Saturday 1st July 1989 "The Snowdonian"
To set the scene for this day trip, myself & my fellow Crompton bashers were having a bit of a lean time of it. Our beloved Pompey's had finished in May 1988 and even the booked 33/1 turns on the Waterloo - Salisbury's had finished on 14th May 1989. All we had to look forward too each week was one booked turn, a 33/1 diagram Saturday Only doing two return trips between Weymouth & Bristol - meagre fare and not easy to get to as I still lived in Kent at the time!
I was looking for something a bit different when I came across a leaflet from the Bournemouth Rail Travel Association (BRTA), run by Anthony Stone. Their bread and butter was running trips from the South Coast up to London for things like Christmas shopping, theatre breaks & days out in the Capital.
Mr Stone did, however, like to venture further afield and arranged some cracking trips.
Here is the brochure / booking form I picked up.
The 1st July just happened to be my Birthday! I needed to do a bit of digging into the likely motive power for this trip - should it be a Crompton I would then need to persuade a few friends to join me as it's not much fun drinking alone!
As the train was advertised as "First Class Luxury Train" this immediately narrowed the choice of stock down to just one set - the QE2 Liner boat train set, stabled & maintained at Eastleigh T&RSMD.
A good start but with what Traction? The answer was that a class 33 would work to Coventry from where a class 47 would then take over for the run up to Bangor, on the return working the 33 would again work the train south from Coventry.
This would no doubt dissuade some people from accompanying me on this trip, although reasonably priced at £27 it was the large amount of time behind the class 47 that would put most people off.
I started by spreading word around the 33/1 Preservation Group members, I had called the first meeting to propose the forming of this group in 1988 at a pub in Reading (along with Graham Belton (Peckham)) so all the members were friends of mine.
My main bargaining point was "what would you rather do - go in & out of Weymouth all day or get away for the day doing something a bit different?"
In the event the participants were: myself (Poodle), Dave Jackson (Trog), Julian Clark (Booger), Larry & Mark Kirkham (Kirkham).
The next difficulty was how was I to get to the train, it was starting at Wareham at 0510am! Without taking the Friday off work I couldn't get down to the Hampshire area to stay at one of my mates homes, luckily Trog said he would be driving down from Swindon & could pick me up at Salisbury off the overnight from Waterloo. Sorted.
Friday 30/06/89
3475 Sittingbourne - London Victoria 2100 Ramsgate - London Victoria 44m 59ch
1702) London Victoria - Clapham Jn 2m 57ch
3092)
Unknown Clapham Jn - London Waterloo 3m 74ch
Saturday 01/07/89
Happy birthday to me. My first birthday present would be attached to the front of the 0145 to Yeovil Jn - would I like it? No, not a bit of it, as booked it was a member of the Class 50 fleet. Now these must be fine engines, being the only class that were rebuilt 3 times to try to improve their reliability - but not in my book they weren't so I'm quite surprised I wrote the number down!
50027 London Waterloo - Salisbury 0145 London Waterloo - Yeovil Jn 83m 43ch
Outside and jump into Trog's car, the class 50 pulled out while I was getting my seatbelt on "did you enjoy it?" said Trog - no comment! We sped off into the darkness, ever southward to our destination of Poole - the large multi-story car park next door being the easiest place for Dave to leave his car for the day.
We were on the platform in good time for the charter train, in fact as usual the train was obviously late. There were no announcements about this, after a while what appeared around the corner but 33109 on a pair of TC's - hold on isn't that the allocated loco for todays Weymouth to Bristol service? Where's the boat train set? We didn't know whether to get on or not, luckily a passenger on the train lent out & told us to get on, there's some kind of mix up but the organisers are getting on at Bournemouth - perhaps the proper coaches for the train will be there?
When we got to Bournemouth Mr Stone and the rest of the BRTA lot boarded, when he came through the train handing out maps & the days itinerary he told us that, although he had meticulously planned todays trip, those at the Train Planning office of the SW division of BR had not - they (Malcolm probably!) had double-booked the Boat Train set, a boat was landing today! Things in that office improved somewhat from the Summer of 1990 when I started working in there...
Itinerary & Maps
I particularly like the section "If you don't like the look of your travelling Companions".
As you can see the BRTA were very organised and could rival many a Railtour company, this was our first trip on one of what we would later call a "Stonex".
We asked him about the seating plan - "It's gone out of the window with the lack of Compo's" he said, as to where to sit "anywhere you like, Lads" so front bay behind the loco it is then! As to the dilemma of the stock now being formed of TC's - it looks like a 9 car rake of Tyesley DMU's will replace the 33 from Coventry to Bangor & back! Not First class or even loco hauled.
Unchuffed as we were, we suggested perhaps the Southern Driver & Guard working to Coventry would be willing to stick with it & save us the long run by DMU "that's unlikely as Southern men are currently in dispute & are not working Overtime or Rest Days" cheers then.
Booger, Kirkham & Larry joined us in the front coach at Totton and by the time we reached Winchester, the last pick-up point, we were told a Basingstoke Driver & Guard were taking over from there.
We had noticed a few other "Crompton Bashers" on board, namely Barry Evans (BA), his brother Roger & Mike Ford, however at this stage they were firmly part of the "Secret Service" with links to the SW planning office & renowned for not passing on the Gen when finding out in advance that Crompton's would work things like Lymington Pier or quite recently when 33006 & 33106 worked a Waterloo to Exeter relief, we all went to the pub but they all went to Paignton & back behind the 33's - a fact they knew would happen but obviously "forgot" to tell us...
