Odd allocations

There is the story told at Bolton where an engine crew was booked to work the Friday only Bolton - Euston service which was booked for a Jubilee. The foreman told them to take "727" sitting by the coaling tower and the crew discovered 42727 sitting there; on re-checking with the foreman he insisted that it was "727" they had to take so the crew duly prepared the loco and set off for a hard weekend flogging the Crab with the 12-coach load down the WCML and returning with the booked return on Sunday night.

When they duly returned to Bolton the foreman called them into his office for a "right proper talking to" as the stupid b******s had taken the wrong engine. 45727 had been at the other side of the coaling tower and was the engine they should have used but because they had taken the wrong engine the shed had had to put it on the local weekend trip and pw turns - for which it had proved most unsuitable.

The full story was told in one of the railway magazines a few years back by one of the crew involved.

 

Re: Power Classifications

Although it's a little off topic, Fred's story remindas me of one that appeared in Steam World many years ago. I don't have the copy, so apologies if some of the details aren't 100% accurate, but the jist of the story is about right.

There appeared in one issue a photo of a Stanier pacific (from memory, I think it was 6240 City of Coventry herself), which was caught meandering around the Coventry area on a very mundane parcels duty, over tracks from which it was actually barred. The photographer asked if anyone knew what such a massive engine was doing on so lowly a diagram.

A couple of issues later, ex-Crewe North driver (Piccolo) Pete Johnson replied that he indeed knew all about it as he was the driver. He'd booked on at 5A to work this parcels, normally a Black Five working. Being told that he had 5240 on No X road, he and his fireman set off to prepare it. They returned to the foreman's office soon afterwards saying they couldn't find the engine. Probably with a few pertinent mumbles, the foreman accompanied them back to the spot, to find an open space where the Black 'un should have been. But he did notice on the adjacent track pacific number 6240. "Shouldn't that have gone out on the Perth?" he asked.

A return to the office confirmed that 6240 was diagrammed for the Perth, and a call to Control discovered that the train had indeed left on time, so the solution was obvious: 5240 would about that time be being thrashed up Boars Head bank with 16 bogies on the drawbar, which it would have to work over 380 miles to that city! So Driver Johnson had a pleasant day in the Midlands on a huge engine dragging half a dozen vans around!

 

Re: Power Classifications

The version of this story which I heard ( from one of those involved ! ) was that the London Controller had upset the Nottingham Controller over the need for a Class 47 to undertake work in the Northampton area which had resulted in Nottingham's Class 45 ending up in Southampton with a Birmingham - Southampton parcels train.
Determined to get their own back the need to get rid of the visiting A3 led the Nottingham Control to pass the problem onto the London Controller by allocating it to the Derby - Somers Town freight. To hide their duplicity they reported the loco to London as "112" which the London Controller accepted as being Class 45 D112.
The subterfuge was only discovered when the Bedford signaller, aware of the tight clearances in Ampthill Tunnel, checked with the London Controller with the question "Do you know what's on the Somers Town ?" The London Controller replied "Yes - 112" and received the alarming response "Correct - 60112" at which point the London Controller knew he'd been caught.
Telling the signaller to issue a caution for the tunnel the A3 was allowed to continue and was subsequently kept at Cricklewood until it could be arranged to work a service out of Marylebone.

Thought to Moderators : these are quite intersting stories as to how certain unusual workings came about; is it worth a separate thread for their interest and to avoid disturbing the technical ( but still interesting ) Power Classification thread ? Over to the Mods

 

Hi

There was the story of a crew who brought a 40 from somewhere like bescot to Tywyn thinking they had brought a 37, they only realised when climbing down the cab steps and realising that there were more wheels than there should of been.

Alex

 

The class 40 to Aber was D348 on a RCTS trip in May 1969. There is a shot of it at Welshpool by Gavin Morrison in various class 40 books. The driver's oversight was recounted in the RCTS magazine at the time. I was there - aged nearly 4 - my first recorded railtour!