Finished work at Paddington at about
7pm and went straight downstairs to view the traction. Was a bit gutted
to have missed loads of big ones (gen was very forthcoming in the Red Star
office as we had loads of main men working there). 47152 had been on the
mornings 10.55 Oxford-Pad and 1F09 from Twyford, but it wasn't a requirement
anyway, although I am quitepartial to a bit of non boilered / steam heat
duff if there's nothing else about. 47094 did 1F46 to Twyford and then
there was the BIG stuff.......37254 and 37159 had been out on the Cardiff
- Pompey route, whilst 37668 had done
1V09 and 37693 had performed vice
07.35 Cardiff - Hereford d.m.u. turn.
Armed with all this gen - well where
did that leave me? Tomorrow looked highly hopeful in South Wales that was
for sure, so it was just a question of biding my time until then. 47628
was boarded to Reading where the plan was to take 47319 which had been
allocated 20.12 Oxford - Padd back to London. First bowl out of the weekend
as 319 did the up parcels whilst 47484 did the said train. Time for a re
- think......47519 was done to Basingstoke where a monstrous
50012 came in on the 20.38 Waterloo
- Yeovil (little did I know it was only a few weeks to withdrawl and this
would be my farewell to the monster). Andover was reached and a quick dash
under the subway for 50002 back to Woking.
It was now dark and freezing and I was beginning to get that over - heating bashing feeling often associated with too much eth. This was alleviated slightly by my first Vacs of the weekend (always enough to cheer me up) as 33115 produced on the top mail train, the 22.52 Waterloo - Weymouth.
I dossed in the luxury of a whole compartment to myself and bonus points were scored when I discovered a guard had left his Bardic lamp behind. This duly sits on my mantle piece to this day. By the time Southampton was reached I was knackered and totally uninterested as 33027 (not again) was shunted onto my portion which formed the 01.55 to Bristol. This was the first time I'd been overnight on the Pompey - Bristol mails (and was to be my last as the train ceased to run publicly in 3 weeks time!) I can think of better places to be at five in the morning other than Bristol Temple Meads, but at least it was Vac heaven. Dire haulage immediately observed at the stabling point. No surprise then as 47647 came in on the 05.00 to Yeovil. Another whole comp was required (and duly scored) for doss to Westbury where a rancid unit was done back to Temple Meads. Now in a total state, I was totally disgusted to find the 07.20 additional to Swansea was only a totally bland 47556. This however was my only option if I wanted to get in prime position for the Ruggexes and this was duly done all the way to Neath where I'd have my pick of the bunch. This was not to be an exciting morning however and all I could manage was 47458 to Bridgend for 47628 (again) to Cardiff, having missed the only thing worth doing (37431). 47458 was picked up again to Newport whereby - CCCHHHHIIINNNG (noise of cash registering large sum of money) - a big and blue 47293 was required back to Central on the 10.50 Hereford - Cardiff (vice unit for the Rugby). News was beginning to filter in of the rest of the days monster turns. I'd completely bowled myself out for 37063 on a Wolves - Leyton footex. 37015 worked Wellington to Telford on a failure, 47033 and 47112 were on other Ruggexes that were arriving at Central around now, and news of 37159 being allocated 16.15 Bristol - Weymouth was forthcoming.
At this point my mate Sudbury produced
with news of a fair to middling Severn Valley Gala ( I didn't rate those
things back then ) and we tried to busy ourselves in the shortly to be
caped Pompey diagrams. It seemed hard to believe that in a few weeks time
all these workings would be replaced by
rancid pieces of fibre glass! 47453
was done to Newport. 33048 to Bristol, 33019 to Bath for 47620 back into
Bristol. Time for a sani and then back to Ruggex Central. This was
achieved by 620 which ran round to
Cardiff.
Cardiff by this time was like a zoo.
If you weren't a cranker you were a yob from the Rugby and tension mounted
as the stock lined up to come in, one by one. 47293 was decided upon and
this was provided for the 1Z28 - the 17.14 additional to Hereford. The
gen was that there were no big Syphons on the Ruggexes whatsoever so we
thought we may as well have this all the way as the 1V09 was unallocated
and could turn up something big. Imagine our total horror then as 31429!
pulled in to Hereford. This was totally bizarre, a first for me - having
a goil on the North and West. Just
when we were cursing our luck and
thinking that the day had been unbelievably dull, we arrived back at Central.
