A collection of my videos of the 'Grid's' taken in the past 5 years or so, mostly Colas operated workings on the Marches line. Some interesting moves with DCR and Rail Operations Group also.
A fond memory is driving a 56 through Guildford (1989?) Rod was the driver and he was letting me drive. 1000 tons reading to purley. We rolled into Guildford with a red at the end of the platform having trickled down into the station from the Ash direction. I couldn’t see the signal but rod said “ you’ve got it” so I gave her the lot. Takes a few seconds for the amps to come up, not as instant as a crompton or a 47. The amps are building, the engine is screaming, the tea can on the cooker is bouncing up and down and rattling like fuck. And all the people on the fairly crowded platform are cowering away , we’re only doing walking pace but we’ve got a green now and it was kind of hard not have a massive grin, but remain nonchalant and maintain that thousand yard stare. Hell let loose! Happy days. Great vid
seriously, the grids are easily my favourite of any BR loco. they have such an immense sense of power to them and their rumble is one of the best sounds on the network. i just love them.
The house I grew up in in the 80s was right next to a railway which was used by the north east coalfields. When pulling full coal wagons these monsters screamed past the house making the windows rattle..... but what a sight. Some of the engines in this clip I can actually remember in BR blue or Railfreight grey.... even with sector flashes of yellow square with black diamonds.
Great video. I love these powerful diesel monsters. I love the way you’ve angled the camera so it looks as though they are heading towards you. Quite scary-looking and exciting at the same time. 😂
Music to my ears, remember seeing and hearing them most days as i worked as a signalman in the 80's and 90's mainly on coal and steel trains with the odd container service in between. Such a miss
Great video. Remember these great locomotives pass through the chilten line from west ruislip recycling centre as glc and west waste garbage trains with yellow containers back in the 80’s & early 90’s before being replaced by class 60’s.
yeah nice video mate love the 56's my favorite from many years ago . Nice to see they are still refurbishing them and fitting new engines hence the lack of the old clag good filming and a nice collection thanks for sharing
@@SvenTviking At least one of the Romanian ones is now a 69... A Romanian lady I met at a community group was surprised I'd heard of Electroputere (and corrected my pronunciation) :-)
Great quality footage but it's far more enjoyable watching the whole of a freight train pass, not just a few wagons. It allows you to consider and appreciate the tonnage they are hauling, especially those wood trains ! I can remember waiting at Retford station for the MGR trains late at night. Great times hearing the level crossing warning, hearing the distant drone and the triple front lights as the train approaches.
Love These Locomotives since I was a little boy, I could hear that paxman engine noise from miles away before it got to where I was standing in the the Colliery's of the County Durham coast line. Watched many a MGR set get loaded at Easington Colliery in the big rapid loader before heading north to Blyth power station or south to north York yard to be forwarded to Drax power station. Happy Memories.
@@MrThrash37 That is very much so mate, as the coal industry in now dead in the UK and all the other heavy industries have also gone, we are lucky to still have the sights and sounds of not just class 56's but many of the older loco classes like the class 37's and some class 20's still kicking around. It is also a shame that our very own rail industry has suffered as much freight has gone on to lorries now as well, I don't hear class 56's any more on the Durham coast line but do see the odd class 37 nuclear flask train heading from Cumbria to Hartlepool nuclear power station via the Tyne valley line then down through Sunderland and past where I live , this can sometimes fetch up a few DRS class 20's if the 37's are not available, apart from that I see the regular biomass train from Tyne yard to Drax power station and sometimes the returning empties which can either be a class 66 or a class 60 so there is still some variety that I get to see from time to time. Cheers mate :)
Me encantan los vídeos de ferrocarriles Ingleses, el paisaje ,los viejos puentes de ladrillo los trenes y su particular tamaño, el sonido de las ruedas de acero contra las vías, amo todo eso, gracias, un hermoso vídeo.
I remember seeing the Class 56's as they entered service in the late 1970's and early 1980's. Would see them on Hatton Bank hauling MGR's to Didcot having taken over from 47's.
Wow! Quality footage. Not many 56s or 58s on the west side of the pennines. Takes me back to the days of fare dodging out of Manchester to get to Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire to bag some of these beauties. Obligatory U2 soundtrack to accompany me and my mates. 😉👍
you should have been in Barrow Hill on a cold frosty winter morning in the 80's watching one of these pulling an MGR out of the sidings. That was a beautiful thing to see.
Hello from the state of Florida in the USA. First time I've watched a train video from outside the USA. All I can say is you folks sure have funky sounding train horns, unlike the strong, bone shaking horns our USA Locomotives have on them. Pretty cool sounding horn just the same though. Thanks for sharing it.
