Chester, late 1970s

Not even Chester's special - the Park Royal 103s?

I think you are a bit early for the 33s on the North and West route, but I don't know if any of them ever made it to Chester anyway. I don't know how early 56s were on the Stanlow Oil trains - would any of them ever have been diverted via Chester?

Don't know about 56s, but some of the Stanlow tank trains worked out via Hooton(reverse) and then through Chester for Crewe, or via the triangle direct to the Coast/Wrexham.

I'll have a look at a WTT if I can find the time (it's hell being retired!), but most of my WTTs are from steam days*...

Charlie

SNIP

Steam in the late 70's - you sure about that, unless they were charters ?

Cheers, Simon ...

Indeed it is, thanks for that.

Certain, and yes, they were!

I realise the question mainly concerns locomotives, but don't forget the Holyhead sleeper.

Ah yes, that'd be Mk 1 stock in that era I think. The other thing that occurred to me was whether there were ever any APT-P drags. I'd reserve the right to have the layout set on a perpetual engineering Sunday!

See

Can't confirm exact years without searching through old notes, but ex-works Class 56 were sometimes used on Euston - Bangor/Holyhead passenger services (from Crewe), towing a 47/4 to provide ETH. Ex-works Class 37 were also tested on this line.

Class 45 made very occasional appearances on summer saturday services, but did not become regular until some Trans Pennine services were routed to Llandudno or Bangor, which I think was later than 1980. Class 50 certainly appeared until they were removed from the WCML in 1974, and may have appeared later if they were running-in ex-Crewe Works.

Bevan

I've got photos of a 45 at Holyhead. I took them in 1985.

As someone pointed out to me a couple of years back when I made a disparaging remark about Swindon, the 50s were looked after at Doncaster.

I'm not so sure about that Chris, certainly they were refurbished at Donny in the early 1980's, the turn to get them back to the Western region was 1V93, the 0950 Edinburgh-Plymouth which they worked from York. But surely in the WCML years, they were worked on at Crewe? BICBW... In the later years, they were given F exams at Laira and little more.

Rich

Always remember Rule 1 - you built it, you can run what you want. ;-)

By the time the OP is interested in they had gone south(-west). So while you're right about the earlier period of their life, it doesn't apply to the question being asked.

In those days, I suspect their nearest approach to Crewe (apart from exceptional stuff/tours) would have been New Street on things such as the Paddingtons and the XC-Liverpools, until such time as they were displaced by HSTs. (I'd gone south myself by the end of 1980, so that may be incorrect.)

The last 50's left Crewe in May 1976, after this the closest they regularly got was Wolverhampton, or Oxley depot if you wish to be super pedantic! According to Steve Morris in his North Wales Coast Diesels book, the 1915 Euston-Holyhead and 0055 return was the most likely working for a 50 through Chester. The last known working was

Rich

Thanks all for your contributions thus far, plenty of food for thought here.

Yup, 50s are out. Just to clarify my point about APT drags, APT-Ps were just about running on the WCML if I stretch my timescale to 1981, and as some WCML 86 & 87 hauled trains were dragged through Chester on Sunday diversions, turning on the triangle west of the station, it occurred to me that there may be a real world precendent for this happening with some APT runs. I wasn't talking about Pendolino-style Holyhead drags.

Thanks again

Cestria

Slightly off topic this one but it is related. I started spotting in

If you can get hold of a copy of the book I mentioned, I think you'd find it very useful. North Wales Coast Diesels by Steve Morris, published 2008 by Ty Mawr publications, =A314.95, ISBN 0-9552354-1-3. Steve used to sell copies through ebay, try the title as a search. Not actually much about Chester in it, but if it was on the coast, it came through Chester!

Rich

Class 31s in that era very occasionally turned up at Glazebrook East (usual motive power being a 37) on chemical tanks trains, so maybe the ones you saw at Skelton were heading there.

The 31s going through Skelton usually went onto or came from the 'branch' i.e. the Chester line. They were as rare as hen's teeth so imagine my surprise one day while out by the line alone to witness 31