Western Champion Norwich 20th December

No...carry on. Early adolescence is coming back.

Great (British) machines, quality engineering at the time and when life was a tad less cluttered with nonsense and bureaucracy.
Cab rides and back into the next county...'sit on that seat lad and keep your hands off everything'. I couldn't see over the bloody dash, my ears were deafened with the roar and I felt sick with smell of heavy diesel exhaust.
I walked through the engine room of a 'Peak' once. It was like being in the bowels of a dragon.
How did drivers manage every day (Andy...?).

That looks like it. I have lived in blissful ignorance all these years, but I still remember the noise!!
I wasn’t to impressed as I used to travel from Snow Hill to Wolverhampton each day on GWR, with double header Castles and Halls pulling the 1810 to London, when I was going the other direction.
Sorry for drifting off topic.

Hey somethings stirring in my memory; standing on the footbridge at tottenham marshes waiting to 'spot the steamers' and seeing (and hearing) these weird 'cocos and Bobos'. I'd never seen a diesel til i saw these beasts and when the horn was sounded...!!

Mikey

Engine rooms never bothered me much ... in my Second-Man days the only time I needed to venture in there was to work the boiler (steam heat). It wasn't too bad on the locos we got on because we only had single engined locos (24 / 25 / 31 / 37 / 40 / 44 / 45 / 46 / 47) where the boiler was just behind one of the cabs, so we could always adjourn to relative quietness ..... not so on twin engined locos where the boiler was in the middle and you were glad of a few sliding windows when gaskets were blowing.
Another time we were stuck in the engine room was if the engine governor wasn't operating and we were sent into the engine room to swing on the fuel racks so that the Driver could limp the loco to a siding or loop.
As a Driver, we only go in there to prep before we start them up. We used to be allowed 25 minutes prep time, but since privatisation we don't prep them. They are now prep'd by fitters before shutting them down .... we just press the start button now and if nothing happens we call for a fitter.

Of the bonnet design locos, Class 37's tend to clag black smoke the worst ..... they've been around since 1963. This video shows some bad driving ....

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=doPLzddqA6g&eurl=http://video.aol.com/video-detail/class-37-departs-peterborough-nene-valley-with-clag-and-slip/3787267665

Well...apart from the Hydraulics, the BR Sulzer 1Co-Co1 Class 45 Peak is the type that means the most to me. In my childhood, I lived within a mile of the Midland Main Line in Leicestershire and remember these locos very well. I followed them throughout their lives. The only steam locos I remember in service were the class 9 2-10-0s. These were on their last legs and were used to haul "Stewart & Lloyds" trains to Corby as far as I remember. I'm not really a big fan of English Electric stuff but I have a soft spot for their Type 1. You know, the single cab loco. They ran round in pairs in the East Midlands on trains that the 9Fs were handling. 9Fs were, in my memory, absolutely astounding. I was probably four when they went but I recall a few things. Like the PAIR on a S&L train. They stormed round the bend on the up slow approaching Barrow On Soar, towards me and my Mother on the footbridge adjacent to the signalbox. They were leaking out of every joint, never been cleaned probably since new, and each had a column of clag like a stair rod. It took about five minutes for the smoke to clear from the cutting. It's a memory I'll take to my last breath. My dad worked shifts and she took me down to the railway so he could sleep. Lucky me. It gave me a lifetimes interest!

MzB wrote:

Of the bonnet design locos, Class 37's tend to clag black smoke the worst ..... they've been around since 1963. This video shows some bad driving ....

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=doPLzddqA6g&eurl=http://video.aol.com/video-detail/class-37-departs-peterborough-nene-valley-with-clag-and-slip/3787267665

Yebbut.......Andy, did they get into New Street..........dont recall.

Nice Flick here...

champion

Yebbut.......Andy, did they get into New Street..........dont recall.

Well something like it did; is my memory really that bad, or was I hallucinating. It was the 60’s.

Class 37s were everywhere even on the Southern at one time.

If you went out trainspotting for a day at anywhere junction (when I were a lad) and you didn't get a 37 ('EE type 3') ...or a 47 ('Brush type 4') then you obviously had your anorak hood over your head.

Mispent youth.