2) Snowdrift at Lenham Heath Sat 17 Jan 87
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- Опубліковано 16 січ 2014
- My rather pale paean to the BTF classic 'Snow Drift at Bleath Gill'. On Saturday 17th January 1987, Snowblower ADB968500, on loan from the Scottish region arrives at Maidstone East having just cleared the snow covering the Up line from Ashford. The unit then returned to Lenham Loops, where it turned on an in-built self contained mechanism before clearing the Down line back towards Ashford, where 33061 was well and truly trapped with traditional snow ploughs in a drift at Horstal Road, Lenham Heath. 47131 arrives on site light engine from Ashford with groundcrew to assist in the recovery, and a herculean effort to clear the line ensues. The Snowblower with it's support vehicles had come down overnight from Scotland and it's appearance was something of a surprise, well away from anywhere it would normally operate. Management at Network South East were however so impressed with the unit's capabilities while on loan that one was bought for Kent, but a long succession of mild Winters followed with no snow, and so it was eventually moved North to find work at Inverness. 47131 was withdrawn within a Month of this incident, and 33061 followed in July. Please note - this is not the Railscene video footage of the same incident.
I was the driver in the locomotive under the bridge. I had just brought the snowblower onto the site and was waiting to take it back when the work was done.I took a photo from about 50 yards away alongside the blower and received a chunk of ice from the blower on my napper for being so careless.
My dad Geoff baines ran the station between 1981-1983
Fair play to you, Phil! I love these types of railway videos... very interesting, to say the least.
@@lorabaines3657 They were better times then, Lora. I love videos like this, wonderful!
Blimey. I actually distinctly remember this day. I woke up at 6am to do my paper round, wondered why a passing car sounded so quiet, looked out my bedroom window to see a foot of snow. As a 15 year old at the time the excitement was huge.
I can't believe the footage from 1987 seems so old and obsolete...i remember 1987 vividly day by day...i'm getting old aren't i...
Your final question should just be, "I'm old, aren't I?"
When I was on BR over forty years ago a driver got a " No 1 " written warning for going too fast pushing a show plough tender and breaking some windows in a signal box with flying ice , his excuse was he didn't want to get stuck . Nice to see the old locomotives uniforms and the orange hi viz vests again . Thanks for uploading , always nice to hear a Brush ticking over.
The dreaded form one
I think that was the last really good winter we had down here. I passed my car driving test in the November of '86 and a few weeks later really learned to Drive. Happy Days....
Love the music at the end marking a successful operation as the dimly lit locos disappear into the night
Very interesting, i was one of the operators of the snowblower. We travvel with the blower and support vehicles down from Inverness tmd. Max towing speed 40 mph. Recall total time from leaving to returning was 120 hrson the timesheet. Happy days
Ha ha - what loco towed you down from Sneckie ?
Class 26 to motherwell, then think it was class 31 boyond that. Remember endi g up at hither green and then onto maidstine to clear line. Later we went to hoo abd did same. Then stand down for a day the long journey home.
I hope you were paid by the hour, not salaried.
Me mum was actually here watching this she told me the story years ago I never believed how deep the snow was until I saw this 🤣 still got family in lenham
There was a garage in Lenham that modified Sprites and Midgets for streamlining and for long distance motor races. Still racing in Classic Sports Cars.
On those rare occasions when a big blizzard comes through, a snow plow just won't do ( the job). That's when a self -propelled rotary is needed. And it's worth the investment to keep several scattered around the rail net in strategic locations just in case. Just make sure that there are no personnel or train spotters in the snow's path or you may not see them again until March or even April, if you catch ( as it were) my (snow) drift! ;)
That snow hung around until late May in sheltered places.....
If only we had snow like that now.
Fascinating, really enjoyed seeing this.
The winter when my bottle of squash froze in my bag between walking from the train station and getting to college in Mid-Wales.
Bloody marvellous video, thanks for the upload :-)
Awesome engine sound, remember watching from bridge!! Now I feel really cold and old!! Is it really all that time ago!
'87 was a bit brisk most of the time. I had been a professional DJ for 13 years at this time, and never missed a gig, not even once. My van. loaded with all the mobile disco gear, was well able to gain a grip most of the time. Gigs in High Wycombe were dodgy, the side roads were so hilly that the ice and snow was impossible to drive up. What I did then was to reverse up the hills. I had one wedding where only about half of the guests turned up, but I did, although it took me three hours to cover what was normally a 3/4 hour journey. And I gained many more gigs at night clubs because the DJ's could not make it.
