Crewe Works Open Day, July 87

Crewe Works open day 040787, thanks to Trev Rolfe for the report and phots, DS for the gen

Back in the day when a visit to Crewe Works for the open day was not to be missed, found me on a sunny Saturday waiting at Watford for 86239 on the 0945 Euston – Glasgow to whisk me and my mates up to Crewe. The usual queue for entry was in place and just added to the excitement as you could never tell entirely what you would get to see when inside! As usual we were not to be disappointed, with preserved locomotives from the awesome Western D1041 to the more mundane but throaty class 24 D5054! A walk to the very south of the works found line upon line of scrapped locomotives, with many friends who have hauled me around the country amongst them, 40057, 40195 and the very rare 84008. Right at the back under tarpaulins were the 86’s involved in the Colwich collision. After this depressing start it was time to head to the erecting shop where things were looking brighter, amongst the usual repairs were lines of 37’s getting refurbished for their extended life as freight engines and the odd 56 also getting overhauls. The day finished even brighter with a spirited run back home to Watford behind 87101 on the 1603 Crewe – Euston.

Thanks to Dave Spencer for his “logs” of the day, I did not clock the “Colwich Casualties” my listings show the following.

UNDER REPAIR/EXWORKS

47468 47089 47433 47486 37233 37032 37204

37060 (705) 37168 (890) 37149 37199 37237 37166

37129 (669) 37041 (520) 37182 (670) 37689 37294

37073 37011 37002 37519 37068 37245 87019 86226

86243 86206 56067 56068 56095 56049 56090

87201 New construction (90001)

WITHDRAWN IN YARD

85039 81022? 50011 47001 47429 47405 47285 47275

VISITING EXHIBITS

D200 D5054 D1041 (all proper) D9000. Bit out of place