Barrow, Class 25

Barrow, Class 25 Around the Workington area Views and notes from Ian Marsh & updated with contributions from other photographers

Moss Bay

The line between Moss Bay Iron Works and Parton was singled from March 1970 owing to the unstable cliffs along this section of line.

For the journey north from Whitehaven the railway line hugged the coast providing some spectacular scenery before approaching Workington. Here the evidence of industrialisation manifested itself very quickly. As the railway curved slightly passing Salterbeck the British Steel Corporation's plant would come into view as the line approached Moss Bay.

However one might feel about the location of this large industrial complex it brought jobs to the Workington area, much traffic to the railways and produced products that could only be used by the railways. The mid 1870's saw the development of the Moss Bay site into an industrial complex with blast furnaces producing pig iron and then steel. During 1877 the first steel rails were produced from the recently completed rolling mill. From 1881 the company was known as The Moss Bay Hematite Iron & Steel Company Ltd. Names changed to the Workington Iron & Steel Company, United Steel Companies, and then after nationalisation in 1967 the plain and simple British Steel. A merger in 1999 brought a new company, Corus into the picture, who kept the railmaking plant open until 2006.

Steelmaking had ceased in 1974, ingots (blooms) were then received from Teeside, Moss Bay's electric arc furnaces were used to reheat the ingots prior to rolling out into rails. That the rail from Workington was of high quality and well known throughout the world seemed to have little influence on events that would see Workington lose ground in its share of rail products. Workington had been supplying welded rail in lenths upto 180 metres, welded from shorter 32 metre lengths. Rail operators preferred the factory welded lengths rather than welding lengths together on site since the latter had a perception of being more likely to give problems. However rail operators, including Railtrack were increasingly looking for longer rail lengths that contained fewer welds of any kind. Many of the West European manufacturers made the required investment to meet this new demand from the operators.

British Steel took a different track by improving the welding facilities at Workington and making no change as to the basic length of rail that would be produced. As other operators sought the longer welded rail, events such as the Hatfield derailment and the general desire for Railtrack also to purchase the longer lengths led Corus in 1999 to acquire for GBP83 million the French rail making plant at Hayange. Studies had shown that a GBP50 million investment at Workington would have allowed the plant to make the longer rails. That Corus could ship long welded rail lengths from Hayange, France through Teesport to the local destination in the UK at cheaper cost than a similar product made at an upgraded Workington plant has to make one wonder, and realise that the writing was on the wall for the Workington plant.

Workington was still producing short rail lengths, as was Hayange, but Workington no longer had the long rail making capacity, thus increasing the fixed overheads and making the plant less competetive. And so in 2006 rail making would move from Workington to Scunthorpe.

Photograph courtesy Ian Marsh. Just a run of the mill shot of 25120 at Moss Bay, or is it? Take a look at the trailing axle on the leading (right) bogie and there's a wheelskate in use. Ian advises the wheelskate had been fitted at Barrow and 25120 worked at reduced speed to Carlisle Kingmoor for attention to the traction motor. In the background can be seen the trackbed of the former C&W Moss Bay branch which closed in 1973.

Photograph courtesy Ian Marsh With 25149 allocated to Kingmoor for almost nine years it was no doubt a regular visitor to the Workington area, here 25149 is noted at Moss Bay.

Photograph courtesy Ian Marsh An interesting view of Moss Bay, looking northwards towards Workington. A short distance to the left and behind the photographer is the beach & the Irish Sea. Which would make for a challenging work environment when a strong westerly gale was blowing through!

Photograph courtesy Ian Marsh. An interesting view of Moss Bay, looking northwards towards Workington. A short distance to the left and behind the photographer is the beach & the Irish Sea. Which would make for a challenging work environment when a strong westerly gale was blowing through!

Derwent Ironworks

Beyond the Moss Bay facilities was the Derwent Ironworks which also generated much freight traffic.

Photograph courtesy Ian Marsh Looking south 40001 fills the lens as it backs down on to its train at Derwent Ironworks Yard.

Photograph courtesy Ian Marsh With 25149 allocated to Kingmoor for almost nine years it was no doubt a regular visitor to the Workington area, here 25149 is noted at Derwent Ironworks.

Photograph courtesy Ian Marsh An unidentified Class 25 and brakevan wait for their next turn of duty at Derwent Ironworks yard, date unknown.

Photograph courtesy Ian Marsh A Class 25 in the distance as seen from Derwent Haematite ironworks. (See more detailed information below).