1V09 had today been extended to Carmarthen
instead of the usual termination at Cardiff and no prizes for predicting
the inevitable....... Driver had no route knowledge of a 31 in South Wales!
Do not pass go, do not collect £200, go straight to..................37895
you beast!
Total panic struck as we both raced
through our bibles to see if it was possible to take. It was now getting
late
and there were some drags to be done
over Cannock Chase in the morning so the original plan was to get 1S19
(18.40Plymouth - Glasgow sleepers) up to the North West.
Horror totally set in as we realised
it was 895 into West Wales or the drags in the morning. What a dismal choice
to have to make. There was absolutely no hope of making S19 if you boarded
895 - you had something like a minus 14 at Bridgend for your connection
into S19 at Parkway.
With this totally understood Sudbury
decided to flag 895 and de trained. 'See you around then mate' I said as
that was that and I'd decided that 895 was so unfeasably massive it had
to be done. I hadn't even considered any moves once in West Wales. To be
honest I think I knew deep down that this
was going to mean a long cold night
on Carmarthen or somewhere....but it had to be done.
As 895 stormed through the suburbs
of Cardiff (this had to be seen to be believed - the driver was a 37 man
and well aware of his audience) I thought that this was a good choice.
I grabbed myself a window, and as the sun went down we headed further West
and into isolation. Alert as ever (you have to be in this game) I noticed
the lack of passing unit on my right hand side. Bridgend was reached in
good time and as the train pulled in I shouted to one of the platform staff
on the up platform about the state of
play of the Pembroke Dock - Bristol
TM. ''We've no news yet - he was 30 down last we heard' came the Welsh
accent back.
What the hell. With split second decision
making I flung open the door and said my farewells to the Canton beast,
amidst a few shouts of 'part timer' from my fellow Syphon men as the train
pulled out. I braced myself for the worst. If this unit was so late then
it was doubtful that
S19 would be held at Parkway. (the
unit was booked to call there and reverse out back to Temple Meads to make
this connection for passengers from South and West Wales.) It was only
something like a +10 booked anyway.
It was at this point I began to get
the seeds of an absolutely riotous idea...........
If this was so late (now 45 down and
counting) then what if there were any passengers for S19? Why don't I go
and play merry hell with the Supervisor at Cardiff when we arrive and see
what he suggests.
Cardiff was reached at something ridiculous
like 75 late, even more providing me with a case to curse the CF Super.
On doing this his advice for any passengers for S19 was to take the last
unit to Hereford whereby a FAST TAXI would be provided for the rest of
the journey to CREWE to join
S19 there!
One of my all - time favorite memories
of bashing was the sight of Sudburys' face as I met him at Crewe! Oddly
enough 1S19 was just pulling into the platform as I walked onto it.
And as the train braked who should
be in the compartment where the train exactly stopped? I banged on the
window to hear Sudbury say 'how the hell did you manage that!'
'You are bowled!' was my only answer.
One of the mainest moves of my entire bashing career!
S19 to Preston blah blah blah,V32 back down blah blah blah,528 on drag down for 47313 as Pilot into New Street.
My girlfreind of the time was conveniently allocated to Birm University and resided 100 yards from Selly Oak station. Funny that I only ever saw her in a completely delapidated state like the one I was in NOW!
743.50 off loco hauled travel that
weekend.
Now do you want to know something really sad?
At about 11.30am I got a phone call
whilst I was in the shower at Joannas. 47099 and 58028 were working drags
to Nuneaton. These were duly picked up (I took Joanna with me so as to
limit any earache about never seeing her)
and the weekend was planned to be
terminated in Derby on 47468 wherby we totally pissed off my mum by missing
her lift back to Alfreton ( a timing mix up) and Selly Oak was once again
reached at about 10pm!
I won't go on but on the Monday 33211/33008/37226 on Bristol - Cardiff turns (with Glop)/37430 up to Crewe for 431 back down and into work for the night shift at Pad.
Tired ? Not half!
Finished at 06.00 on Tuesday morning wherby first tram was done to Bath for 33048/33028/37430 to Abergavenny 47 584/37426 to Crewe/37430 Back to Cardiff for DMU to Pad for another night shift.(37159 worked again on a dmu diagram)
Things were by now getting silly so
I withered the overnights for a couple of nights for reasons of preserving
sanity and hygiene!
Those were the days!
CAPTAIN GREY
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