were seen or the smaller shorter wheel base tanks were seen and usually hauled behind a class 37 or a class 47 but I don't recall seeing any 'oil trains' for some years now?.

We use to have a regular oil train that use to run back in the 1980s and into the first half of the 1990s that I believe carried 'Aviation fuel' in large oil tanks and was called 'the Micheldever' that ran Tuesday to Saturday mornings from Ripple Lane in Dagenham in east London across the North London line and then down onto the southern region in Hampshire to Micheldever and was always worked by a single class 37 diesel loco and that thing (train) use to fail nearly every morning up around the Gospel Oak area on the North London line where the rising gradient stiffened either coming up from Camden road or from Upper Holloway with the consequence that the train would usually be down to a 'walking pace' passing Gospel Oak s/box and struggling like hell with the locos controller wide open and the locos 'sanders' working overtime dropping sand onto the railhead so the loco could 'get a grip' on the rails until it either managed to top the summit at Hampstead heath station or it came to a dead stand and failed completely on the approach to Hampstead heath station. Anyway it was a gamble every morning when that train ran if it would manage to keep going or if it would fail?. When a signalman had 'the Micheldever' on the way his signals were always at GREEN so it would keep going and get off his area!. That train usually ran at about 5:00am across the North London line towards Willesden so if it did fail usually they had a hour or so to sort out an 'assisting engine' to give it a push and get it going again before the morning passenger service started running shortly after 6:00am. If it was raining or had recently been raining and the rails were wet and damp then it was almost guaranteed to fail usually with the back end of the train just beyond Gospel Oak s/box and fortunately clearing the junction points off the T&H line to & from the Barking direction plus on quiet mornings that train could be heard a couple of miles away across North London as it tackled the rising gradient up through Kentish Town West station and on through Gospel Oak station and past Gospel Oak s/box and onwards towards to Hampstead heath station where it topped the summit!.

Hi Mickey and all yes I remember those oil trains think some destinations were Upper Holloway(ha)/Cambridge/Thame?/Coventry(tile hill)?saw a few workings if a "toffee apple "usually a pair,but the Brush @ 1365hp h/code usually on their own,Their was a service towards Bedford or further destination unknown, was this the Coventry train? most trains I saw when rolling were 50mph+never saw an EE type 2 hauled train think the G.E.allocated class members to valuable, needed on Passenger workings by this time that include the Norwich expresses among the rest, before any Sulzer4's arrived minus the "D" & in a terrible state LMR/GWR cast offs I expect,I will mention your list of steam workings ceasing @ London Termini,gosh almost complete!I think the Broad Street peaks went Brush/Sulzer&DMU early,It jogged my memory although outer surburban trains ran weekdays peaks to&from there, Saturdays the Henlow (servicemen/persons?train would come up& around 3pm a B1 sometimes L1 would head home, extended to Cambridge with Mainline Blood&Custard stock I wonder was this the Henlow stock return?jj

Hi that was EEtype 3 a typo &read it twice!jj

Regarding 'the Micheldever' oil train to me I always thought it was 'underpowered' with a EE type 3 (class 37) on the front and with a train made up entirely of those LARGE OIL TANKS I personally would have thought a Brush type 4 (class 47) would have been a better choice but no IT WAS ALWAYS A CLASS 37 AND IT ALWAYS FAILED 9 times out of 10?. When I was at Camden Road s/box it would come through the station on the level and then 'take a run at the rising gradient' from Camden Road West Junction towards Kentish Town West station and it would then slow down approaching Gospel Oak station and remain on the track circuits up around Gospel Oak station for longer than a 'normal train' then it would eventually clear the last track circuit outside Gospel Oak s/box and then 5-6 minutes later the signalman at Gospel Oak would then ring up and say "The Mitcheldever has failed." Surprise surprise ha ha ha...

