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CreweA large collection of photographs from one of Peter’s favourite locations. Crewe was busy in the early 1970s with the WCML electrication towards the north.
Page 4This more detailed look at the scene shows that the front left row consists of no less than three Sulzer Type 2 Class 24s (5086 and 5080 are the leading two locomotives). The leading loco carries an interesting variation on numbering, despite having been endowed with its latest blue livery. Its numbers are not only applied to the body side of the loco but they also have ‘D’ prexes, so presumably nobody had told the paint-shop at that point that, by this time, it was out-of-date to add them.
Page 5It’s June 1972 at Crewe Diesel Depot and grubby English Electric Type 4 Class 40 number 310 rests between duties. There was still plenty of trafc around to nd work as the 9T71 headcode on the front Sulzer Type 2 Class 25 bears witness. They have been in use working local trips to and from steel works, chemical plants, aggregate workings and many more industrial terminals in the area. For 310, to keep it busy, all Inter City passenger workings to Holyhead were usually powered by Class 40s at this time, as were passenger workings to Barrow-in-Furness.
Page 6Conversation piece, as the loco inspector or foreman with the briefcase is brought up to date with the latest news. An unidentied Class 50 sits at the fuelling point of Crewe Diesel Depot situated at the south end of Crewe station. It is ready to take over the 17.05 Euston to Barrow-in-Furness (1P36) from an electric during the North West electrication work.
Page 7A conundrum; at some point recently the Class 50 has worked the 1M19 13 50 (SO) Glasgow Central to Euston according to this shot of Crewe TMD one afternoon in the summer of 1972. But, it is facing north, so it’s the wrong way round and turntables weren’t in use then, nor was there a triangle to my knowledge. It is easier to say that the front Brush Type 4 of the two Class 47s on the left has been engaged in local freight trafc, maybe salt from Middlewich or coal via Madeley Chord Junction. One is being fuelled up by a TMD depot staff member standing under a canopy that looks particularly inadequate in a rainstorm situation.
Page 8A wet summer Sunday in 1972 at Crewe Works. All is quiet and a lone immaculate and repainted Brush Type 4 Class 47 number 1648 has emerged from the Loco Repair Shop, probably on the previous Friday afternoon and it is waiting for the resumption of work on Monday morning to be tested and checked over as ready to return to service. One of the few Class members still running today, it has lived a schizoid life having had three different identities since this shot was taken. In 1974 it became 47064, then that was altered to 47639 before nally being renumbered 47851.
Page 9The penultimate English Electric Type 4 Class 40 to be built, number 398, (later 40198) still in green livery with BR heraldic device, in the early 1970s, waits silently in the yard of Crewe Works, probably prior to an overhaul and repaint in rail-blue. But note that the cab doors appear to be wired shut to inhibit any entry and it would seem that an inspection door in the bodywork side is either open or been removed suggesting that the loco might have been cannibalised for parts and will not be moving very far in the future. These were huge engines for their power output of only 2000bhp, which was little more than a 7P class steam locomotive but, the costs of running diesel locos instead of steam was considerably less.
Page 10Light and shade at Crewe as Class 50 number 432 draws to a stand with a southbound express in Summer ’73, later nicknamed Hoovers because of the noise all their auxiliaries created, they were large locomotives but were a considerable improvement over the mediocre performance of a Class 40. Yet more of those early-style trolleys lie around on the platform and could have been at Crewe since the lming of the classic lm Night Mail.
Page 11The south end of Crewe again, but this time revealing an immaculate English Electric Type 4 Class 40 and one of the named examples, number 216 Campania. It is absolutely immaculate down to white-painted wheel rims and it is easing forward, making that characteristic ringing sound and heading for Crewe TMD for fuelling and servicing having arrived, it being a Saturday, on 1A78 from Holyhead. Here it is giving way to electric power for the train’s onward journey to Euston. By November 1973 the loco would be renumbered 40016.
