Looking back in fact I did a lot less bashing in early 84 than I expected, but bagged one quite big NB 40 and a rare trip to dundee in 84 with a 40.
I must have an earlier bashing/spotting book because I met a certain Mr. Christopher Gibb behind 37014 / ETHEL on a night when Peter Walker made up time and I rode this one of my beasts to Dumbarton for a late night home.
Here was the rest of march after bagging , neigh, blagging 40 155
10.03.1984
09:06:00 Home Arrochar 37011
09:45:00 Arrochar Helensburgh Upper 37178
10:33:00 Helensburgh Upper Arrochar 37083
11:15:00 Arrochar Helensburgh Upper 37184
12:24:00 Helensbugh Central Dumbarton Central 314212
12:51:00 Dumbarton Crianlarich 37037
14:10:00 Crianlarich Helensburgh Upper 37011
16:45:00 Helensbugh Central Dumbarton Central 303
17:33:00 Dumbarton Glasgow QS 37175
18:20:00 Glasgow QS Arrochar 37011
19:45:00 Arrochar Home 37037 paired to 37012
Not such an uneventful day out as it seems: 178 was fairly rare on passengers for some reason, it was boilered, and 184 was really an IS loco.
175 was spitting flames by that time and performed clagg and burn on that run. 37012 was probably failing but both locos were in working order blue starred up. Worth missing ETHEL for the pair doubel mileage.
17.03.1984 Mystex
07:24:00 Helensbugh Central Glasgow C Low Level 303-314
09:00:00 Glasgow C Crewe 86220
12:30:00 Crewe Shrewsbury 47412
12:53:00 Shrewsbury Crewe 33060
16:06:00 Crewe Shrewsbury 33060
18:10:00 Shrewsbury Crewe 47412
19:10:00 Crewe Glasgow Central 85034
22:59:00 Glasgow QS low level Helensburgh Central 303
First haulage by those lovely little shreddies: well, what else is there to say up until 12:53 that day: a gennie duff, noooo big deal in 84. I was well impressed with the speed the shreddies could do south of crew and smooth acceleration. Another fine type 3: which SCR were sadly deprived of!
Good chippy by the river in Shrewsbury: most flooded chippy in the UK thereafter I beleive. Best chips I have EVER had!
Roarer for a long, long train back: roaring was good though on the WCML as their days were numbered. IIRC there was a detonator over beatock and we went to Charlie Browns on Queen Street for samosa and chips. Brilliant waste of time.
31.03.1984 Green Ticket with Chris Gibb
09:06:00 Home Arrochar 37192
09:45:00 Arrochar Glasgow QS 37022
11:30:00 Glasgow QS Edinburgh Waverley 47703
12:26:00 Edinburgh Wav Haymarket 47476
12:44:00 Haymarket Edinburgh Waverley 47274
13:17:00 Edinburgh Wav Dundee 40024
15:21:00 Dundee Edinburgh Waverley 40024
17:00:00 Edinburgh Waverley Glasgow QS 47710
18:20:00 Glasgow QS Home 37192
On a rather usual transcard day, "Cocoa the clown" as the poor bloke was called, a nice bloke who didn't hate insects, declared "sixteen wheels on edinburgh" and also with some frikkin crystal ball that the next type five freighter would be two stroke!
Chris Gibb is out for the day and "withered" at the thought of a 40. A scottish region "green" cheapy family ticket is on for the day, so we acquire one and head off for the "dundee circuit". Right enough, 40 024 had done one tour and back and was awaiting us, steaming.
Good thrash out the tunnel but after the bridge junction it really was fairly pedestrian with the 40 ambling along both ways for some reason.
Back home on the erstwhile 37 192.
14.04.1984 Mystex 1Z10
07:24:00 Helensbugh Central Glasgow C Low Level 303-314
09:00:00 Glasgow C Warrington 86322
12:30:00 Warrington Llandudno 45132
14:52:00 Llandudno Llandudno Jnct DMU
16:26:00 Llandudno Jnct Llandudno DMU
17:20:00 Llandudno Warrington 45132
19:04:00 Warrington Glasgow Central 86322
Mr Gibb and baglet in tow: this time he was withered to see a nose and three windows at Warrington curves only for it to reveal itself as an ETH Wagon. I think he probably had tried to fix it, but no roarer and a dumn sister in laws sister baglet made for a wry tour.
Viser innlegg med etiketten bashing. Vis alle innlegg
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onsdag 18. august 2010
fredag 30. juli 2010
1H84
When you got a little up the ranks or experience as a basher, you needed to get a little platform 5 publication called "1H8x" with a nice photo of a train carrying that head code with the coincidental year, from 10 years before. ( which seemed like ancient egypt to us).
