Class 20

• Normal practise at Bescot is that engines coming off the fuel roads collect at the north end of the depot. In days of old, when enough locos had gathered, or they were in the way, a bunch of them would be moved to the Holding Sidings to await their next duties. The local spotters used to call these moves "convoys", and they'd typically consist of four to seven locos. In the 1980s the former Up Reception Sidings (now the Virtual Quarry) were used to stable locos - thus convoys would come through the southbound platform at Bescot station and into the Up Loop on a move which required two reversals. This particular group were photographed at 15:50 on Monday 12th August 1988, and consisted of 20045+20159, 31309, 31124, 31464 with 31275 leading. The Roarer on the left is 85012. These sort of moves no longer take place, there simply aren't enough locos around to require them.
• D8048 and D8098 stand at Leicester North with the 10:00 from Loughborough. This shot was taken at 10:29 on Friday 29th April 2005, the first day of a 1960s weekend at the Great Central Railway.
• A pair of 20s led by 20068 is seen on Bescot Curve with a mixed freight. The consist suggests an inter-regional train, if so it would probably have originated at Gloucester or Severn Tunnel Jct.
• 20075 and 20128 stand in the loop at Bloxwich with the 6T45 trip to Washwood Heath. This photo was taken at about 10:00 on Thursday 8th June 1995. After leaving Bloxwich the train made a traffic stop at Bescot and on this day it collected a cartic set before setting off for Washwood. BRT Class 20s had only just taken over the T45 duty, and this was one of the first workings.
• The same pair worked T45 on Thursday 29th June, and are seen passing Ryecroft at 11:06 en-route from Washwood Heath to Bescot. As well as the Bloxwich traffic this trip conveyed various bits-and-bobs such as cripple wagons and fuel tanks for Bescot TMD - hence the four TTA tanks seen here.
• 20075 and 37201 head the 7G07 Bescot - Honeybourne spoil train as it passes Lower Moor between Norton Jct and Evesham. This shot was taken at 12:33 on Wednesday 9th August 1995. The 37 was booked to work this train on its own, but the crew requested extra power due to the load - a Class 20 being specially requested. This resulted in a late start from Bescot, and after waiting for a path at both Droitwich and Worcester it was a couple of hours down at this point. A picture of the return working can be found on the Class 37 page.
• 20075 and 20128 depart from Stud Farm with the 7G63 ballast to Bescot. This shot was taken at 13:03 on Wednesday 27th September 1995. The BRT 20s were only occasional visitors to Stud Farm, and as the sky suggests getting them in any sort of light on this day proved to be hard work.
• 20075 passes Lye with the 6G75 Brierley Hill - Bescot trip on Wednesday 25th September 1996. This was a very unusual working for a BRT 20, and from memory it was the only time it happened. The load of the inward 6G74 from Bescot consisted of just three wagons, and with a single SPA going back it was very suited to Type 1 traction. 6G74 left Bescot at 09:35 and arrived Brierley Hill at 10:45, after a run-round at Stourbridge Jct of course. 6G75 departed Brierley Hill at 11:25, leaving me ample time to drive the couple of miles to Lye and get this shot at 11:57.
• 20075 and 20187 depart from Bescot with the afternoon L95 engineers trip to Crewe on Tuesday 18th March 1997. This trip, whose regular stamping grounds included Crewe, Stoke, Nuneaton and of course Bescot, was the third and last of the regular BRT Class 20 jobs. This particular pair were in regular use from January to March 1997, working mainly L95 trips and Ironbridge coal trains, the latter largely responsible for their filthy condition. Ten days later, on 28th March (Good Friday), these two were used for the last time in their BRT colours. All four of the BRT Choppers were subsequently purchased by DRS and converted to 20/3s (306-309) - and ten years later they're all still in traffic.
• 20081 and 20016 take a Sheffield - Bristol railtour through Longbridge at 11:26 on Saturday 27th April 1991. This was a "Class 20 Society" charter - and their elegant and appropriately shaped headboard graces the leading loco. The train had made a passenger stop at King's Norton and I can still remember being able to hear the Choppers accelerating through Northfield long before it came into sight from my spot on the end of the platform at Longbridge station.
