Spotted today - Metropolitan Railway No.1

I popped down to the Midland Railway-Butterley this afternoon to photograph visiting Metropolitan Railway class E 0-4-4T No.1, currently on hire from the Buckinghamshire Railway Centre.

Metropolitan Railway E class 0-4-4T No.1 arrives at Hammersmith with the 13.10 departure from Swanwick Junction, 8/5/16

The sole survivor of a class of seven, No.1, built in 1898, was the last locomotive built at the Metropolitan Railway's Neasden Works and was constructed as a replacement for accident-damaged class 'A' 4-4-0T No.1.

Metropolitan Railway E class 0-4-4T No.1 runs round its train at Hammersmith station at the Midland Railway-Butterley, 8/5/16

Metropolitan Railway E class 0-4-4T No.1 stands at Hammersmith station with the 13.26 departure to Butterley, 8/5/16

According to the BRC's virtual stock book the Metropolitan Railway board wouldn't fund a replacement for the original No.1 only a repair but the Met's Operating Department somehow wangled an addition to the small batch of E class locomotives being built at Neasden at the time. The rest of the class carried the numbers 77-82 and presumably No.1 was numbered as such to help with the 'repair' subterfuge…

Return to Butterley… Chop! Chop!

After the grumbling about the Midland Railway-Butterley in my last post you might be surprised to know that I was back there today buying a ticket!

The reason for my return visit was the news that not one but two Class 20s would be running today, one of them for the first time in preservation.

20205 (the former D8305) not only had never run in preservation but is believed to have not worked a train at all since 1989! (apart from a test train yesterday that is).

20205 & 20189 arrive at Swanwick Junction, 8/2/15

Also running were Balfour Beatty liveried 20189 (the former D8189) and MR-B resident 20048 (the former D8048), topping and tailing a packed rake of six BR Mk.1 coaches with 20205 swapping ends throughout the day.

The published timetable (on the PLEG website) was thrown into disarray quite early on by unscheduled stops at Butterley (to cope with the volume of passengers I suspect) and 20048 running out of fuel part way through the day didn't help either!

20205 drags 20048 off to be fuelled at Swanwick Junction, 8/2/15

On display at Swanwick Junction were fellow class members 20142 (the former D8142) and 20057 (the former D8057), looking a lot less tatty than it did when it arrived at the MR-B a year ago.

D8057 (20057) at Swanwick Junction, 8/2/15

20142 at Swanwick Junction, 8/2/15

The mild weather made up for the lack of train heating and brought out the lineside photographers in force! (Including my Dad, read his blog post here).

I understand that 20205 is to join the ranks of its classmates (known as 'Choppers' by enthusiasts) in action on the national network (including 20189 and 20142) where they are put to a variety of uses day in and day out…

Heads out of windows to enjoy 20205 & 20048, 8/2/15

Just a thought…

I've got a couple of photographic projects on the go this year one of which is a Photo-A-Day and as a result I'm always looking for something different to photograph…

Yesterday saw me paying a brief visit to my local heritage railway, the Midland Railway-Butterley who were advertising 'Winter Warmer Trains' on their website.

Railbus 141113 trundled in from Swanwick Junction at 12.30 and stopped to allow a few passengers on board before setting off with the 12.40 departure, I took a couple of photos and headed for home… noticing that the cost for a rover ticket for today was a whopping £11.50!

I say 'whopping' because 141113 was the only train in service and belongs to a group of trains known as 'Nodding Donkeys' which are universally disliked by both enthusiasts and the poor souls who have to suffer them day in, day out on the national network!

The nearby Ecclesbourne Valley Railway, operating a fleet of heritage DMUs, charge £10.00 for a rover ticket while Peak Rail only charge £8 to travel behind a steam loco, so yes, I thought £11.50 was a bit pricey!

Should you fancy a ride on a 'Nodding Donkey' then you could do much worse than travel from Sheffield to Chinley through the beautiful Hope Valley, with an off-peak day return setting you back £10.80.

Just a thought…

BR's last standard gauge steam loco?

August 1968 is well known as being the end of main line steam on British Railways, the final surviving locomotives being mainly ex-London Midland & Scottish Railway class 8F 2-8-0s and class 5MT 4-6-0s with a smaller number of BR standard types (not forgetting the three 1ft 11¾in gauge ex-Vale of Rheidol Railway 2-6-2Ts).

But this particular locomotive is believed to have still been in service with BR as late as 1972!

LMS class 3F 0-6-0T 47564, 17/8/14

This LMS class 3F 0-6-0T 'Jinty' No.47564 was built by the Hunslet Engine Co Ltd in 1928 as LMS No.16647 and was withdrawn in March 1965 before being converted to a stationary boiler (No.2022) for carriage heating at first Holyhead then Red Bank Carriage Sidings in Manchester… where it remained until 'preserved' in 1972.

Acquired by the Midland Railway Trust for spares it is one of four 'Jintys' to be found around the Swanwick Junction site… I doubt it'll ever turn a wheel under its own steam again though… or heat a carriage for that matter.

An undated photo of the loco in its latter BR days can be found on this page (scroll down to 'Manchester Red Bank') on the excellent AbRail Rail Databases website along with a huge amount of information and photographs relating to other stationary boilers.

Double-heading at the MR-B

This weekend was the Winter Steam Event at the Midland Railway-Butterley, a fairly low-key affair in comparison with other railways perhaps but still worth a visit (especially as it’s just down the road from me) so today I spent a couple of hours by Butterley Reservoir photographing the trains crossing the causeway to and from the Hammersmith end of the line.

I'd photographed the 'usual suspects' in the shape of 'Jinty' No.23, the 'Caprotti Five' 73129 and Peckett 0-4-0ST WHITEHEAD but kept hoping that visiting Ivatt class 2MT 2-6-0 46521 (from the Great Central Railway) would put in an appearance…

Ivatt 2MT 2-6-0 46521 & Standard 5MT 4-6-0 73129 cross Butterley Reservoir, 9/3/14

After a lengthy pause in operations my patience was eventually rewarded with an earlier than timetabled train double-headed by 46521 and 73129 that were making very light work of four BR Mk.1 coaches.

I did hear a number of people grumble about the inaccuracies in the published timetable, indeed the above working was almost an hour early which not only caught out lineside photographers but also (and more importantly) paying passengers. Whilst I understand that there will always be problems when it comes to running a timetabled event I do wish that some railways would try harder to get these things right on the day.