Well almost, in that we were in Scotland less than 24 hours. It seemed like a good idea to Dave and myself to go up there - in the cold, dark days of December 1962 with only around seven hours between sunrise and sunset - and, without official permits, bash round a load of loco sheds. It was my first ever trip north of the border and I looked forward to seeing lots of new locos and new classes with a goodly number being pre-grouping and only seen in Scotland.
We left Lansdown at 8.52pm on board train 1E71 the Fridays only 7.20pm Bristol – Bradford hauled by Crompton diesel D37, one of ten allocated to Bristol from dieselisation of cross-country passengers to Birmingham and the north during summer 1961. As usual we peered out into the darkness to see what we could spot by way of locos en route. Mostly just at Bromsgrove from my notes – three of the GW 0-6-0PT plus the big Lickey Banker at that time 9F 92079 with its large headlight which used to adorn the specially constructed banking loco 0-10-0 58100, scrapped in 1956, sadly I never saw it.
At Birmingham New Street we changed to an overnight service bound for Glasgow and headed by English Electric Type 4 D218 all the way to our destination. We snatched a few numbers going north including at Crewe, before no doubt dozing off in the warmth of the carriage. I did note that our banking loco to Shap summit on the West Coast line was Fowler 2-6-4T 42414 (One of the side window variety which latterly worked Redditch – Evesham – Ashchurch trains and stabled overnight on Cheltenham Malvern Road shed – though 42414 never appeared).
Coming into Glasgow in the still dark early morning there were glimpses of locos such as an out of use WD 2-10-0 90768, the BR examples being wholly located in Scotland – and all withdrawn by the end of 1962 - and a less than successful diesel D8508, a Clayton built Type 1 Bo-Bo, just a few weeks old at that time and destined for a service life of less than ten years.
We set off on our quest to visit as many loco sheds as we could that Saturday not just in the Glasgow area but also in Edinburgh and possibly elsewhere, guided by the absolutely invaluable 'British Locomotive Shed Directory' compiled by Aiden L F Fuller; without it, we would have been completely clueless as to how to get to the depots. Even if you could see the places when passing by on a train didn't mean you could find them on foot - it was easy to go in the wrong direction, get on the wrong bus or become hopelessly lost in streets of housing estates and tenement blocks.
The Shed Directory included a suggested itinerary for Glasgow which covered ten locos sheds and two loco works. We didn't do it as suggested – the chances of getting into Cowlairs and St Rollox Works without permission seemed unlikely – so we made our own agenda while following the instructions for buses, trains and walking directions.
See http://shedbashuk.blogspot.com/ for details of shed locations and loco allocations
Our first port of call involved a 25 minute bus journey from the centre of Glasgow out to 65C Parkhead. Only a small shed with a mix of 13 LMS and LNER types, all stored, and three D30XX 0-6-0 shunters, but every one was a 'cop' , I hadn't seen any of them before. One of the four Black Fives present, 45158, was named 'Glasgow Yeomanry'. All four subsequently returned to service, whereas most stored locos seen on this trip had a one way journey to the scrapyard.
Then it was off to a much bigger shed, 65B St Rollox, Balornock. This produced 59 locos of which I had previously seen only four. There was a good selection of steam locos – A4 and A3 Pacifics; ex Caledonian and ex North British Railway 0-6-0s; BR Standard and ex LMS 'Jubilee' 4-6-0s to name just a few classes seen. Diesel types were a couple of varieties of shunter and several D61XX class built locally by North British Loco Co – whose diesels were sadly not as successful as their steam counterparts and had mostly short lives. The company had gone into liquidation a few months earlier, in April 1962, throwing a lot of people out of work.
We moved to 65A Eastfield – 61 locos, and all but two were new for me, with a variety of types:
1 'A4' 60031, 1 'A3' 60043, 4 'B1', 6 Black Fives, 2 'Jubilees' (45713,45724 both withdrawn), 3 B R 73XXX, 1 'Crab', 2 WD 2-8-0, 4 J36, 7 J37, 2 J38, 3 J39, 6 V1/V3 2-6-2T plus D27XX, D30XX, D53XX, D61XX and D80XX diesels.
At our next port of call, 65D Dawsholm, there were only 21 locos, but some very interesting ones. The depot was used for housing Scottish preserved steam engines and we saw:
49 'Gordon Highlander' 4-4-0 ex Great North of Scotland Railway
256 'Glen Douglas' 4-4-0 ex North British Railway
123 4-2-2 ex Caledonian Railway
103 4-6-0 ex Highland Railway
These four had been restored to working order in the 1950s, in colourful pre-grouping liveries.
The only one of the quartet I had seen before was 123, which was at Old Oak Common shed in London on a visit I made with a group. It was there alongside preserved GWR 4-4-0 3440 City of Truro.
