Desperate but not serious, July 84

Thanks to Mike Lewis for this contribution to our now long out of print “Bashing Years – Tales from 1984 booklet.

I had purchased a Midland Railtourer ticket the night before and set off on the cart from Bedford St Johns at 0554 heading for Bletchley on Saturday July 7th 1984. I seem to recollect also on board a selection of the “Bedneds” answering to the names of Dougal, Weeble and Squeak and quite possibly Butch as well but it may have been a different weekend so often did they make the same move to reach the Cambrian “rats”.

At Bletchley we jumped on the first 310 unit to arrive to take us to New St to cover 1J20 0735 Euston – Aberystwyth. Power on this to Wolves was not much to write home about being 86239 so this was flagged for required “whistler” in the shape of 40058 on the 0925 New St – Llandudno relief heading 10 Mk I’s.

The beauty of doing this move was that the Ludo arrived at Wolves 5 minutes before the “rats” departed for the Cambrian so i could still catch them up, as one of them was also a winner. The move worked a treat as we easily made 25224 and 25042 on 1J20 with 224 being the requirement. A couple of weeks later 25224 did the 0105 Perth – Aberdeen demonstrating that 25’s still got around a bit, not just 47’s. I had planned to go to Welshpool for the second pair of “rats” back but the original “Buzzard”, Smudger produced his clipboard of gen and unwittingly he changed my plans.

If a pair of “bombs” from any depot other than Toton dropped then i would get into Dalek pursue mode and today was to be one of these days. Scrawled down on “Smudger’s” gen sheet for the Skegness to Sheffield was double score Tinsley “bombs” 20029 and 20112 and they had to be intercepted. This meant abandoning the Midland Railtourer and rebranding it as an East Midlands Railtourer! I had this philosophy at that time there was a chance i could clear most of my “bombs” but i had missed lots of “rats” through withdrawals so it made it easier to walk away from the Sulzers . In this case the pair on 1A46 1010 Aberystwyth – Euston were dud pair 25298 and 25311, although i did require one of the duo on 1J24 1010 Euston – Aberystwyth, 25189 which was with 25060.

I bailed at Wellington for a DMU back to Wolves for 81017 back to New St. As was fairly common for me i did not make a note of the train but i suspect it was 1O74 0958 Manchester – Brighton. The downside of the move was i was condemned to sitting on a “tram” all the way to Chesterfield on a Summer Saturday for a plus 4 onto the “mousses”. 20029 and 20112 duly appeared at the head of 11 Mk I’s on 1E02 1040 from Skegness for the 20 minute run to Sheffield. I got wind of a new Cricklewood “goyle” heading for Sheffield so i did 31443 out to Rotherham on 1E43 1341 Manchester Picc – Hull to have 31302 back to Sheffield on an unrecorded service, likely to have been 1E45 1240 from Blackpool North.

I now had a choice of waiting for 37002 which i seem to recall was in a pair on a Northbound relief to York or i could go for two Bristol Bath Road lines in the book. I chose the later to keep costs down, as i wasn’t valid to York so i did 31210 to Rotherham running 25 minutes late with 9 Mk I’s on 1E63 0940 Poole to Leeds for its depot companion 37123 down to Chesterfield forming 1M84 1410 Scarborough to Nottingham. Actually looking back, keeping the cost down proved untrue because 37002 (as 37351) became one of my last four snouts, and i had to fork out £90 to have it on the Inverness beds one Easter Monday many years later!

Here’s 31210 an hour or so before Mike raked her in. At Derby with 1E28 0855 Weymouth – Bradford forward from New St on July 7th 1984

Heres the working Mike opted to flag. At Burton Eastfield’s 37192 with Gateshead’s “huge” 37002 in multi, thrash out of Burton with 1E19 1200 Reading – York relief which the “syphons” worked throughout on July 7th 1984.