Fab video ❤️Great sounding Beasts ❤️❤️❤️The Monster Thrash ,It was the Monster Thrash 🎼🎶More effective playing this through a soundbar connected to a smart TV or Bluetooth phone 📱❤Love the sounds of Different BR Locomotion ❤️
There's a similar locomotive in Germany, the DB BR Class 218. Those things are pretty much the same, but WAY better. The MTU TB11 engines sound just like a Valenta engine!
MADNESS OF THE SIGNALS. Consider the madness in the opening shot at 0:07 of perfectly proper semaphores cluttered with all that extra steelwork of the platforms with railings at the top of the ladders....and the long steel plates in place to prevent the ladders being climbed. The smaller semaphore on the right could likely be easily reached by standing on a small step ladder.....or even a chair, yet it is cluttered too. Anyone attending to the smaller semaphore for servicing or cleaning purposes is more likely to have an eye poked out by the branches of the trees.........or if it is windy be knocked of as the trees blow in the wind. Frankly put, if this is thought how to assist or proect a workforce, we have to question what sort of people are being trained to maintain such signals. Commonsense at any height is just that........and if you don't have it you shouldn't leave the ground. This is the madness of management who interpret Health & Safety far too strictly.... In fact, it is a condennation of Health & Safety in every respect........not least it's general over-reaching and sticky tentacles.. This is fools interpreting the foolishness of fools in every possible way...... Strangely enough there seems to have been little or no consideration to the possibility of 'sighting' problems at the signals cluttered as they are with all this steel work. My old bos Signal Inspector Ben Palin at Miles Platting S&T would be appalled were he still on this earth.....! James Hennighan Yorkshire, England P.S. Great Video Mr Thrash.....well puit together. Many thanks for what you have achieved
2 56s heading a rake of approximately 20. Must be getting weak in their old age 56s used to pull the colliery merry-go-round trains with way more tonnage.
@@levelcrossingsoftheuk524Is that the main reason for it then? I assumed it was for reliability reasons, just in case one broke down, as I can't imagine they wouldn't have the grunt to pull all those wagons
As a swiss person, living in a fully electrified rails country, it's always weird to see (well hear) these machines. Some month ago, I was traveling to Scotland from England. Me and my friends had a break in Carlisle, to eat and visit a bit. We went to see the train station and my first comment was "Why do trains sounds like bus or trucks here?". We're just not used to this around here.
Great compilation! It will be interesting as there are more of the 56’s destined from storage to the mainline due. I think Freightliner and GBRF have purchased the ones stored at Leicester?
GBRf has bought some 56s from UKRL to convert 16 to class 69 by swapping out their Paxman angines with the GE ones similar to those fitted in class 59s? It's a damn shame about that but I'm still happy for this since it'll only prolong their working lives. Here's the wikipedia if anybody's interested: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_69
Been loving and filming trains in the US for 40 years but now totally enthralled by your English locomotives. What does thrash mean? What are the trains with blue tanks/cylinders and mechanical boxes? Maintenance of Way? Keep these great vids coming - I'm hooked.
Well thrash is the sound/smoke the locomotives make when they are working hard, and the blue wagons spray water at high pressure at the face of the track to clean off leaves,oil whatever to help with adhesion in the Autumn months
Turns out it's wife-annoying too! I wonder if she'll prefer it when some are Class 69, fitted with the EMD 710 units. Doubt it. Having said that, I wonder if I will. They'll still be awesome machines whatever's under the bonnet. Brilliant footage, by the way! Thanks, Mr. Thrash.
@@MrThrash37 If the 56s (or Class 51) had been Sulzer V16s I don't think UK railfans would have been anything like as vocal about the re-engineered 69s. We didn't get 'stick the Sulzer back' with the 57s...
I love a bit of Grid action, thanks for the great clips. I miss them hauling the old Coal MGR's, just out of interest, are some of these on the weed killing train? If so, you did well not to get sprayed!
I don't know if the weed killer is a thing haha! But if you're referring to the blue tanks thats the Railhead Treatment Train (RHTT). It sprays high pressure water onto the railheads to remove leaves, grease, etc. in the Autumn months.
Can anybody confirm, are these log trains around Hereford still ran by 56s? And can anybody recall their workings? Also, can anybody identify the place pictured at 06:05, its wonderful!
Thats the railhead treatment train. Its a big railway sized pressure washer for the rails. Commonly done in autumn time to clear the debris and leaves off of the tracks. Mushed up leaves are much slipper than you think... the 3 sections are just a water tanks. The wagon closest to the lead loco is the power unit (pressure washer). The water is heated to a high temperature just to double make sure they get all the grease and general gunk off of the rail head. Hope this helps 😁