Page 12Sunday sequence at Crewe - 1. An interesting mixture of the modern railway of the 1970s with traditional adjuncts as AL6 Class 86 number E3176 arrives from the north at Crewe with a West Coast express while a young spotter hurries down the platform to watch what happens next; whilst all around are period trollies and the agstones of years past. Note how much parcels trafc was still being conveyed by rail. Were those trollies, made to a very traditional pattern, still being produced and who by? It is possible that this loco still survives as number 86607.
Page 13Sunday sequence at Crewe - 2. It is a Sunday afternoon at Crewe in the early 1970s and then, as now, engineering works require the use of diesels to drag electrically-powered trains over diversionary routes. This was a weekend when all West Coast expresses were diverted via Cannock and Walsall so Brush Type 4 Class 47 number 1956 has coupled up to AL6 Class 86 number E3176 to haul the loco and train , seen on the previous page, as far as Birmingham.
Page 14Sunday sequence at Crewe - 3. The Class 47 number 1956 is now coupled up to 1A28 the Sunday morning 09.06 Liverpool Lime Street to Euston and brake tests have been carried out, so it is ready to go. The driver is looking back for the Right Away anxious to get on the move. Once the ensemble has departed south the extensive station will fall silent until the next northbound WCML train arrives to detach its diesel or a pilot from the adjacent TMD and will undertake the same moves as our featured train.
Page 15Standing in one of the bay platforms at Crewe is one of the pilot-scheme diesel multiple units; a two-car unit constructed by the Gloucester railway carriage and wagon company. This was quite a rare sight as the class didn’t consist of many examples originally and by the late 1960s/early 1970s BR’s rush to rid itself of non-standard motive-power and rolling-stock was proceeding at an ever-increasing pace, so this unit would have a short life left at this point.
Page 16‘It is remarkable how some locos ‘slipped through the netting’ and missed being repainted for many years. Idling away a few minutes in one of the many short, almost hidden, bay platforms at Crewe is a 350hp BR-built Class 08 shunter still in virtually original condition in 1973, in green livery with the 1950s British Railways lion and wheel insignia so it has even missed out on receiving its BR Heraldic device. and its original number D3291. The wasp striped cab-ends are more modern additions however. It nally became rail-blue in January 1974 and was renumbered 08221 on being transferred to Bletchley.
Page 17The evolution of the species. Two Brush Type 4 Class 47s sidle their way around the back of the up side at Crewe returning light-engine to Crewe DED. The two locos display liveries representing the rst and the then latest colour schemes of original duo-tone green and the latest rail blue whilst the train-spotter on the trolley must have seen both many times before. on 23rd May 1970, the Britannia bridge across the Menai Straits connecting mainland Wales and Anglesey was seriously damaged by re causing the main line to Holyhead to be closed. D1851 was one of three Class 47’s stranded at Holyhead, the others being D1724 & D1940. All three were later moved by sea across to Barrow-in-Furness.
Page 18Two Sulzer Type 2s, one a Class 24 number 5061 and the other a Class 24/2 number 5143 clank their way around the east side of Crewe station one summer’s evening in 1972 with a long string of mineral wagons in tow. The last vestiges of British railway freight working as it was.
Page 19It’s June 1972 at Crewe Diesel Depot. Class 40 310 (later 40110) heads a line of locos with 3 Class 47s behind (possibly 1511 and 1678) at Crewe Diesel Depot. Class 47 1697 and Class 50 D430 sit awaiting their next duties at the fueelling point. It is remarkable just how many locomotives British Rail needed as late as the early 1970s to keep its services running. Was their disappearance an indication of increased efciencies or the loss of a considerable amount of revenue-earning trafc in plain sight?
Page 2A scene like this will never be repeated. This is Crewe Diesel Depot adjacent to the southern tip of Crewe station in the summer of 1973 and there are at least four classes of diesel locomotive on view. From left are at least two Sulzer Type 2 Class 24s, then two Brush Type 4 Class 47s, a Class 50, another Brush Type 4 Class 47. In a line are an English Electric Type 4 Class 40, another Sulzer Type 2, but a Class 25 and another Brush Type 4 Class 47, then on the right there is another Sulzer Type 2 Class 24 which has inexplicably been painted in duo-green, a livery never applied to any others of the Class. Today there is nothing to see with the completion of WCL electrication, closure of freight routes and the steady take-over of many passenger routes by multiple units.
