Record breaking Open day At DRS Gresty Bridge

[kevsmiththai]

Hi.

As some of you know I work for a highly specialised railfreight company in the U.K. We are unique in having a very varied selection of motive power from 1960's built Class 20s and 37s up to state of the art Class 88 Diesel/A.C Hybrids due for delivery in a couple of months time.

 

We are also probably the only rail company now that has depot open days on an annual basis and this year saw it being held at our Gresty bridge depot in Crewe. Some people try to say the rail hobby is dying out, not on the evidence of Saturday morning it isn't!

 

After we had the staff briefing i went to check on the queue 

 

 

It stretched from the depot entrance down to the main road and then

 

all the way back towards Crewe, past the Mornflake Oats factory, over the horizon and ended up at Crewe Aexandria's football ground

 

 

This was a quieter period in the maintenance shed

 

So what was the big draw

 

A pair of Class 20's currently being given a heavy overhaul before this Autumns RHTT leaf busting trains and a classic 3,300HP Deltic

 

more in aminute

kev

 

 

[kevsmiththai]

37 424 has just gone a major rebuild including having the bodyshell fully reskinned at vast cost. This has been finished in the classic BR Large Logo livery and is destined to work on loco hauled passenger trains on the Cumbrian Coast line. It is pictured with its new name hidden before the naming ceremony on the Saturday afternoon

 

 

Two class 68s, currently the newest designs of loco on British rails, stand beside one of the Class 57/3s

 

 

Some of the Class 68s are finished in Silver and work loco hauled passenger trains for Chiltern rail of of London Marylebone station

 

 

The two Northern Belle liveried Class 57s were just inside the main gate

 

 

More in s mo

 

Kev

[kevsmiththai]

Star of the show for many was the immaculate Class 40 privately preserved by two DRS fiiters and reckoned to be the best preserved diesel loco in the U.K. A testament to the thousands of hours they have put into it people are already estimating its value at £1,000,000 and there is a lot of talk of putting it out onto the main line on charter trains in the future

 

 

The mighty Deltics need no introduction

 

 

 

Visiting locos included a former DRS Class 47 that the new owner has repainted into the classic two tone BR Green

 

 

Kev

[kevsmiththai]

The naming ceremonies included the aforementioned 37.

 

The big surprise was the decision to name it 37 588 'Avro Vulcan XH558' celebrating another great British preservation project, the restoration and return to flight of the Iconic delta wing Vulxcan Nuclear strike bomber. Memebres of the Vulcan trust were presented with the third nameplate as a souvenir

 

 

The other naming ceremony was the rededication of the 'Lady Diana Spencer' to 47 712

 

 

The end result was we raised over £20,000 for charity as the depot was packed nearly all day and people were still coming in when I had to leave mid afternoon.

 

As a postscript I caught a Virgin Pendolino home with a change at lancaster station to get onto the Cumbrian Coast on one of our loco hauled workings

 

 

But I became aware that there some snappers waiting on Platform 3, Camera poised, next thing was a Duchess on an excursion train blasting through

 

 

Sadly for the guys on Platform 3 the Pendolino hadn't left the platform in time and was blocking their shot

 

Kev

[kevsmiththai]

For those of you with some time to spare here are a couple of videos.

 

It took us four hours on the Friday to shunt the shed and these two videos are edited down from hours of footage I shot

 

https://youtu.be/JR6M8-IiQaw

 

Both with an intro by yours truly

 

https://youtu.be/JR6M8-IiQaw

 

Kev

[Claude_Dreyfus]

Thanks for posting these. It is good that DRS are carrying on the tradition of the good old open day. Sadly they are few and far between nowadays...

 

Always nice to see some classic EE traction on show, and yes, 40013 looks absolutely fantastic.

 

There is also a great selection of traction on show. I am too young to remember the 40s and Deltics in service, but do have happy memories of 37401 shunting sleeper carriages at Ford William, 47501 'Craftsman' on a parcels train at Kings Cross and travelling from Waterloo to Exeter and back behind 47712 (when still in parcels red livery). A nice bit of unadulterated Sulzer thrash!

[bikkuri bahn]

 It is good that DRS are carrying on the tradition of the good old open day. Sadly they are few and far between nowadays...

 

Ditto.  What's with the decline in open days?  Privitisation?

[Claude_Dreyfus]

In part, yes. Modern railways are far more protective of their assets; these are now private companies with direct competition. Also, as with so many other countries, stock has been reduced to such an extent in the name of efficiency, that there just isn't the availability of spare locomotives. We have seen about a 50% reduction in the number of locos since the early 90s. Stuff is busy working at weekends.

 

Finally, the cost of hauling preserved locomotives around the country has increased significantly; prohibitively in some cases.

[railsquid]

I must say though, having only relatively recently caught up with the UK rail scene after long gap (last time I was really interested, all the trains carried BR logos), it's nice to see there's a fair bit of "classic" traction still in productive use.

[bikkuri bahn]

I like the class 68, the first design in a while that doesn't elicit a "what were they thinking?" response from me. Helps that the Cat engine sounds good when notching up. Looking forward to seeing them on Trans Pennine loco-hauled services in the near future.