Bashing Class 37s 1st Dec 1984

01.12.1984	Trannie restricted area maybe
09:06:00	Home	Arrochar	37033
09:45:00	Arrochar	Glasgow QS	37184
12:20:00	Glasgow QS (Oban)	Crianlarich	37191
14:15:00	Crianlarich	Glasgow QS	37033
16:50:00	Glasgow QS	Crianlarich	37112
19:xx	Crianlarich	Arrochar	37191
19:45:00	Arrochar	Ardlui	37033
20:01:00	Ardlui	Home	37027
			ETHEL x

Well all very hum drum, while I dare say that many readers would give their right arm to have done this little lot of ED boilered syphons las saturday.

A bit of a trip I just don't quite remember: i remember going over Sloch just a couple of overnight times, and at Kyle just once in the winter, and this must have been it. Pretty unremarkable, I wonder if 033 was on a Dundee train or a Perth: units had been displaced by several more locohauled in 84 -85 and this was down to "perth man" in control. 37s were regulars.

7 to 8th Dec 1984	Mini Freedom of Scotland
02:50:00	Home	Glasgow QS	37026
			ETHEL 1
23:30:00	Glasgow QS	Perth	47546
		Inverness	47614
06:55:00	Inverness	Kyle-of-Loch Alsh	37260
11:10:00	Kyle-of-Loch Alsh	Inverness	37260
14:32:00	Inverness	Aberdeen	47012
17:05:00	Aberdeen	Perth	47522
19:13:00	Perth	Glasgow QS	37039
20:59:00	Glasgow QS low level	Home	303
Back to more of the mundane WHL; But 37 265 was a bit large IIRC. I think it was NB by then.
19th Dec 1984	Trannie
09:06:00	Home	Arrochar	37051
09:45:00	Arrochar	Glasgow QS	37265	(012 had failed,dead on train)
12:20:00	Glasgow QS (Oban)	Crianlarich	27052
14:15:00	Crianlarich	Home	37051
27th Dec 1984	Trannie ( WHL train times an hour or more late)
10:3x	Home	Garelochhead	37033
10.xx	Garelochhead	Glasgow QS	37090
12:20:00	Glasgow QS (Oban)	Helensburgh Upper	37184
14:54:00	Helensbugh Central	Glasgow QS Low Level	303
16:50:00	Glasgow QS	Crianlarich	37051
19:xx	Crianlarich	Home

Once again, from above, a boring day, but maybe a line in the book for an itinerant 37090 which was probably GD allocated iirc, but later moved up to ED.

Bashing. "ned cards" Mid July 1984

16/7/1984 sATRUDAY

One day after the "freedom" was over and it was right into a transcard, at all of £4.99, and just to show the southside of Glasgow was where it was all happening, just take a look at this day:

16.07.1984  LowLand Master Transcard
08:54:00 Home	Glasgow C Low Level		303
10:02:00  Glasgow C	Johnstone		37138
10:50:00  Johnstone	Glasgow C		DMU
11:30:00  Glasgow C	Paisley		37013
11.xx   Paisley	Glasgow Central		DMU
12:40:00  Glasgow C	Stevenston		37196
14:09:00  Kilwinning	Glasgow C		DMU
15:08:00  Glasgow QS low level	Coatbridge Sunnyside		303
15:40:00  Coatbridge Central	Cumbernauld		40150
16:20:00  Cumbernauld	Springburn		DMU
16:34:00  Springburn	Glasgow QS Low Level		303
17:30:00  Glasgow C	Nitshill		27066
17.xx   Nitshill	Glasgow C		DMU
18:15:00  Glasgow C	Johnstone		DMU
18:52:00  Johnstone	Glasgow C		37155
20:56:00

The date is important: first saturday of the glasgow fair: the tradtional shutdown of the yards for a week or two's holiday, often taken doon-the-watter. In this case the addex's seem to be to the silvery sands of Stevenston. When we bailed there it was far from silvery in the town centre; strewn with litter and an itinerant Rottweiler shagging some poor unsuspecting mongrel.