• 20090 and 20120 stand in the platform at Smethwick West with the "Velvet Glove" railtour. This shot was taken at about 12:50 on Monday 6th May 1991. The train had just returned from the Handsworth branch with the 20s at the rear, and after this reversal at Smethwick was about to set off for Ironbridge via New St and Sutton Park.
• 20096 and 20905 again work off Bescot depot at 13:52 on Thursday 29th June 2006. They'd been to Bescot to collect 37667, just visible behind the Choppers, and take it Barrow Hill. It was a rare pleasure to hear the whistling of Class 20s at Bescot for a couple of hours. DRS Choppers pass by on the Bridgwater flasks, but that train runs about once-a-week on average, is not often 2x20, and goes straight through without stopping. Not the same thing at all.
• 20097 propels the Bilston - Wednesbury trip freight through Moxley at 17:58 on Tuesday 6th September 1988. The traffic is loaded scrap wagons from the Norton Barrow scrapyard. At Wednesbury the locomotive will run-round the train, probably attach some other traffic, and then go forward to Bescot. During 1988 the Wednesbury trip was worked by a single Class 20, the same loco usually sticking for several weeks at a time. This stretch of track between Bilston and Wednesbury now forms part of the Midland Metro route.
• 20218 and 20099 coast towards Tutbury & Hatton with a Crewe - Derby local service. This shot was taken in the summer of 1989 and unfortunately the details are in my lost notebook from this period. A shortage of Sprinters meant that Crewe - Derby local services were loco-hauled, mainly by 20s, for several weeks. This particular day was a Saturday I think.
• I'd arrived at Tutbury from Derby behind a different pair of 20s. Having bagged 20218 and 20099 on their way to Derby (see previous pic) it was simply a case of waiting for them to return on the next service so that I could get a shot with sun on the nose. Sitting on the quiet footbridge near the River Dove was a pleasant way to pass an hour or so on this warm summer's day. After this shot it was a short walk back to the station for a 20-hauled train back to Derby and more shots there.
• 20128 and 20075 climb away from Ryecroft (Walsall) on Monday 13th May 1996 with a BRT train from Bescot Down Yard. The trains is 6L95 Bescot - Beeston. From Summer 1995 to Easter 1997 the four operational BRT-liveried Class 20s were based at Bescot and used by Transrail/EWS on their own work when not needed for BRT duties. Such duties were few and far between, and the arrangement with Transrail and EWS was intended to keep the locos active and thus serviceable. In practise there were rarely more than two of the four available for traffic at any given time. Indeed for most of the second half of 1996 only 20075 was serviceable. Thanks to Paul R for the reporting number and destination of this train. Paul photographed this train at Trent Jct.
• 20128 and 20075 coast downhill from Bloxwich at 13:57 (BST) on Thursday 21st September 1995. This is the 6T45 Bloxwich - Washwood Heath trip, the first of the regular jobs undertaken by BRT Class 20s during the two years between 1995 and 1997.
• Not a brilliant composition this, but by 1995 there weren't many angles available for shots of trains entering the smelter sidings at Bloxwich. This glorious morning was Tuesday 25th July 1995. 20075 and 20128 are crossing Fryers Road at around 10:00, but my notes don't reveal whether they were going in or coming out of the sidings in this shot. There were no lights or barriers here, it was the duty of one of the factory staff to open the gates to the yard, stop the traffic, and hold the stop sign. My earliest visits to Bloxwich in the 1980s pre-dated the stop sign, in those days a beaten up old red flag was waved in the general direction of the traffic until it stopped. My somewhat cryptic notes suggest that T45 had run Bescot to Washwood Heath circa 06:00, possibly light engine. They'd returned to Bescot with some car-carriers and a 100 ton tank, and then taken a single Ferrywaggon to Bloxwich, leaving Bescot at 09:30. They were at Bloxwich from 09:45 to 10:10, and then returned light engine to Bescot. Typical that there was no return traffic on a cloudless day such as this. Looking back now I wonder why I have no shot of the outbound working? Maybe I wasn't there in time.
• D8137 passes Hailes on Sunday 1st April 2007 with the 09:00 Winchcombe - Toddington ECS. The occasion was the Spring Diesel Gala at the Glos Warks Railway.
• Another shot of D8137 on Sunday 1st April 2007, this time trundling into Gotherington at 11:52 with the 11:30 Toddington - Cheltenham.
