"Most of Virgin's loco-hauled XC runs operated between the North West and the South West, or the North West and the South East."
One of the reasons why so few photographers can assemble quality pictorials recalling the InterCity Class 47/8s in the Virgin CrossCountry era, is simply that in the initial phase of Virgin Trains, IC 47/8s were considered a "waste of a photo". They were the default. And until spring 2000, still responsible for the majority of diesel loco-haulage across the Virgin network. As a facet of the scene that most people had already photographed in the latter days of British Rail, the IC 47/8s were roundly ignored.
But by the late 1990s, regretting missed opportunities to record the mundane as a teenager a decade and a half earlier, I suppose I made the InterCity 47/8s my opportunity to atone for the future. Now that future is upon us. It's time to look back on what was, in its day, a sphere of mundanity, but which now stands as a lesser-documented component of an ebbing era. The era of widespread locomotive passenger haulage.
Movements of the Virgin Class 47/8s in and out of Saltley depot were a daily ritual in the late 1990s. At the time, Saltley served as a stabling and fuelling point for diesels from various operations, including RailFreight Distribution (or post-1997 the EWS equivalent), Virgin CrossCountry, and Lickey banking resources. Visits from CrossCountry locos included fuel refills for 'Deltic' D9000 during its Birmingham - Ramsgate seasons. But above there's a more typical late 1990s Saltley discharge, in the shape of 47847 and 47810 Porterbrook, seen heading north at Castle Bromwich.
Until late summer 1999, 47841 retained its British Rail name, The Institution of Mechanical Engineers - the red nameplates complementing a well-kept InterCity livery. However, in the September, the loco became the surprise recipient of a new name - Spirit of Chester. By mid '99 Virgin was long overdue on a promise to bestow the Spirit of Chester plates on a locomotive, but due to a long paint shop outage at Toton, suitably gleaming Virgin red 47s were in almost non-existent supply. Repaint-scheduled 47841 - the first ILRA repaint for some nine months - was thus attacked with the Spirit of Chester nameplates, despite already having a name.
In fact, the emergence of '841 with its Spirit of Chester plates at the wrong end of the body suggested that the new fixtures had been added before anyone had had chance to remove the old ones. The redundant Institute nameplates were subsequently painted black and fitted to the previously anonymous 47817. Colour revisions to Virgin Class 47/8 nameplates were rare, and most existing namers held onto their red plates, despite the clash with the Virgin livery background. The only other red plates revised to black were those carried by 47831 Bolton Wanderer. Speaking of which...
47831 Bolton Wanderer, Lickey Incline, 1V39. The 06:40 (1V39) York - Bristol was consistently loco-hauled in the late 1990s, providing the stock and usually also the diesel for the 12:10 Bristol - Newcastle. In fact, the diagram also continued into the 21st century, almost making it to the official end of CrossCountry loco-haulage, with Voyagers not taking over until late July 2002. However, from 2001, the 06:40 ex-York remained only on Saturdays, with the weekday southbound instead becoming the 07:11 Leeds - Bristol, albeit with the same 1V39 headcode.
Most of Virgin's loco-hauled XC runs operated between the North West and the South West, or the North West and the South East. North East - South Wests were routinely HSTs, so the 1V39 and its return 1E33 broke with convention. By 2001 the only other loco-hauled VXC runs on the NE-SW were the 18:40 Newcastle - Bristol and the 15:50 Plymouth - Leeds. Although some might argue that the 06:05 Derby - Plymouth would count as a sort of “cropped” NE-SW.
After dark at Birmingham New Street, late on 9th July 2000, we find InterCity 47847 in a very typical period scene alongside a Centro Class 323. In less than 18 months, 47847 had undergone two livery changes, fleetingly appearing in Virgin red, before gaining its far more famous large logo blue image.
Almost a month earlier on 10th June 2000, we're at Hampton in Arden to witness the 11:15 (1O12) Preston - Bournemouth in the hands of 47805. By mid 2000, InterCity 47s had become a minority on Virgin services, and were not regularly seen in any other sphere of operation, so appearances such as this were starting to warrant camera attention.
