Photo Class 31187 British Rail UK Diesel Loco Whitemoor Yard 1989

Photo Class 31187 Diesel Locomotive Whitemoor Yard

Photo:  Charles Moorhen

In the red, grey and yellow of the British Rail Railfreight livery, Class 31187 diesel locomotive photographed on sidings at Whitemoor rail Yard near March railway station, Cambridgeshire, next to an unidentified loco of the same class and livery in May 1989.

For more detailed information and a variety of images of the Class 31 diesel locomotive, please visit this post elsewhere on this blog - Photos, Article Class 31 Diesel Loco 'A British Rail Workhorse'.

 

 

 

Class 31187 (front) hauling a ballast train at Helpston crossing, 1989.  Photo: DEAN M66A - flickr.

 

Class 31 Diesel Locomotive Historical Note:

Whilst hauling a train in which Queen Elizabeth II was travelling on 4th January 1961, D5667 (31240), broke down south of Cambridge.  

Two onboard Brush fitters, on hand to deal with any mechanical problems that may occur, were unable to fix the problem and a steam loco had to be sent for in order to rescue the stricken diesel adding over an hour to the completed journey.

 

Class 31 Locomotives on YouTube:
Class 31 Video Compilation - 2011 to 2019.

Class 31s Mainline Finale and into Preservation.

Class 31 Memories of Lime Street.

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Night Photo Empty Leamington Spa UK Train Station 2016

Lit-Up and Lonely 

Photo:  Charles Moorhen

 

 

Image Courtesy of Google Maps

 

A long exposure night photo (top) of Leamington Spa railway station, with an unidentified Chiltern Railways diesel multiple unit creeping into the picture on the far right having recently departed from Banbury.

Serving the Warwickshire town of Royal Leamington Spa, UK, the railway station in Old Warwick Road, has been a constant presence in the town since it was opened by the Great Western Railway in 1852 - rebuilt in 1939.

In March 2008, the railway station booking hall was refurbished and now reflects the original GWR art-deco style.

Large 'running in' boards (platform nameboards) in the GWR-style, have been erected at the 'up' end of platforms 2 and 3, adding more authenticity to the overall look of the station.

In 2003 the railway station buildings and platform structures became Grade II listed.

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Night Photo Class 168108 Chiltern Railways Clubman DMU Leamington Spa 2016

Class 168108 DMU Train at Leamington Spa Station

Photo:  Charles Moorhen

Chiltern Railways Class 168108 diesel multiple unit UK passenger train, basically a modified Class 170, stands in Royal Leamington Spa station.  

This train night photo was taken during a photo session in August 2016.

The Chiltern Railways Class 168108 DMU was en route to Birmingham Moor Street station.

Class 168108 DMU on YouTube:
Chiltern 168108 at Cheddington.

Chiltern 168108 arrives at Warwick Parkway.

 

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Photo Desiro Class 350368 London Midland Trains EMU Train Northampton

Class 350368 Electric Multiple Unit Northampton Station

Photo:  Charles Moorhen

Built by Siemens between 2004/5, 2008/9 and 2013/14, the Desiro Class 350 electric multiple unit UK passenger train, seen above in the photo of 350368 in London Midland Trains livery, photographed at Northampton station, was fundamentally built for regional express and commuter services.

As well as the 'family' of Desiro electric multiple unit passenger trains operating in Britain, such as the classes 360 emu, 380 emu, 444 emu and the 450 emu, it also includes the Class 185 diesel multiple unit.

Constructed to run on power generated by either pantograph 25kV 50 Hz AC overhead lines or 750 V DC contact third rail shoe such as that used in Kent, south-east England, the Class 350/1s originally had a top speed of 100 mph (160 Km/h), though from December 2012, the complete class of 350/1s were modified to allow for 110 mph (180 Km/h) running on the West Coast Main Line.

Between October 2008 and July 2009, with the intention of replacing the then current Class 321s, a batch of Class 350/2s was delivered to London Midland Trains – the final unit being 350/2 350267. As in the case of the 350/1s, the maximum speed was upgraded from 100 mph to 110 mph.

 

 

           Night photo of Class 350250 at Wolverton station.  Photo: Charles Moorhen

 

Other 350 EMU subclasses were built as follows:

350/3 – 10 units produced – 350368-377 – built 2014.

350/4 – 10 units produced – 350401-410 – built 2013-14. 

