Multiple units

• In the 1980s most Tyseley DMUs were three-car Class 116 sets, but there were also a number of mixed sets containing vehicles of other types. They never had many Class 100 Gloucester-built units, but there were one or two odd cars in use at various times. In this shot a Class 100 DMBS peeks out into the evening sun while standing at New St (platform 10b).
• Met-Camm power twin E50321+E51427 arrives at Quorn with the 16:20 Loughborough - Rothley. This was taken at 16:25 on Friday 29th April 2005, and it was something of a consolation prize after D123 on the 15:45 from Loughborough came past while the sun was behind a cloud.
• A Class 101 power-twin formed of vehicles 53160 and 53164 arrived at the Chasewater Light Railway in late 2006. This set carried unit number 101685 in its last years of service working off Longsight depot in Manchester, where it was colloquially known as "Daisy",. It was withdrawn from traffic at Christmas 2003, a mere 47 years after these vehicles entered service. This shot was taken at 13.21 on Sunday 14th January 2007, and shows the 50 year old DMU departing from Chasewater Heaths with 53164 leading.
• Tyseley based DMU twin T208 coasts through Ryecroft Jct with a Hednesford - Walsall service in a shot which was probably taken during the summer of 1989. Ryecroft was still looking remarkably rural back then, despite the fact that it's almost in the centre of Walsall. New housing would soon be built on the land to the right, and unchecked tree growth would close down the view, but at this stage you could still see Mill Lane bridge in the background and trains off the Sutton Park line were visible as they crossed Cartbridge Lane.
• T408 forms a southbound Cross-City train, seen leaving Four Oaks in the late summer of 1989. Much was to change at Four Oaks when electrification came in 1992/93. Apart from the masts and wiring the signalbox closed, with control of the line passing to the Aston Signalling Centre (located at Duddeston in the old Vauxhall Shunt Frame). The DMUs also disappeared, being superceded first by a mix of older EMUs, and a year or two later by the Class 323s which are still used today. Trains still turn back at Four Oaks - in the midweek off-peak timetable there are six trains an hour on the Cross-City, of which two turn at Lichfield Trent Valley, two at Lichfield City and two at Four Oaks.
• 150003 departs from Kidderminster at 16:28 on Friday 10th August 2007.
• 150217 passes Leamore, just south of Bloxwich, at 16:05 on Monday 30th May 2005. The train is 2H69, the 15:42 New St - Rugeley Trent Valley. I'd gone out for 66557 on a Rugeley-bound coal train but it came about one minute too soon, just before the sun emerged and just before I'd got my camera out of the bag. Not wishing to waste the rather nice light I hung on for the unit, which was just about worth doing as it was one of the recent acquisitions from Anglia, and had yet to be spoilt by having Central Trains branding splashed all over it. I'm fond of this spot, but the background of trees can make it awkward for green-liveried trains, and it also makes for largish JPEGs as all the leaf detail doesn't compress as well as sky.
• 150235 approaches Cosford at 13:58 on Saturday 20th September 2008. It was forming 1D15, the 13:33 New St - Chester, which I'd have expected to be formed of a Class 158. Doesn't sound at all right, a Class 1 train formed of a 150.
• 150237 passes Leamore at 14:16 on Wednesday 21st February 2007 while forming the 13:35 Stafford - New St (2H15). I'd gone out hoping to bag a Class 66 on a coal, but this unit was the only train that came past in what was rather nice light.
• 150248 formed 2094 Worcester - Weymouth on Thursday 8th May 2008, photographed passing Croome Perry at 15:17.
• When I visited Whittlesey on Friday 8th September 2006 I had to have a picture of the signalbox. Ideally the train in this shot would have been a freight, preferably one with a GBRf Class 66 on the front as this is their patch. If it had to be a unit I'd have preferred a One Railway version. In the event the only freight which came west in the right time slot was the Whitemoor - Tallington trip which was hauled by 66240, and it passed while the sun was behind a cloud (again). In fact four or five units came past before the sun shone properly on one of them, and that one happened to be 158783 working 1M22, the 12:57 Norwich - Liverpool.
• 158950 passes Croome Perry while forming the 14:51 Great Malvern - Weymouth. This picture was taken at 15:18 on Friday 3rd October 2008.
• An unidentified Class 158 passes Bagillt at 14:01 on Friday 24th October 2008. It's forming the 12:35 Holyhead - Cardiff, due Flint 14:03.
• Wrexham and Shropshire ran three additional trains in connection with the Shrewsbury - Gillingham play-off game at Wembley on Saturday 23rd May 2009. The first was a relief train, propelled by 67015. The second was a footex top-and-tailed by 67010 and 67021. The third one was also a footex, and the most interesting of the three as it used a pair of Class 168 units hired from Chiltern. These units aren't normally seen north of Birmingham. but 168215 did a test run to Shrewsbury on Tuesday 19th May. The footex itself was formed of 168216 and 168217, and ran as 1Z03 10:07 Shrewsbury - Wembley - Marylebone. It's seen here passing Hamstead, a few minutes early, at 10:58.
