All Line Rover 02/06 to 09/06 1990 "Why is someone jumping up & down on my head?
What can I say about 1990? It was Crap for Crompton's for a start. NO booked workings, I would like to say we were feeding on scraps but for many months there just weren't any!
On 17th February I leapt from Carlisle to Eastleigh for some Eastleigh-Romsey-Southampton-Fareham shuttles, running due to Engineering work, only for 33110 to fail 1/4 of a mile outside Eastleigh station on the first train! The next few months didn't get any better, it was a pretty bleak Spring.
With nothing happening on the 33 front I planned a week on a Priv All Line Rover, just to enjoy a bit of proper Bashing. (# = Required Loco)
Saturday 02/06/90
I was just ending my 6 months probationary period on BR, in the TEB at Paddington, I already had a permanent post waiting for me at Waterloo, as a CO3 Ballast Timings Clerk. My Rover started Sunday, I was intending to head North out of Euston tonight using the "valid from 2200 the previous day" rule which allowed you to start on an overnight service.
However when "Bonehead" Barrett turned up early afternoon for his shift in the ticket office at Paddington he was clearly not in a very good mood - what's up with him I wonder? "Bowled by a Shredder (50 bashers not being over keen on 33's) on my way in from Andover". A Crompton out on the mainline!
This raised an issue - 33026 would be working the 1515 out of Waterloo but I didn't finish my shift at Padd until 1500 so I'd never make it. A word with the Supervisor, Geoffrey " I have a problem, I have a Valid All Line (ahem) in my pocket but will miss the 1515, the first Crompton working for 3 months, as I don't finish until 3pm" - "Well, I think you'd better go now then Poodle!" - cheers Geoffrey!
Over to Waterloo on the Bakerloo line, looking forward to a catch-up with other members of the Crompton Roadshow - err, there was hardly anybody on 33026! A bit strange, this being a Saturday and the first working for months - so where is everybody else?
Anyway head out of the front window for the thrash to Salisbury!
33026 Waterloo - Salisbury 1V15 1515 Waterloo - Exeter St.Davids 83m 43ch
33026 was removed here at Salisbury, where the Fitter told us the reason there were so few on the 1515 - everyone else had gone to Exeter behind 33030! So an enforced visit to the Village pub (honest) then:
33030 Salisbury - Waterloo 1O43 1822 Exeter St.Davids - Waterloo 83m 43ch
So at last a chance to catch up with some mates on the way back into London, not only that but I wouldn't be heading North on an overnight - 33030 was going to work the overnight out of Waterloo!
A swift move for beers before closing time, the Red Lion on Lower Marsh street (or "Down the Cut" as the road was known locally) being the usual haunt around this time - the Red Lion was more "Late Drinks" than Lock-Ins, with a hellfire New Zealand born Landlord.
Sunday 03/06/90
When I say the loco was working the "overnight" back out it was a "Southern" one i.e. lots of hours hanging around on station concourses for a ridiculously timed train with not many hours to actually get any sleep - still this was the sort of thing we were previously used to doing!
33030 Waterloo - Yeovil Jn (Via Southampton) 1V01 0305 Waterloo - Yeovil Jn 142m 09ch
33030 Yeovil Jn - Salisbury 2O01 0730 Yeovil Jn - Salisbury 39m 05ch
Then of course with no booked workings another fester until the pubs opened at 1200, only thing to do to kill some time was having a SLOW Breakfast somewhere! I believe there were 4 of us who were hanging around off the overnight so after a lunchtime session, probably back in the Village with the amiable Landlord Joe, we returned to the station to go our separate ways.
Hold on! the Fitter approached us with some Gen - 33111 was going to work the 1645 from Portsmouth to Exeter! A "Yard Only" Departmental Beast based at Exeter, we had heard it worked up to Salisbury on Wednesday evening due to a loco failure but didn't expect this!
Unfortunately we had lost one member of our party, Duffield, he didn't show in time for the move we needed to do to get to Pompey. When he returned to the station & we were gone, having no gen he went home to Woking & this proved to be 33111's last decent passenger run in BR ownership!
205 028 Salisbury - Basingstoke 1524 Salisbury - Basingstoke 35m 62ch
3404 / 1214 Basingstoke - Woking 23m 34ch
1312 / 1315 / 2305 Woking - Portsmouth Hbr 50m 03ch
33111 Portsmouth Harbour - Exeter St.Davids 1V18 1645 Brighton - Plymouth 138m 23ch
I have to say for a Yard Pilot it made rather a lot of noise up Honiton Bank! This had turned out to be a cracking weekend, I for one celebrated with a few beers in the Great Western, work or home wasn't looming for me like it was for my fellow travelling companions. Renowned for it's Lock-in's, I was out of luck tonight, I had to find something to reduce the fester for the Up Midnight.
