31 423 Near Ketton
... or Ketton & Collyweston as the station was known when I first travelled on this route in 1966. On a glorious Summer's evening some 20 years later, that of 10th September 1986, Chris captured 31423 heading west with the 16.10 Cambridge - Birmingham New Street service. At this time, 31423 always one of the more mediocre members of this class had undergone a transformation and was putting up some very strong performances.
Down side was - as was nearly always the case with 'good' Class 31s, this made them more prone to blowing up with high water temperature and the like ! On this particular date, 31423 managed to return from Birmingham as far as Peterborough where it was removed with the load regulator sticking, a common fault with 31s.
May be Mr Cross will explain how that happened - think it might have been something to do with low governor oil, but I'm probably hopelessly wrong !
A few weeks after this picture was taken, 31423/4/5 were transferred away from March depot on 28th September to, initially Cricklewood and then Bescot.
Chris adds the other techy bits :
Nikon F with 105mm Nikkor and Kodak64 film.
Photo copyright : Chris Burton
31 423 Near Ketton
... or Ketton & Collyweston as the station was known when I first travelled on this route in 1966. On a glorious Summer's evening some 20 years later, that of 10th September 1986, Chris captured 31423 heading west with the 16.10 Cambridge - Birmingham New Street service. At this time, 31423 always one of the more mediocre members of this class had undergone a transformation and was putting up some very strong performances.
Down side was - as was nearly always the case with 'good' Class 31s, this made them more prone to blowing up with high water temperature and the like ! On this particular date, 31423 managed to return from Birmingham as far as Peterborough where it was removed with the load regulator sticking, a common fault with 31s.
May be Mr Cross will explain how that happened - think it might have been something to do with low governor oil, but I'm probably hopelessly wrong !
A few weeks after this picture was taken, 31423/4/5 were transferred away from March depot on 28th September to, initially Cricklewood and then Bescot.
Chris adds the other techy bits :
Nikon F with 105mm Nikkor and Kodak64 film.
Photo copyright : Chris Burton