NIGHT TIME AT THE MIDLAND RAILWAY CENTRE
Having already enjoyed one major event with Tulyar, I was party to another happening when the locomotive celebrated 25 years of existence with a special birthday event at the Midland Railway Centre.
Digging out my flask of G&T [thanks Mr & Mrs F] I journeyed up to the MRC with Paul, Kevin and Mr Vane Tempest [who he?] for a day of celebrations. In the car park of the MRC we found a trailer on which was perched the newly restored and repainted cab from 55 008 'Green Howards'. It was in much better condition than when I had seen it last at Haymarket Depot on the 25th December 1981 when you could see through the bodywork next to the name plate. At least it was complete then. It is funny that the Newcastle based Deltics never seemed to command the same admiration as the Finsbury Park or Haymarket machines.
Anyway, the fun and games commenced with Tulyar operating a number of services, one of which was double heading [if you can call it that] a freight service with recently arrived Class 77 DC electric1502 in Dutch Railway colours. The 55/77 pair marshalled the locally based Class 10 shunting locomotive into the train formation at the Swanwick sidings before setting off again to Butterley where, later in the day, the two locos posed in the sunshine next to one another. Note the rare 'West Highland Rail Tour' headboard carried on the front of Tulyar.
However, the fun was not over for the day. As darkness fell, we moved towards the shed at Swanwick where the Deltic, Class 44 'Great Gable' and the Class 77 1502 were located for an evening photo shoot.
Although the planned floodlighting was not available, thanks to a tripod and some extended exposure times, some superb shots were obtained and committed to film for prosperity. Here are the first few shots from that day - more to follow...
© Brian Elliott 1999
This page was last updated - 29 April 2005