The 1975 view above of the distant Class 25 was one of Ian's pictures taken early in his photographic career. The view is taken from Derwent Haematite ironworks looking north, the Class 25 was working the 8E76 service, a shortlived working from Workington to Sheffield Tinsley to provide a through service for ingot-moulds traffic for British Steel. The coal mine to the right was the penultimate deep coal mine in West Cumbria and had closed in April 1973. The train is on the Up main line heading south having just left Workington Down yard. To the left are the slow, or goods lines which ran north to south from Workington No3 to Moss Bay Ironworks, and with another three boxes inbetween; No2, No1, and Derwent Haematite ironworks, which was behind the photographer to the right.

Workington Down Yard

Photograph courtesy Ian Marsh Workington Down Yard on what appears to be a damp overcast day with an odd mixture of motive power (see note below). In the background is part of the industrial complex that provided much of the reason for the multitude of tracks in the foreground, and the fine collection of wagons in the sidings.

Ian describes the shot above as a lucky one, featuring 47077 North Star & 850 Lord Nelson, showing a W.R. & ex S.R. machine at one of the farthest flung outposts of the L.M.Region! The clean Class 47, maybe not too long out of the Works, had failed and was about to be hauled dead-in-transit to Carlisle Kingmoor. 850 had worked an excursion to Sellafield and was en-route to Carlisle Upperby, prior to working south ex-Carlisle the following day over the Settle & Carlisle. The picture was taken looking south from No.2 signal box in 1980. The bridge in the background at the time was un-named, but would be replaced about five years later by an ugly concrete structure, given the grandiose title 'Bessemer Way Bridge', which over the years has caused some confusion!. The original bridge in the shot carried a standard gauge line connecting the nearby Solway Colliery with the ironworks site, which in turn probably replaced an earlier colliery tramway. The Class 08's lurking in the background are probably 415 & 419.

Photograph courtesy Ian Marsh A similar view to the one above with 47077 taken from Workington No.2 signalbox. However this is a night time view and with a regular camera lens. Behind the flat topped hut in the foreground is the entrance to the Langton Park ore sidings.

Photograph courtesy Ian Marsh. Another view from Workington No.2 signal box, taken looking at a pair of Class 31s at the north end of BSC's Langton Park. The large building in the background was BSC's Central Engineering Workshop which maintained and overhauled just about everything electrical & mechanical that they owned. This included rebuilding wagons. Beyond this building was the ore stocking ground and sinter plant.

Photograph courtesy Ian Marsh. Nightime at Workington Down Yard (No.1 signalbox is behind the bridge), 40023 waits to leave with a train of plate wagons loaded with pig iron from Workington's blast furnaces bound for LCP, Pensnett in the West Midlands.

During 1975 there were four trains working in from Redcar or Lackenby generally hauled by pairs of Thornaby or Immingham Class 31's with the Lackenby working also featuring pairs of Class 37's:
6M33 07.30 from Redcar, return 6E37 at 13.59
6M71 03.10 from Lackenby, return 4E36 at 09.35
6M52 01.30 from Redcar, return 6E48 at 07.55
6M59 13.35 from Redcar, return 6E49 at 19.52

Workington

Workington at one time had its own depot, being a sub-shed to Barrow and allocated depot code 11B. It later became a sub-shed to Carlisle and allocated the depot code 12D. With the implementation of the computerised TOPS system the depot acquired the code WK, although by this time its only true residents were the Class 08 shunters that worked the yards in and around Workington.

Photograph collection of webmaster. Almost three years earlier, June 11th 1965 the shed was hosting a number of steam locomotives, including 46432, 42697 & 43025 with 44192 & 44536 barely visible in the shed.

Photograph courtesy Pete Hackney. Its June 15th 1968 and behind 7511 is the ten road Workington steam shed, although it had officially closed to steam six months earlier from January 1st 1968.

Workington station would later become the stabling point for diesel locomotives, with its typical mix of LMR allocated locomotives. The most familiar locomotives parked around the station would be of Classes 08, 25, 40 & 47.

Photograph courtesy Ian Marsh. More classic traction at the south end of Workington station. Included in the view is a TPO, possibly M80302 or M80303.

Photograph courtesy Ian Marsh. Classic diesels at Workington stabling point headed by 25182 and 40012.

Photograph courtesy Ian Marsh. Two Class 40s are front and center in this view set in the small yard behind the station. 40181 looks to be not too long out of a repair & repaint at Crewe Works and both Class 40s have been scotched to prevent them from rolling away.