With regards to the Ripple Lane to Upper Holloway oil train (short wheel base tanks) and it's return working Upper Holloway to Ripple Lane and funny enough that was always worked by a Brush type 4 (class 47) compared to the heavier 'Micheldever' hauled by a single EE type 3 (class 37) and LARGE TANKS see above posts anyway with that 'Holloway oil train' that train was an 'irregular working' at Upper Holloway maybe running once or even twice a week during the dead of winter or only running once every couple of weeks during the warm summer months. I use to 'run that train around' when I was a signalman at Junction Road Junction s/box between 1981-85 and also at the new Upper Holloway panel box later in the 1980s. The oil terminal at Upper Holloway (nearly beside the Kentish Town-Gospel Oak-Barking line) dealt with household paraffin oil with the terminal closing for good around 1987-88.

Only ever saw the short wheelbase oil wagons which pitched around a fair bit @ speed,in "my time"hence the Brush haulage comment,dont remember in steam days but have seen photos steam worked & their were Austerity 2-8-0's @ 33A &33B & quite a few J39's before class block transfer away the only classes allocated in the area that I think could possibly haul the trains,but was their inter regional workings of those distances pre diesel days?jj

I have seen amateur film footage of Black 5s and maybe 8Fs on the LMR at the end of steam around 1967-68 hauling oil trains up around the Lancaster and Carnforth areas of the north west.

The Ripple Lane to Micheldever oil train?. That was some train I can still see it and hear it now some 30-35 years later in my minds eye with that 'dinky' little class 37 (EE type 3) making a 'hell of a noise' hauling a fully loaded train of LARGE OIL TANKS of 'Aviation fuel' and passing the box at Gospel Oak at a 'walking pace' and hoping it would make the summit at Hampstead heath!!. That ruddy train ha ha ha...

G'Day Gents

I think the main reason for no Oil trains is the expansion of the Pipelines across the Country, can remember all the Oil trains coming out of Fawley refinery (outside Southampton) worked a fair few myself.

manna

Yeah I reckon you are right manna regarding why the oil trains disappeared. The last oil trains I saw must have been back in the mid/late 1990s?.

At onetime on the North London line we use to have the Ripple Lane-Thame and it's return working plus the aforementioned Ripple Lane-Micheldever as well.

Remember in the '60s -->'70s Mickey, there were tank trains to Watton, and the Ripple Lane(? ; Lindsey?) - Roystons ?

Yeah Stevie the Watton-on Stone & Royston oil trains.

It always appeared a bit funny to me seeing a oil tail lamp with a naked flame sitting on the lamp hook on the rear of a train of oil tanks before battery tail lamps became wide spread on B.R. back in around 1986. The very first battery tail lamp I remember seeing one dark evening 'flashing away' on the back of a freight train I remember thinking 'Blimey that paraffin oil in that tail lamp must have had some dirt in it to cause it to flicker like that'?.

StevieG wrote: ↑Tue Sep 28, 2021 11:57 pm Remember in the '60s -->'70s Mickey, there were tank trains to Watton, and the Ripple Lane(? ; Lindsey?) - Roystons ?

If I remember rightly, the Lindsey OR tanks on the ECML ran to/from Langley. No, not THAT Langley - the one on the WR. Its funny what pointless information sticks in your mind but the number 6V68 is suddenly buzzing round my head . . .

John

Hi all

Intresting comments so far.

Couple of intresting oil workings I found out about..

From a 1970 timetable (And anecdotal evidence) there was a bitumen train from Fawley to Angel Road/Hertford East. Class 33 worked throughout, the loco ran light to Stratford for servicing. Apparently sometimes it turned up a Class 73...

Also in the 1950s WTTs, there is an 'as required' working to King's Lynn or Thetford for block load of petrol tanks from Woodgrange Park.

Another intresting working is that 28xx occasionally worked to Ripple Lane from the Western Region. I did read in The Railway Magazine in the letters from readers section that at one point one of these 28xx found itself at Temple Mills and then found itself working to Whitemoor only to be failed at Harlow as out of gauge.
I haven't got the issue anymore but would be intresting if true.

Stu

I remember seeing the Hertford East tank workings (to Printars Tar works on Mead Lane) and it was usually a class 33 working. This would be the 1970's just prior to the closure of Printars. The class 73s worked to Hertford on SR driver's route learning specials, propelling the inspector's coach to Hertford.
I don't recall 73s on anything else.
Once Printars closed, the only time I saw a 33 was on an excursion in around 1982, at Cheshunt (Got a photo of it somewhere!)