the Inter-City diesel day, May 89

The Inter City diesel day, Sunday May 21^st 1989

For once a major railway event on our doorsteps and it looked as if we were all there! This Hertfordshire Railtours classic involved 9 rare freight locos, 3 big rakes of stock and 6 return trips from St Pancras to Leicester. The special services also called at Wellinborough and Luton adding to the local flavour. The sun shone all day and we all (huge numbers!) enjoyed ourselves! One strong memory was at Luton amongst a massive crowd of bashers on Platform 1 awaiting 37058 North…Cue an announcement “due overcrowding, you will not all be able to join this train!” I think 56017 was held at Luton to attract a few punters away from the hordes, needless to say we all got aboard 37058 that morning, was a bit cosy though. The diesel day possibly saw 58050’s maiden passenger working. A fantastic day all round!

Sample moves

21/5/89 Su

53890}

59726}            0619 M.Keynes-Euston                                                          LB-EU

51138}

33021}            0850 St.Pancras-Leicester                                                       SP-WE

33022}

56017              0955 Leicester-St.Pancras                                                       WE-LU

37058              1040 St.Pancras-Leicester                                                       LU-LS

20228}            1255 Leicester-St.Pancras                                                       LS-LU

20145}

47347              1440 St. Pancras-Leicester                                                      LU-WE

58050              1520 Leicester-St.Pancras                                                       WE-SP

08573              Shunt release                                                               (and back)       SP-CS

58050  1855 St.Pancras-Leicester                                                                   SP-LU

37058}            1810 Leicester-St.Pancras                                                       LU-SP

37066}

317312}          2015 Euston-Birmingham                                                       EU-LB

317308}

85036  1620 Holyhead-Euston                                  

Thanks to Mark Beal, Trevor Rolfe and Robin Morel for these superb phots.  

 Station pilot 08573 was kept busy shunt releasing various exotic engines from the stops

 Must be a future caption competition here!, 33021 and 33022 leave Wellinborough

 Fantastic! 56017 eases into Wellinborough

 The rare 47347 leaves Wellinboro, from memory I think someone cleared their 47’s for haulage with this one that day

“Split box” on the Midland, 37058 heads 1T11 1040 St Pancras-Leicester North, a “60A” phot

 Fantastic, 20’s at Pancras!, 20145/20228 prior to departure with the 1555 to Leicester

 A crowded Leicester platform

 55022 and an RT bus (out of site) were on display at Pancras

 58050 eases into Wellinboro

 Instant memories for anyone who misspent their youth at Luton, we saw umpteen peaks and 47’s stop here but not many 58’s

What a day!

end