Another loco stored here, withdrawn in 1953 and set aside for preservation, was
54398 'Ben Alder', an ex-Highland Railway 'Small Ben' 4-4-0. Regrettably it was senselessly scrapped in 1967. A photo of it in the shed at Dawsholm can be seen here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/dubdee/8252601997
A further interesting loco in the shed yard was 'Wee Pug' 0-4-0ST 56039, recently withdrawn though probably out of service for longer. Some of this class including 56039 used to operate with small wooden tenders,adapted from coal wagons, see this picture https://www.flickr.com/photos/44544845@N08/8675466243
67A Corkerhill was next on the agenda. 35 locos, steam apart from diesel shunter D2443. All LMS and BR types, with the exception of two pre-grouping locos, ex-Caledonian 0-4-4T 55203 and 55221 in store. There was a 2P 4-4-0 in store too, 40615, an LMS built example. The five Jubilee 4-6-0s seen were all in store and withdrawn this month. I had seen two elsewhere, 45673 'Keppel' and 45687 'Neptune', not in Cheltenham, though 45687 was reported there in June 1960.
66A Polmadie
THE shed for express locos on the West Coast Main Line between Glasgow,Carlisle, Crewe and London. Five Stanier Pacifics were seen: 46222;46223;46227;46230;46249, the latter being a Crewe North engine. Diesels had been around for a few years on the WCML and the Pacifics were on the way out. Indeed 46227 was withdrawn this month (as were this depot's 46231 and 46232) and the others seen today before the end of 1963. The loco which brought us up from Birmingham,D218, was here along with a few others of the class.
We saw all five B R Standard 'Clan' 4-6-2s allocated here from new – 72000 to 72004. Despite their relative newness, all were withdrawn this month having had a service life of little more than ten years. One might have thought they could have gone elsewhere, as the five 'Clans' shedded at Carlisle remained in service for two or three more years. The class doesn't seem to have been very successful.
73 locos were on shed, I copped 62. One loco I had seen in Cheltenham was 'Royal Scot' 46121 which memorably appeared one teatime in 1961 on the York – Bristol express, though it was now stored, along with 46105 and 46107, all three being withdrawn this month.
66B Motherwell
This shed was involved with haulage of trains for the many industries in and around Glasgow. We saw seven of the big WD 2-10-0s and numerous WD 2-8-0s. Sixty locos noted of which there was just one, 'Black Five' 44820, I had seen before. The most elegant loco was this shed's ex-Caledonian 4-4-0 54465, withdrawn a couple of months earlier.
65E Kipps
This was a small shed whose allocation was shunting and goods locos, steam and diesel. Twenty engines here, five diesels and fifteen steam, all new to me. Very few of the steam were still in use, just J36 0-6-0 65325 and J37 0-6-0 64593 got transferred to other sheds when Kipps closed to steam in January 1963 with several being withdrawn in this month of December. Other types represented were J35 0-6-0; J83 and J88 0-6-0T; Y9 0-4-0ST; and an ex-Caledonian 'Wee Pug' 56029.
64F Bathgate
Our visit found 66 steam and no diesels – the catch being that virtually everything was stored or withdrawn. Every loco was new to me. Classes seen:
A3 4-6-2 5; D11 4-4-0 1; D34 4-4-0 1; J35 0-6-0 3; J36 0-6-0 15; J37 0-6-0 5; J83 0-6-0T 3; K3 2-6-0 1; N15 0-6-2T 8;V1/V3 2-6-2T 8; V2 2-6-2 14; Caledonian 0-6-0 2.
Travel into Edinburgh and 64B Haymarket, THE shed for East Coast Main Line express locos. By this date, diesels outnumbered steam. Three 'Deltics' were present – D9000/9014/9016 – along with several English Electric Type 4s, D53XX and Crompton D178 plus a couple of shunters. Steam was represented by two 'A1' Pacifics – 60151 from south of the border 52D Tweedmouth, and 60159 - also 'A2' 60530, three 'B1' 4-6-0s and two named 'J36' 0-6-0, 65224 'Mons' and 65243 'Maude'. The latter were veterans of the First World War, having seen service overseas with the Railway Operating Division of the War Department.
64C Dalry Road was next stop, with 30 locos on shed, 27 steam and three diesel shunters. Stanier 'Black Fives' were well represented with 16 examples, the only one I had seen before was 45466 allocated to 12A Carlisle Kingmoor. Probably some had distinctive large cabside numbers, indicating they were overhauled at St Rollox or Cowlairs Works, possibly other works as well.
Traditional Scottish types were three Caley 0-6-0s – 57550,57565,57634 - and 0-4-4T 55124. LNER locos were Haymarket allocated 'A3' 60099 and D49 4-4-0 62712 'Morayshire' withdrawn in 1961 but retained for the Royal Scottish Museum. Other steam were three ex-LMS 2-6-4T plus B R Standards 73007 and 76105 – the latter being less than five and a half years old, but at least it was still in service.
64A St Margarets was the biggest Edinburgh shed with 78 locos present. It was good to go round a big shed with plenty of active steam. Loco classes seen:
A1 2; A2 2; B1 10; J35 2 (withdrawn); J36 3 (1 withdrawn); J37 17; J38 7; J83 1; N15 2 (withdrawn); V2 5; Y9 1; Ivatt class 2 2-6-0 2; B R class 4 2-6-4T 8; D27XX 8; D30XX 8.
