C69/77 Stock - Withdrawals

5588+5528 formed T707 today.

Thanks very much for that, appreciated.

Two sets of six car C stock had appeared outside Neasden this afternoon. Did'nt get chance to note numbers. Are these for Northwood or to take people away from the football at Wembley today?

Got some of the car numbers now except the one in the middle of the unit parked behind the other - 5589, 5530, 5556, 5527 and probably 5508 (last digit missing on front of car, caught a glimpse of the number on the side).

Three cars headed off to Northwood around lunch time, 5503, 5708 and 5589 left at Neasden.

To be honest, I think most would just love to see them being scrapped

Really three cars? no trailers?

yes but you said "three cars", not "three units" (which is six cars), hence my query.

I thought that I had read somewhere on this forum that a route had been made for the C's to be hauled to Eastleigh by rail for scrapping. If I recall correctly there was a clearance issue to be sorted in the Reading area then it was C all the way to Eastleigh.

A shame yes. Typical LUL/TfL stupidity

I assume the C-Stock in the sidings at Neasden yesterday is probably off for scrapping soon...

I thought the other issue with the widening for the A Stock was also that it finished so late in the scrapping scheme, that it wouldn't have been worth doing it?

My apologies to LUL/TfL then.

Surely as C's and D's run on NR metals now it must be easy approve them for haulage.

They were hauled to LUL metals in the first place so what has changed?

and probably a load of risk assessments and method statements.....

The C69/77 stock at Neasden is indeed there for scrap

I don't think you need to apologise to them. It was LU who had to get the vehicles approved for venturing out onto NR metals and that was the bit that never got completed. As you can imagine, the scrap contractors who had paid for the routes to be cleared for the stock were less than impressed, as the NR's bill was into many tens of thousands.

And yes, as I understand it, getting route clearance was a nightmare, despite lots of evidence of previous trips by the various types of stock over BR metals. I think that Eastleigh even took NR to the Office of the Rail Regulator at one point to complain about NR's lack of progress with the whole route clearance exercise. As far as I know the route up north was a lot easier, although some of this was due to the work done by Bombardier getting the route from Derby cleared for S stock deliveries.

The same problems caused the 67TS all to be moved by road, when the then LU Project Manager got exasperated with the brick wall approach from NR and gave the job to a well known road haulier.  

One other issue with moving stock by rail is that the main haulage contractor has had their work cut out moving the S stock around, particularly as they have had to take S8 back to Derby and play musical chairs with the S7s between Derby and Old Dalby. The huge delay in delivery to London of the latter has been a real issue for everybody except LU it seems. Last reports were that all of the units to replace the C stock have been built and most are still sat around in the Midlands.