Photograph courtesy Ian Marsh. Four Class 47's are parked in the yard, front and center is named 47081. The Western Region namers appeared to be frequent visitors to the Barrow area, judging by other views provided by Ian that can be found elsewhere on this page. It was always good to come across these namers especially when they were many miles from the WR, particularly since so few of this large class carried names until the late 1970's.

Photograph courtesy Ian Marsh. A collection of locomotives and a diesel multiple unit are captured in this view at Workington sometime during the early 1970's. The only identified locomotive is green liveried D7546 on the left.

Photograph courtesy Ian Marsh. 08826 & 25218 keep company at Workington, date unknown. In my early spotting days there were two Class 08s allocated here, 08142 & 08216 (I think) - I often wondered how I would get them underlined in my shed book since the Barrow & Workington area was not high on my list for my meagre pocket money. As luck would have it they were both transferred to Derby and so became as common as muck!

The timetable changes commencing May 1977 saw the loss of the through services from Euston (the 07.45 Barrow - Euston & 18.05 return) utilising the later model MkII coaches and a Class 47/4. New services from Barrow to Lancaster/Preston would now provide the connections to/from London as well as a Barrow - Crewe service. The only remaining through working was the sleeper service and the postal/parcels turn to Workington which was seeing a greater use of Class 47/4's in replacement of the Class 40's. The coaching stock of the postal trains show up in a number of Ian's Workington views.

The Classes 45 & 46 - Strangers in Town

Photograph courtesy Ian Marsh. 45044 on an overcast day at Workington sometime in the late 1970's. Workington No.2 signalbox is on the right. Behind the locomotive is the former steam depot which survived long after the diesels featured in these photographs (apart from the Class 08's) had gone to the scrapyard.

At the height of the national lorry drivers strike at the back end of the 1970's Ian was night shift yard foreman at Workington. On this particular night it was a Sunday, with a midnight start but only a six hour shift! On arrival the yards were filled with outward bound wagons loaded with pig iron, ex-British Steel. Because of this the instruction was given to load the 03.00am Workington - Carlisle to capacity, with 1,220 tons trailing this Class 8 freight.

For this working a Class 37 was rare, Class 40 was normal and a Class 47 occasional, with provision also made for a Class 50! All these locomotives were allowed the same loading, but the Class 45/46 were allowed an extra 200 tons. During the course of the shift Ian had reason to speak to Carlisle Control and requested a Peak for the rest of the week, but without much hope.

Remarkably Carlisle sent down 45044 with the train being loaded up with an extra 200 tons. And as regular as clockwork 45044 showed up again on Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday. Somewhat bemused by this good fortune Ian inquired as to how the same Peak had showed up four days in a row? The response was the locomotive was on a restricted (local) working because the traction motors were isolated on one bogie! Which has to be some sort of testament to these fine workhorses.

Photograph courtesy Ian Marsh. 46035 at Workington with the author of many of these notes, Ian Marsh, leaning out of the doorway. Presumably 46035 had arrived in the area on a freight working from Carlisle or the Newcastle area.

Photograph courtesy Ian Marsh. 46009 on the down slow line at Workington No.3 signal box.

Photograph courtesy Ian Marsh. A train of empty plate wagons from Stanton Gate ironworks approaches Workington No.3 signal box on the Up main with 46005 in charge. 46005 had the misfortune to be the first of the Class 46's to withdrawn, being taken out of service by Laira in December 1977 and scrapped at Derby four months later. For this trip however 46005 has had views of the Irish Sea rather than the more normal Devon & Cornwall views of the English Channel.

Photograph courtesy Ian Marsh. 25038 and brakevan await their next turn of duty from Workington.

Photograph courtesy Ian Marsh A Class 37 with train 6C47 stands on No.1 siding at what's left of Workington down yard, Workington No.2 box is visible on the extreme right as are the down & up main lines. The waste ground was the location of the slow lines. The B&Q store is built on the site of the former BSC Langton Park iron ore sidings. The freight train has a Croxton & Gary Ltd china clay slurry tank bound for Workington docks, next is a 60' YLA rail carrier followed by a 600' YEA nine vehicle long welded rail carrying set bound for the steelworks.

Photograph courtesy Ian Marsh In contrast to the above 1990's view of the Class 37 with train 6C47 here is a view of a pair of Class 31's at Langton Park sidings, full of wagons and piles of scrap to the left. Ian's opinion of the usefulness of Class 31's cannot be written here, suffice to say they were considered poor replacements for the Class 25's. When the Class 31's were stopped overnight at Workington Carriage shed Ian remembers there was so much clag and exhaust created by them when started up the next morning that on occasion the local fire brigade would turn up looking for the source of the thick grey-black acrid fumes.