• And a third one of D8137, this time with 73129. This duo were passing Hailes with the 10:00 Cheltenham - Toddington at 10:40 on Saturday 1st April 2006.
• This shot was taken on a spotting trip to Scotland in the summer of 1979, on Wednesday 30th May to be precise. When the crossing gates at Dunfermline Townhill came down we would obviously have waited to see what came along. What came along was 20184 and 20206 on a westbound coal, probably bound for Longannet but evidently going into Townhill loop/yard given that the subsidiary arm of the signal is off. Such trips did provide the occasional opportunity to get shots of moving trains, but most of the pics I took were of engines stabled on the depots that we were visiting.
• 20190 and 20104 were working the 6T43 Round Oak - Washwood Heath steel trip when signal-checked near Ryecroft on Tuesday 19th February 1991. At this time West Midland steel traffic was centred on Washwood Heath rather than Bescot, which meant quite a few trips made the journey through Sutton Park as most of the West Midland steel terminals were in the Black Country. The T43 trip was worked by the engines off the Boston - Round Oak train which arrived at Round Oak around 08:00. After an out-and-back trip to Washwood Heath in the morning the locos would take the Boston empties away from Round Oak in the afternoon.
• 20197 and 20013 arrive back at Bescot with a weekend ballast train. This shot was taken at 12.18 on a glorious autumn day, Sunday 30th October 1988. The platforms had yet to be widened, that happened when Walsall FC moved from Fellows Park to Bescot Stadium in 1990.
• 20314 and 20307 pass Norton with the 6M67 Bridgwater - Crewe on Monday 7th August 2006. This shot would have been better if the train had run 15 or 20 minutes later, as that would have put some light on the nose. Nonetheless I was pleased with this photo which came out much better than I'd imagined when I took it. A couple of lamp posts have been cloned out of the background.
• Another shot of 6M67 on 7th August 2006. This picture shows it about to cross over the A442 at Hampton Lovett, just north of Droitwich. One virtue of a short train is that it fits comfortably into a side-on shot.
• At the time I took it I didn't think this shot was going to be usable, but on closer inspection it turned out that there were some fairly faint shadows on the train. A hefty chunk of levels and curves adjustment has generated a much more presentable shot than the original image. Sometimes you just have to "cheat" a bit, and being shafted by the light after a three hour wait is one of those times. 20311 and 20315 approach Kidderminster with the 6M67 Bridgwater - Crewe flask at 18:29 on Thursday 9th August 2007.
• 20901 and 20904 top-and-tail a weedkiller train as it heads south through Bromsgrove on Saturday 12th August 1995. The background of this shot has changed somewhat in recent years: the oil depot has gone, and houses are being built on the site behind where the trees stand.
• 20901 and 20096 draw into Oakworth with the 12:45 Keighley - Oxenhope on Saturday 2nd August 2003. There's a recording of this pair working the 15:00 Keighley at the bottom of the sound recordings page.
• 20901 and 20905 haul 37412 37672 and 37029 through Stenson Jct at 11:30 on Friday 20th March 2009. The train was 6Z37 Barrow Hill - Long Marston.
• Saturday 17th December 2005 saw 20905 and 20096 work a 5Z22 Gloucester - Long Marston special consisting of stored HST vehicles. The ensemble is seen here passing Lower Moor, near Pershore, at 10:11. It's been a decade since I last visited this location, the picture of 20075 and 37201 above was taken from the bridge in the background of this shot. The fact that both pictures feature Class 20s is quite a co-incidence given their rarity on this line.
• Same spot, but rather different weather. Under a slate grey sky which matches the locomotive livery 20905 and 20901 pass Lower Moor on Tuesday 8th January 2008 with a 5Z90 Crewe - Long Marston special. The four Arriva carriages had been intended for use on North Wales loco-hauled services, and had spent several months engaged on crew-training trips before the plan was changed and some extra multiple-units were found instead. With no work in the offing the stock was duly despatched to Long Marston for storage, where it joined an ever-increasing array of locomotives, carriages and wagons.
• 20906 brings up the rear of a weedkiller train as it drops down towards Ryecroft junction. This shot was taken in the summer or early autumn of 1989. At the time the vegetation around Mill Lane still permitted a view of the Walsall skyline, these days all you can see from this spot are trees. Visible above the cab of the 20 is the trackbed of the Lichfield line, which closed in 1984.