Organiser – D Tours
Headcode 1Z49
Ching £15
Load 9 x Mk 1
Power 33051 n 33030, 33026
The 0008 Kings X – Cambridge class 317 unit was an unlikely meeting point for me, Tony Ewer and Steve Wolverton. We’d had a few beers but most of the train seemed filled with totally pissed people! even more so at Finsbury Park our bailing point..
300 or so cranks waited on Finsbury’s far up platform, plenty of noise too, the atmosphere highly charged as we departed South right time at 0053! Then with plenty spare room to the music of thrashing Cromptons up front, we all fell asleep!
Me and Tony both stirred at the hour long photo stop (0322-0417) a Dover Priory, Tony commentating “mind the sleeping beauties” as we crept passed sprawled out, semi comatose bashers! I’m pretty sure we photted the pair up front but alas i have yet to find the photo. The tour handout advised that as Dover Priory is a “residential area” so please “avoid making excessive noise”. Well i can confirm that only some loud snoring could be heard at Dover.
We departed West into the rain, my comment that we were on 2 of just 8 surviving operational Cromptons , was depressing. We next awoke at Kensington Olympia around 0615 where a “mystery loco” was booked to take us into Waterloo via Latchmere/West London Jn. Most of the train was sort of awake by now and most were pleased that 33026 was backing on as the mystery engine.
So in all we had 3 of the remaining 8 operational Cromptons with some decent Kentish mileage (total tour mileage 177 miles), some good thrash and a good sleep! At Waterloo many scattered for breakfast before doing the daytime “Classic Crompton” tour, we flagged this to spend the day in London unit bashing.
From the late Tony Ewer is this gloomy view of 33026 at the blocks of Waterloo with the Overnight Bag tour of April 26th 1987. 33026 had worked the tour from Kensington Olympia via the rare Latchmere curve.
We were later to learn that this superb tour for the 300 or so that did it, ran at a small loss, all very depressing, Railtour economics were changing to make riotous tours like the “Overnight Bag” history, much like the Cromptons themselves………………..
At that time the “up Midnight” served Waterloo rather than Padd to assist with Eurostar connections, heres 47846 “Thor” at the blocks with the 2100 ex Penzance in dodgy white livery
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