Wigan Album
central wagon & thompsons scrap yard
13 Comments
Photo: RON HUNT
Item #: 27628
I remember this. Must have been winter, 1965. We'd heard a Semi was in the Branch on the scrap line. We caught the bus to Spring View and there she was: nameplates long gone; and she still had a faint red livery. We 'copped' her because the new Ian Allan wasn't due till summer. I remember that it was very cold and icy, but there was a clear blue late afternoon sky. The sad death of a fine lady that once ran the Euston to Glasgow and was now in the Wagon Works cemetery. A premature end for such elegant power...
Seems akin to the destruction of living creature, having known the once majestic appearance of such engineered giants.
jarvo fantastic machines,i was lucky to spot in the fifties.
unaided and sometimes with as many as seventeen coaches these machines blasted thro north western northbound to Carlisle and beyond.
I nearly had a tear in my eye when I saw her in that line.
you would never have seen a class 40 diesel with 12 never mind 17 on that could comfortably get over shap at any time
of the year.all loads afterwards on the mid scot and Caledonian expresses where immediately reduced when drivers worries got to BR HQ.that info came from a driver at the branch who was there from the late 1930's till mid 1980's.
Ah the Golden Age of dirt and grime thank god these monstrosities of filth were chopped.
Thomas, a bit of dirt and grime won't kill you.
So it was ok when you used them was it, Thomas!!!
If only Dai Woodham had owned Central Wagon Works.................!
Thomas? That would be a great name for a Tank Engine!
There's a similar Engine the Duchess of Sutherland 6233 by Jim Latham, Item number 4106.
Dai Woodham is remembered by many steam enthusiasts by saving over 200 steam engines from the gas axe by scrapping all the rolling stock first...a cleaver man.
Colin: Dai was a gentle soul. A cleaver? No way! Lol...
I should have meant CLEVER.
Saw everyone of the semis and this was the very last one I copped roaring through North Western. A sight as clear in my mind today even though its close on 60 years ago. Thank goodness 3 were preserved.