25kV stuff - old and new (and other electrics)

[Yorkshire Dave]

There appears to be several of us with an interest in Electric locomotives and multiple units and I thought it would be an idea to start a new thread for anyone to post photos of 25kV locos, multiple units, infrastructure, etc whether it be current or historic, prototype or model. Other electrics may creep in.

To kick off here are some of mine....

82 006 heading south approaching Northchurch Tunnels 1980-82.




86 207 City of Lichfield and 86 xxx at Penrith 1980s - note the simple catenary used here when the section to Glasgow was electrified compared with the compound catenary used on the original 1965 25kV electrification. The latter is evident in the Berkhamsted photo.




86 214 Sans Pareil approaching Northchurch Tunnels on a southbound service 1980-82.




86 216 Meteor at Manchester Piccadilly with Manchester Pullman stock 1980-82.




87 032 Kenilworth near Grove Quarry Bridge on A505 Leighton Buzzard bypass.




The unique 87 101 Stephenson at Crewe 1981.




86 xxx at Berkhamstead on a southbound service. This shows the original compound catenary.




87 xxx and class 310 (AM10) EMU on northbound services exiting Northchurch Tunnels.




Class 304 (AM4) EMU at Crewe 1981.




Class 304 (AM4) EMU at Stoke -on-Trent 1980-82.




GNER IC225 at Welwyn North 1996-2000




86 xxx in INTERCITY livery - Grove Quarry Bridge on A505 Leighton Buzzard bypass.




IC225 in original livery at Biggleswade 1991-96




Class 319 EMUs at Bedford 1997-2000. Original NSE (Colgate) livery and the first Thameslink livery

 

[Jordan]

Best photo I ever took myself - circa 1988 I was at the rear of a Slow line stopper somewhere between Stafford & Stoke when 86 228 came barrelling past northbound....

87s were my favourite sparkys, though. I saw all of them - not too hard with a relatively small Class.

 

[mickoo]

Best photo I ever took myself - circa 1988 I was at the rear of a Slow line stopper somewhere between Stafford & Stoke when 86 228 came barrelling past northbound....
View attachment 185791
87s were my favourite sparkys, though. I saw all of them - not too hard with a relatively small Class.

It'll be between Stafford and Norton Bridge where you'll have branched off to Stone to join the cut off from Colwich and then up to Stoke. My Grandparents lived in Macclesfield and we visited for a week once a year to train spot, Crewe, Manchester and Stafford was our stomping ground so that little triangle of lines we knew well.

My gut feeling is that it's just north of Little Bridgeford but I can't place that large building in the background, it could of course have been pulled down by now. It looks like some sort of Granary building, three stories maybe and there's a big farm there now so it could have stood there.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Best photo I ever took myself - circa 1988 I was at the rear of a Slow line stopper somewhere between Stafford & Stoke when 86 228 came barrelling past northbound....

My best 'catch' so to speak is the 87 and 310 bursting out of Northchurch Tunnels I posted earlier.

 

[mickoo]

A random selection from the 35mm archives.

Euston





Wolverton













Ampthill...about half way between Bletchley and Milton Keynes.









Millmeece, technically poor as it was a really shit evening in dying light.



Norton Bridge



Looking back it's amazing how brazen I (and many others at that time) were at the line side, today you'd be reported and likely arrested, back then you mostly got a wave or the single finger salute. Times and attitudes have changed, not sure for the better sometimes.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Ampthill...about half way between Bletchley and Milton Keynes.

I think you may mean Winterhill or Knowlhill or Bleak Hall or Denbigh Hall - Ampthill is on the MML between Flitwick and Bedford.

The problem looking at an old map now is the area around the line in your photos has been built up so much over the years. MK station was opened in 1982.

Looking back it's amazing how brazen I (and many others at that time) were at the line side, today you'd be reported and likely arrested, back then you mostly got a wave or the single finger salute. Times and attitudes have changed, not sure for the better sometimes.

Yeah, although we were brazen we did keep our distance though. Not like some of them today where they are within a gnats whisker of being hit by the train.


I also see the GEC (AEI) cross-arm Faively pantograph seems to have disappeared from the 87s when you took your photos.

 

[Stephen]

View attachment 185794

Whats the first carriage? Initially I wondered whether it was a bullion van, but I’m thinking it’s just a TPO, or some sort of post office related sorting vehicle?!?

Cheers,

Stephen

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Whats the first carriage? Initially I wondered whether it was a bullion van, but I’m thinking it’s just a TPO, or some sort of post office related sorting vehicle?!?

I think it's a TPO sorting vehicle as it has the red letterbox on the side.

 

[Tim Humphreys ex Mudhen]

A pair of 86s at Colchester on 1st October 2020.

Tim

 

[Eastsidepilot]

I think this was the last week of the cl90's on the the Liverpool St. - Norwich ( push-pull ) service taken at Stowmarket, North bound to Norwich.





....and this shot I managed to take in '89 ? ( whilst driving the Scania, yeah I know it's naughty ) close to the Italian-French border.
I'm not up to speed on European stuff so I don't doubt one of you out there will tell us what class these are ? .
Shot was taken with a 35mm Pentax K1000.


