Railways around Coventry

Hello all people steam. Coventry had a steam engine named after our great city. It mainly did shunting work at Haunchwood pit in Nuneaton.

Hi Baz I saw it working both at Keresley & Newdigate. Fast forwarding to the last days of steam at Keresley, when the pannier 1501 first went to the Severn Valley, a group wanted to name the pannier 'City of Coventry'. The restoration took so long that the notion was dropped. Those working on its preservation said that it was in worse condition than locos dragged out of Barry.

Coventry Colliery had seven locomotives, including one diesel, with the same name - link.

Another one from the Radford Kid (Colin).

Sorry not Cov related but we had a similar one to that in Daventry, it was a gift from the local ironstone works and from the mid 60's until the H & S said it was unsafe about 8 years ago it was used by us kids as a climbing frame, I remember pulling the asbestos lagging off the boiler underneath the loco, it was a 0-6-0 Bagnall Steam Locomotive named 'Cherwell' after the rivers source near Byfield at Charwelton. It got taken away and now is doing nothing at the Rushden Transport Museum, Northants. It had a Wakfield mechanical lubricator (just behind the sand-box) we used to keep topped up with sand. The photo is of an old friend playing by it in the Daventry Recreation grounds in the late 60's.

Must be a popular type of engine - here's one we saw at the Battlefield Line near Bosworth in 2002, named Lamport No.3.

Yes, the same type and worked the Northamptonshire quarries as well

Looks like it's in one of the bays, shame what's happened to that lovely old station, I spent many hours there and now it's just a glorified bus shelter with no character.

By the look of the buffers it must have been used for some special event as there's still silver/white paint on the outsides, those old Leamington bays have the Pendolino 'Rescue' locos waiting in them now (or they did a few years ago) with special couplings on the buffer beams so as to be able to rush off and drag a dead EMU from disgrace, they were named after the Gerry Anderson 'Thunderbirds' rescue vehicles if I remember right.

Yes, class 57/3 Thunderbirds were used as Virgin Train rescue locos, but their necessity has now diminished and many of them have lost their names and been transferred to other operating companies such as DRS

Can someone please tell me which livery the AM4 multiple units (Class 304) first carried when serving Coventry? I have a vague recollection of them being BR Green and thinking they were simply DMUs adapted to run on OLE.

Hi all I am loving this thread of railway history, the pics & discussions. I can only remember the 304 units as blue, so I cannot comment on their colour when they first arrived. As steam vanished, so did I as a trainspotter. It was when my son arrived that my interest in railways was rekindled. I once had a ride behind 46240 on a Euston to Liverpool train about 1962. It was in crimson. I will try & find out about the 304s from my friends on Flicr.

Coventry was almost unique I think in making the transition from steam to electricity almost overnight with no intervening diesel period. The AM4s didn't stick around very long as they were replaced almost immediately by AM10s with better toilet facilities for the journey between Rugby and Euston.

Thanks for that I seldom saw a train on the WCML during those years so didn't notice. Virgin's original livery was so hideous I had to look away whenever a train passed.

I believe Virgin Trains still run one as a Friday evening relief from Euston to Birmingham and Crewe, the set is nicknamed "Pretendolino" consisting of a Class 90, Mark 3 coaches and a DVT - it is also a standby and charter set for Virgin Trains