'Shunters' on Passenger Trains

Have Diesel Shunters - I suppose anything from class 14 down ever been used on scheduled passenger trains? I think it has happened but does anyone know for sure and are there any photo's?

 

Since such locos are sometimes used on passenger services on heritage lines, I presume you are asking about use by mainline TOCs, or perhaps British Railways?

 

In the 70s at least, the Leeds - Kings Cross sleeping cars were shunted, complete with occupants, onto the back of an Edinburgh - Kings Cross overnight train. That's my only experience of shunter haulage on the big railway.

 

Sorry, yes on the 'Big' Railway - BR/TOC I am aware of sleeper moves but IMHO that's a 'shunting' movement not a 'Between Stations' if that makes sense

 

how about the Upwell and Wisbech? Did passenger traffic last long enough to see 04 haulage? Similarly the Derwent Valley railway

 

Also, until very recently from and to the Penzance sleeper at Plymouth.

 

Phoenix on the Co Donegal Railway ran trips to the Customs post as I recall...probably freight only.
Would you class the F class West Clare Rly as shunters? they definitely did passenger work

 

There were many stations around the network where shunters were used to combine portions of trains. In addition to sleeper moves there were Class 08 daytime moves at Preston, Sheffield, Leeds, Huddersfield and several others. There was a much sought after Class 03 move at Ipswich shunting an ex-Peterborough portion onto the back of an early hours Norwich - Liverpool Street service.

Not within station limits workings were much more unusual but did happen where pilots were sent out to rescue failures a short distance away, including the Scarborough Class 03 which brought in a failure from Seamer in the early 80s.

One regular passenger trip was the Class 03/04 which worked the Weymouth Quay boat trains well into the 1970s.

 

Not quite what you had in mind I think, but the North Sunderland used an Armstrong-Whitworth 0-4-0DM on scheduled passenger services.

 

The 03 which hauled the failed passenger train into Scarborough was 03 089, which I have been driving this afternoon at Mangapps. Among other 03s at Mangapps are 197 and 399, both of which hauled passenger trains at Weymouth and 018, which had worked the passenger service between Audley End, Saffron Walden and Bartlow on at least one of the several occasions when the regular W&M railbus had failed. The stock used was a pair of Gresley non-corridor coaches.

 

Back in the 1980s the Euston-Northampton train I was travelling on was rescued by an 08. These were the days of peak period loco hauled fast services, and the 85 came to a stand as a complete failure about a mile south of Bletchley on the down fast. The Bletchley pilot 08 appeared wrong-line and dragged the whole train into the platform, and the 08 and 85 were uncoupled and moved clear, to be replaced by a pair of 25s for the rest of the journey.
My other 08 passenger experience was also in the 1980s when a single MK2 non-aircon TSO used to be detached at Crewe from the last Glasgow - Birmingham on a Sunday night and added to the last Liverpool - Euston. Precisely why this journey got a through coach for standard class while First Class had to change is probably lost in the mists of time.

 

Were not 09 class shunters used on passenger services with non motorised 4TC stock on the former Southern line west of Bournmouth during the 70s, I seem to remember seeing one such working at Wool one Sunday while fishing in a river that ran parallel with the railway line.

 

That would have been a slow old journey as IIRC the 09 Class was restricted to 30 mph max. I did find this in a piece on the 09s. "Although not normally considered for passenger work, Class 09s were recorded working passenger trains between Clapham Junction and Kensington Olympia due to unavailability of the booked Class 33 diesel"

Edit : Seems the 09 may have been a 25 mph loco.

 

Depends on which source one is quoting.

 

When Boat Trains operated over the Western Region carrying passengers to Avonmouth Docks, the train would stop on the mainline and the loco came off. An industrial then came out of the docks onto BR metals (!) and hauled the boat train forward and into the dock complex.

 

Perhaps not quite what this thread is after, but the 'Minehead Flyer' of 13.4.91, deserves an honourable mention. After two loco failures, the second of which was in Taunton station, the main line driver started the Taunton station pilot, 08 854, which ran the train from Taunton to Bishops Lydeard complete with headboard.

The popularity of the local brew may be thought to be evident in the photo below, taken at Norton Fitzwarren.

What is 08 854 up to these days?

Robin

Apologies for the quality of the photo. This is taken from the WSR Journal of the time, an original photo by Steve Edge @West Somerset Wizard