51223 / 59130 / 53212 Exeter St.Davids - Exmouth 2252 Exeter St.D. - Exmouth 11m 21ch
53212 / 59130 / 51223 Exmouth - Exeter St.Davids 2325 Exmouth - Exeter St.D. 11m 21ch
That would have been nice and comfortable - a REAL (John Sandham approved) unit!
Monday 04/06/90
47822 Exeter St.Davids - Paddington 1A03 2215 Penzance - Paddington 193m 72ch
No real plans today (other than NOT to walk upstairs & go to work as Annual Leave all week!) so over to Euston to see if anything going on. No Mobiles back then (or Duffield would have had 33111!) and no real sources of Gen (this would all change within a few weeks when I started at Waterloo as I had my own TOPs login & SW Loco Control was the next office along the corridor...).
90037 London Euston - Milton Keynes Central 0710 Euston - Birmingham New St 49m 65ch
87022 Milton Keynes Central - Crewe 1S47 0725 Euston - Glasgow Central 88m 03ch
Some mini-riot must have occurred, the 0915 Lime Street to Cardiff was starting from Crewe.
37429 Crewe - Cardiff 1V78 0915 Liverpool L.St. - Cardiff 138m 72ch
37429 Cardiff - Shrewsbury 1M74 1330 Cardiff - Liverpool L.St. 105m 15ch
Most unexpectedly the man with the gloves appeared & removed 37429! No other loco to work the next job down the Cambrian apparently. A big bad Duff backed on.
47803 Shrewsbury - Crewe 1M74 1330 Cardiff - Liverpool L.St. 32m 57ch
I had promised to return to the Paddington area tonight for a big birthday bash of one of my colleagues from Paddington station (unless there was a Crompton out of course). Nothing else doing so I headed South.
86237 Crewe - London Euston xxxx Carlisle - Euston 158m 00ch
I was at the do, held in a Boozer about 500 yards from Padd station, from first knockings at 1900 to last orders at 2300. I was at least pretty merry by this point. I somehow made it to Euston for 1S26, I would finally be going North of the Border having originally planned to do so Saturday night!
I legged it up the platform to get the loco number, bowled by the same Can I had down from Crewe this afternoon! I had exchanged pleasantries with the 2 Stewardesses standing next to the Bar car on my way up the platform, I had no idea why they bothered talking to me as I was sporting my finest Parka coat & bashing overnight bag, the perfect idyll of a ned crank. This didn't stop me getting an invite into the Bar car for the journey North as I headed back to the seated coaches!
I explained that only passengers holding Sleeper reservations could use the Bar car (there were no general use Lounge cars back then), how would I get back to the seated coaches afterwards?
No problem - they would get the Guard to unlock a few end doors & get me thru later! The train wouldn't be busy it being a Monday night and they could do with a natter. An already well-oiled Poodle would certainly liven things up for them, I never shut up at the best of times!
86237 London Euston - Glasgow Central 1S26 2350 Euston - Glasgow Central 401m 35ch
Well I certainly made the most of my extended drinking session, I drank while we all nattered about the state of the railway or just generally kept ourselves entertained with chit-chat. Time passed but I was still in full swing, verbal diarrhoea would have set in long before.
Much as I would have liked to carry on drinking & gassing we were now between Preston & Carlisle and I really needed to get back down the train to get my head down - if I could still walk that is! The Guard got me back to the "normal" part of the train for some Zzzz's.
Tuesday 05/06/90
I came round in Glasgow Central station, wondering why someone was jumping up & down on my head? Oh, they're not - it's a massive hangover! God knows what I was drinking in the Bar car, probably McEwan's Export (with vague recollections of some whisky chasers?).
I crawled, rolled or generally staggered to Queen Street for my target train, the 0722 Commuter service to Edinburgh - something of a kick-out turn which got standard 47's rather than 47/7's.
So 47703 was sat on the front of the train, sod it I'm too hungover to get my timetable out & look for an alternative bash anyway. I was trying not to breath over the Commuters too much but I did manage to get some doss, I must have gotten a window seat.
47703 Glasgow Queen Street - Edinburgh 2N81 0722 Glasgow QS - Edinburgh 47m 21ch
That bloke still seemed to be jumping up & down on my head, on arrival into Edinburgh I looked across and saw a 47 on stock about to go somewhere. Turned out to be the 0840 to Aberdeen, that won't be busy I can get my head down again.
