The 'legendary' Deltics will be forever associated with the ECML from 1961-1981 = 20 glorious years.
I rode on a number of the class during 1974/75 period as a secondman but unfortunately i never recorded which locomotives.
1.A number of cab rides on 'light engine' movements from Kings Cross passenger loco onto there trains in the station plus several rides on 'light engine' movements from the stops in Kings Cross station back into passenger loco (the 'glory ride' passed throngs of 'spotters' standing on the end of no.8 platform formerly no.10 platform).
2.Atleast 2 (well remembered) cab rides on Up late afternoon Leeds to Kings Cross express workings during the summer of 1975 arriving back in 'the Cross' around 7.pm.
3.The 1st Mails Up express on a Saturday night from Newcastle to Kings Cross during the summer of 1975 arriving back up 'the Cross' around 3:20am!.
When the controller was opened you'd feel the G-FORCE!!!!!!!!....
* * *Topic heading changed from Deltic POWER to The diesel era 1960s, 70s & 80s* * *
Last edited by Mickey on Mon Apr 29, 2013 7:13 am, edited 1 time in total.
That's a nice shot of No 14 and fairly clean for a Gateshead machine. 1A07 was the up Newcastle Executive, a regular deltic working.
47526 was a Leeds machine at that time. It was one of the last batch fitted with a Stones boiler, a type that was not well liked at Finsbury Park. We were a Spanner depot. There were still a few late 47s around in green in 1974 but they became increasingly rare to see by the end of the year.
Andy W wrote:That's a nice shot of No 14 and fairly clean for a Gateshead machine. 1A07 was the up Newcastle Executive, a regular deltic working.
47526 was a Leeds machine at that time. It was one of the last batch fitted with a Stones boiler, a type that was not well liked at Finsbury Park. We were a Spanner depot. There were still a few late 47s around in green in 1974 but they became increasingly rare to see by the end of the year.
Yes, most of the 47/4s in the D11xx series survived in green because they were the youngest in age and so were not due major works visits until after receiving TOPS numbers. They had all gone blue by early 1975, unlike some of the 47/0s and 47/3s that soldiered on until 1977 in green.
The 'celebrity' was 47256 which had a green repaint at the end of that year and lasted into 1978 before going blue, but that was a WR loco so I will say no more
1A20 was the up morning Leeds/Bradford (it varied it's origin over time) arriving at the Cross in the early afternoon.
1516 was a Leeds engine at this time. It came back to us at FP for a couple of years before heading off to Gateshead and it is still about - you can find it at Butterley these days.
Andy W wrote:1A20 was the up morning Leeds/Bradford (it varied it's origin over time) arriving at the Cross in the early afternoon.
When i was in the box at WGC (1972-74) there use to be a makeshift train simplifier copied from the then current WTT of ALL the passing times and train headcodes of all expresses passing WGC box in a 24hr period 7 days a week.
If i recall correctly after the last couple of 'overnight Scotch expresses' (usually Deltic hauled) had passed through WGC around 06:30-07:00 in the weekday morning the first real up express of the day was 1A01 which passed through WGC around 09:30 then after that one had gone through there was a steady procession of Up expresses throughout the rest of the morning and into the afternoon followed by 1A02,1A03,1A04,1A05,1A06 and so on. During the early part of the afternoon 1E01 made an appearence followed by several others like 1E05 & 1E07.
I am afraid after a 41 year gap i am abit rusty when it comes to all the then express headcodes?.
You may be correct for the early 70s Micky, but in the late 60s it was slightly different.
1Axx services ran in both directions, with the odd numbers in the up direction and the even in the down.
In those days the down numbers began with 1A02 and progressed through the early morning until 1A16 which was at that time the Flying Scotsman.
Some may have been dated services, and so there were gaps, and the same happened with up trains; 1A01 being early in the morning through Grantham and then up through the odd numbers to 1A23 which was the up Scotsman. I don't know how long this lasted because WTTs for the southern ECML tend to fetch silly prices on Ebay and I cannot afford them.
I think we may have covered this point before somewhere (apologies if we haven't!) but I have May 1969 as the date up and down 1AXX ceased and the codes that were familiar in the 1970s and beyond came in.