On arrival at Basingstoke I looked out & saw BA conversing & joking with the forward Driver & Guard on the platform. BA worked at Twinning's Tea factory in Andover, now I don't know what he promised our new traincrew but within a few minutes Barry was whispering in our ears "they've agreed to work thru to Bangor"!
What a result, settle down for an outrageous day out! Poole to Bangor behind a 33/1 - they virtually never got as far as the North Wales coast in the days Crompton's had booked diagrams along there.
Anyway the Thrash was enjoyed until we were approaching Coventry, would Control step in to thwart our day or would we head North? The Station Supervisor, on the platform at Coventry, realised the Southern men had agreed to work OT (& lots of it) in breach of the Work to Rule agreement - he ran into his office shouting "that train's not allowed to go" however he was wasting his time as a Saltley Seagull had already leapt into the cab, jumped in the seat, grabbed the Power Handle & off we shot!
Result.
Our next dilemma was a bit of a moot point - one of our group members, Mr Pinker, was working at Crewe Heritage Centre that day, he was on 34027 Taw Valleys Support crew. Mobiles of course not yet invented, the reason it was a moot point being we were booked non-stop through Crewe station anyway! We went through a non-platform road, as we approached the signal box in the Heritage Centre we could clearly see Rich, on the roof of the building, doing his Conkers! We gave him a nice wave as we passed...
We only got as far as Beeston Castle signal box (I think that's right?) where we got stopped by the Bobby "reports of no Tail Light on the train" - incorrect please inform the other Boxes on the line our
two Red Blinds on the rear TC unit perform that task, not that any signaller on the route would have ever seen a TC pass by before!
What a great day this was turning out to be, a run along the North Wales coast to savour before Beers to celebrate this working & my Birthday. We pulled away from Llandudno Jn station, then just before Conwy Castle we ground to a halt, even though we had a green signal. "Don't worry Lads", shouted the Saltley driver as he climbed down from the cab "I just want to get a phot as it's such an outrageous working!"
It wasn't long before the loco was thrashing away again towards our final destination, Bangor.
33109 Poole - Bangor 1Z38 0510 Wareham - Bangor 311m 08ch
(Via Reading West Curve, Oxford, Coventry, Bescot & Crewe)
Journeys end, what a tremendous day so far. We found out that 33109, after parking the stock in the down Bay platform (!) was going light engine to Holyhead depot for fuel, Roger tried to get a cab ride as he required Holyhead but the Saltley driver's reply of "Sod Off!" was music to all our ears.
After taking these photo's (& several more) we merrily headed off to the pub to celebrate, first a Marston's pub on the downside then a pub in town. I rang the Heritage Centre on a payphone & tried to persuade Rich to come to Bangor for 109's return run, I told him Mr Stone was so sociable he probably wouldn't even charge him, even if he did I would cover it - but all to no avail, he didn't leap.
However, with 7 hours (yes that's right!) to drink before the 1920 departure of the return working, we thought we'd put our tour tickets to good use - these being valid as a Rover between Bangor & Llandudno!
47615 Bangor - Llandudno Jn 1A52 1305 Holyhead - London Euston 15m 24ch
51927) Llandudno Jn - Llandudno 3m 14ch
54273)
We continued the session in Ludo, I for one cannot remember which establishments we visited, I was being bought extra drinks as it was my birthday & for persuading everyone it would be a good day out - which of course had turned into a fantastic day out! We had to head back towards Bangor a bit earlier than we liked, due to the vagaries of the train service, but I think a Chippy was visited and the food consumed on our way back to Bangor.
156 420 Llandudno - Bangor 1655 Llandudno - Bangor 18m 38ch
We returned to the Marston's pub, a bit quieter than going into town & with no competition to us getting on the Pool table. Enjoy!
We were all very merry by the time we returned to the station, where we found the stock in the platform but no loco on the front! 33109 was firmly attached to the rear!!
We walked to where we could see Mr Stone, I said "You can't push from here the London Midland won't allow it!" Well, he said, "the Traincrew sign the stock so there's no problem - get yourselves in the back coach for the Thrash!" Righto, will do!
The London Midland had been notorious, over the years, for NEVER allowing 33/1's & TC's on previous tours running unless another, Top & Tail, loco was attached (the exception being the SEG "Thame Dunstabelle" which many of us had the misfortune of doing on 12/11/88 with 33114).
"Ding-Ding" was heard from the back cab - off we go! Outrageous.
This was such an unheard of event we later found out that a wire was put out to all stations on the route "Loco Pushing from Rear" to avoid confusion & consternation!
Just after we departed from Crewe station we passed a set of stock with an 86 on the rear - the LM were testing for the possibility of starting to operate in push-pull mode - too late chaps we've beaten you to it!
We ran back the same route as the outward, even though we were on the train we were still withered by the enormity of the working that we'd fallen onto!
33109 Bangor - Totton (Pushing!) 1Z38 1920 Bangor - Poole 279m 69ch
(Via Crewe, Bescot, Coventry, Oxford & Reading West Curve)
I got off at Totton, off a direct train from Bangor... surreal or what, me and Mark were staying at Booger's parents house in the New Forest. What a trip.
PS: Spare a thought for our Groups then Chairman, Matthew Miles, who belatedly decided to do the trip & slept overnight in a Bus in Bournemouth bus depot but then over-dossed & missed the train!
PPS: Sadly BA (Barry Evans, he would soon become one of our firm friends) passed away in 2020, we have not yet had chance to organise a Farewell drink in his honour but will be doing so once the Lockdowns end.
Thanks Richard Mann (Poodle)
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