 

 

 Two Class 350 EMUs Pass at Bletchley Station

 

Class 350368 EMU on YouTube:

Class 350368 passes Cheddington.
Class 350368 passes through Tring.

Class 350368 & 369 arrives at Northampton.

Class 350368 at Rugeley Town.

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Photos and History of Q1 Class 0-6-0 Southern Railway Steam Locomotives

Plain, Ugly...But Oh! So Powerful.

Southern Railway Q1 Class Steam Locomotive 0-6-0 C1  33001

How the UK Southern Railway's powerful but austere-looking 0-6-0 Q1 freight steam locomotive came to play an important part in British Railways history.

The illustration above of Q1 Class steam locomotive, 33001, shows that this particular engine has a home loco shed number of 70C.  As recorded in the Ian Allen Locoshed Book of 1952, 70C shed was located at Bordon Guildford, near to the town of Haslemere.

Guildford Loco Shed 1965     Photo: Shed Bash UK - Blogger

Due to the vastly increased amount of railway freight traffic to English Channel ports as a direct result of World War 2, the steam locomotive fleet of the Southern Railway was, even with the best will in the world, basically strained to its limits. The SR was, after all, a regional railway concerned with providing passenger train services as opposed to freight.

Obviously, something had to be done to ease this chronic situation.

Designer Oliver Bulleid, successor to Richard Maunsell, fully recognised the problem and set out to resolve it. The result was that by 1942 he had produced the extraordinary-looking, many would say ugly, Q1 Class 0-6-0 steam locomotive. 

Incidentally, the Q1 would be the last 0-6-0 locomotive to be designed and manufactured for the British railway network.

Bulleid accepted that as a consequence of wartime scarcities he would need to use as little metal as possible in the design of his radical Q1 locomotive.

To this end he did away with fitting wheel splashers and running boards, which up until this point traditionally sat below the boiler casing. In addition to this he incorporated into his construction the use of lightweight, double-disc, American-inspired 'box-pok' wheels. A feature he had fitted to his earlier steam locomotive the Southern Railway 'Merchant Navy Pacific', introduced in June 1941, followed by the 'West Country' class in May 1945.

Q1 Class 0-6-0 33028

In a further effort to reduce overall weight, O.V. Bulleid, employed a totally radical idea in the world of locomotive production, and that was in the area of boiler cladding.

On the Q1 he employed the use of a lightweight fibreglass known as Idaglass, cheap and plentiful during the war years which, instead of being traditionally wrapped around the boiler, was in fact supported by the main frame.

Apart from the 'box-pok' wheels, the Q1 had something else in common with the 4-6-2 'Merchant Navy' and 'West Country' locos; the exterior surfaces could by superficially cleaned simply by running the loco through a carriage cleaning facility.

The first completed Q1 locomotive, numbered C1 (C standing for three axles), later to be renumbered 33001 in November 1950, appeared at London's Charing Cross station on the 6^th May 1942 for inspection by a group of Southern Railway's directors – which no doubt raised a few quizzical eyebrows.

Designer William Stanier of London Midland and Scottish Railway was so amused on seeing a photograph of the Q1 that he asked, "Where do you put the key?"

Soon after its debut at Charing Cross, freight train tests began between Norwood, south London and Chichester in West Sussex.

Within a few months another Q1, C3 (33003), was performing well during comparative trials with Southern Railway steam locomotive Class S15 4-6-0 No 842 between Woking, Surrey and Basingstoke in Hampshire. During this time C1, hauling a mixed freight train of 1,000 tons, easily covered the same 24 miles with a reduction in the scheduled time by 8 minutes.

Brighton and Ashford Works were elected to construct the 40-strong Q1 class. Numbers C1-16 and C37-40 produced at Brighton and the remainder, C17-36, at Ashford – all delivered during 1942.

Generally the Q1s worked the Southern Railway's Western and Central Section, though they were also seen at Tonbridge, Kent; Eastleigh, Hampshire; Three Bridges, Sussex and Hither Green south-east London. However, the largest numbers of the class were to be found at Guildford, Surrey and Feltham, south-west London.

After 21 years of reliable service on the Southern Railway, hauling countless freight and passenger trains and a large number of 'specials', they had earned the nicknames, 'Biscuit Tins', 'Biscuit Barrels', 'Charlies', 'Clockworks', 'Coffee Pots', 'Austerities' and 'Ugly Ducklings' by the train-spotter fraternity.

