Last Freightliner from Tyneside 24 yrs ago
 

I have posted a photogragh in the gallery of 47380 pulling out of Follingsby Freightliner Yard on 3rd April 1987. It was a cold night and I remember there was only 3 photographers on site to capture the event. The yard did not close for lack of work, they wanted the site for opencasting of coal, which is now finished. An industrial site now stands on the land.
Were you there?

I have worked at the FL depot at Stourton, Leeds many hours shunting the FL Trains that came in there.
The FL Depot had 3 roads with cranes at either end.
This was one of HM's good and bad jobs.
The afternoon shift signed on at 1600hrs Mon-Fri till 2359 hrs.
You were normally going home at 2030hrs.
The bad bit was the night FL shunt job which started at
23:59hrs till 07:59hrs and you went home in a " Day."
We shunted with a 08 which was kept on the pit road at the Leeds end of the yard.
This job was usually a Leeds Holbeck Job, but when 55A shut it came to HM.
A nice job in the summer but very cold in the winter months.

Hi HM
I bet it was cold at night, nobody appreciates the night workers.
LNER

The heaters on a 350 are like fridges,and who ever designed the 350 made sure you could not sleep on it.
When you see a container coming out of the fog it seemed to be to be as big as Blackpool Tower, I just hoped the points were fitting up on the road it was flying into.
Stourton is still in use run by FL.
We also did the shunts at Wakefield Europort with 75SLU Trains.
You could wear a pair of boots out in a week walking round them long trains.
It did not matter cos PPE is free.

HM181 you are correct. The 350 has a useless radiator heating system which always gets air locked so you are constantly bleeding the system. The cooker left on high helps supplement the heating although the number of holes in the floor to allow fitting of pipes, wires etc it is a hopeless task making the cab warm in colder weather. As for sleeping, the braver souls would kip on the floor in the past but risked having their head caved in by someone opening the door. When I was a lot younger, more supple and very tired I would get 40 winks on the desk. As now long in the tooth the 08 is completely worn out, unreliable, has slow compressors for releasing the brakes and not up to shunting today's heavy trains (i.e Freightliner 1800 ton lifts). I hope a new shunter is built for there is a market still for these humble workhorses.

I agree with you except on one matter, I have seen and been on a 350 when shifting 38 HAA's fully loaded with wet coal, they just picked them up and plonked them down with no problem at all.
As regard heating on the stove, I once put my plastic cup on the cooker and all I got was a melted cup, and my brew all over the floor, to be laughed off the engine for being daft.
We used the Huddersfield 350 to take the pointing train into Standage Tunnel, now that was cold and dreary.

Going back to Follonsby (Follingsby?) depot reminds me of my first signal box appointment at Wardley which controlled access to the depot via a ground frame release. Even in 1979, there were only a few booked trains a day -either 2 or 3 usually around 2200hrs. Other than those and ocassional East Coast diversion, there was only the Monkton coke exchange sidings to keep one awake!:)

What is a 350?

the 08 shunter which produced 350 BHP