The Old Normal: Classic British Rail Traction in Procession

In 1999, Dudley Port saw the passage of over a hundred scheduled, loco-powered runs per weekday.

Loco-haulage. A relentless stream at Dudley Port canal junction in 1999.

We're now deep in the era of “bespoke trainspotting”. We usually know what's coming before we leave home, and we can monitor the journey(s) of the train(s) so that we don't have to wait around long at the location. For some, “bespoke trainspotting” has been the norm since the Blackberry era of the early to mid 2000s. For others, decades earlier. I can remember advance summer Saturday gen being shouted out from a soapbox on Sheffield station in 1981 - to a large and very captive audience, and a round of applause.

So gen, and the bespoke activity it encourages, predated the Internet by a long time. But until the early to mid 2000s, we didn't actually need to know precisely what was happening in order to head off for an enjoyable spell at the lineside. Before that, the general UK rail traffic - the normal - carried inherent interest.

Tug Aesthetica: Making Sense of the Class 60's Earlier Visual History

"Most Loadhaul Class 60s remained either in full Trainload livery, or had the Trainload decals removed to render an unbranded triple-grey look."

Battling the Arctic-style conditions of New Year's Day 2002, 60034 flies the flag for Transrail grey livery.

With thanks to those who shared links to my Class 60 article last week, I'm making this payback time. Yes, I've dug deep into my photo archives to bring forth another selection of visual Class 60 studies - mainly from the long-lost era of film.

The theme this time is an exploration of the standard Class 60 aesthetics that sat across the transitional period from late British Rail into early privatisation. Did you know that the first Class 60 EWS repainted was not initially released in red and gold? Did you know that the 60s have a "clean end" and a "dirty end"? Have you ever wondered why so many 60s were stripped of their original nameplates in the 1990s? If not, don't worry. It's all coming up in this very post. And if you're just here for the nostalgic images, there's plenty here that the world has never before seen...

British Rail's Class 60 in the EWS Years

"One really interesting use of a Class 60 that encapsulated the transience of EWS cascading, was the Lickey banking duty."

60076 in the EWS-branded version of BR's triple-grey livery, with a Round Oak - Margam run on 6th June 2007.

They still felt new. It just wasn't what we were expecting to happen...

If any locomotive type seemed safe from the effects of post-BR renewal, it was the Class 60. Reassuringly bulky, with monster tractive effort, the Brush/Mirrlees Type 5s were a product of the late 1980s, starting service in the early 1990s, and the last of them had not been ready to run until 1993. Just three years later, the locomotive order which would rapidly end their reign of UK freight supremacy was signed and sealed.

Info-Pictorial: EWS Traction in the Midlands

"A combination of two detail traits could identify main line locos repainted in EWS livery prior to autumn 1996..."

In the post British Rail privatised era, it was, without any doubt at all, the train operator with the highest enthusiast appeal. Over the course of its life, EWS employed locos from classes 08, 09, 20, 31, 33, 37, 47, 56, 58, 59, 60, 66, 67, 73, 86, 87, 90 and 92. Almost all in considerable number. And early on, the range of surviving liveries was vast, extending back through all the BR sectors you could think of, to the earliest Railfreight grey, large logo, and standard Rail Blue.

In this post I’m looking back at the earlier period of EWS, through the eyes of a Midland railway enthusiast…