• 170110 formed 1M75, the 16:45 Cardiff - Nottingham, on Tuesday 13th May 2008. It's seen here passing Spetchley at 18:21.
• On the same day as the shot at Whittlesey above, 170201 worked 1E78 12:38 Liverpool St - Peterborough via Ipswich and Bury St Edmunds. It's seen here arriving at March, bang on time at 15:15, and passing 66555 standing in the down loop. The freight is 6M14, the Harlow - Bardon Hill stone empties. This is a bit of an opportunist shot, as I'd only stopped in March to get a drink, and 6M14 was stood in the loop as I drove over the level crossing. It followed the unit, but when it departed the sun was yet again behind a cloud and the scene was only half-lit.
• 170398 runs alongside the motorway as it passes Bescot at 14:22 on Saturday 3rd March 2007. Stour Valley trains were being diverted via Bescot at this time, in addition to the regular Trent Valley trains which are booked this way at weekends. I suspect the train is 2J41, the 13:57 New St - Shrewsbury (due Wolves at 14:15). Scheduled Trent Valley diversions no longer produce a significant volume of traffic along the Grand Junction, not in the daytime anyway, as many of them are booked to run via the Stour and call at New St. However a Stour diversion is a different thing altogether and trains tend to follow each other when this happens. The spot from which this photo is taken was once the site of Bescot Drop Forgings. It's currently something of a wasteland, with several large piles of earth in place. However the land has been acquired for development and this view is unlikely to be available for long.
• 170507 whizzes through Portway in the glorious late-afternoon light of Wednesday 31st October 2007. A couple of freights passed around the same time, but neither were lit as well as this unit.
• 170516 formed the 07:35 Stafford - New St on Thursday 15th November. It was 10 minutes late when photographed passing Bescot at 08:32. This was the first week of the new London Midland franchise and the 150s had nearly all disappeared from the Walsall/Cannock line, being replaced by 170 and 170+153 combinations.
• 175105 passes Penmaenmawr at 11:18 on Friday 24th October 2008. It was forming the 10:30 Holyhead - Cardiff.
• 175102 approaches Craven Arms at 17:36 on Tuesday 2nd June 2009. This service was the 13:10 Milford Haven - Manchester, due here at 17:28.
• An unidentified Class 304 heads south along the Stour Valley line at 13:05 on Friday 5th February 1993. The location is just south of the erstwhile Bloomfield Jct, near Tipton station. Nowadays it's almost impossible to take wide angle views like this around the Black Country due to a combination of tree growth, fencing and new buildings. My lunchtime outing from work on this day wouldn't have been to take shots of units, but probably to try and photograph the 6E28 Wolverhampton - Lackenby empty steel, which was being diverted that week due to a problem at Galton Jct. An assisting loco was being attached to the rear of 6E28, which reversed at (Tipton) Watery Lane loop and was dragged back north to Wolverhampton station. Here the assisting engine was removed and the train proceeded via Portobello Jct to regain its booked routed at Pleck Jct. Evidently I didn't see 6E28 on Friday 5th, but I had caught it on Wednesday 3rd, on which day 37883 was the train engine and 31423+31405 were the assisting locos.
• 1994 was very much a transition period on the Walsall line. Hednesford trains were being worked by Class 150s, plus the occasional Class 156. Meantime Walsall trains were being worked by a mish-mash of first generation DMUs including Classes 116, 117 and the odd 119, plus EMUs of Classes 304, 308 and 310. I rather regret not taking more shots of the 308s, although I did manage some of the DMUs. Now very much in the autumn of its life 304008 is seen just north of Hamstead, forming the 14:03 New St - Walsall on Saturday 23rd March 1994. The earliest batch of 304s, including this one, were new in 1960. The last ones ran in 1996.
• 304021 rolls off the Stockport line into Wilmslow with a train for Alderley Edge. This picture was taken at 17.29 on Monday 15th April 1991. I can't remember what prompted me to alight at Wilmslow on my way home from Manchester, other than the glorious light. As well as this unit I also photographed 86209 on 1G62, the 17.18 Piccadilly - New St, and 304013 on a local to Crewe. I remember the 304s with great fondness. The doors in each bay could lead to icy draughts when people alighted in the winter, but the heaters were so good that you were instantly warm once the door was shut. Not that heat was an issue on this lovely spring day, as the number of open droplights testifies.
