Ruddington Rusts

It's a somewhat sad sight to look out over the Nottingham Transport Heritage Centre site at Ruddington, northern terminus of what was once the Great Central Railway (Nottingham). A large portion of their rolling stock is in incredibly poor condition, and that which appears operational surely hasn't run in a while. They hope to have the trains running again this year - I hope so too, it's such a shame to see.

 

There're far too many vehicles in this photograph to pick out individuals, but I'll at least try to pick out the powered ones, as well as the coaches on the right.

 

On the far left of the photograph is a 1943-built Warwell wagon, KDM 721218, on which resides the boiler of USATC 1631, an S160-class 2-8-0 heavy freight locomotive built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1942. This was one of 510 Truman-class locomotives purchased by the Hungarian State Railways in 1946 under the service number 411.388. 1631 was withdrawn in the 1980s but was retained as a stationary boiler until the locomotive was repatriated to Britain in 1995. A gradual restoration has been ongoing, with this locomotive in many pieces scattered across the yard, but in 2022 the locomotive was put up for sale. Also on-site for spares and presumably somewhere in this photograph are USATC 2138 (ALCo, 1943) and USATC 2364 (Baldwin, 1943), but as for which specific parts belong to each locomotive, I doubt even the owner can tell any more.

 

Tucked in just between the tarpaulined coaches is Class 108 DMBS 50926. Leaving departmental service needing a fairly heavy overhaul, the carriage sat near-derelict for fifteen years before a gradual overhaul started, which included stripping the old blue and grey livery down to mostly bare metal. At the moment most of the restoration effort is going into sister DMCL 50645, but restoration is advancing as resources become available. With 50645 - currently in the shed on the centre-left of this photograph - now nearing the end of this overhaul period, hopefully 50926 will soon move under cover and be properly restored.

 

Also tucked in behind those vehicles and barely visible are two shunting locomotives, Ruston 449754 of 1961 and Sentinel 10262 of 1967. The former is a 165-class 0-4-0DE and has spent several years giving good service as the duty shunter at Ruddington. The Sentinel, on the other hand, has seen a great deal of confusion as to its identity which stems from a conflict over the running number. 10119 of 1962 wore the identity H014 on Wabtec black from her years at Doncaster Works, but has spent the past fifteen or so years at Long Marston, where it appears she still remains. Crucially, 10119 has only four coupled driving wheels. This locomotive is therefore 10262 of 1967, which carries the same running number of H014 on RMS Locotec blue, and has six coupled driving wheels.

 

Alongside the multiple unit shed is two-thirds of the railway's other multiple unit, a composite unit formed of Class 116 driving motors and a Class 117 trailer. These are DMS 51151 and TCL 59501; DMBS 51138 is inside the shed undergoing overhaul. 51151 is quite a lucky vehicle; initially saved as a spares donor, she re-entered service in the formation she maintains today in the late-1990s and moved to Ruddington in 2001. The set gave good use until 2011 - during which time 51151 sadly became the last of her kind, following the mass destruction by arson of 51147 and 51148 at Swansea Vale in 2008. Class 116 DMBSs 51134 and 51135, TC 59445, Class 117 TCL 59490, and Class 121 55026 were all also destroyed on that dark day for multiple unit preservation. Since 2011 the Ruddington unit has remained out of use, although is gradually being restored to operational condition, with DMBS 51138 currently taking priority.

 

In amongst the coaching stock in the centre of the yard are the frames from two industrial locomotives, which I have not been able to identify. However, I have identified the boilers of three locomotives stored over by the main locomotive works as belonging to Hudswell Clarke 1682 Julia of 1937, Manning Wardle 1762 Dolobran of 1910, and 2009 Rhyl of 1921; 2015 Arthur of 1953 stands with them, although this locomotive is visually mostly intact. Precisely which frames and boilers match up to which identities I do not know, lacking both the in-depth knowledge of industrial locomotives and photographs of the originals to be able to answer that accurately.

 

Right, on to the mainline diesels! Stored outside the main depot building are 37009, 03118, 20154, and 08922. 37009 has been a northern locomotive most of her life, having started out at Stratford in 1961 but after a transfer to Wath in 1967, her furthest-south allocation was Darnall in Sheffield. She was unofficially named Typhoon in 1989 and was renumbered to 37340 in 1994, being allocated to component recovery in 1998. Happily preserved in 2003, the locomotive has been at Nottingham since 2007 and is currently awaiting repair. 03118 was initially preserved on Peak Rail before moving to Ruddington in 2016. 20154 seems to have spent most of its preservation career in non-standard liveries. Initially painted into BR green with yellow warning panels and working headcode boxes as D8154, it wasn't long before she was given full yellow ends and TOPS numbers. This livery got increasingly tatty until the locomotive was finally repainted in 2019 into BR blue with full yellow ends... but reverted back to pre-TOPS numbers as D8154. Finally is one of the line's Class 08s, 08922, a former Carlisle favourite. She was painted in non-standard pale grey in c.2003 and later preserved, but as an operational locomotive sees plenty of contract hire to sites across the country. The same can be said of 08784, situated just to the right, which moved to Ruddington while still carrying faded EWS colours, but in 2019 was repainted into BR Railfreight grey livery and has seen contract hire since.

 

Next up is a line of 125 Group coaching stock, led by their sole Class 43 on site. 43044 Edward Paxman is to be fitted with a surviving Paxman Valenta engine, allowing that famous turbo scream to once more echo throughout the English countryside. Behind that are five Mk3s, arranged as follows:

RFM 10206 (ex-TRUK 40507) painted in prototype silver and blue

TSO 12087 in Intercity Executive

TSO 12134 also in Intercity Executive

TGS 44000, a prototype vehicle still in GWR green - albeit with the word 'Great' removed from the branding

RFM 10202 (ex-TRUK 40504) in BR rail blue and pearl grey

 

The long line of coaches on the right is arranged as follows:

Mk3 SLE 10602 in faded Intercity Sleeper livery, long-term stored

Mk2 BFK 35512 in BR blue and grey, waiting for the resumption of a failed overhaul

Mk1 SK 25693 in faded BR crimson and cream, looking very tatty with several broken windows

Mk2 TSO 5365 Deborah in Riviera Trains blue and cream, apparently awaiting disposal

Mk1 GUV 86129 in BR lined maroon

Mk2 TSO 5376 in BR blue and grey, apparently also awaiting disposal

Mk2 TSO 5497 again in BR blue and grey and apparently too awaiting disposal

Bringing up the rear is recently-preserved Class 144 diesel unit 144003, one of the few fully-operational passenger units on the line, and I assume core to their hopes of reopening this year.

 

Finally, there are three coaches in the platform at Ruddington. These are:

Mk2 BSOT 9389, a heavily-modified vehicle wearing BR lined maroon with wasp stripes. This semi-driving trailer is has rudimentary controls and a windscreen fitted, allowing it to 'pilot' a locomotive and removing the necessity to run around at Loughborough High Level, where there are presently no station facilities.

Mk1 RBR 1649 in unbranded BR green

Mk1 RSO 1012 in unbranded maroon on one side and grey on the other. Later converted to cinema coach ZDW 150353, this coach is UIC-registered and has tell-tale body hooks mounted above the bogies, showing it was once allowed to run on the continent - but not again, at least not until major bodywork repairs have been carried out.

 

Location: Ruddington Fields (GCRN/NTHC)

Date: 30 April 2023

 

Done