DMU Tail Loads
Particularly in the early days of their introduction, a DMU hauling a tail load was not an unusual sight.
One of the main reasons that DMUs were given vacuum brakes, when air brakes would have been easier and more practicable, was to allow this operation as hauled stock was only vacuum braked at the time.
Do you have any recollections or photos of tail traffic? Please let me know!
Recollections
Eastern Region
On page 55 of the 1958 Ian Allan ABC is an image of a Derby Lightweight with a van in tow. Location is not given, it displays Cleethorpes on the destination blind so possibly a Lincoln set. The Rail Online website also has an image of a Lincoln Derby Lightweight with a van, taken in 1958. Lincoln continued this with it's Derby Heavyweights (114s), another 1958 image.
Stuart Rutherford has offered some notes from BR Sectional Appendices from the late 1960s/mid 1970s which contain some information on tail loads: Eastern Region (Southern Area) January 1969 has a section (2/3rd page) on “Working of 4-Wheeled Diesel Rail Buses”, in East Anglia, and about 1 1/3rd pages on Tail Traffic, with weight limits and routes, including a note that the 4.24pm (Sundays) Cambridge to Bletchley train may convey a van of milk churns from Stowmarket to Bedford (St Johns).
Jeremy Hunns notes - "In the early 1980's (up until probably 1982 - 3 or thereabouts), the Sunday evening Cambridge - Ipswich via Newmarket service regularly conveyed a tail load in the form of a BR 4 wheel CCT. It was usually worked by a Cravens set which used to leave Cambridge at around 6pm, and I'm not aware of a return working."
The image shows an Express Parcels Class 105 set hauling a BG past Silt Road Crossing (which is about a mile south-east of March station in Cambridgeshire) in 1988. Chris Lockwood.
North Eastern Region
Eric Stuart: "I saw a 3-car 101 at Whitby Town, with a fish van in tow."
Geoff Dabbs recalls seeing a DMU shunting a couple of vans and the odd coal wagon in Whitby yard in the 1960s, apparently a regular Friday event.
A Met-Camm twin would work a Darlington-Saltburn service with some vans in tow, this was noted in 1966 and 1967.
Another BR Sectional Appendix note from Stuart Rutherford: Eastern Region (Northern Area) January 1969 has four pages with details of route/composition of train/maximum tail load. It includes details of the one he remembers below that was still running in 1976/7; in 1969, 2D63 17:21 Middlesborough-Saltburn was booked to comprise a twin power set (2 cars 600BHP) and could convey a 100 tons gross tail load. Also 2D50, 04:30 Darlington-Saltburn could convey an 80 ton tail load so long as it was 2 cars (600BHP), 3 cars (600BHP) or 4 cars (900BHP). In 1972 this train (by then 2N50), was booked to stand at Middlesbrough from 05:00-05:20, presumably to unload mail (plus newspapers??).
Some vehicles noted as being hauled on the Middlesborough-Saltburn service include a Southern Railway PMV and a LMS Stanier 50ft BG with a LMS Diag 2026 CCT[1].
The image is from a fading low-quality 126 film print, but included as images of Trans-Pennine units with tail loads are pretty unusual. Departing from York, date unknown. Tony Wilkins.
David Hick remembers in the mid-1970’s the 8pm Scarborough to York conveyed mail in CCT’s as a tail load-as, recalling there were at least 2 vans attached, possibly three, though there were generally at least two three-car units to provide the power.
Stuart Rutherford also sent in details of the 17.30SX (or thereabouts) Middlesbrough – Saltburn service in 1976/77. It was an extra train in the then half-hourly Darlington-Saltburn service; and from what he recalls, was a Met-Cam power twin set and took a van of some sort carrying mail which was loaded at Middlesbrough station platform. At this distance in time, he can’t recall exactly what the van was, but it may have been a standard BR bogie GUV.
Ian Dobson: "Visiting relations in Bishop Auckland in the late 1970s/early 1980s I recall Met-Camms hauling parcels vans to/from Darlington. I seem to recall that they were usually left in the Weardale line platform all day for loading/unloading."
Scottish Region
The image was taken near Haymarket, the 2x3-car 101 formation has a Class 131 parcels conversion as well as a van heading to Edinburgh. In 1968 55015 was converted and based at Leith Central and was regularly noted attached to the 13:20 Dundee to Edinburgh service. GM Staddon.
Alan Rintoul notes that it was quite common during the late 1960s and early to mid 1970s to see ScR 3 car Metro Cammell DMUs with a CCT van in tow. Services from Stirling and Dundee to Edinburgh quite often conveyed a van, particularly in the run up to Christmas.
Stuart Rutherford notes that the Scottish Region Oct 1977 Sectional Appendix has a page with train composition/max tail load.
Keith Bathgate notes that "while most fish traffic ceased about 1968, BR carried fish traffic between Wick and Aberdeen until 1981. It seems a VFW 'Blue Spot' Insulfish van would be dispatched from Wick on the evening passenger train to Inverness and taken onwards to Aberdeen on the first train next morning. North of Inverness was Type 2 territory at the time (the van was marshalled immediately behind the locomotive(s)), but the Inverness-Aberdeen service was usually operated by Class 120 DMUs. A picture of the second leg of this journey (dating from 1979) is on page 188 of Brian Morrison's book 'British Rail DMUs and Diesel Rail Cars: Origins and First Generation Stock' (Ian Allan 1998). It shows a blue/grey class 120 set and a blue class 122 single car, with the fish van bringing up the rear".
References
- ⋏ Email Eric Stuart to Stuart Mackay 24 January 2021 regarding content of David Larkin photographs