I must admit to wishing the rubbernecks on the bridge could have been showered with the snow from the Scottish Snow Blow.
'87 lives in my mind as much as '63 did.
Epic stuff. Thanks for sharing. And barely 3 months since the great storm too. 😊
The winter of 87 , clearing snow from the points , repairing point heaters , falling into test pits , first one in lit the fire . Some prattling about . Weybridge , Woking and pirbright junctions . Good video 👍🇬🇧
1987 was drugs and Norther Soul every weekend for me, who'd of thought I'd have grown up and become a train buff.
it happens...from puff to puff puff?
What a fab video! Well done.
And the 33 started up! Wow!
Great footage and great snowdrift.
Nicely done sir - a proper homage.
Sadly, the 'hero' class 47 was itself the victim of a mishap shortly after this that led to its forced scrapping. According to the Class 47 website: "While at the the head of the 6M27 Waterston to Albion oil tanks, 47131 became derailed by catch points at Dorrington and fell on to its side sustaining serious damage which led withdrawal and subsequent scrapping at Vic Berry's in Summer 1988."
According to my notes, I saw it from a passing DMU on 21 Feb
Thanks for posting the excellent video. I remember it well as I was Performance Manager of the South Eastern at the time and went by helicopter from Battersea to site when it was stuck there but after the 'ground crew' had arrived. It was lucky that the 'Three Musketeers' Motel on the A20 was still open at the time (now houses) as the original loco crew walked across the field and stayed there after they were stranded (the A20 was blocked at the time also).
maybe if instead pf paying for a helicopter you had spent a few bob on running ghost trains to keep the line clear....
@@dougchoyce284 Looks like they were.... But they got stuck!!!!!!!!!
Very interesting and enjoyable viewing. Thank you
That was satisfying to watch . Ta very much .
Nice touch with the Music [Snowdrift at Bleath Gill] 40/45/46 locos were banned for use with Snow Ploughs as they did not have centre bogie pivots...
French Steam not according to page 316 of the Sectional Appendix I've got for the Northern section of the Eastern Region dated 3 February 1979. You can see a copy of it on the Limit of Shunt website.
Not often you see a snow plough stuck in drifts but it does happen as seen here
Unsurprising, really, as it was grossly underpowered and in very deep snow.
The winters in the 80s were spectacular. Now all we get is a few cm of snow in England if were lucky
Lenham is near where I live. We get really bad snow such as 1963 and 1987, when the storm comes in from the east. Under normal circumstances we get very little.
I remember that winter well, we had heavy snow down in Battle affecting our line similarly, causing DEMU services to be used again.
Yep, I was there, working out of St Leonards Depot. 6L 1011, 4, car, still blue and grey, 1113, weird tadpole hybrid, Hampshire DT, 6B trailer, 6B S60044 Motor, then Hampshire 3H (M) 1111, refurbed one, and even an appearance by a Tonbridge/Reading DMMU set, and 4CEP 1500 were in use. The railway as I remember it, before it all got sold off to tory chums and the diabolical Connex. Happy Days. We tried to take a 3D to Ashford, 1309 I think, got to the top of Ham St Bank - Bloody great big snowdrift stopped us. But at least we could run to Rye. Stopped at Appledore for a warmup drink in the pub even on the way back (!) you'd get shot for that now. Glad I'm retired. Recall the 1066 CEPs well too, 1517-36, then 1597-1602. No Central Side service beyond Lewes either, blocked by snowdrifts at Cooksbridge. Tried to get 6L 1013 down, by now on the Uckfields normally, but no good ! Amazing.
Just two weeks after this, 47 131 derailed at Dorrington and was subsequently scrapped.
That were clever thinking by towing out that class 33/ snowplough combo with the class 47.
Looks almost like footage from 1963. At least with 1987 I was able to remember that.
Very interesting video
Absolutely fantastic and love your choice of music. You must have been chilled to the bone. I remember the snow that year but I know we didn't get it as bad where I live as you did in Kent.
The music is from the 1955 British transport films classic Snowdrift at Bleth Gill
@@dasy2k1 Sounds like a Barry Gray Gerry Anderson soundtrack...
Euston we have a problem...and its 'snow joke.
Well said !
