I spent many hours at Clegg Hall and Smithy Bridge spotting in the 70's and early 80's. I lived at Smallbridge nearby and I can still hear class 40's thumping away as I laid in bed during clear summer nights and that would be from a couple of miles away. Manchester Vic was also a great location. I remember how the freight drivers would accelerate as fast as possible from a standing start in order to get a run up to Miles Platting, couplings snatching badly as they did. The whole country was like a giant preserved railway back in those days! Thanks a lot for posting.
Without doubt the class 37s and the awesome 40s ruled the roost for me. Spent many a weekend bashing in the late 70s/early 80s. Brilliant quality Video considering how old they are!
Brilliant videos Aureol40012 They've been fantastic in researching my new model railway based on Victoria & Newton Heath. Happy memories of seeing peaks & blue grey era locos just wish i had managed to see the class 40's. Thanks again for the share.
Superb video, I remember the Crewe 'death row' of withdrawn locos including 40106 amongst the 25's and other 40's just south of the station, that was one hot summer for 'bashing '40's!
I live close to a railway line, sadly closed today but looking back with hindsight I wished I'd taken video of all the trains that passed by. Thing is at the time all these diesels were such a common and every day sight that the idea of filming them seemed ridiculous..... how wrong I was!! that's hindsight for you.....
Thank you very much mate. I actually sell a 5 DVD set of the unedited footage if you are interested. Yeah, its Northwich. And 40 028 was my first one for haulage as a basher.
40's were older, heavier and had a lower max tractive effort than 37's, they were still great loco's that could have served a lot longer, as could many other classes.
I think it's partly that a single class 40 wasn't enough for a lot of things, but a pair of them was over-powered and expensive to run. Conversely, a single 37 (or a pair of class 20s) could cover a lot of the trains that a 40 could pull, and a pair of 37s was a useful amount of power in its own right.