The first withdrawn locomotive of the class was 33028 in February 1963, with the final trio 33006, 33020 and 33027 taken out of service in January 1966.

The first production Q1 the most powerful of the 0-6-0 steam locomotive classes, C1 33001, avoided the indignity of ending up in the scrapyard as was the case for all of its stablemates.

It was rightly added to the National Collection at York Railway Museum.

On a purely personal note: 

As a boy I remember 'spotting' a couple of grimy Q1s on the sidings at Ashford while travelling on a train between Dover Priory station and London's Waterloo East in the late 1950s. I thought at the time that they were really ugly and were my least favourite locos.
Sadly, I have no accurate details of this siting as my spotting books from that time have long since disappeared.

 

More steam locomotive 'Photos and History' pages.

 

Photos and History of King Arthur Class 4-6-0 UK Steam Locomotive

Photos and History of GWR 'City' Class 4-4-0 UK Steam Locomotive

Q1 Loco On YouTube:

Q1 Class No. C1 on Bluebell Railway.

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Photos and History King Arthur Class 4-6-0 Southern Railway Steam Locos

Photos/History of the King Arthur Class Steam Locomotive

Class 777 'Sir Lamiel'

In 1952, 777 'Sir Lamiel', later renumbered 30777, carried a shed code number of  74C, a location for Dover/Folkestone on the south-east Kent coast, UK .

Dover Loco Shed 1951   Photo: Shed Bash UK - Blogger 

Encouraged by the relative success of his London & South Western Railway UK steam locomotive, the mixed-traffic H15 introduced in January 1914, Robert W. Urie set about developing an express passenger train engine. The result was the 4-6-0 N15, a loco that took some of the successful attributes from one of his previous designs – the H15.

Although the Walschaerts valve gear and original H15 cylinder stroke were retained, the driving wheels of the new locomotive were enlarged by 6ins to 6ft. 7ins, and the cylinder bore expanded to 22ins. With a number of other amendments to various moving parts, the N15 ultimately gave a smooth ride and produced a boiler pressure of 180 lbs. sq. in. and a tractive effort of 26,245 lbs (slightly variable in some examples).

However, as with everything in life there is usually a price to pay for comfort, quality and reliability. In this particular case such was the extreme force inflicted on the railway tracks where the N15 ran, it was reported to have been one of the highest for locomotive wear and tear on tracks and sleepers.

Despite this potential drawback, in August 1918 the first N15 steam locomotive was out-shopped from Eastleigh Works, Hampshire, UK, at a production cost of £6,740. It bore the number 736. Before the year was out two more locos of the class, Nos. 737 and 738, had been manufactured.

Following the end of World War 1, and the subsequent lifting of the wartime 60 mph speed restriction, a number of faults began to appear as a result of faster running times; severe reductions in steam pressure; occasional frame fractures and hot axle boxes became fairly common.

Regardless of these problems, manufacture of the class continued.

30769 'Sir Balan'

Between June 1922 and March 1923, ten further steam locomotives were completed and subsequently despatched to the Nine Elms, Salisbury and ExmouthJunction (Exeter) sheds to take up main line duties.

In 1924, Richard Maunsell, Chief Mechanical Engineer of the SouthernRailway, decided to improve the overall performance of the N15. After a succession of trials involving 'the worst of the bunch' - N15 No 742 Camelot - Maunsell made a number of modifications that greatly improved performance involving blastpipe and chimney redesign, exhaust/draughting enhancement and increased boiler pressure.

30771 'Sir Sagramore

As a result of these advancements to the N15, the Southern Railway wanted more of the same. With Eastleigh Works unable to manufacture them at the time, construction was switched to Scotland and the NorthBritish Locomotive Company, (NBL), Glasgow. By 20^th July, 20 engines were in service.

Nicknamed 'Scotchmen' or 'Scotch Arthurs', the new locomotives began to develop faults. Although nothing was actually proved, it was believed that these defects had come about due to NBL cutting corners during production.

For the final batch of N15s, No's 793 – 806, building of the locos was switched back to the Eastleigh Works between 1926 and 1927; essentially produced for the London to Brighton Line, known as the 'Central Section'.

The majority of the 74 'King Arthurs' were seen all over Southern England, from Dover in Kent to the south-west for more than 30 years before withdrawal of the class inevitably began.