Col.

 

[mickoo]

Yeah, although we were brazen we did keep our distance though. Not like some of them today where they are within a gnats whisker of being hit by the train.

I only ever had one incident back in the mid 80's on my local single branch line, there's a nice curve where you can stand on the apex and get long shots of each straight either side. The only problem was the fence was 40' away so I climbed over and stood about 20' from the track in the long grass.

Bagged a Freightliner heading to Derby road and then waited for a southbound one, sure enough a light move 47 came ambling down the line and given the slow speed I knew something was up, sure enough he drew up next to me and leaned out "best hop it mate, previous driver has reported you for trespass and police are on there way".

I pointed out I wasn't close and there was a foot crossing 200 yds away where you could legally get 6' from the tracks, "yeah I know and I can see your safe but you're inside the fence and the previous driver is a jobs worth" so I apologised and he said he'd tell Trimley box that he'd never seen me, I thanked him and off he went, I legged it across the fields, jumped in the car and made a hasty get away.

Jump forward 35 years and network rail did a vegetation clearance on the line and left big piles of shrub to be collected later, I donned dark clothes, made a hide in one of them and bagged the following shot. The 66 has just passing the spot of my previous encounter at the curve decades before.

 

[mickoo]

Whats the first carriage? Initially I wondered whether it was a bullion van, but I’m thinking it’s just a TPO, or some sort of post office related sorting vehicle?!?

Cheers,

Stephen

Dave is right, it's a TPO sorting carriage and yes it does have a letter box in the side, I did a round the UK trip with my dad and we tried to find late night TPO trains where we could post letters home to collect the traveling postmark, they're quite rare and sort after, he being a prolific stamp, postcard collector.

 

[Richard Gawler]

There's more than one jobsworth driver out there! I sat on the grass behind the station platform, and ten minutes later the BTP turned up and I got questioned because a driver had reported "someone was seen lurking in the bushes". Still got the stop record somewhere.

 

[mickoo]

I think you may mean Winterhill or Knowlhill or Bleak Hall or Denbigh Hall - Ampthill is on the MML between Flitwick and Bedford.

The problem looking at an old map now is the area around the line in your photos has been built up so much over the years. MK station was opened in 1982.


I also see the GEC (AEI) cross-arm Faively pantograph seems to have disappeared from the 87s when you took your photos.

You could be right, I know there's an Ampthill on the MML but thought this was another though Knowlhill has a ring to it, this whole area is totally changed and when these photos were taken sometime around 85-88 it was all just fields.

I think the 87's had been passed for 110 mph so had the high speed Brecknell Willis triple arm pantographs by this time?

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

You could be right, I know there's an Ampthill on the MML but thought this was another though Knowlhill has a ring to it, this whole area is totally changed and when these photos were taken sometime around 85-88 it was all just fields.

Too right - the area was rapidly changing when I used to live in Aylesbury back in the 80s.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

....and this shot I managed to take in '89 ? ( whilst driving the Scania, yeah I know it's naughty ) close to the Italian-French border.
I'm not up to speed on European stuff so I don't doubt one of you out there will tell us what class these are ?

SNCF class BB7200 1,500V DC locos.

 

[mickoo]

Some more modern digital shots closer to home, the advantages of being a shift engineer, four days on four days off. There were a couple of early trains that were hard to capture in good light, but coming off night shift you already new the day was good so I scooted up to the GEML and bagged some good shots in lovely early morning light.

Typically around this area it clouds over by 10AM, usually right over the GEML, it'll either be bright sunshine to the East or the West, the opposite being in cloud, the dividing line is typically over the GEML which is about 13 miles from the coast.

















I did this for a couple of summers but wish I'd done more now.

 

[Paul Tomlinson]

Those last two are stonking photos.

 

[Malcolmcelyn]

Were Stone-Faivley, AEI Crossarms and Brecknell-Willis pantographs fitted to both Class 87 and 86?

 

[mickoo]

Were Stone-Faivley, AEI Crossarms and Brecknell-Willis pantographs fitted to both Class 87 and 86?

It's a little more complex than that, Stone-Faiveley were the majority choice for AL1-5 and AEI cross arms came in with the AL6 and 87, however, a small proportion of the AL1-5 (AL2-3 maybe.....need to check my notes) had cross arms, maybe as trials before fitting to the AL6? Later many class 86 (and some 87) were fitted with Stone-Faiveley pantographs, probably from withdrawn AL1-5.

As far as I know....and the largest span of my interest is 1959-85..... Brecknell Willis were only fitted to 87 and 90 due to their higher rated speed of 110 around the mid 80's, there was a trial fitting on the 86 244 before roll out on the 87.

There are two types of 'modern' pantograph fitted to the 87, both similar in style to the Stone-Faiveley but less metal work. The earlier one is a twin arm with upper square box section, the later one is a triple arm with the upper (actually the middle) tapered tubular arm, these have little winglets that help hold the small upper arm against the contact wire.

I've no idea who produced the earlier version but it's only the triple arm one (Brecknell Willis) that's rated at 110 and those are the only ones fitted to the class 90