Pug 51218 Wanderings 1967 to 1969
Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway ‘Pug’ 51218 Wanderings 1967 to 1969
1967
9 February 1967 Departed from KWVR by road.
10 February 1967 arrived in the Fire Station Yard at Rochdale for display during following weekend 11 and 12 February in connection with Rochdale Model Railway Exhibition.
13 February 1967 (Monday) Continued journey to Newton Heath shed where unloaded from the low loader by the shed’s Breakdown Crane in the old Dean Lane Coal yard sidings opposite the shed on the other side of the Oldham lines. Shunted round to shed by Ivatt 2MT 2-6-0 46506. Kept in that part of the old shed known as “the Parlour”. Whilst there a fitter piped up the vacuum ejector so the locomotive could control the brakes on fully fitted stock.
18 February 1968 (Saturday) , Locomotive lit up. Members in attendance cleaning and coaling by hand 1pm to 7.30pm. Members then attended a joint Roch Valley Railway Society and Locomotive Club of Great Britain North West Branch meeting in Manchester. Returned to Newton Heath shed at 10.30pm to find several fire hoses leading down from Dean Lane into the shed and a number of fire engines at the end of the shed where 51218 had been left! It turned out that there had been a fire in the roof which had necessitated the attendance of the Fire Brigade. The loco had plenty of water in the boiler and a small fire but the saddletank had been drained dry as the injector water valves had been left open by the shed steam raisers. The loco was on 21 road and the water column serving this road had recently been pulled over when a driver had moved off without remembering to take the water column bag out of the tender. During the day water had been provided for 51218 from a hydrant on the high pressure boiler washing out main. The fire had knocked out the electrics to the pump so this main was out of action. We needed to get the loco to a source of water. The foreman sent a driver to shunt us round to a road with a column by utilising a 9F 2-10-0 which was scheduled to go light engine to Patricroft about 4 am on the Sunday morning. He got this loco down the yard but due to low steam pressure was unable to come back up and move 51218. After a long delay, 51218 was moved round to a road with a water column. It was bedded down for the rest of the night, a small fire, boiler and tank full. Unknown to the members, another member, Giles Lord of Whitworth, had spent most of the day putting boxes of sand alongside the railway track most of the way from Wardleworth to Whitworth in case of adhesion problems. He had roped in his daughter and son, Stephen, to help with this chore.
Photograph information.
P1. The loco, Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway ‘Pug’ 51218, on the low loader trailer in the Fire Station Yard at Rochdale the centre of attraction for the children.
P2. The lorry and loco on Oldham Road, Rochdale passing the junction with Charlotte Street. Close behind the lorry is Rochdale Corporation bus number 274 on route 9C which was Kirkholt via Friars Crescent. Number 274 (NDK 974) was one of a class of 30 Regent V buses new in 1956 fitted with Gardner engines and Regent III type (London Transport) air-operated preselective transmission. Bodies were by Weymann. It would have been withdrawn about 1973. (Bus details courtesy of Ian G Holt).
P3. Whilst members of the owning Society prepare, oil, water and coal the engine at Newton Heath shed on the Saturday afternoonbefore the Whitworth Brake van trip, three young local trainspotters come on the scene.
(Continued)