With its 1960s-style nameplate, there was no mistaking the approach of 47840 North Star. Here at Newton Works, Bromsgrove, the long-time WR associate is topping Res liveried 47739 Resourceful, on Virgin's 11:40 (1M40) Plymouth - Liverpool. North Star held onto its InterCity livery until the second half of 2000, and was then Virgin red for over a year before finally appearing in its trademark Rail Blue in spring 2002.
Simply due to the number of locomotive failures, double-headed sightings such as this were never really rare on VXC. But they became more common from 2000 as logistical pairings were more often utilised. Later the same year, logistical topping and tailing fell into fashion, although double-headers continued to appear.
The above shot, like the one at the top of the post, was taken at Stoke Prior - always a good place to capture trains like the 09:13 Liverpool - Plymouth and the 11:17 Manchester - Bristol. This is the latter, in the hands of 47812. At the top of the post, 47843 is frozen in time working the 09:13.
InterCity liveried loco-hauled stock in fact remained in use on Virgin CrossCountry until the final official loco-hauled year of 2002. However, by then, with only one stock set and one InterCity 47/8 remaining, the odds of a full InterCity consist appearing purely by chance were pretty remote. That was not the case in the December of 1998, when 47805 was caught tackling the Lickey Incline with a uniform BR-style train. At this time, only eight 47/8s had received the Virgin red livery, and there was still plenty of remaining IC stock, so the spectacle you see above was highly routine.
And although British Rail went to great lengths in the design and honing of the InterCity livery, the matched locos and stock were not universally considered to look better than the “happy accident” of IC loco with Virgin red and charcoal stock. What do you think?
Returning to Virgin stock, at Coventry station on 8th July 1999, 47810 Porterbrook has charge of the 11:28 to London Paddington. This was the 11:06 ex-Birmingham New Street, the 09:16 from Manchester Piccadilly - headcode 1V59. The service ran loco-hauled until 4th May 2002, at which point it was switched to Voyager power along with the 08:00 Birmingham - Manchester, the 14:18 Paddington - Birmingham, and the 18:14 Bournemouth - Birmingham. By that time, 47810 was a Virgin red loco, so this shot would have been unrepeatable anyway.
Virgin's loco-hauled Mk.II sets did not necessarily remain neatly sorted into Virgin or InterCity arrangements. Here at Shernal Green, Worcestershire, on Sunday 14th May 2000, 47805's Manchester - Bristol express comprises a mix of Virgin and InterCity vehicles. I'd stopped off at the location to photograph the Saltley - Cardiff scrap metal run, which was triple grey 60068. But this bonus frame of the InterCity/Virgin mix has proved, with time, to be the more valuable shot.
And weatherwise, going from one extreme to the other... This is the snowfall of December 1999, amid which 47812 battles through the adversities at Longbridge with the 11:17 Manchester - Bristol. On the cusp of the two millennia there was a heightened sense of change on the railway, and there was a real chance that with winters trending towards milder weather, opportunities such as this could be among the last for capturing loco-hauled CrossCountry trains in the snow.
Whilst this wasn't, in the event, the final snowfall of the loco-hauled CrossCountry era, there were only a couple of significant falls to come. One in late December 2000, lasting about three days, and one almost exactly a year later, lasting into very early January 2002. In both of those instances, it was much more difficult to luck out on InterCity liveried 47s - let alone complete InterCity sets like this one.
Let's finish off back in the fine weather, with a late 1990s view of 47828 in the Worcestershire countryside at Gallows Green. Once again, I didn't make this stop-off with the intention of bagging a 47/8 shot. I'd gone for 37040 and 37198 on the Cliffe Vale - St Blazey china clay empties. Unfortunately, the 37s came under cloud, after which the sky quickly cleared for an afternoon of more or less unbroken sun. InterCity 47828 was a pretty bitter consolation at the time, but I've come to appreciate it very much over the long interim.