A very big line for any diesel loco, but there were several monsters out. 37013 vo back out on the Stranrærs, and 138, seeming small beer now and not only big loco but a big line 37 196: think it was one of the few boiler isolated 37s: dunno where it was allocated at the time, but obvioulsy lurking with intent ex motherwell. We did a "shanks pony move over to Kilwinning assisted by an old double decker IIRC. Chips in between and a semi-fast Ayr DMU service to "whisk" us in for the next move: well rattle us up a little quicker than the stopping 311s down there at that time.

Then some daytime version of 1S81 or the likes drops a 40 and we go after it on a bloody transcard! That old grumpy sod with the tasch commented as such on the way from Coatbridge Central to Cumbernauld. But a line in the book was had from all be it a very lethargic 40150 when compared to her sister 155 we had bagged at Chester. A "desperate" move.

Then back into central for a strange move to Nitshill: IIRC 27066 was nb now and fairly large. To top it off, on one of the returning Stevenstons or Ardrossans 37155: very, very big ML IIRC and a nice rack of three huge syphons within three weeks: 154-156 thank you, my lords!

Saturday 21/7/84

21.07.1984	LowLand Master Transcard
09:06:00	Home	Garelochhead	37014
10:08:00	Garelochhead	Glasgow QS	37081
11:30:00	Glasgow C	Ayr	37155
12:30:00	Ayr	Kilmarnock	47537
13.xx	Ayr	Kilmarnock	37292
15:45:00	Glasgow C	Kilmarnock	26015
	Kilmarnock	Barrhead	DMU
	Barrhead	Kilmarnock	27001
18:47:00	Kilmarnock	Glasgow C	37048
		Central	303

A week later and we ae taking motherwell NB and foreign split box syphons for granted. But this day produced at that point the biggest of them all: in it's life as the super-syphon, 37292 probably worked three passenger trains and this was one. "huge if not enormous" as Rupert put it in a post to a blogg "this bashing day in History".

292 grumbled it's way over the slack line Kilmarnock-Ayr. At Ayr it was notably "hunting" , a fault I have heard caused by choking valve seats, badly adjusted timing chains or faulty governors. Although it probably did not prioduce anywhere near 2000bhp, the benefits of the alternator made it seem to accelerate quicker relative to less thrash!

37292 was actually the prototype for the 37/4s which could well have been uprated. This uprating was the same as the CSVT uprate on the 50s: so it is unlikely it would have been a success without gear-driven-cams, new valve gear etc. II guess that autumn 292 went down to Crewe works to become the 37/4.

The then "silly ba'heid" move persisted as syphons could well drop on from carlisle. Syphons like 048 were probably itinerant from lack of work on coal, and I reckon they displaced failed type 2s off Carlisle shed. Covering this move meant that you were "bowled out" for all the later west highland moves, bar doing a combined bus move to Garelocheid maybe.

Taking for granted was just as we did: this was actually the last "big" saturday out of Glasgow Central moves, and the likes of the 37 moves seen that summer would only be repeated on the Aberysthwiths the next summer, where NB 37s were actually BOOKED and not huge drops! A week later, at the end of August, I scored my last big ML 37, 152 which worked the 11:30 stranrær. Although as you will see the 11:30 more or less became booked a 37, the later examples seemed to be boilered stratford examples which IIRC became Scottish allocations anyway.

Certainly by October I was no longer a ned really, but a syphon basher bone fide and with enough under the belt to be a "man". I knew by that October freedom that the writing was on the wall. I was getting a bit bored of bashing from time to time, and that disastourous Mystex to Chester was just the first nail in the coffin.


37192 to dundee and back marked me as a syphon devotee: They became pretty common on that route later, but until 84 they were rare for some reason: There were still enough reasonably condition 27s and 26s to cover the dundee loco hauled prior to this. It is not a bad route for 37s, with top speeds of 90mph and very little running at the dreaded 40-50 mph slack spot. 37192 became my mileage machine, although I think I topped it with 188. It put in a good run, but one of the mrk Is had a dragging brake set so I reckon we didn't get over 75mph. IIRC I did this all alone, with maybe a paltry few "men" coming on later at Perth. West country bloke with beard reported the coach IIRC too.

Also that October, 264 moved north to Inverness ( again?) and was duly taken there. Dark evenings up the Far North East!

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