Class 40 40150 departs Ulverston with 2P35 to Barrow (without the photographer who had 'bailed')
<b>Class 40 Indian Summer</b>
After enjoying a nice early morning ride up the West Coast from Preston to Lancaster and Carnforth, then over to Ulverston, it was sadly time for the photographer to disembark and return to Lancaster on a paltry DMU!
The reason being - 40099 was booked for 1E23 10.40 Carlisle-Leeds.
In this view 40150 is just departing Ulverston - with an early morning soft blur to my exposure 😂😎:)
The vacant front window looks inviting :)

<u><b>'A day in the life' - log book update:</b></u> 
<u>Saturday 11thA ugust 1984</u> - 40150 on 2P35 06.30 Preston - Barrow
<b>PRESTON</b>
LANCASTER
CARNFORTH
Silverdale
Arnside
Grange-over-Sands
<b>ULVERSTON</b>

<b>46 miles</b>

Between 1982 and 1984 I spent many happy hours with my friends chasing around the North of England after the remaining Class 40s. At the beginning of 1984, there were still 50 members of the fleet in service, but this had already reduced down to 31 by the time I had 40152 towards the end of July. By the end of the summer timetable, just 25 remained in service, and only 17 of the class survived into 1985, all but 3 being withdrawn over the weekend of 21st/22nd Jan 1985.

D200/40122, 40118 and 40012 were kept on just for rail tours, although D200 had a second Indian summer :)

<b>Locomotive History</b>
<b>D350 / 40150</b>
D350 was built by the English Electric Company at their Vulcan Foundry Works, Newton-Le-Willows, Lancashire and entered traffic in June 1961. Quite early on in its life, when working 4G98 York - Newbridge Street freight on 7th May 1965, the locomotive was involved in a dramatic accident - it was derailed at Preston-le-Skerne, ran through the catch points, and then ended up down an embankment and overturned, whilst the remainder of the train, which was fouling the mainline, was run into by D352 on another freight working. It took many days for the locomotive to be rescued.

21/06/61 - Date in traffic allocated to 50A (York)
01/09/66 - Transferred to 56B (Healey Mills)
01/12/67 - Transferred to 55C (Healey Mills)
01/01/71 - Transferred to 52A (Gateshead)
02/04/73 - Painted into BR Blue
01/05/73 - Transferred to GD (Gateshead)
01/02/74 - Renumbered as 40150
01/01/78 - Transferred to HA (Haymarket)
01/05/81 - Transferred to KD (Carlisle Kingmoor)

In 1983 the locomotive sustained serious derailment damage, and was holed up at Crewe Works for six months, from Oct 1983 to Apr 1984. The loco worked a few more passenger turns after release from Crewe, during the 'Indian summer' of 1984, including four separate turns on 2J38 19.35 Blackpool North - Manchester Victoria vice DMU - two of which the photographer was on :)

The loco survived into 1985, and was only withdrawn with the remaining survivors of the class in Jan 1985. She was then stored at Crewe Works for a couple of years before finally succumbing to the torch in May 1987 - by outside contractors I believe.

My interest in the railways waned permanently with the demise of the Class 50s, initially from the Paddington-Oxford route in 1990, and finally when they retired from the Waterloo-Exeter services in 1992.

As well as enjoying the thrash, I managed to record many of the trips and railway scenes encountered on film for posterity. Those days are now long gone, but happily the photos remain for me to reminisce over and share. ;)

Taken with a Zenith TTL SLR camera and standard lens. <b>Scanned from the original negative with no digital restoration</b>

You can see a random selection of my railway photos here on Flickriver: <a href="http://www.flickriver.com/photos/themightyhood/random/" rel="noreferrer nofollow">www.flickriver.com/photos/themightyhood/random/</a>

<i>'Indian Summer' - a period of happiness or success occurring late in life...English Electric Type 4 1958-1984</i>
40150 350 d350 ulverston station class40 2p35 locomotive diesel