Following yesterday's successful visit to the Nene Valley Railway, I have now edited together my footage of class 31 loco, 31271 Stratford 1840 - 2001, named after the East London depot, of course. I have fond memories of these locos from my mispent youth in the North East, when my main spotting mate, Sam, and I would spend many a happy hour mooching around Gateshead Depot. During school holidays we'd blow our totally unearned pocket money on a Northumbrian Ranger ticket, and shuttle between Newcastle, Berwick, Carlisle and York behind whatever loco hauled train would turn up. Happy days!
Class 31's were primarily freight locos of course, working out of Gateshead and Thornaby. Local passenger trains at the time were in the hands of ageing, but solid class 101 DMU's. These were duly replaced by brand new and God-awful 'Pacer' units that had as much chance of turning up as a plumber who promises to 'be round first thing.' Consequently, Heaton depot put together a rake of Mk1 coaches and kept some spare 31's to haul it between Newcastle and Middlesborough as a semi-permenant stand-in. The track between Newcastle and Sunderland (where I lived at that time) is flat and well laid, so the 31's could really rock n' roll with the 3 or 4 coach rakes, timekeeping was spectacular to say the least!
Consequently it was great to see and hear one of these always under-rated beasts at work again, ironically enough, on a short rake of MK1 coaches. Enjoy!
Consequently it was great to see and hear one of these always under-rated beasts at work again, ironically enough, on a short rake of MK1 coaches. Enjoy!
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