Workington Open Day

Photograph courtesy Ian Marsh. Its September 13th 1983 and Workington is host to an unidentified Class 25 about to take 55002 to Carlisle as part of its movement back to the NRM at York. The Class 55 had been one of the exhibits at Workington Open Day - see story below.

During 1982 Ian had visited an Open Day event at Carlisle and went home thinking, well if they can do this, then we can put something special on at Workington. The idea was taken to management saying anything they could do, we could do better! Eventually approval was from those that make these major decisions, probably emanating from the the inner sanctums of Carlisle Citadel station.

With the approval to go-ahead, an all grades committee was formed, a secretary elected and a date was duly set. We were placed under the watchful eye of the organiser of Carlisle's Open Days, so knowing this we decided to shoot for the moon, writing to the curator of the N.R.M. York asking if they would loan to us the recently preserved and restored Deltic 55002. Other requests were made which led to the presence of 1041 Western Prince from the East Lancs Railway, steam locomotive 850 Lord Nelson from the then operative Steamtown at Carnforth, plus quite a few other oddities. Also asked for was 45043 The King's Own Royal Border Regiment, a regiment with local connections, which to my surprise turned up spick-and-span!

In addition to the locomotives mentioned above also on display on Saturday September 10th were 20189, 26031, D200, 40155 & 40170. Additional exhibits included were British Nuclear Fuel's 0-4-0ST No.1, delivered by road; British Steel Corporation's fairly new Hunslet 0-6-0D.H. 403 which arrived under its own power; a 2'6" gauge Hunslet and rolling-stock from the R.N.A.D at Broughton Moor (Buckhill dump); the Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway 15" gauge steam locomotive Synolda, static on the back of a lorry.

Photograph collection of webmaster. It looks like a very damp day at Workington as 47451 handles a Wirral Railway Circle railtour on April 19th 1975.

Photograph collection of webmaster. The very long nameplate on this Class 47 leaves no doubt that this is 47484 Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the nameplate being a clue that this was also a long time Western Region allocated machine, ironically the WR also had probably the shortest names attached to their locomotives, including Thor & Odin, these were also fitted to Class 47's, whilst the equally short Zest & Zulu could be found on the sides of two Warship class locomotives. The above view of 47484 shows it coming through the No.3 road at Workington station, date unknown. The Class 47 had just arrived with the Huddersfield - Workington T.P.O., most likely a running-in turn for this machine. When steam finished on this turn it was handled by Class 50's - it was booked to Bransty as the 1M43 and ran as empty stock 4M43 to Workington for servicing. The following day it would form the balancing return working back to Huddersfield. Ian writes he wasn't too fond of the Class 50's, in particular the positioning of the jumper cable sockets below the cab windows. The train required shunting on platform 2 at Workington, this was on a rather severe curve and gangwayed stock made this operation rather difficult. The transfer of the Class 50's to the Western Region saw them replaced in the Workington area by ETH fitted Class 47's, easier to work on than the 50's, Ian remembers.

Photograph collection of webmaster. In contrast to the big BR Type 4s that were on display, the MOD at Buckhill sent one of their 0-4-0 2'6" gauge locomotives and a box van to the Open Day. This view clearly shows the restricted access to the small cab!

The request for an A.C. Electric was declined, there was concern about the restricted loading gauge between Carlisle Currock and Maryport; also because it may have inspired hope that the route would be electrified in the near future! Unfortunately for the organising committee the day proved to be overcast and wet, which no doubt affected the attendance.

Photograph courtesy Ian Marsh. 26031 and D200 are prominent in this view of the locomotives and other exhibits on display, it looks like afew parka clad spotters have turned up for the day's festivities despite the inclement weather.

After the event the locomotives and other exhibits made their way back to their respective homes. I had wanted to go to Bury with Western Prince, but the presence of 55002 was a thorn in my side, comments made by my boss that cannot be printed here said amongst other things: 'Take that thing back to York, You wanted it, You got it, You take it back'! So on Tuesday 13th a Class 25 was attached to 55002 to begin its journey back to York. After a short delay we left Workington at 07.20. It was the second-man's job to tie the two locomotives together, the air & vaccuum pipes were connected but the heavy coupling was overlooked. The second man had recently been given a right good telling off for trying to enter the cab of Western Prince by kicking the cab doors when they were locked! So there was much abuse hurled about when the Class 25 moved off and not surprisingly damaged the vacuum pipe connection.