Brings back memories the the throb throb throbbing of an idlng Sulzer deisel engine!!!
I like the sound of a rat ticking over, particularly Class 24s. I have seen them on preserved railways; there weren't any in my area in their heyday, and I wasn't so much into trains then anyway.
now theres something you won't ever see again a crompton stuck in a snowdrift
wower than wow
I should of course said my copy of the Eastern Region Sectional Appendix [Northern Area] which as an aside states that "Passenger trains worked by Tender locomotives-Tender Locomotives drawing Passenger Trains between Ouston Junction and Annfield Plain which do not stop at intermediate stations,must always be run chimney first in each direction.."The book is dated 18th JANUARY 1969!!!!
The copy of the Eastern Region Sectional Appendix for 1979 I've seen says that the snow ploughs should be either end of a pair of locomotives and the only exception to this is using a single locomotive of 1Co-Co1 wheel arrangement. However, just like here I've seen photographs of a single class 31 sandwiched between the ploughs at Consett
Yes, it seems pretty insane to send a single class 33 out in snow that deep.
@@beeble2003 Class 40 - 45 and 46 locos are banned from snowplough work as the buffers are on the bogies and the shock of a snowplough hitting a snowdrift would smash the bogie pivot segments from the underframe..
That's a lot of snow! Very rare to see such a massive drift in the UK.
Not that rare..depending on where you live
@@garethifan1034 Very rare in southern England.
@@beeble2003 '1947 , 1963, 1979,1982, '85 '86 (sustatined severe cold not deep snow) '87 (full on),1990 dec, 1991 feb 1995 dec, 2009, 2010dec, 2018 march! all cold winters in London area.. As you can see the 80s had 4 cold winters in a decade.
@@antejl7925 Right but your list as a whole contains ten bad winters in 75 years, and only four in the last 30 years. Maybe you want to say that's not _very_ rare, but it's not exactly common.
@@beeble2003 well remember there was nothing all that cold frim 1947 til 1963 then again nothing til 1979....And 2018 was very cold there was pack ice off the Nerthlands that formed in March.....we just dont know, what will happen.
Wow this is in the UK you would almost think this western Canada by how deep the snow is I always thought it just rains in the UK lol grate video ☺
It's not that unusual to have weather like this - not every year - but every few years
@@garethifan1034 Depends where you are. This amount of snow is basically unheard-of in southern England and, these days, very rare in the rest of England and lowland Scotland, too. Unless you're up in the hills, you're unlikely to see snow on the ground more than a couple of days a year.
God that could be from the 50s with the old musuc.....great watch. We dont see drifts like that anymore.
The music is taken from a 1955 British transport films production called snow drift at Beith Gill
That snowblower is small by US standards, but it gets the job done
Our snow fall is really small by US standards, lol put it this way it's probably never snowed this much in southern England since this event.
I remember this only because I took my mate down to Bournemouth from the NW as he had some business down there, Funny thing it wasn't that bad in the NW
And then we had the "hurricane" in October. What a year!
batman51 and still hurricanes now
Something poor old Michael Fish doesn't want to be reminded of.....
Les Reed it was not his fault , he knew the path had changed but was told what to say by crew . He looked at the track a little earlier just before broadcast but nobody did anything about it
My comment was about Michael Fish - not this video...As someone whose roof was blown off, I think I have a good reason to comment about him...
Les Reed absolutely but it does not change the fact fish was told what to say on air , he knew the storm was coming but was told to say otherwise . as someone reading you're incorrect comment I think I have the right to correct you . now calm down and carry on with your train spotting you anorak wearing knob .
Not often that the balmy South gets snow like that. I don't even remember it, so it was in the South, rather than in the North (for a change). I do remember them sending the snow blowers from Scotland.
I was on British rail and spent many a night relighting the gas points this winter
Thats what you call well and truly stuck.
great video. hard to believe that 47131, the class 47 involved in this video was scrapped, 1 month after this film. it crashed in the february of 1987, and was determined to be beyond economic repair. and Vic Berry's cut it up that summer.
Mcsterl the next summer , it was cut up in summer of 88 not 87
@@bonkeydollocks1879 Withdrawn 23/02/1987, Scrapped 30/06/1988
@@MalcolmCrabbe yep confirms it
That’s me on the platform
Nice hearing that hoarse Sulzer chuckle again.
