“Dragging out of Rugby”, Sat 260283
Continuing our popular “local drags” features…
Nuneaton, line up!
The gen that had
been passed down from the “big men” was that there was a “all day drag out of Rugby”
on Saturday 260283. So with hopes of “rats, goyles and grids” dragging, the
usual suspects filled a few seats (well,4!) in the power car of 310069 as it
headed North from Leighton.
By Northampton the
doubters were querying our “gen”, we bailed at Rugby only to be told by the
ever soche supervisor that “theres no dragging till 11, and its only on the up
”…So we rejoined the 310 we’d just got off! Bailing at Cov for loco haulage in
50009 to New St. A few Int’l leaps, then
31423 on the usual stagger to Nuneaton on the 1015 Birmingham-Norwich. There
were very few bashers on Nuneaton but on seeing a line of nb 47’s stabled round
the back, we knew “we were in”.
It was then a case
of waiting for your “winner” to drag, as all up trains were making booked stops
at Nuneaton and Rugby for loco changes. My moves are listed below, plus other
known gen. The ole isolation was near Trent Valley Jn at Rugby but the power was only off on the up TV lines into Rugby, the down and
Birmingham lines being unaffected. It was all due to bridge parapet renewal.
Sample moves..
47200} 0915
Manchester-Euston NU-RU
87008}
86210 1000
Euston-Holyhead RU-NU
47356} 1000
Liverpool-Euston
86208}
47281} 0710
Glasgow-Euston
87012}
47357} 0920
Blackpool-Euston
87033}
31402 0903
Cambridge-Birmingham
86220 1055
Euston-Manchester
47330} 0810
Glasgow-Euston
87014}
47200} 1115
Manchester-Euston
86329}
47333} 1125
Liverpool-Euston NU-RU
86233}
So some “nb” local
haulage in February saw me return home around lunchtime content with the
morning out. There was to be a sting in the tail as the legendary Smudger Smith
stayed on the drags all day and he and a good few others were rewarded as
darkness fell.
The DMU forming
the 1645 Leicester-Birmingham failed on arrival at Nuneaton and as what
happened on our real railway at the time, assisting power was summoned! One of
the umpteen nb 47’s hovering were not used, all being “allocated” for Rugby
drags. 25302/25109 were summoned off the Nuneaton loco holding sidings to
assist the DMU forward now well filled with bashers! Smudger advises there was
a lot of “bellowing and flailing” as the big rats arrived at New St!
Happy days from 27
years ago, seems like yesterday in some ways!
260283 -Rugby drags, Phot spot
An exotic line
up of nb drag power, 47330,357,200 and 333
47200 with 87008 panto
down prior to departing with the 0915 Manchester-Euston
Variety in 25060 and
25226 with a van train bound for Leicester
Throbbing beast 055 on
MGR’s from Daw Mill
47356 dragging
86206 out of Nuneaton with the 1000 Liverpool-Euston
Additional gen
from “TC”
45128 Bedford - Leicester (not
recorded)
DMU Leicester - Nuneaton
47200(87008) Nuneaton - Rugby (09.15 ex Manchester)
86220 Rugby - Nuneaton (10.55 Euston -
Manchester)
47333(86233) Nuneaton - Rugby (11.25 ex Liverpool)
EMU Rugby - Birmingham
31402 Birmingham - Nuneaton (15.08 Birmingham
- Cambridge)
47357(87020) Nuneaton - Rugby (15.15 ex Manchester)
EMU Rugby - Birmingham
31421 Birmingham - Leicester (18.18
Birmingham - Norwich)
45143 Leicester - Bedford (19.07 Derby
- St. Pancras)
I presume the move off 47200 at Rugby onto 86210 back to Nuneaton was
rather tight. As I have a picture of 47200 at Rugby, I presume I caught the
next one back north.
Of the other three nb's out that day, 47281 was had on 18.06.83 on the
06.29 Bradford - Weymouth, 47330 on the 14.07.84 on the 15.59 Yarmouth -
Birmingham, 47356 on a tour on 20.02.94 out of Manchester.
These drags were my only trips with 47200 and 47357, 47333 was had on
30.07.83 between Birmingham and Wolverhampton, with the 19.45 ex Paddington.