The Bristol Railway Archive

Found out in work this morning that the pair of 37's that have been sat at barton hill are leaving.Some time friday morning around 9am for eastleigh.I'm making th presumption that its via rail ! but they have been sat there for some time so may be a low loader job.

stopblock wrote:the pair of 37's that have been sat at barton hill are leaving.Some time friday morning around 9am for eastleigh..

Not for breaking I hope:(

Loco and brake force arrives barton hill 10:26 and departs for eastleigh @ 11:43.
Dont expect it to run any earlier then that as first bus wont allow it.

stopblock wrote:Dont expect it to run any earlier then that as first bus wont allow it.

Who are first bus? I'm assuming FGW but they don't have anything to do with Barton Hill do they? I thought it was "Axiom Rail"?

Alex

As of 1210 the two 37s are still at Barton Hill in one of the sheds with the brake force wagons and the 08 parked in front of them. There is a 66 shunting the Torbay stock around so that could be the loco to take the 37s to Eastleigh.

Also the Network Rail BR green 31 there

I've heard the 2 37's are going for component recovery to keep the remaining 37/4's alive. So not much hope once they have been robbed of all their bits.

I've also heard they are both runners and on occasion have been "out and about", hence OK to move by rail, but not under their own power as they obviously have no OTMR etc.

Alex my comment over first bus was tounge in cheek remark refering to fgw and their dominace meaning our lot struggle to get a run at anything with our trains.Going up to didcot this week some have been held to their booked time which we cant complain about but according to trust there have been reasonable margins to get them moving but I'm not in charge of the signals.

The 37's finally left barton hill around 13:45ish after marshalling issues were sorted out.They wanted the formation to be 66 3 wagons 2 37's and 3 wagons but the wagons were single piped and the 37's required main air and res.In the end it was formed 66 2 37's and 6 wagons towed out by the loco for the car train @ portbury, thats the second time this week my fellow work mate has made overtime.

Ah stopblock I get ya.

Certainly the timetable up Filton Bank does seem to be arranged to make freight paths as impossible as possible. Of course it would be handy if they weren't so heavy, slow and we had four roads. Hey ho.

Not sure about elsewhere but we're constantly being pressured from above not to fun freights early. A lot of people just aren't willing to take the risk any more. Apparently EWS have a policy of not applying so much power when running early... nice one!

Alex

Your not far wrong in saying that alex our drivers are told not to use notch 8 on the coal.But like every job there are some that do as they are told and some who errrr bend the instuction.Totaly agree about needing 4 roads up filton bank again certainly on a weekend like this with badminton shut.But our lot dont help by increasing the trains from 2 at night to 4 friday night saturday morning.