I had a new Thornaby Brush in my plans so after a short wait of 15 minutes 46026 got me back to Sheffield on 1E22 1004 Newquay – Newcastle for a plus 6 onto a cart to Worksop for kingfisher 47301 back to Sheffield leading 1M74 1412 Yarmouth to Manchester. I wasn’t sure what to do next and was thinking about returning to Birmingham for my overnight but this all changed when another scratch appeared in the form of 46035 so i took it to Leeds on 1E18 1220 from Newquay for a plus two onto 45107 on a Pennine working across to Manchester Victoria on 1M80 1925 Scarborough to Holyhead. This was a good positioning move as i strolled over to Piccadilly for the 2305 that was being dragged to Stafford, as southbound workings were diesel assisted. 47563 did the honours as 86243 sat silently inside the 47 as 1O52 wound its way South to Gatwick Airport.

A mere 23 minutes were spent kicking my heels at Stafford on Sunday 8th July as 86220 took me up to Crewe on the 0051 departure, better known as 1S19 2124 Bristol – Glasgow/Edinburgh. Another short stay and i was soon heading back to Stafford at 0150 with 47490 dragging 86328 on 1K16 2150 Barrow to Euston. 30 more minutes passed at Stafford before 86234 appeared at 0244 to return me to Crewe atop 1F53 2350 Euston to Liverpool. I had to wait a bit longer before i was on the move again this time on 1G00 0357 Crewe to Birmingham NS with 47441 but as most of the fester was on the stock i didn’t mind too much. Once arrival was made into New St I sought sanctuary of a “wendy house” to continue my doss on a bench.

A whistling beast rudely interrupted my zzz’s and on investigation i discovered 1H03 out of New St bound for Manchester Picc was a winner in the pleasing form of 40079 leading 9 Mk II’s. I only went to Wolves as 1A06 0857 Euston was being dragged to Nuneaton from Birmingham so 86321 did the honours. The real surprise was the 0922 drag off New St produced a double score pairing of WR “growlers” 37176 and 37206 that i believe had worked the “Devonshire Dart” tour from the West that morning. After the snouts were removed at Nuneaton i stayed with the “can” to Rugby for 86211 back to Nuneaton on 1G24 1000 Euston to Wolves.

An hour was then spent waiting for 1G26 1100 Euston to Wolves to arrive with 86208 so a few photos were taken of 40099 and 40143 positioned for Trent Valley drags. 25268 and 31294 also passed through light engine, coupled together.  58002 did the honours to New St with 1G26 where I got off to get some lunch. I returned to the station for 1A23 1500 Wolves to Euston to have another burst behind 37176 and 37206 to Nuneaton. It turned out that I spent 2 hours here and most of it was in the pub, as i wanted to cover the returning evening Skeggs as part of the “four musketeers” with Colin, George and Steve.

Our train to Leicester was 1E77 1720 out of New St for the usual Norwich destination that dropped a pleasant surprise as Kingmoor “rat” 25201 had been kicked off Saltley. The consist of the train was 6 Mk I compos and i savoured the Sulzer beat for half an hour or so and not surprisingly the “rat” was ripped at Leicester for 31210! forward. We then had the all together different Sulzer sound of 45104 from Leicester to Nottingham with 1D55 1735 out of St Pancras.

Once again i was rewarded with a Tinsley pair heading our way this time on the Skegness to Derby and as we had 50 minutes at Nottingham Colin Moss ordered a taxi to go to Beeston to whisk us back to Nottingham, as the Skegness to Leicester was a double score and didn’t stop there. 1M83 1755 Skegness to Derby appeared with 20030 and 20042, the latter being a winner, and we arrived at Beeston and legged it over the bridge and into the taxi waiting for us at the station entrance. We had 28 minutes to get back to Nottingham so that was not a problem.

20217 and 20213 pulled in for the thrash down the Midland mainline to Leicester with 1M88 1835 from Skegness. This was a big pair to me having only recently transferred down from Scotland probably because there wasn’t much work for them due to the miner’s industrial action. These slow speed type 1’s were double stamps and distinguishable with the larger numeric transfers. Arrival in Leicester was 10 minutes down not that i cared, as this was a top way to finish the weekend with the net result of 19 lines in the book. I wasn’t quite so pleased however, that my 2145 tram home to Bedford was 25 minutes late so it was 2300 by the time i left the station at Bedford and trudged home.  

Thanks again to Mike Lewis for the memories.