The snowplough in front of the 33 stranded looks suspiciously like a converted tender of a steam locomotive as many were.I wonder if it ever made it into preservation!
Sam Green it was, possibly the tender of a Schools class.
@@neildahlgaard-sigsworth3819 There were to stabled at Ashford and I was told that they came from scrapped C class 0-6-0's buth with many mods including built up sides.
Good grief! If that chain had snapped it could kill someone!!
Yes imagine if it had snapped and whipped back and take a spectating member of the publics head off. They keep the public well back nowadays and for good reason!
They used high tensile steel wire rope however, as you say dangerous.
Remember, health and safety wasn't what it is now. You got the job done, and if someone had an eye out, tough.
@@ashbridgeindustries380 'An eye out'. Cut in half!
@@hackdaniels7253 split personality.
Lots of hands in pockets and shovel leaning nothing changes in the UK.
ScotRail’s Bielhak Snowblower (see the Inverness MPD Stag’s Head 🦌 on its Cabside) was “Borrowed” by Network SouthEast in 1997 and never returned. Believe still shedded at Ashford.
The CEO of NSE at the time was Chris Green. He previously was the CEO of ScotRail, and had purchased the Bielhak Snowblower for the ‘Far North Lines’ during his tenure.
NSE could have easily afforded their own dedicated Snowblower but chose to steal the bought & paid for Scottish one. ScotRail were never recompensed by NSE, and now when it snows in Northern Scotland 🏴, they have to close the Far North Lines cutting off the only lifeline to those northern communities.
And this was all made possible by sandwiches and hot drinks from the tea room at Barnard Castle station...
Doctor Who has arrived in the TARDIS on the left at 4:00!
William Stephens
Yes?
Lol!
*Forstal Road in Lenham Heath.
Cue dramatic music
Well what about an igloo ?
they would close the railways if it were like this nowadays
Err it did then! Watch the video if you don't believe me!
CLAP CLAP CLAP!
refer to snow drift at bleath gill ...how to do it right
How does the third rail system work when the entire thing is covered in snow? It can't still even be live, can it?
I'm picturing a bloke with a shovel 'finding' it, for instance.
It would of been isolated during the recovery operation. All the locos seen are diesel electric so no need for them to collect power from the rail
@@cedarcam I'd figured that out for myself ;) but wondered if the third rail could power a train while it was covered in snow. Probably not: that's probably why the train stopped.
OK Well ice is a big problem in winter Water will conduct electric current because it has impurities When it freezes it can no longer conduct so they use a solution of de icer sprayed onto the rail top. Once done that keeps the trains running. With snow the collector shoes on a train are able to pick up power because they push the snow off. If there is the ice under it then the problems begin. With snow this deep the trains would struggle to get any power as the snow compacted into ice under the collector shoes. There are some uploads of trains trying to cope with icy conditions. They make quite a show of sparks and blue flashes as the huge amount of power needed to drive the motors is being interrupted by the ice on the 3rd rail
Here is an example of what happens in icy conditions ua-cam.com/video/8gvCqtl75c4/v-deo.html
The music makes the video sound much older than it is !
1987 was the year of Kylie Minogue, not Pathe News !
Thank goodness it was that music and not Kylie - although maybe "I should be so lucky" . Or Elvis - "Its now or never"
Music from Snowdrift at Bleath Gill (1955)
T'was the year of the Beasties...
@@antejl7925
“I should be so lucky” was December ‘87.
Yes here we go it's snowing!
Again we see a lack of the infrastructure big enough to cope.
Conventional push snowplough's don't always hack it when the going get's tough.
A full size adjustable Rotary snow blower would work wonders in these conditions.
Our farmers have some great kit, so why don't our railways?
Perhaps we don't value our railways as much as the road network.
Sadly we don't invest in capable equipment as they do in other countries, so we have to put up with the consequenses of being ill prepared.
A great effort put in by the workers involved in these scenes.
Oh well, just get on with it!
Let it snow, very Christmassy looking post card stuff. 🥴🤧
As the video description says, they bought another of the small rotary ploughs that you see at the start of the video. It was literally never used, so they sent it to Scotland. It simply doesn't snow often enough in England to justify large expenditure on snow-clearing equipment. The main problem in this situation was sending a single, small, light locomotive out with the ploughs in deep snow. As somebody's posted a couple of times in the comments, standard procedure at the time called for two locomotives between the ploughs.
