45046 St Austell 2nd May 1983
45046 stands at St Austell with the 10.20 Plymouth - Penzance . This was the May Day public holiday and rather wet and cool so no parcel vans on the train, reducing the load to five. Note the steam from the loco's boiler gushing out at the rear. This was a bit of a rare beast on this train as it was a solid ETH 45/1 turn. A fair few of us were heading west to Penzance for our usual massive chip butty and pints of Courage Best in the One And All before returning on the return diagram 13.45 to Bristol TM. Or so we thought. Control had other ideas and put 50011 on the train marooning the Peak Army in deepest Cornwall. In the meantime we decamped to St Ives to celebrate a Public Holiday in true British style by being at the seaside in the rain and being generally miserable walking around the town and beaches as the pubs all shut at 2.30 in the afternoon back then. An afternoon of sobriety and no peak home. Not a good combination. We decided to hedge our bets on 45046 returning to Bristol TM later at 18.15 but this was not to be and so once again we were bowled, this time by 50047. Although I had nine runs off 45046 it wasn't one of my higher mileage ones at 584.
45046 St Austell 2nd May 1983
45046 stands at St Austell with the 10.20 Plymouth - Penzance . This was the May Day public holiday and rather wet and cool so no parcel vans on the train, reducing the load to five. Note the steam from the loco's boiler gushing out at the rear. This was a bit of a rare beast on this train as it was a solid ETH 45/1 turn. A fair few of us were heading west to Penzance for our usual massive chip butty and pints of Courage Best in the One And All before returning on the return diagram 13.45 to Bristol TM. Or so we thought. Control had other ideas and put 50011 on the train marooning the Peak Army in deepest Cornwall. In the meantime we decamped to St Ives to celebrate a Public Holiday in true British style by being at the seaside in the rain and being generally miserable walking around the town and beaches as the pubs all shut at 2.30 in the afternoon back then. An afternoon of sobriety and no peak home. Not a good combination. We decided to hedge our bets on 45046 returning to Bristol TM later at 18.15 but this was not to be and so once again we were bowled, this time by 50047. Although I had nine runs off 45046 it wasn't one of my higher mileage ones at 584.