I scanned another six-frame negative strip last night and this is the first one from it - there are certainly another two and maybe three that are postable subject to a bit of work. Funny thing is I never printed anything from this strip so I reckon it's the first time the negative has been touched in over 40 years!
In this shot class 76 no. 76036 is passing Hadfield and heading into open country as she hauls a rake of Merry-Go-Round wagons over the Pennines and presumably back to the Yorkshire coalfield.
With grime-free undercarriage and an almost creamy-white roof it's evident that 76036 has had some attention recently, including a lick of paint. This state wouldn't last for long though - carbon deposits would soon darken and discolour the roof caused by the two pantographs in contact with the overhead wire.
It was unusual too to see a single class 76 in charge of a rake of MGRs - admitted the load would be relatively light seeing as the coal would have likely been discharged at Fiddlers Ferry Power Station some 40 miles to the west. Even so two locos would almost certainly have hauled the loaded train over the Woodhead (with another pair banking it up the Worsboro incline) and thus a pair normally brought the empties back, simply to balance loco movements.
From what I can make out the MGR wagon is numbered 357354. Some 10,000 such wagons were built to facilitate moving coal directly from pit-head to power station with automatic unloading, and this particular wagon was built at Shildon in 1974 as part of Lot 3815. They were certainly built to withstand a few knocks and it's perhaps no surprise that 357354, despite being only three years old, looks rather older than that just here.
To bag this shot I was stood on the mound that then passed as the out-of-use down platform, thanks to the kind permission from the signalman in the box opposite but out of shot.
Following the line's closure in the 1980s, the track has long gone from this view, but those railfans wanting to get a taste of the old Woodhead Route can still do so and ride their bikes along the old trackbed which now forms part of the National Cycle Network, C2C Route 62 - it joins the old railway line about 500 yards from this spot. If you're taking the route up to the Woodhead Tunnel, I'm pretty sure the return ride will be a bit faster!
Looks better full-screen I think.
Ilford FP4 rated at 160asa, developed in Acutol.
17th November 1977
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