Some were just about to be withdrawn, such as A2 60536 and J83 68477. The Y9, 68095, was withdrawn this month, but is now preserved, several pictures are here: https://preservedbritishsteamlocomotives.com/68095-nbr-42-lner-9042-br-68095/
Away to 65K Polmont, a small shed, 23 locos, 19 steam, including eight J36 and J37, and 4 diesel shunters. A solitary J39 0-6-0, 64975, was withdrawn this month, as were four Stanier 2-6-2T which used to operate local passenger services from Dawsholm. More tank locos were four class V1 and two V3 Gresley 3-cylinder 2-6-2T. Whilst one was already withdrawn and two others were withdrawn this month, three were about to be transferred to the North Eastern Region, to 52B Heaton, Newcastle for further use. These were 67643,67662 and 67678.
Then train back to Glasgow, but that wasn't the end of our shed bashing, even though it was well into the very dark cold evening by now. We took another train out to Ayr, I seem to remember being there around 9pm in the pitch black and the midst of a howling gale! Which led to an unfortunate incident that sticks in my mind all these years later more than the shed visits and the hundreds of locos we had seen on our day trip. To leave the station, we had to go through a pair of what looked like new glass doors. We struggled to push them open against the winds, but we managed and set off. Then came a bang and a splintering noise. We kept walking without glancing back....
67C Ayr shed produced 40 mostly working locos, with only one I had seen before, so it was a worthwhile visit. I remember walking up and down the lines of gently hissing locos, trying to glean the numbers in the steamy, smoky darkness. Ayr was home to numerous Hughes Fowler 'Crab' 2-6-0s which worked many of the coal trains in the Ayrshire coalfields. We saw fifteen 'Crabs'; six 'Black Fives'; four B R Standard class 3 2-6-0s; one B R Standard class 2 2-6-0; four WD 2-8-0 (two withdrawn this month); one Fairburn 2-6-4T(withdrawn this month); one Caley 2F 0-6-0 (withdrawn); four Caley 3F 0-6-0 (withdrawn); two J37 0-6-0s; two D30XX diesel shunters.
Job done, we walked back to the station. When we got there a porter was busy trying to board up a shattered glass door! Ooops. We got a hostile glare from the porter and didn't hang around...
We returned to Glasgow and caught our overnight train to Birmingham, too tired to go to the front and find out what the loco was, probably an English Electric Type 4. We did spot working Stanier Pacific 46226, a Carlisle Kingmoor engine, as our train pulled out, plus a last glimpse of two pre-grouping locos, ex-Caledonian Railway 4-4-0s 54463 and 54502, out of use/withdrawn at 66E Carstairs shed.
It was a great trip and adventure, still don't know how we managed to fit in fourteen shed visits in such a short period of time, quite a lot in the dark! It's all something of a blur these many years later. My trusty notebook, purchased for the trip, records 665 locos, of which I copped 525 steam, 89 diesels and one electric. The return train fares Cheltenham – Glasgow and Glasgow – Ayr cost the princely sum of 62 shillings, that's £3.10 ( May have been half-fare).
The overall impression in retrospect is that we were just in time to see a great variety of locos including numerous Scottish pre-grouping classes many of which were already withdrawn from use and awaiting the call to scrapyards. December 1962 witnessed a large cull of Scottish Region steam locos, some not very old such as the 'Clans' at Polmadie.
The rest of the journey south was understandably spent mostly asleep after such a long 24+ hours out and about. The commotion and lights at Crewe roused us long enough to note local 'Jubilees' 45591 and 45644 also station pilot 'Jinty' 0-6-0T 47391.
Good job our train terminated at Birmingham New Street, otherwise we might have slept on and got overcarried. Anyway we were in time to catch train 2V74,7.32am Derby – Bristol, with, lo and behold, steam haulage in the shape of 'Black Five' 44662, a 55A Leeds Holbeck engine. The service left New Street at 9am stopping at Barnt Green, Bromsgrove, where we saw various banking locos again, Droitwich Spa and Worcester Shrub Hill. We were sufficiently awake at the latter to note some 'Castle 4-6-0s, a 'County 4-6-0, 1024, and spark arrestor fitted 0-6-0PT 1661, used on the local Vinegar branch. From Worcester the train called at Ashchurch before arriving in Lansdown station more or less on time at 10.44am.
But little did we know as we stepped off the train at Lansdown that it wasn't the end of our Scottish sightings....Although completely knackered by now, there was a train signalled on the up line, so true to form we decided to wait for it before walking home. A few minutes elapsed before two engines coupled together appeared – one was regular Saltley 4F 0-6-0 43949 behind a 'Black Five' which was certainly not a regular - it was from Scotland, from 65B St Rollox that we had visited the previous day. 44677 had big Scottish style cabside numbers, a snowplough and self-weighing tender, altogether a rare sighting in Cheltenham and a fitting conclusion to our Scottish expedition. And it was another cop for me!
P.S. 44677 was in the area next day as well, I saw it at Lansdown on 1V43 11.53am York – Bristol running 21 minutes late, usually a diesel turn.