47635 Edinburgh - Aberdeen 1A55 0840 Edinburgh - Aberdeen 130m 34ch
That bloke still seemed to be jumping up & down on my head, a cross-platform move at Aberdeen onto the 1126 to Inverness... It was as bright a summers day as your ever going to get in Scotland, so sleep was no longer really an option. I decided it was high time I stopped heading North & got the timetable out - the next leaping point was Insch to start heading back South!
47630 Aberdeen - Insch 1H29 1126 Aberdeeen - Inverness 27m 47ch
Nice day, I got my camera out for a photo of the incoming service. It's only going to be a 47 put the camera away? It could be a Tractor but nothing NB has worked so far this year. A large logo 37 came into sight so I did put the camera away - hold on its 37261! I realised too late for a photo though.
I boarded the front coach where an amazed Simon Jennings, fellow Crompton Basher, was a tad finished to see me! "Did you get the Gen & leap for this, it's the first NB Over the Top this year?" said Simon. "No I drank too much and sort of came too between Aberdeen & Insch after doing 1S26 up!" was my reply.
37261 Insch - Aberdeen 1A48 1030 Inverness - Aberdeen 27m 47ch
Simon had the gen that another NB 37 would be out later on the Montrose turn, something to aim at.
47595 Aberdeen - Elgin 1H31 1310 Aberdeen - Inverness 71m 33ch
I felt sufficiently normal enough, at long last, for a pint then something from the Chippy in Elgin.
47641 Elgin - Aberdeen xxxx 1424 Inverness - Aberdeen 71m 33ch
47550 Aberdeen - Montrose 2A69 1658 Dyce - Montrose 40m 48ch
37240# Montrose - Perth 2A46 1808 Montrose - Perth 51m 59ch
My first Red Pen loco of the All Line!
47712 Perth - Inverness 1H19 1910 Edinburgh - Inverness 118m 14ch
Wednesday 06/06/90
The Internal Scottish overnight awaited.
47492 Inverness - Larbert 1T04 0010 Inverness - Glasgow QS 159m 12ch
Now something must have occurred on the overnight as the next move was:
47701 Larbert - Inverness 1S07 2215 London Euston - Inverness 159m 12ch
I assume you could do Inverness to Larbert a lot quicker than Euston to Larbert - what happened there!
47541# Inverness - Aberdeen 1A48 1030 Inverness - Aberdeen 108m 28ch
47461 Aberdeen - Edinburgh 1B32 1248 Aberdeen - Edinburgh 130m 34ch
I was planning to do the Southport to Man Vic class 31 Commuter turn in the morning so headed South.
47644 Edinburgh - Carstairs 1M17 1722 Edinburgh - Birmingham New St 28m 60ch
86229 Carstairs - Carlisle 1M17 1722 Edinburgh - Birmingham New St 73m 53ch
An evening on the Beer in Carlisle, one great pub and plenty of not so great ones at the time!
86255 Carlisle - Crewe xxxx 2300 Carlisle - Euston 141m 08ch
Thursday 07/06/90
86261 Crewe - Stafford xxxx 2300 Carlisle - Euston 14m 37ch
For the Manchester & Liverpool "Splitter" to Lime Street.
86101 Stafford - Liverpool Lime Street 1H02 2359 Euston - Liverpool 50m 09ch
508 103 Liverpool Lime St - Liverpool Central 0m 32ch
507 031 Liverpool Central - Southport 0604 Liverpool Central - Southport 18m 76ch
A long leap for a dud 31, still it was the winner track loco hauled via Wigan Wallgate & Hag Fold that I was after.
31414 Southport - Manchester Victoria 2J86 0705 Southport - Man Vic 35m 15ch
For a week in June there certainly weren't a lot of winners about - the only "new" engine for me today would be working the Montrose turn this evening. Time to go North...
31414 Manchester Victoria - Lancaster 2C33 0843 Man Vic - Barrow 51m 64ch
31463 Lancaster - Preston 2J64 0908 Barrow - Manchester Victoria 20m 78ch
87017 Preston - Carlisle 1S52 0603 Paddington - Glasgow 90m 05ch
87032 Carlisle - Glasgow 1S57 0835 Euston - Glasgow 102m 27ch
Lunch from McDonalds then Beers in the Horseshoe Bar (where I was always worried they would ask me to join in the Karaoke!). A little time to spare lets do winner track "Below Ground"
Clockwork Orange Buchanan St - Buchanan St (Outer circle)
47617 Glasgow Queen St - Dundee xxxx 1725 Glasgow QS - Aberdeen 83m 55ch
You leap 350 miles for a winner & a farce develops! A Freight had failed so we couldn't get beyond Dundee and the 1808 ex Montrose was clobbered on it's outward leg so mega late coming back.
