The rural railway - M55995 Class 128 parcels unit in the old steam shed at Machynlleth
Travelling the railway in the British Rail era
Between 1983 and 1991 I spent many, many happy hours with my friends riding the rails around the UK. I managed to record many of the trips and railway scenes encountered on film for posterity. Those days are now long gone, but happily the photos remain for me to reminisce over and share ;)
In 1983 I went on a tour of all the mainline railways of Wales. On the way back from a few days in Tywyn, and a visit to the west coast of Wales, I took a break at Machynlleth, and of course I had to have a walk around the old shed :)
I was very used to seeing parcels units W55991 and W55992 on my home patch of Southall - they were everyday visitors. However, I was aiming to try and cop two of the other four Western region vehicles W55995-6 on my visit to Wales, as these were the Chester-based units. I was pleased to hunt down one of the two W55995 at the far western outpost of Machynlleth shed :) I found this view of the old steam shed quite evocative of the old railway, especially with the semaphore signal and old cast-iron sign.
Class 128 were introduced in 1959, with ten of the class being built by the Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company. They were fitted with two 230 hp Leyland Albion engines which made them very powerful for a 41 ton single car vehicle. The class was built specifically for parcels traffic, and did not feature any passenger accommodation, but did work in multiple with passenger DMUs on occasion. They had a payload of 10 tons, and could haul a tail load of up to 64 tons. The six vehicles for Western Region duties (W55991 – W55996) were fitted with the standard DMU gangways at each end and were initially allocated at Reading (W55991/2) for the London area duties, Tyseley (W55993/4) for Midlands duties and Chester (W55995/6) for Merseyside duties. The four London Midland Region vehicles (M55987 – M55990) were non-gangwayed and initially allocated to Newton Heath for north-west duties. Regional boundary changes in the mid 1960’s saw Chester and Tyseley become part of the London Midland Region. M55987 was an early casualty being withdrawn in 1971 and M55996 was transferred to Newton Heath as a replacement. Then M55996 was damaged in an accident and was withdrawn in 1980. The last members of the class - W55991 & 2 were withdrawn in 1990, and broken up the following year. Unfortunately, none of these unique vehicles was preserved.
Machynlleth was the seat of Owain Glyndŵr's Welsh Parliament in 1404, and as such claims to be the "ancient capital of Wales". However, it has never held any official recognition as a capital. More on Machynlleth here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machynlleth
Slides that were nearly lost to oblivion!
The original slide / transparency was rescued from a box of 'dud' slides that I could never quite bring myself to throw away - now I am glad that I kept them ;)
Taken with a Soviet made Zenith TTL camera and standard lens.
You can see a random selection of my railway photos here on Flickriver: www.flickriver.com/photos/themightyhood/random/
The rural railway - M55995 Class 128 parcels unit in the old steam shed at Machynlleth
Travelling the railway in the British Rail era
Between 1983 and 1991 I spent many, many happy hours with my friends riding the rails around the UK. I managed to record many of the trips and railway scenes encountered on film for posterity. Those days are now long gone, but happily the photos remain for me to reminisce over and share ;)
In 1983 I went on a tour of all the mainline railways of Wales. On the way back from a few days in Tywyn, and a visit to the west coast of Wales, I took a break at Machynlleth, and of course I had to have a walk around the old shed :)
I was very used to seeing parcels units W55991 and W55992 on my home patch of Southall - they were everyday visitors. However, I was aiming to try and cop two of the other four Western region vehicles W55995-6 on my visit to Wales, as these were the Chester-based units. I was pleased to hunt down one of the two W55995 at the far western outpost of Machynlleth shed :) I found this view of the old steam shed quite evocative of the old railway, especially with the semaphore signal and old cast-iron sign.
Class 128 were introduced in 1959, with ten of the class being built by the Gloucester Railway Carriage and Wagon Company. They were fitted with two 230 hp Leyland Albion engines which made them very powerful for a 41 ton single car vehicle. The class was built specifically for parcels traffic, and did not feature any passenger accommodation, but did work in multiple with passenger DMUs on occasion. They had a payload of 10 tons, and could haul a tail load of up to 64 tons. The six vehicles for Western Region duties (W55991 – W55996) were fitted with the standard DMU gangways at each end and were initially allocated at Reading (W55991/2) for the London area duties, Tyseley (W55993/4) for Midlands duties and Chester (W55995/6) for Merseyside duties. The four London Midland Region vehicles (M55987 – M55990) were non-gangwayed and initially allocated to Newton Heath for north-west duties. Regional boundary changes in the mid 1960’s saw Chester and Tyseley become part of the London Midland Region. M55987 was an early casualty being withdrawn in 1971 and M55996 was transferred to Newton Heath as a replacement. Then M55996 was damaged in an accident and was withdrawn in 1980. The last members of the class - W55991 & 2 were withdrawn in 1990, and broken up the following year. Unfortunately, none of these unique vehicles was preserved.
Machynlleth was the seat of Owain Glyndŵr's Welsh Parliament in 1404, and as such claims to be the "ancient capital of Wales". However, it has never held any official recognition as a capital. More on Machynlleth here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machynlleth
Slides that were nearly lost to oblivion!
The original slide / transparency was rescued from a box of 'dud' slides that I could never quite bring myself to throw away - now I am glad that I kept them ;)
Taken with a Soviet made Zenith TTL camera and standard lens.
You can see a random selection of my railway photos here on Flickriver: www.flickriver.com/photos/themightyhood/random/