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Post by rogere on Nov 17, 2009 22:59:07 GMT
I seem to remember seeing at Chesham in mid 1960s an unloved Royal Scot (I think - it was a 4-6-0 tender loco) looking very sorry for itself in the old Goods Yard. It appeared it had worked the stopping goods, but was too heavy for the 2 bridges at the Moor, and wasn't allowed to work back under its' own steam so eventually had to be towed out dead a couple of days later.
However I have lost the old 127 format negatives and photos I took, so have no proof.
Can anyone confirm this, or am I just going senile?
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roythebus
Pleased to say the restoration of BEA coach MLL738 is as complete as it can be, now restoring MLL721
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Post by roythebus on Nov 18, 2009 9:31:24 GMT
I can't confirm it, but it would have been most unusual for a Scot to work the ex GC line. It may well have been a Black 5 as they were regular performers on the Met.
It seems a bit daft that it got there and was too heavy to work back? a bit like the story of the SNCF wagon that turned up at Hither Green continental goods depot. What do we do with it, it's too big for BR. Control reply: send it back the same way it got here...
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 18, 2009 12:19:10 GMT
The Royal Scots were actually regulars on the GC line towards the end of through trains, in the mid-1960s, as they had been displaced from elsewhere by diesels. They were operated from Annesley depot, Nottingham, and appeared to never have been cleaned during their time there, so they looked dreadful. They would lay over at Neasden steam shed, or what remained of it by this time. They tended to last just until they had a major failure, when they were then sent for scrap and another spare one was drafted in.
Turning up at Chesham is a different matter, but they were normal on the main line and would have been normal spare locomotives at Neasden.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 18, 2009 18:23:49 GMT
'Send it back the way it got here' was also used to return GWR 'Castle' class 5050 'Earl Of St Germans' after it reached Portsmouth Harbour in 1963. It was impounded at Fratton for three weeks until the decision was made to do the above to the extent that it ran 'wrong road' at least as far as Fareham! This came from my Eastleigh Depot Manager in the Mainline Freight days who was booking boy in Cosham Junction box when it happened.
The first 'Scot' to be allocated to the GC was 46106 which was based at Leicester for a couple of months in 1962. It was late summer 1962 that four 'Scots' arrived at Annesley. They were in ropey condition and one, 46143 failed at Chalfont on the 7th of November that year and caused severe disruption to the MET. The loco was still stuck at Rickmansworth a week later. Scots continued to work on the line for a couple of years before Annesley closed at the end of 1965. They were so rough that they even appeared on such turns as the Aylesbury station pilot!
GC motive power could be exceptional. Just about anything was possible and photographic evidence exists for some bizarre workings. Believe me, a Scot at Chesham would not be the most unusual GC loco working by a long way.....
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