@@beeble2003 agreed, and all was well eventually! 👊👍🙂
I was the frozen turd with a UK flag stuck in it on the left hand side
It's not budging by pulling the stuck one. It's probably left in gear or has air brakes on.
Its the end of Feb buguinning of March 2018 and 6 inches of snow brough the country to a standstill.I bet they have scrapped all snowplough's. They even cancelled services before it had even snowed.
There was a pair of 37s equipped with a plow seen in the Manchester area a few days ago - I would imagine similar movements were being carried out across the country.
Stuart Crossland there are still plaenty of independent snow plows in the UK, many use form Class 40 bogies.
SIx inches of snow is two or three times the normal maximum for most of England. Most places do pretty badly in that situation. How much extra are you prepared to pay on your train ticket price and your council tax to cope with once-in-a-decade snow events?
Network Rail still has plenty of snowploughs.
Imagine Not Work Fail doing this now? the line would be closed for weeks!
This snow was due to the climate change. It was fine the previous week, then it changed.
can you imagine the health and safety with that situation now. i would have had the sack for no hard hat steel boots orange vest reflective stripe pants safe glass's
flashing lights 8 people looking out. 9 indian chiefs on double money overtime telling me how to right a safety at work sheet 12 pages long and by that time.
spring would arrived and we can all go home!, (progress),2018
In 1987, when this was shot, two out of every 100,000 workers died at work each year. In 2019, it was 0.34 per 100,000. So, yes, that is progress: six times fewer deaths because of "the health and safety with that situation now."
This is a Railscene video stollen!
This is NOT the Railscene video but is the same incident - we arrived in the same car (B reg VW Scirocco Storm) and for much of this I was stood next to Andrew and trotting back and forth to the car to recharge camera batteries on a car charger. For instance you will notice he got the panned shot at Maidstone, so I had to do a passing shot and going away. The original Railscene footage was shot on Hi band Umatic but has long since been lost due to bad tape storage. A much edited version is probably still available from the current owners of the Railscene masters but they have nothing to do with the original producers.
Two tripods - Railscene on left, my tat with ITT camcorder on the top on the right.
i872.photobucket.com/albums/ab289/BMCAA2S4/032%20Lenham%20Heath%2017Jan87LR_zpse3pxz8ie.jpg
Mr Robinson I have a copy of RailScene video 10, and the material on this video IS NOT the same.
Isn't a Stollen a type of cake?
It is indeed - with Marzipan! Pity people can't even spell simple words!
And the woke winge bout wheather now we had it bad
Nice touch with the Music [Snowdrift at Bleath Gill] 40/45/46 locos were banned for use with Snow Ploughs as they did not have centre bogie pivots...
French Steam why? Whats the importance of centre pivot?
Basically the centre pivot would absorb shocks when ploughing -as the 40/45/46s didn't have centre pivots but had slides instead [any technical book on the locos will describe how the bogie works- Such as the English Electric Locomotives by Brian Webb] My copy of the Eastern Region [Northern Area] dated 1969 specifically states 40/45/46s cannot be used but any other classes can be used e.g 31/37 two locos in multiple with a plough either end.
The problem with these locos was the buffer and draw gear was mounted on the bogies. Any shock loads would be taken by the segmental bearings which were 2 curved channels across the bogie either side of the centre axle. These had a curved box section fixed to the loco body inside them allowing the bogie to turn until the box reached the end of the channel. Although these locos were banned from this type of work I did see a class 40 propelling a snow plough to clear the line on one occasion. Clearly someone had overlooked this restriction when assigning the loco to do the job. Unfortunately I was taken unawares and did not manage to get a photo of it doing this rarely seen work.
the other thing was that 40/45/46s weren't supposed to be used for banking either -I say that except the banker at South Pelaw on the Consett branch before the advent of 24s on ore trains was usually a 40!
That's interesting. I never saw that but know where you mean as my Father lived in that area. Class 56 were in use by then though. Not on banking duties but hauling MGR's Also 37's double heading ore trains. 37 053 and another derailed on the junction. I found some photos of that
I should of course said my copy of the Eastern Region Sectional Appendix [Northern Area] which as an aside states that "Passenger trains worked by Tender locomotives-Tender Locomotives drawing Passenger Trains between Ouston Junction and Annfield Plain which do not stop at intermediate stations,must always be run chimney first in each direction.."The book is dated 18th JANUARY 1969!!!!