Trains still carried a "head code" on paper and in the TOPS computer system. In order to use the printed reports from the latter, which sometimes got in the grubby hands of bashers, you needed the codes as TOPS works on an abbreviated system using these as UIDs if you like. Also it makes you sound more professional talking about 1S45 instead of " the 1010 from Kings Cross to Edinburgh".
So come the Orwellian year, the book was IH84 and IIRC the cover was a centre box 40 displaying the actual code.
Some trains which had been standard type 2 or class 40/45-o suddenly became open to booking of whatever loco was around. It is also alleged that some depots began hoarding itinerant class 47s and 37s as reliable metal to haul trains when ever required. I don't know if there is any truth in this or their motivation to reduce labour stress by taking more time to fix failed locos or to keep head counts up. Maybe it was because sheds like Immingham and Cardiff did not have the space for locos and were please to send them off on their holidays in the summer of 84.
In any case, bashers had a quandry: more trains than ever could drop, while booked 40 diagrams were basically vanished. Also you could be a ned and take those god awful 31.4s (aka ETHELS by non ped bashers now) to join moves together and remain loco hauled. By volume in fact, 31, 33 and 47 probably wee way out in the lead of passenger bookings in the list of 1H84 but also the least interesting locos for the bashing population profile: I never met a shreddie or ped' basher and 47 bashers were looked upon as vermin to be waterbombed and derived at any opportunity.
There was a happy band of peak bashers, but they kept themselves to themselves, being very class loyal and having every opportunity to do so still in 1984. Deltic men had moved to 40s, for want of 50s where they lived and deltic men were the "top men" in our considerations.
Anyway, the quandry was WHAT trains to cover: some top men considered TOPS print outs as cheating, but like the internet for students, everyone was at it in 1984 in order to get the most for their all liners, freedoms or ticked employee boxes.
Anything with a suitable RA could turn up on any train that was not coffin (Air Condition) rolling stock. This had a down side; the numerous 47/4s and the newer converted 6s could equally turn up out of crew or carlisle to thwart a well covered move. Or they cascaded out unwanted and unpopular boilered duffs. I mean people rant on the internet about boilered duffs and I was on one of the last Edinburgh to newcastle steamers with NO other bashers but us and we just did it out of boredom and the need for some "therms" on a chilly night on an October holidays "freedom".
The chaos insued and in the next blogs you can read about how I got to grips with it
Trains still carried a "head code" on paper and in the TOPS computer system. In order to use the printed reports from the latter, which sometimes got in the grubby hands of bashers, you needed the codes as TOPS works on an abbreviated system using these as UIDs if you like. Also it makes you sound more professional talking about 1S45 instead of " the 1010 from Kings Cross to Edinburgh".
So come the Orwellian year, the book was IH84 and IIRC the cover was a centre box 40 displaying the actual code.
Some trains which had been standard type 2 or class 40/45-o suddenly became open to booking of whatever loco was around. It is also alleged that some depots began hoarding itinerant class 47s and 37s as reliable metal to haul trains when ever required. I don't know if there is any truth in this or their motivation to reduce labour stress by taking more time to fix failed locos or to keep head counts up. Maybe it was because sheds like Immingham and Cardiff did not have the space for locos and were please to send them off on their holidays in the summer of 84.
In any case, bashers had a quandry: more trains than ever could drop, while booked 40 diagrams were basically vanished. Also you could be a ned and take those god awful 31.4s (aka ETHELS by non ped bashers now) to join moves together and remain loco hauled. By volume in fact, 31, 33 and 47 probably wee way out in the lead of passenger bookings in the list of 1H84 but also the least interesting locos for the bashing population profile: I never met a shreddie or ped' basher and 47 bashers were looked upon as vermin to be waterbombed and derived at any opportunity.
There was a happy band of peak bashers, but they kept themselves to themselves, being very class loyal and having every opportunity to do so still in 1984. Deltic men had moved to 40s, for want of 50s where they lived and deltic men were the "top men" in our considerations.
Anyway, the quandry was WHAT trains to cover: some top men considered TOPS print outs as cheating, but like the internet for students, everyone was at it in 1984 in order to get the most for their all liners, freedoms or ticked employee boxes.
Anything with a suitable RA could turn up on any train that was not coffin (Air Condition) rolling stock. This had a down side; the numerous 47/4s and the newer converted 6s could equally turn up out of crew or carlisle to thwart a well covered move. Or they cascaded out unwanted and unpopular boilered duffs. I mean people rant on the internet about boilered duffs and I was on one of the last Edinburgh to newcastle steamers with NO other bashers but us and we just did it out of boredom and the need for some "therms" on a chilly night on an October holidays "freedom".
The chaos insued and in the next blogs you can read about how I got to grips with it
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