British Rail-Old Oak Common Depot Views+Withdrawn class 47s+Turntable, January 1993

[@Crepello100]

I was lucky to be taken around the depot back in 1971. I was just a kid and had never seen a diesel before. It turned me into a lifelong fanatic, especially when they sneaked me onto a test run on a Class 35 up to West Ruislip & back. The depot was full of Class 52's, 47's, 42's, 35's, 22's, 08's, an 03 (I think?) and a Blue Pullman set. The place was buzzing with life, wonderful! It's sad the depot and it's diesels have gone but I have the memories. Also a model railway, so I'm still happily living in the 1970's!

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

Yes, like Stratford it was a huge, busy place in its day.

[@BrianSeaman]

I went to the OOC open day in 2017 - a real mixture of sadness for the end of an era, Class 43's being withdrawn, and not much love for their replacements from those who were about to retire. Thanks for looking back at another era and the changes that were taking place then.

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

That was over on the HST depot. I never filmed over there, the loco shed and the HST shed had separate staff and the HST side never let people round. In later years when i worked on the Western it was still BR so i did have a good nosey around when learning the road into Old Oak and actually work a Gronk over there when an HST came off the road and the engineers were re-railing it one coach at a time. I seem to recall booking 12 hours that night....pity it wasn't a Rest Day.......

[@peterjwarner4836]

Worked as a fitter at 81a from 75 to 77 Wishing now I had stayed. Was seconded to the HST shed as soon as the testing started. Enjoyed every minute, still love hearing a diesel engine working hard ;-)

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

Thanks for sharing your memories......a lot of people i know drifted in to working on the railway...'just to tide them over'.......20+ years later they were still there!

[@TechnoJonny]

Hi, interesting video, I remember going to the old oak common open day in August 1991, I also remember seeing that grounded 47 (47533), myself and a friend from school used to travel up to Stratford, Willsden & Old Oak to go trainspotting in the early 90's, Brought back some good memories, does make me feel slightly old as well though 🥺

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

I was at that open day as well.... and had also sone the 1985 one as seen here kzbin.info/www/bejne/fJSYo5t7m9Gbgq8

[@johnmichaeldorienjohn467]

Wasn't aware of the Turntable ! Great Upload Soi! Thank you!

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

My pleaseure. It had old tram equipment to power it and was great fun to play with. A couple of years after this vid was made i ended up working on the Western and worked in Old Oak, shunting locos around and making sure the tongue on the table was in a both ends otherwise you could tip a loco into the pit!

[@johnmichaeldorienjohn467]

@@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus that would have been a bit inconvenient!

[@johnmichaeldorienjohn467]

Just a quick question, how long was your training to become a train driver? Was the entrance test, difficult ?

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

@@johnmichaeldorienjohn467 The tests are (were?) fairly easy apart from the co-ordination & reaction test with its flashing lights 7& sounds in headphones. The correct cancellation of the required lights and sounds could fail you however well you do on the rest of the test. Once on the job, depending on where you are depends on how long your training is. Mine was under BR and took about a year. But getting a driving position on Trainload Freight after my training resulted in more training, diesel traction and new routes to learn......

[@johnmichaeldorienjohn467]

@@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus Thanks Soi, it's much appreciated, I did apply for a Trainee train Driver For EWS, but unfortunately I wasn't successful...

[@gordonjohnson8432]

i remember 47452...right mess after the Morpeth derailment in 1984. Came to our place for repair..Crewe works...spent many hours on it! Went back out fully repaired! took some pictures of her...looked good when we finished it!! Happy Days!!

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

Thanks for your memories...... Crewe is very much a former shadow of its self today.....

[@peacockchristopher99]

My mates and I used to sneak in there on Saturdays in the late 60s, through a hole in the fence by the canal. Warships were being scrapped then.

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

I think that was a favorite way in since the steam days........lol

[@johnyoungieyoung123]

OC, have a nip around that depot then down the road to WN. My dad first took me around OC on an unofficial visit back in about 1979. I have no idea how many times I visited after that, not once getting thrown out. Loved the turn-table and always plenty of 50's on there. So sad to see withdrawn locos. I have a great photos with 3 50's in the fueling shed. End of an Era.