A couple of spanners were 'borrowed', the vacuum pipe reattached, and this time the couplings were connected and then we were off to Carlisle Kingmoor as a Class 8 freight. At Kingmoor the Class 25 was removed and lo and behold the spick and span 45043 coupled on. The Peak had left Workington on the Sunday light engine, making me wonder why all the fuss had been made about it returning to Kingmoor so quickly.

We left Kingmoor about 11.00 arriving at Tyne about 14.00. Here I was supposed to sit with the Deltic until 03.00 the following morning!! As the day wore on my liking of the Deltic was rapidly diminishing. By 20.00 that evening I decided I didn't like Deltics anymore and promptly cleared off for a pint in the Newcastle Railway club, followed by a couple more in the Gateshead club, then Gateshead shed and a couple more, then back to Tyne Yard. We left here around 04.00 for York, after train brake problems we sat for another few hours at York North Yard until 10.30 when I was able to hand responsibility for 55002 back to the late John Bellwood, then Chief Engineer at the N.R.M. York. It was then off to the canteen of the B.R.E.L. Works for some badly needed lunch, which was most enjoyable. My return to Workington was via Newcastle and Carlisle. I've not been particularly fond of Deltics since then!

Photograph courtesy Ian Marsh. The Open Day is over, the crowds have gone home, it just remains to get the locomotives back into traffic. Lined up in the yard and awaiting the call to duty are 45043, 40122, 26031 & 20169.

Visitors to Workington

Photograph courtesy Ian Marsh. An unidentified Class 25 and Black Five 5407 pass through Workington.

Photograph courtesy Ian Marsh. Probably the least likely Sulzer powered locomotive to be seen at Workington would be a Class 33. Here we have the odd combination of a Class 33 & a Class 31 at Workington on railtour duty.

Photograph courtesy Ian Marsh. The cab of 47282 presents an unhappy image as it is hauled south by 37191 en-route to Crewe Works for repairs.

Photograph courtesy Ian Marsh. Inverness based, headlight equipped 26022 catches the sun at Workington fuelling point, behind sits 47068.

Derwent Derailment

Photographs courtesy Ian Marsh. In the three views above 37002 & 37006 have come to grief opposite Derwent Ironworks. The locomotives were using Derwent's main crossover in order to cross from the Up main to the Down slow whilst completing a run-round movement. It appears that 37002 still has all its wheels on the rails but it looks like 37006 is well and truly resting on the sleepers! Traffic was still able to pass the scene as evidenced by one of the local diesel multiple unit services.

Photograph courtesy Ian Marsh Derwent Ironworks, Workington; 25196 has arrived with a brakedown crane to rerail the errant 37006 and allow business to get back to normal (date not known, but prior to October 1979).

Photograph courtesy Ian Marsh Some 20 years after the above views were taken here is an interesting view of a derailed XYLA carrying 120 foot rails. The wagon had derailed on a pair of faulty hand points.

Unusual Loads

The huge industrial complex in the Workington area did on occasion generate some large out-of-gauge loads for delivery to other parts of the country. The end use for these loads were generally not for the railways, the one exception might be the lengthy sections of continuously welded rail. Distington Engineering (later Corus Cumbria Engineering) did produce some huge ingot moulds destined for other B.S.C. companies, usually in the Sheffield & Scunthorpe areas. These moulds travelled on specially built 'Weltrol' wagons some of which were allocated to the Workington area. In particular Ian remembers an LMS built 120 ton carrier numbered M17000 and scrapped late in the 1970's.

The rail plant didn't generate the out-of-gauge loads until the early 1980's when the plant started producing 120' (36m) flat bottomed rail. They were originally subject to exceptional load conditions since multi-wagons loads were relatively untried. These loads were later eased and allowed to travel under load examined conditions, one result of this avoided the payment of large pay raises to a number of rail staff responsible for preparing these trains. In the 1990's BSC bought BR's welding plant at Redbridge and brought the plant up to Workington. Initial orders were for 600' rail lengths for the Channel Tunnel, later lengths were increased to 720' (216m) for general rail use, and continued to travel under load examined conditions.

