Sunday 27 October 2013

The Night Riviera

I've always been fascinated by the idea of sleeper trains, I'd love to climb aboard a train in London, retire to a compartment and wake up in the highlands of Scotland or the far tip of Cornwall. Thanks to ScotRail and First Great Western (and government subsidies) such things are still possible in this country but as yet aren't something I've been able to sample for myself.

So when I found myself staying in a hotel just across the road from Exeter St Davids station a couple of months ago I couldn't resist a late night in order to photograph the 'up' (London bound) 'Night Riviera' as it passed through. The train takes almost eight hours to cover the 300 miles from Penzance to London Paddington and usually calls at Exeter at around 1.00am, stopping for 10 minutes or so to change crews and thus making photography possible.

57602 Restormel Castle at Exeter St Davids, 7/8/1357602 Restormel Castle at Exeter St Davids, 7/8/13

57602 Restormel Castle (converted from Class 47, 47337 in 2003), is one of four Class 57s in use on Night Riviera services and was bang on time having departed Penzance at 9.45pm with its load of seven BR Mk.3 carriages, five of which were sleepers and would eventually arrive at London Paddington eighteen minutes early at 5.05am. If that seems a bit early in the day to be getting out of bed into a west London morning then I should point out that 'passengers may remain on board until 07.00' according to the FGW website.

Having packed up my tripod and watched 57602 depart into the night I discovered that Exeter St Davids station gets locked up for a couple of hours after the 'up' train has departed until the 'down' service passes through, luckily a member of the station staff had spotted me and let me out of a side gate so that I could make my way back to my hotel and bed.

Tuesday 15 October 2013

From the (Vuescanned) archives - Vic Berry

Easter 1987. I'd lost interest in railways for a little while (for the usual reasons, girls, beer, music, not necessarily in that order though) and was travelling through Leicester by coach when I spotted this.

Vic Berry's scrapyard in Leicester, 1987Vic Berry's scrapyard in Leicester, 1987

Vic Berry's scrapyard, smack bang in the centre of Leicester. I fired off a few frames with my increasingly unreliable Zenit TTL camera and this is the only one that survives.

Piles of EMU and Mk.1 coach bodies on the left, a stack of what look like Mk.1 GUV bodies on the right (in the background) and a heap of Class 25 cabs in the foreground! The wasp-striped end of the yard's shunter 03069 (the former D2069) is also just visible on the right hand side.

The yard was on the site of the former Great Central Railway Braunstone Gate goods yard and the former GCR warehouse can be seen in centre of the picture. A serious fire in 1991 led to the yard's closure and in 1996/97 the site was redeveloped as 'Bede Island' a small commercial and residential area with streets named after herbs and spices. Even the bridge the photo was taken from is no more, Upperton road has been considerably lowered and apart from the River Soar only a footpath passes beneath now.

My interest in railways returned but I regret not making the short journey back to Leicester (with the Zenit's replacement, an Olympus OM-1) for another look.

Incidentally, 03069 managed to survive the scrapyard's clutches and the fire and can now be found at the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway.

Monday 7 October 2013

Cab ride in 33035!

This weekend I got to do something that I've never managed to do before, have a cab ride in a mainline diesel loco. The Pioneer Diesel Locomotive Group's 33035 (the former D6553) was the locomotive in question and although the ride was a short one what it lacked in length in made up for in steepness!

33035 at the top of the Ravenstor Incline-2013100533035 at the top of the Ravenstor Incline, 5/10/13

After spending five months under repair 33035 was undergoing testing of its electrical system on the 1 in 27 Ravenstor Incline at Wirksworth on the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway in Derbyshire.

View of the Ravenstor Incline from the Secondman's seat of 33035-20131005View of the Ravenstor Incline from the Secondman's seat of 33035, 5/10/13

After a spirited ride up the incline there was time for a brief chat with Mike Jacobs and James from the PDLG about the loco itself, the railway and the local quarries that were one of the reasons that the line was built in the first place (and why it remained open until the late 1980s) before a more sedate trip back down to Wirksworth station.

Thanks must go to the The Pioneer Diesel Locomotive Group and John Evans, the Duty Manager at the Ecclesbourne Valley Railway for making it possible.