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

Happy days, when London had a lot of shed to look round. At least Old Oak is still a railway depot unlike Stratford, now under a shopping centre.

[@johnyoungieyoung123]

@@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus No kidding. Wow. Hard to imagine. I saw some pictures of Tinsley it blew me away!

[@stestepney]

Excellent vid Soi great to see all them 47s on depot cheers Steve ..

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

Thank you, not a lot of action but the views are all history.......

[@TheDaf95xf]

Hi Soi. Great video of a fantastic and successful BR locomotive the class 47 😊 That’s why they built 508 of them 👍🏻 I nearly saw them all in my train spotting days through the 70s early 80s. Fabulous days as I even collected train numbers on New Year’s Eve at Darnall shed Sheffield so we could sneak round without getting caught lol 😆 Take care buddy cheers Stevie 😎

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

Thanks Stevie, you are a very desperate man!...lol A mate of mine doesn't like 47s but it didn't stop him having 508 for haulage, quite an achievement.....

[@phildavey3135]

You need to add 4 more on to that total...they built 512 of those fine machines. 👍

[@TheDaf95xf]

Sorry Soi. Yes it was 512 I saw 508 of them in service and withdrawn before they started renumbering them 👍🏻 I stopped taking locomotive numbers when they started renumbering locomotives differently than its original number.....🙄 So I then started doing coach numbers instead lol 😆 Take care and and keeping the fantastic videos coming cheers Stevie. 😎

[@TheDaf95xf]

Phil Davey. Hi Phil. Yes I meant I’d seen 508 in service. Thanks for you correction 👍🏻 Stevie 😎

[@phildavey3135]

Stevie Athers. I remember the first time I ever saw the OC turntable on an ‘unofficial’ visit in 1979😁😁 I think it was my first depot visit anywhere and I got my dad to take me there in his Mk1 Escort: couldn’t believe how many locos were crammed in. 🙉 I’d borrowed a Kodak Instamatic camera and still have the grainy pics to this day. Great memories!😊

[@kingswoodjunction897]

The days when the Forman would just let you wander around. Had all the 50’s gone by then?

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

I had started on BR by then so that helped me get around. The 50s had gone by then, the last service ones were on the West of England line but made visits to Old Oak for fuel or minor repairs until replaced in around May 92.

[@christopherruff2464]

Another great video Soi.. I remember 47 644 & 47 641 going from scrapline to restoration and renumbering to 47 756 & 47 757 or 47 767?? Some 47s there i never saw for my all time spotting book. 121,108.. Sounds of locos ticking over. Miss that noise..

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

A lot of the 47s were just switched aff after the Turbos took over thw NSE workings so it was fairlly easy to put them through works. Some had been in trouble, like 533, and were waiting to be cut. As i saw quite a few done there in the mid 90s!

[@christopherruff2464]

@@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus i never went to Old Oak Common,Paddington,Waterloo etc. Shame really.. But i was based in Sheffield mainly so rare forays down south were just that..rare!!

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

@@christopherruff2464 Like me getting to Scotland. First time there was late 1970s on a railtour to Glasgow Central. Didn't have too long thehe but saw lots of new units and some locos!

[@martynbale1690]

Great video;great days; great memories.

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

My pleasure.......at least this place is still a railway depot unlike Stratford.....see here kzbin.info/www/bejne/eZy9dnh6eKyoqck&lc=Ugwyj5u-o4L3LTlmnQp4AaABAg

[@petersmith4455]

i remember class 52s on the turntable in 1972 and also cl31s great days.not any more.

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

I probably saw hydraulics at Old Oak, i was at the 1972 open day as a young child and remember a Hymek was being stripped! If you could take it off, it was yours! (can you imagine that happening today?.....) but that's about all i can remember....and sadly all the easy bits of the Hymek had gone.......

[@andrewsewell9179]

Golden memories

[@Richardsrailway]

I’m just trying to work out where the turntable was ? I went to the last ever open day at old oak a few years ago .