Photograph courtesy Ian Marsh A view from Workington Down yard sometime during 1975 with a couple of workers preparing this considerable load for movement. This is a hot metal carrier, also known as a torpedo car. This immense load has been created by the British Steel's Chapel Bank works, (later BSC Cumbria Engineering, BSC Special Steels and now under the name of Corus), with this car destined for Scunthorpe. These vehicles were unbraked, a condition which would give the present day Health & Safety Executive apoplexy.

Photograph courtesy Ian Marsh Two views of a familiar product from Workington, continuous welded rail. On the left is a close up of a partial load of 72m rails being loaded whilst to the right is a full load of 72m rails on IGA wagons awaiting movement.

Siddick Junction - Calva - Broughton Moor RNAD (Buckhill)

About a mile and a half north of Workington station was Siddick Junction. This junction provided the connection to the RNAD facility at Broughton Moor.

Photograph courtesy Ian Marsh. Light engine 25119 waits to join the mainline at Siddick Junction. Maryport is to the right, Workington to the left, which is more than likely where 25119 is headed. The locomotive had worked a train up to the 'dump' at the end of the Buckhill branch.

Photograph courtesy Ian Marsh. Looking in the opposite direction from the above view, a Class 40 with a short train of wagons loaded with ammunition approaches the main line at Siddick Junction.

In the views below ex-works 25142 is in charge of the 6T42 loaded ammunition train from Broughton Moor RNAD to Workington yard for onward movement to Carlisle. At one time Calva Junction was a busy place on the former Cleator & Workington Junction railway between Workington, Siddick & Seaton. This mainline closed in 1964 with only a few isolated parts remaining open after this. The Calva remnant was the last to close, during 1992. Ian remembers this short branch was a difficult one to work with some gradients as severe as 1 in 70. And the condition of the track in the views below suggest speeds would not be high!

25142 was present at Derby Works from August 1978 to January 1979 so possibly the views below are from sometime in January or February 1979.

In the above views of 25142 at Calva the train has arrived from the RNAD facility and will now reverse its loaded ammunition train down to Siddick Junction where it will then proceed on to Workington yard. These moves could be quite hair raising particularly with the 1 in 70 ruling gradient. Ian remembers a heated and protracted debate with a senior supervisor concerning the need for a brake van on these trains. The rulebook said that for trips under five miles a brake van was not necessary, but no mention was made of the propelling moves! Delving into the sectional appendix provided the answer, the mileage was 5 miles 79 chains each way!

Lowca Lane Crossing

The three views below, all from the camera of Ian Marsh, show two Class 25's on engineering duties providing support for repairs to the seawall between Siddick & Flimby. The date is believed to be 1977 and the line between Carnforth and Maryport had sustained considerable damage from several storms. The width of the rocky beach in the left picture makes it obvious that it must have been a strong storm to be able to push the sea up to the low embankment supporting the tracks.

Maryport

Photograph courtesy Ian Marsh With 25149 allocated to Kingmoor for almost nine years it was no doubt a regular visitor to the Workington area, here 25149 is noted at Maryport running round its train.

Photograph courtesy John Broughton. The Classes 45 & 46 were infrequent visitors to the Workington area. Here 45052 heads into the sun at Maryport station with a Carlisle - Workington freight. This was the first train to use the trackage which had been washed out in the views above at Lowca Lane Crossing. I guess sending one of the heaviest diesels you can muster across the new trackage will confirm whether its sound or not!

Photograph courtesy Tom Jenkins. 5295 at Maryport requires the help of a big crane to get the locomotive back on the rails. Taken sometime during the 1970's.

Photograph courtesy Ian Marsh. A view of a Class 25 (possibly 25144) at Maryport, date unknown. The locomotive carries 'Target 45' on one of the lampbrackets.

Dalston (Oil Sidings)

During the late 1970's five or six trains a week were received at the Shell-BP depot. Motive power was usually a Class 40, but any LMR allocated Type 2 or 4 or ER Class 37 could show up. The oil trains originated from Teesport.

Photograph courtesy John Broughton. The Oil Depot at Dalston in northern Cumbria receives its daily tank train on April 26th 1985. 25051 & 25109 are seen backing the train into the depot. Dalston is the first station out of Carlisle on the ex-Maryport & Carlisle line from Carlisle to Maryport and beyond to stations on the Cumbrian coast. 25109 would survive until all remaining members of the Class 25 fleet were withdrawn in March 1987.

Photograph courtesy John Broughton. Another view of 25051 & 25109 at Dalston Oil depot. The depot is built on the site of the former goods yard at Dalston. The depot supplied petrol for the Scottish border area and parts of Cumbria.

Page last updated October 26th 2016

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