Basher's Heaven - Mighty grid 56032 waits to drag a 4-EPB out of Dartford station heading for Charing Cross - after having pushed the units from Charing Cross!
<b>The Big Freeze - London, February 1991</b>
At the beginning of February 1991, a bitterly cold spell of weather brought heavy snow to eastern and central England. Temperatures remained below zero in these areas continuously between the 6th and 9th of February and maximum temperatures were between -3 and -5C. During the night of the 7th the snow became heavy and persistent in London, bringing 20 cm in central London and 25cm in boroughs such as Croydon and Bromley, the deepest snow since the winter of 1962-1963.

This brought the rail network into chaos, Heathrow was forced to cancel flights and Gatwick and Birmingham airports were closed. On the 8th of February, the snow was lighter and started to ease. However, the cold spell and the snow lasted for several days. More information here: 
<a href="http://www.weathercast.co.uk/nc/weather-news/news/article/heavy_snow_in_england_25_years_ago.html" rel="noreferrer nofollow">www.weathercast.co.uk/nc/weather-news/news/article/heavy_...</a>

and here: <a href="http://www.netweather.tv/forum/topic/34026-winter-1990-91-the-gr.." rel="noreferrer nofollow">www.netweather.tv/forum/topic/34026-winter-1990-91-the-gr..</a>.

<b>Everyone likes a bit of rail chaos - especially when you were a basher in the 1980s-90s!</b>
Another time capsule from the Big Freeze of Feb 1991. A massive Class 56 is seen here at Dartford station, waiting to drag a pair of 4-EPBs on a local NSE service to Charing Cross. An extremely rare event indeed and I couldn't believe my luck, as I'd just had a Crompton drag out from my home station of Lewisham. However, my hopes were dashed when a fitter came along to unhook the Grid!!! Apparently, the driver hadn't been trained up on 56s :( I was at least treated to a replacement in the form of a Crompton all the way into Charing Cross - massive ;) <b>UPDATE - Just found my original log book and the Class 56 PUSHED the EPB sets from London Bridge to Dartford!!! Hence the red lights still showing :)</b>

Taken with a Nikon F-501 SLR camera with 75-200mm lens.

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>
4epb emu 5452 56032 class56 grid networksoutheast nse dartford london stations snow weather drag