31 446 Ely
The back platform at a rather damp Ely on 19th December 1987 taking us back to the last Winter of loco haulage on the cross country services to the Midlands.
31446 has just arrived with 1M70 09.28 Ipswich - Birmingham New Street. The loco was noted for its sluggishness and had arrived in East Anglia the previous evening on the 'boat train' from Manchester or Preston ( I think it was ) to Harwich - quite a taxing load for 31446 on a full rake of air cons, normally a Class 47 duty. The loco then took the empties to Norwich Crown Point before heading back down to Ipswich on the ecs of the train shown here, a more manageable load five.
Nevertheless, next day 31446 was shown as being on Ipswich with 'low power' due to a load regulator fault. It was back out on the Monday though !
Note the locomotive number scrawled between the central footholds and lack of blue star symbols, they appear to have worn away.
Photo copyright : Michael Bryant
31 446 Ely
The back platform at a rather damp Ely on 19th December 1987 taking us back to the last Winter of loco haulage on the cross country services to the Midlands.
31446 has just arrived with 1M70 09.28 Ipswich - Birmingham New Street. The loco was noted for its sluggishness and had arrived in East Anglia the previous evening on the 'boat train' from Manchester or Preston ( I think it was ) to Harwich - quite a taxing load for 31446 on a full rake of air cons, normally a Class 47 duty. The loco then took the empties to Norwich Crown Point before heading back down to Ipswich on the ecs of the train shown here, a more manageable load five.
Nevertheless, next day 31446 was shown as being on Ipswich with 'low power' due to a load regulator fault. It was back out on the Monday though !
Note the locomotive number scrawled between the central footholds and lack of blue star symbols, they appear to have worn away.
Photo copyright : Michael Bryant