I dont think I have posted these on this site before. The 30th December 1978 is etched onto my memory due to a chance cab ride on 40 137 from Manchester Piccadilly to Mayfield Parcels Depot in a snowstorm. I was standing listening to the engine idling when the cab door opened and the driver offered the cab ride. I was over the fence like a ferret up a drain pipe and into the warm cab before he finished his sentence. Cab rides were a regular thing before the advent of H&S. The driver was a classic railwayman of his time complete with regulation cloth cap and Gannex Mack and a gent, as so many were then. Acceleration up the main line out of Piccadilly (off the old DC lines), at full power and with no load was vicious and pressed me back into the bulkhead. We shunted some vans, GUVs and BGs I think and then propelled them back into Piccadilly ready for a later departure. An epic day for a 16 year old obsessed with Class 40s! D337 was originally a LM machine, date to traffic was March 1961 and it was withdrawn in January 1981, 2 months shy of 20 years. Mayfield still stands today but is derelict. Surely some use could have been found due to its access onto the main line. Rumors & speculation have abounded over the years but it still stands silent. My photos & my copyright.
Posted on: Tue, 06 Jan 2015 13:54:00 +0000
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