Page 20An interesting picture. Back in the 1970s and before, at Crewe you didn’t have to wait very long for something out of the ordinary to appear and here, in June 1972, this English Electric Type 4 Class 40 number 241 (later 40041) is setting out, possibly from Gresty Lane or the yards south of Crewe station and is passing the Traction Maintenance Depot with what appears to be some sort of test train, having just been overhauled in Crewe Works and looking smart in a new coat of Rail Blue. The train consists of an ex-LMS Stanier coach converted for testing purposes and a single Diesel Brake Tender to provide extra brake force, or maybe drag on the locomotive. The more you watched, the more you saw.
Page 21In many ways, this shot shows just how advanced the electried railway is compared to one powered by diesel locomotives. The extreme length of these two Class 50 diesels with number 432 nearest the camera were not just there to impress. Their combined power of 5500hp was required by the new WCML timetable in the days immediately prior to the overall electrication of the whole line from Crewe to Glasgow, or, more strictly speaking, from Weaver Junction in order to keep time with the most prestigious trains. Here, they have uncoupled smartly from the southbound Royal Scot to be replaced by one comparatively small Class 86 seen waiting on the left of the picture which was all that was required under the wires.
Page 22As we have seen, until the completion of the WCML electrication throughout from London to Glasgow all trains changed from diesel power to electric or vice versa at Crewe and this is a view of the southbound locomotive siding for engines awaiting the arrival of any diesel-hauled trains from the north or from the Chester line. They consist of a pioneer Class 81 still with its smart cast numbers E3013 and later to become 81011, followed by three Class 86s, two of which are E3140, later 86046/86258/86501 and E3145, later 86014/86414/86614. The passengers, not customers, milling around on the platform are waiting for a train from Barrow-in-Furness to take them on to London.
Page 23The passengers on the previous page need wait no longer as their train has come to a stand in the platform at Crewe. According to the station clock this train, 1A58, the 1355 Saturdays only from Barrow-in-Furness to London Euston has taken about three hours to reach this point where the English Electric Type 4 Class 40, number 342, later 40142 is about to be replaced by an electric loco which will dash up to London at noticeably higher speeds for the passengers.
Page 24British Rail in transition. The juxtaposition of these items of power and rolling-stock needs little explanation, but the fact remained that whilst BR was happy to keep parcels trafc as a going concern, it probably received scant attention from the accountants in terms of potential future investment. In fact, during the 1970s, as passenger vehicles were being renewed and replaced by then state-of-the-art air-braked and air-conditioned coaches, for the enthusiast, parcels vans of all sorts were a happy hunting ground. About to set off from Crewe up the West Coast main-line – not too quickly one hoped – is a Class 86 tted eighteen months previously, in December 1971, with a new-style GEC Crossarm Pantograph. The loco is still in service with Freightliner as number 86608 and an LMS-built Stove R van and six-wheeled into the bargain, which is now preserved on the East Lancs Railway!
Page 25It’s late one Sunday lunchtime and it’s warm and drowsy in the summer of 1972. Even at Crewe there is little trafc about at this time, before the afternoon and evening Sunday rush-hours start. Three Class AL5, as they were originally designated by BR in 1960, but later Class 85 3300hp locomotives are lined up in echelon as if awaiting a Le Mans 24 Hours race style of start. They are parked up on the west side of the north end of Crewe station, presumably awaiting the call to take over northbound expresses which will arrive from the south diesel-hauled, due to engineering works. By coincidence, the example in the foreground, E3061, has since become the only member of the class to survive in preservation by the AC Locomotive Society and now resides at Barrow Hill roundhouse museum. Note that a member of staff has found the loco’s cab a great place to laze on a summer’s afternoon…..