A Scratch Merchant was with me in the Buffet, it was one of his last couple of 37's.
When the train eventually arrived it terminated Dundee - the Guards hours were up & it was running forward to Perth ECS with only the Driver on board. I persuaded the Staff present on the station that as I & my mate were both Staff we could surely do the ECS to Perth anyway? So we blagged it through to Perth, the other chap was NOT Staff but I had flashed my Priv Card...
37170# Dundee - Perth xxxx 2035 Dundee - Perth addl/ECS 21m 08ch
37170 after arrival at Perth
47711 Perth - Edinburgh 1B44 1835 Inverness - Edinburgh 69m 40ch
Friday 08/06/90
47642 Edinburgh - Carstairs 1C93 0045 Edinburgh - Euston 28m 60ch
90017 Carstairs - Crewe 1C93 0045 Edinburgh - Euston 214m 61ch
Off at Crewe at some ungodly time, at least the Buffet was open for a hot cup of tea. Someone even had some Gen on the days runners & riders.
53928 / 51565 Crewe - Shrewsbury 0600 Crewe - Shrewsbury 32m 57ch
37431 Shrewsbury - Liverpool Lime St 1M00 0503 Cardiff - Liverpool 68m 29ch
47512 Liverpool Lime St - Manchester Piccadilly 1E57 0925 Liverpool - Newcastle 32m 00ch
The good old Railway free bus to Man Vic - no wandering around town dropping people off at shopping centres in those days. The reason for my previous moves was 31970 had been on hire to Reggie Rail for a couple of weeks but had done very little - but today it was allocated to go to Barrow in Furness (& a winner loco to boot)!
All was well at Man Vic, 31970 sat on the stock for the 1048 departure - but where were the expected hordes of 31 Bashers? Much like my run behind 33026 on Saturday there were no Bashers here, other than me & Herman.
We kept expecting Bashers to board at the various shacks on route, when we departed Preston and were still the only two Cranks on board we realised the hordes would not be joining us!
31970# Manchester Victoria - Barrow in Furness 2C37 1048 Man Vic - Barrow 86m 58ch
31970 Barrow in Furness - Lancaster 2J68 1318 Barrow - Man Vic 34m 74ch
A very enjoyable outing, made more so by the rarity value and the fact no-one else had it.
It was a different story as we rolled into Lancaster, the massed ranks of class 31 and other Bashers on the platform were testimony to that. I alighted here with a wave to the adoring crowds.
90010 Lancaster - Glasgow Central xxxx 1125 Euston - Glasgow Central 171m 36ch
52036 / 59735 / 52000 Glasgow Queeen St - Falkirk Grahamston 1803 Glasgow - Falkirk 22m 37ch
A break from the Bash, I was going to Airdrie for an evening drinking with my Cousin Paul & his Fiancée Leslie, my Cousin & Leslies Dad were outside in the car to pick me up.
I was staying over at Leslies parents house, a crawl round the pubs of Airdrie was the menu for tonight. Always interesting drinking in Scotland, you'd have a few then forget the pubs don't close at 11pm then need a 2nd wind when you realised you had another couple of hours to drink yet!
Saturday 09/06/90
My 2nd Hangover on this All Line, at least it was a normal one unlike the monster on Tuesday morning!
I headed straight back South, I probably had a ton of washing to catch up on.
47541 Falkirk Grahamston - Carstairs (Via Edinburgh) 1M42 1010 Inverness - Euston 54m 21ch
86252 Carstairs - Crewe 1M42 1010 Inverness - Euston 214m 61ch
86425 Crewe - Euston xxxx xxxx Holyhead - Euston 158m 00ch
Home to Reading where I was sharing a house with 3 other Bashers, probably an evening in the Butler (a top Fullers pub at the time) with Stellard, Dog, Clive Smith & Cooky.
The week started fantastically with 33026, 33030 & 33111 on the Saturday & Sunday - apart from 5 or 6 one-off mainline outings there was then basically NO further mainline Crompton activity until the backend of OCTOBER when things finally started to pick up!
Falling on 37261 after basically just doing trains further & further North as a means of sleeping off my hangover was a bonus. The main highlight of the rest of the week was undoubtedly 31970 to Barrow, a rare working which most in the North West missed. Only 4 winner locos for the week!
Cheers Poodle.
PS: John Sandham's (RIP) funeral is today 01/06/21, he was virtually never without a Priv All Line and was out on the Bash day in & day out. We will remember him.
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