[@captainboing]

Lol you must have walked right past it. Visible from the entrance ramp, slightly off to the left but quite prominent

[@Richardsrailway]

captainboing I’ll have to have a look at the footage I took that day , ta .

[@freightrambler7199]

The month & year I started there..

[@bobrob548]

Sad to see OOC 81A like this I worked there 50 years

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

It's sad to see the railways once great London depots reduced to ashes, replaced by shoping centres or housing. At least Old Oak is still a railway depot.....

[@trainandbusfan5706]

Another stomping ground from my youth along with Stratford disappeared under a mass of construction.The turntable reminds me of pre HST days when it would have contained Westerns Warships Hymeks and 47s and the occasional class 22 thrown in for good luck.

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

I'm a bit too young to remember that far back sadly......and at least it's still a railway depot rather than a shopping centre.......

[@trainandbusfan5706]

Soi Buakhao you certainly missed a lot of the good stuff.

[@Ashfaq1999]

Classic locomotives 😊

[@brianfearn4246]

Fabulous video, if I remember correctly some of the 47s were rebuilt and re classified as 57s and used by freightliner a number of years ago. Do freightliner still use them ?

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

No but some 57s are still with DRS......

[@martinnevey7258]

Nice upload...only thing missing is that railway diesel smell...

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

Yes, going round diesel sheds and the BREL works at Swindon, Doncaster or Derby all had that 'smell'....a mixture of diesel, engine oil and grease! Years back in the late 70s/early 80s my Dad & i used to go on RESL tours around depot's and workshops...happy days. Most of them have now long since closed sadly.....

[@martinnevey7258]

Yes my memories as a lad on a hot day the smell coming off the sleepers. .locked in my memory for all time....it's the simple things. .

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

@@martinnevey7258 I know waht you mean, that long dank tunnel you had to walk through to get to Stratford TMD from the station.....

[@alanbartlett9523]

Another day in paradise.

[@derrickgreen9020]

Ooooh...time for a session on Train Simulator World😉

[@andyhoward1001]

Great stuff, brings back memories. I think most of the 47s in front of the factory were ex Crewe Chemicals and Construction Pool (worked Northwich - Tunstead ICI, binliners around Manchester, and spent weekends in 89/90 on WCML drags while the line was upgraded. Came down to OO for the Paddington remodelling. Many 47s were later shunted behind the Pullman Shed where they were heavily vandalised on one side. Later again all moved back outside the factory - see my KZbin Logo. Thanks for posting another great (but sad) vid. Andy

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

Thank you. I seem to recall the end of Speedlink allowed a lot of 47s to move to NSE, some of those large logo ones had been Tinsley machines and still carried the painted names that were applied there. Could well have been Crewe before Tinsley, BR liked to move locos around! If you have seen my Stratford TMD upload you'll know it was the same over on the Eastern, a once great depot reduced to an almost stabling point before final closure. At least it is still in railway use, unlike Stratford!

[@andyhoward1001]

Of course I’ve seen your Stratford vid! Old Oak, Stratford and Stewart’s Lane were always highlights of our shed-bunking trips down to London. Sadly, by the time I was taking pics, there seemed to be more withdrawn locos than runners. Thank you for posting your vids.

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

@@andyhoward1001 Sadly loco haulage was in it's dying days on passenger trains then. And with a loss of freight in 1991 with the closure of the Speedlink network that threw more locos onto the scrapheap. The 50s were replaced by 47s drafted in from RfD as well as ex Scottish 47s. By the 1993 the last loco hauled West of England trains were run down until July when the last service ran shadowed by a relief hauled by 33 116. I was on it funnily enough and had my camera with me.....

[@johnmichaeldorienjohn467]

The only comfort I guess that some survived into Preservation!

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

Not sure how many here survived, i saw some betting cut in the mid 90s at Old Oak....

[@train4905]

Such a sad sight to see all this butifull engines being scrapped.

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

I recall some 08s and 47s being cut up in Old Oak in the late 90s.....

[@prof.hectorholbrook4692]

Pretty forlorn sight. So many 47s.