Page 26Underlining just how versatile the Swindon-built Cross Country 120 dmus were and how essentially right for the task the design was, as well as east to west services on the Birmingham to Lincoln axis and prior to the restoration of loco-hauled trains on the route, they were the mainstay of the so-called North and West Route which had been created by the GWR to carry its trafc between the industrial areas of South Wales and the North West. So, this unit, arriving at Crewe, will have come from Cardiff via Newport, Hereford, Shrewsbury and Whitchurch. On the right is the loco siding holding electric engines ready to take over up services powered by diesels on their journeys south.
Page 27A surprisingly clean Brush Type 4 Class 47, still in original livery with only reapplied numbers in the then-current corporate style to spoil the combination and overall effect, draws to a stand at Crewe with 4V20, which was the 15.15 Manchester to Cardiff Parcels, with an 7 min stop at Crewe (16.22-16.29) to add additional stock. It had languished in Crewe Uphill sidings from 16.00 to 16.19 for pathing presumably (or for the stock to be added). It is conveying an FK probably en route to Cardiff to satisfy the local Area Rolling Stock department’s needs for such a vehicle. Dedicated vehicles for parcels trafc by the middle/end of the 1970s proved to be almost a rolling museum of period bogied and four-wheeled vans, many of them dating from the pre-1947 Big Four rail companies, such as the Stanier van heading up a rake in the in the left-hand platform.
Page 28There was a time when it seemed as if Diesel Multiple Units were taking over every passenger service in the UK other than Inter City expresses and Crewe was the perfect place to spot many different variations of type. Today, when a standard body design, such as the ‘7xx’ is a ‘one ts all’ exercise, it is surprising to look back at the many different genres and styles of DMU run by British Rail from the 1950s to the 1980s. They even displayed regional inuences in their styles and these two are classics. On the left, having just arrived from Cardiff on a service that would have come via Hereford and Shrewsbury, is a Swindon-built Cross-Country unit which would have enjoyed the luxury of a buffet section when rst built. With design similarities to the pre-war GWR railcars and fairly comfortable interiors they were the antithesis of the DMU on the right, which is an LMR high-density Derby built unit. This being the south end of Crewe, the Cardiff trains always using the same platform whilst the train on the right is probably for Stoke on Trent and clattering away to itself unlike the Swindon-built unit….
Page 29Sundays on the West Coast main line usually mean engineering diversions and this one was no exception as an English Electric Type 4 Class 40 eases away south from Crewe with its load of train plus AL6 Class 86 number E3167 heading for Birmingham with an express for the south west. In the siding alongside is another Class 86 plus diesel waiting to take over the next train heading south.
Page 3A close-up of one of the queues from Page 62 reveals that a fth class was present as an English Electric Type 2 Class 20 is bringing up the rear of this collection of named English Electric Type 4 Class 40 number 215 Aquitania, a Sulzer Type 2 Class 25 and Brush Type 4 Class 47.
Page 30A quiet weekday summer’s afternoon at Crewe in 1973 witnesses an English Electric Type 4 Class 40 number 315, later to be renumbered 40115, ringing as it idles away waiting for time and the Right Away with what is thought to be the 15.45 1D66 London Euston to Holyhead. Next stop will be Chester as the train is ultimately for Holyhead. With little wind, it looks like the Irish passengers on board will be treated to a calm night’s crossing to Dun Laoghaire when the time comes, later that night.
Page 31A miserable wet Sunday lunchtime on the Queensville Curve, Stafford sees two trains of Mark 1 stock passing during the rst weeks of September in the mid-1970s. Early enough for some summer dated trains to still be running and the shot is taken from a holiday service operating on British Rail’s South West/North East axis, now referred to as Cross Country. Going away from the camera on the left, up, main line is a Sunday service heading for London with a Class 86 at its head. No doubt having been, or about to be, diverted, the train’s passengers – not customers – are probably beginning to wonder if they will ever reach their destinations. ‘Our’ train has arrived at this point by coming via the Lickey Incline route to Birmingham New Street and then reversing. Heading out by way of the South to East curve at Soho, it has headed for Walsall continuing onto what was then the freight-only line through Ryecroft Junction, across Cannock Chase and joining the West Coast main line at Rugeley. This was rare mileage at this time, with enthusiasts travelling on most services that were diverted onto non-passenger routes on Sundays.