The first locomotive to go in January 1953 was Urie N15 No. 30754 'The Green Knight' with a fractured frame.

Two years later four more Urie's were withdrawn and scrapped – 30740 Merlin, 30743 Lyonnesse, 30746 Pendragon and 30752 Linette.

The final Urie loco, No. 30738 'King Pellinore', was withdrawn from Basingstoke shed in March 1958 and cut up.

However, the Maunsell locos continued in service until the very early 1960's until the last of the class, No. 30770 'Sir Prianius', was withdrawn in November 1962.

Following withdrawal from main line service in October 1961, one particular locomotive No. 30777 'Sir Lamiel', (a 'Scotch Arthur') was saved from scrapping and is now part of the National Collection in the National Railway Museum at York, UK. Though it can at times be seen providing the motive power for various 'specials' across England.

 

More steam locomotive 'Photos and History' pages.

 

Photos and History of Q1 Class 0-6-0 UK Steam Locomotive

Photos and History of GWR 'City' Class 4-4-0 UK Steam Locomotive

King Arthur Class Steam Locomotive on YouTube:

Best of Class No.777 'Sir Lamiel'.

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Photo and History of GWR City Class 3440 4-4-0 UK Steam Locomotive

Great Western Railway City Class Steam Loco

Great Western Railway 3440 'City of Truro' Steam Locomotive

Photo of the Great Western Railway's 3700 'City' Class UK steam locomotive, designed by William Dean for use as express passenger motive power on the GWR, came into being following George Jackson Churchward's rebuilding in September 1902, of Atbara Class 4-4-0 No. 3405 Mauritius, by replacing the original boiler with his new Standard No.4 design.

Following successful trials with 3405 (3705) Mauritius, 10 new steam locomotives were ordered and built at the GWR Swindon Works in 1903, bearing the numbers 3433-3442.

As a point of interest it cost £1,957 to construct No. 3440 (later renumbered 3717) 'City of Truro'.

The new batch of locomotives was added to by the rebuilding of another nine Atbaras between 1907 and 1909. Between 1910 and 1912, all 20 engines in the class received superheaters.

Regular passenger services between Paddington and Bristol, and on the non-stop Paddington to Plymouth 'Cornish Riviera Express', were hauled by 'Cities' as their first employment on the Great Western Railway network.

In 1905, London to Birmingham passenger trains which were at the time still routed through Oxford, began to be hauled by a 'City' locomotive until a few years later when they were gradually replaced by 4-6-0s and Atlantics.

Following on from this, the 'City' class locos then saw service between Birmingham and Bristol.

After 24 years of service the writing was on the wall for the 55 ton, double-framed, 'City' class locomotives and withdrawal was on the horizon.

No. 3441 (3718) 'City of Winchester' was condemned in October 1927, swiftly followed by the others until only 2 of the original 20 remained – 3435 (3712)'City of Bristol' and 3440 (3717) 'City of Truro'.

'City of Bristol' was scrapped in May 1931. However, through the efforts of various parties, 'City of Truro' was saved and, when not on display at York railway museum, can still be seen today at various locations heading up 'specials' around the UK.

During a working life of 28 years, 'City of Truro', which incidentally was the 2,000^th steam locomotive to be constructed at Swindon, had clocked up an impressive 1,000,483 miles of hauling.

List of 'City' locomotive numbers and names. Numbers in brackets are those renumbered in 1912.

3400 (3700) Durban

3401 (3701) Gibraltar

3402 (3702) Halifax

3403 (3703) Hobart

3404 (3704) Lyttelton

3405 (3705) Mauritius

3406 (3706) Melbourne

3407 (3707) Malta

3408 (3708) Ophir  &  Killarny

3409 (3709) Quebec

3433 (3710) City of Bath

3434 (3711) City of Birmingham

3435 (3712) City of Bristol

3436 (3713) City of Chester

3437 (3714) City of Gloucester

3438 (3715) City of Hereford

3439 (3716) City of London

3440 (3717) City of Truro

3441 (3718) City of Winchester

3442 (3719) City of Worcester   &  City of Exeter

 

 

More steam locomotive 'Photos and History' pages.

 

Photos and History of Q1 Class 0-6-0  UK Steam Locomotive

Photos and History of King Arthur Class 4-6-0 UK Steam Locomotive

'City of Truro' GWR steam locomotive on YouTube:

Locos in Profile: 'City of Truro'.

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