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

And a lot at the end of their time, replaced by Turbo units and the withdrawl of Speedlink services a couple of years earlier.

[@robd2184]

Nice one that !

[@markknight1011]

Turbo workings ? That another name for converting them into Class 57s ?

[@highdownmartin]

D1022 western sentinel outside ooc factory. Nothing a 14 year old could undo left on it! Two little ducks chalked on the side. Sad. Twenty years later it’s 47s everywhere. Still sad!

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

Yes, OLd oAk seem to be a dumping ground for old locos. I rememeber a Hymek at the 1971 open day that you were allowed to take off what you could, i was 5, so got nothing but my Dad says someone walked off with a cab door!....

[@highdownmartin]

@@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus there was a pair of hymek bogies near the tt. Stills there when I was goin officially as 2 nd man in 90/91

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

@@highdownmartin Yes, it's amazing what gets put to one side and then forgotten about! Maybe a Foreman's pet project, they leave and things just sit there.....I worked in there from 96 onwards but so much was dumped everywhere i can't say i ever noticed them.....too busy shunting whatever was needed and looking to cut away.....

[@wilkybarkid]

Did the turntable get saved?

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

Yes, i believe it went to a preserved railway.

[@phildavey3135]

Soi Buakhao it’s down at the Swanage Railway waiting for installation

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

@@phildavey3135 Ah, so that's where it ended up. I'm pleased it has gone to a good home.....

[@matthewdempsey6583]

nice looking english elctric locos. in australia they are known as the victorian ralways F class loco

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

I liked the class 47s, they were good mixed traffic locos, good on express passenger as well as freight! Sad to see them on their last legs here in Old Oak.....

[@themightyzanoss8409]

pretty sure that the 47s were not english electrics

[@Schmalfonzo]

@@themightyzanoss8409 correct, but I think he was talking about the 08s

[@train4905]

Excellent video tho

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

Thank you.......all gone now although happily it's still a railway depot.

[@girlsundpanzerundrailways2482]

Girls: men don't cry Men:

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

In the 90s when i was a driver on the Western i saw quite a few 47s cut up here........ very sad!

[@johnmichaeldorienjohn467]

So much wasted Traction! Makes me feel, very sad...

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

All replaced by Turbos and awaiting the chop!

[@Keithbarber]

Nothing has an indefinite lifespan ,and as sad as it is when it happens, the end must come for all locomotives, even if we think they still have life left in them, and/or we dont like the replacements

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

@@Keithbarber BR has been scrapping diesel's since the 1960s....some classes survived less than 10 years.....

[@Keithbarber]

@@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus I am well aware of the fact Several early designs of dmu proved to be highly unreliable so they were axed and scrapped by the end of 1968

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

@@Keithbarber And locos, early ones were chopped and pilot scheme ones sold off as the work they were built for disappeared...The NCB and Britis Steel did rather well out of it though....

[@milehighclassics]

Bet that's been smashed up. For hs2

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

The depot has been rebuilt and is in use as a Crossrail depot. At the moment it is full of class 345 EMUs.....

[@class8866]

rundown equipment with rundown tracks...

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

Ols Oak was past it's heyday by this time. Loco hauled trains were disappearing fast and by the time it closed it was just dealing with freight locos.....

[@tonyjones9442]

So sad to see them at the end of their lives.shame they couldnt be donated to poorer countries save for different gauge I suppose. All that ground pollution- wouldn't be allowed now I'm sure.

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

A lot of industrial places were like that. This was an old steam shed and was built in the 19th century in open country!

[@tonyjones9442]

@@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus I remember when they started building Aldi's near Bangor town centre. It was on the old coal gas works. The jcbs etc had disturbed the pit where they dumped the waste - the smell of sulphur covered the town. (City) I read somewhere when they opened Euston up, open countryside was only a few streets away.

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

@@tonyjones9442 The new Euston Road as it was then was the M25 of its day. The railways were not allowed into London and all had to stop at the edge. Over time as London expanded outwards it looks like they are in the centre of town, if built today, the same rules would stop the WCML at Bushey!