Solve a mystery, double headed Cornish Riveira Exp

In the lte 60s / early 70s the CRE was double headed by class 42 Warships, Wiki says this involved locos D819/22–24/27–29/31/32 and D866–69 but I have a clear recollection of CAMBRIAN and CARADOC regularly working this service together with other early numbered Class 42s and aslo of ZEST and Zulu , the last two locos. Can anyone shed light on this?

 

The WRDHL yahoo group would be a good place to pose that question.

 

There may be a bit of confusion on this as the OP is right to note that various members of class 42s worked in tandem [i.e. one driver per loco] but described by BR as "working in multiple" whilst IIRC the numbers quoted by Wiki are actually those which were fitted with jumper cables to allow one driver to work both locos; locos so fitted displayed white diamonds on their buffer beam. I would refer you to "Power of the Warships" by John Vaughan where on pp 60 -63 he publishes images of D822+827 [multiple]; 808 + 819 [tandem]; 822 + 869 [multiple]; in other pages of the same book he illustrates D824 + D825 [multiple]; D822 + 825 [multiple]; D803 + 822 [multiple];

I also refer you to Profile of the Warships by D Nicholas and S Montgomery there are further images - Plate 50 D803 + 819 [tandem]; Plate 141 D824 + 829 [multiple]; Plate 144 D827 + 831 [multiple];

These illustrate double-headed workings but there are further images of many Class 42 and Class 43 warships; only those with the white diamond on the buffer beam were fitted with multiple working cables such as D803 Albion which is not noted on Wiki - there may be other locos so fitted but not identified.

 

thanks for that Fred. I hadn't thought that there might have been a driver aboard the second loco. Why then would they regularly use non white diamond locos on their Premier train service?

 

The timings called for 2 locos on the train so - I presume - if a pair of multiple fitted locos were unavailable a pair in tandem was the next best option. It's fair to point out that the demands for higher speed running would impact (negatively) on availability hence tandem working would be relatively common.

 

I must admit I never looked to see if there was a second driver...too busy leaping up and down. The CRE was non-stop through Reading and accelerating like mad after coming off the Berks and Hants, passing the previous Warship hauled service which would be in No5...fantastic noise.