Class 40s

[22A]

On October 30th D 213 and D 345 are working an excursion Preston - Plymouth.

When this class was in "normal service" before preservation, did any member make to the Bristol area? I never saw one, nor did any friends.

[the green mile]

Yes. In my posting of 01/11/20 headed 'Spotting in those Early Years', I recalled D320 working the northbound 'City of Birmingham Holiday Express' one evening around 1963. That was the only one I saw in the Bristol area, or so I thought. See below....

Roy

[the green mile]

Rummaging through a box of old photos today , I came across a shot of a class 40 at the head of a freight on the down main approaching Easton Road bridge between Stapleton Road and Lawrence Hill. No headcode but on the rear I had written 'D325 July 1967'. Forgot all about that one.

Roy

[StrawberryLine]

I can never remember Class 40's regularly working into Bristol. However there was a Railway Society up North, Manchester way I believe that every year ran an excursion at Christmas to different destinations. The train was called "The Christmas Cracker". One year I can remember it came to Bristol. It was a Saturday and it was around tea time. I went down to Temple Meads especially to see it, it was that rare an occasion. It must have come up from the south as it was on Platform 7. Can anyone else remember it?

[buxton4472]

Here (amongst the other stuff) are two instances captured in rather poor B&W photos of 40s at Charfield....

https://www.flickr.com/photos/galatea56 ... 7614045588

[the green mile]

Almost a year to the day since the last posting on this subject, I have stumbled across another. I was searching for suitable photos to include in a talk I am planning on my time at Bath Road in the 1970s. Browsing the Rail Photoprints catalogue, I found 40126 being piloted by 25209 passing Malago Carriage Sidings on an Exeter - Ellesmere Port empty bitumen tank train in May 1982.

Roy

[Bristolian]

Class 40s were fairly regular visitors to Bath Road in the 1982-83 period.
They'd work light from Hereford (or STJ (?)) with a Hereford crew, and return north with 3S15. I have several shots on Flickr showing some of them, and audio too .

[the green mile]

Trawling through the Rail Photoprints catalogue took a bit of time but it threw up another five sightings apart from the one of 40126 I found earlier. This site is the best one for material in the Bristol area as the proprietor John Chalcraft was and is based in the area. Nothing of any relevance found on Colour Rail.

D326 waiting its turn in the Daily Shed behind a Warship in 1967. No clues as to how or why it had arrived there but the caption acknowledges that this type was rare in the Bristol area at that time.

40015 at Bristol TM having worked in on an additional Crewe - Plymouth service a few days after Xmas in 1978. No clues if it went forward or was swapped out.

40118 at Temple Meads at the head of a northbound 'Christmas Cracker' special in 1984.

40145 passing Dr Days on a Bridgwater - Runcorn tanker working in 1983.

40153 at Temple Meads on the 2035 Bristol - Glasgow parcels working in 1982. Was that possibly 3S15? Headcode panels had been dispensed with by then replaced with just a pair of marker lights.

Despite the few brave souls who were out and about with their cameras during the winter months, no doubt others came and went without being captured by the photographer's lens and they do seem to be fairly prevalent around the early 1980s.

A number of class 40s ended their existence courtesy of the cutter's torch at Swindon Works. Speculation as to how they arrived at their final destination.

I moved away from my house backing onto the line between Lawrence Hill and Stapleton Road in 1983. I don't recall hearing any whistling past the bottom of the garden in the few years before. They would have been digging in for the climb up Filton Bank in that area. I always maintain that having moved there in 1962, I soon learnt to identify loco types by the sound coming down the chimney. And I don't remember any 40s coming on shed while I was working at Bath Road but I have seen photographic evidence to the contrary from the years after I departed.

Roy

[Bristolian]

Here are my shots pertaining to 3S15.
https://www.flickr.com/search/?user_id= ... view_all=1