• 309611 and 309615 head north past the site of Tipton Gas Works with the "Network Exile" railtour on Saturday 15th November 1986. In the mid to late 1990s there were workings for Manchester-based Class 309s that brought them to the West Midlands - but this 1986 railtour produced bona fide Eastern Region units that never normally appeared on the LMR. In later years other railtours would take them away from their usual Essex haunts, but this one was, I think, the groundbreaker. It also visited Walsall using the Darlaston - Pleck chord (rarely used by electric trains), and eventually ended up in the Manchester area, taking in the Hadfield branch which hadn't long been converted to 25KV.
• Class 310 EMU 070 stands at New St with a Manchester train in the summer of 1980. These units still had the original rounded cab windows at this time. I don't recall AM10s being all that common north of Stafford, this being Class 304 territory. Of course I'm assuming the destination blind is accurate, which I suspect it is.
• 313109 arrives at Clapham Jct off the West London line. This shot was taken at 11:23 on Thursday 9th September 2004.
• History already. Class 321s started working Walsall line services in 2007, but by the end of 2008 it was all over. This is 321420 forming the 16:00 Walsall - Birmingham International, passing over the River Tame south of Tame Bridge at 16:09 on Monday 30th June 2008.
• 323212 approaches Bescot station with the 15:57 New St - Walsall local. This shot was taken at 16:22 on Thursday 4th September 2008, so it was running 5 late - no surprise given the amount of traffic on the Grand Junction during this week. The Trent Valley line was closed, and as usual the hourly Birmingham - Walsall semi-fast trains were cancelled to create some extra paths, leaving the twice-an-hour stoppers and the hourly Cannock line service. The latter was also terminating short at Hednesford, with a replacement bus covering the Hednesford - Rugeley - Stafford leg.
• 4-EPB unit 5248 departs from Petts Wood with a down service. Headcode 12 indicates that this was a Charing Cross - Orpington train, and thus Petts Wood would have been the penultimate stop. 4-EPB units were later designated Class 415, and they came in two varieties: the S.R. variant and the later B.R. design. The S.R. units were built between 1951 and 1957, and 5248 was one of the later ones. This picture was taken in autumn 1989, by which time the unit would have been facelifted (and thus been designated 415/4). EPBs lasted on the South-Eastern division until 1995.
• This is another photo from the same session which yielded the shot of 5248 above. This pic shows a pair of 4-CEP units, with refurbished 1516 leading. I don't recall seeing too many blue and grey units on this day, they were getting a bit scarce at this stage. I have a similar shot of one in Jaffa Cake livery, and NSE liveried units were also quite common - but this blue-and-grey one looks better in my view. Headcode 18 indicates a Victoria - Ramsgate/Margate train. I always had a soft spot for CEPs, with fond memories of seeing 13 and 14 coach boat trains at places like Ashford and Tonbridge. If I recall correctly these were formed CEP+BEP+CEP, plus MLV or MLV+TLV.
• 4-VEP 7827 arrives at Portsmouth Harbour in this shot which was taken in the spring of 1980. Route 82 indicates that this is a semi-fast from Waterloo. To the best of my recall I've only ever been to Portsmouth Harbour while en-route to the Isle of Wight, and taking a few pictures from the platform end would have almost certainly been a time filling move. Looking back I wish that I'd taken more pictures of first-generation units, especially Southern Region EMUs like this one.
• A pair of 4-CIGs with 1395 bringing up the rear leave Clapham Jct en-route to Waterloo. This shot was taken at 11:21 on Thursday 9th September 2004.
• Lymington branch aside, the final workings of slam-door units on the Southern Region took place at the end of November 2005 - and I took my last photos of these units in the previous June. This shot shows 4-VEP 3454 passing Wandsworth Road at 15.31 on Tuesday 7th June 2005. I'm not sure what the actual working was, but route 64 is Hastings/Eastbourne to Victoria.
• An hour or so before the previous shot 3587 headed south past Wandsworth Road at 14.23. Not my best composition this, being something of a grab shot as I'd only just arrived when this train came by. By mid-2005 slammers were getting uncommon and I didn't manage a better shot of a southbound train, despite hanging around for quite a while.
• A Class 506 unit calls at Guide Bridge with a Hadfield - Manchester Piccadilly train. Note the Class 76 loco just visible to the left of the signalbox. I've got no date for this picture but it would have been taken in 1979 or 1980 I think. Although this is almost certainly a midweek picture most of my visits to Guide Bridge were made at weekends using "Saturday Saver" tickets from Walsall or Birmingham. Our itinerary never varied: train to Reddish North and walk to Reddish depot; back to Piccadilly and out to Guide Bridge for the stabling point there. Then walk to Victoria for a train to Dean Lane and Newton Heath depot. Back to Victoria for an hour watching the units, having something to eat and a sit down. And finally walk back to Piccadilly for the train home. Manchester's depots had a friendly reputation and we were never refused at any of these sheds or stabling points.