Class 40s in the North West (Calder Valley Line, Crewe, etc) 1983

[@Meldforever]

Superb quality!! Like the 80s music on the radio too 😁

[@spectrumanalyzer3093]

I spent many hours at Clegg Hall and Smithy Bridge spotting in the 70's and early 80's. I lived at Smallbridge nearby and I can still hear class 40's thumping away as I laid in bed during clear summer nights and that would be from a couple of miles away. Manchester Vic was also a great location. I remember how the freight drivers would accelerate as fast as possible from a standing start in order to get a run up to Miles Platting, couplings snatching badly as they did. The whole country was like a giant preserved railway back in those days! Thanks a lot for posting.

[@Georgeasaurus2001]

Everything on here is better than anything today, sad but very true

[@nottudyug]

Without doubt the class 37s and the awesome 40s ruled the roost for me. Spent many a weekend bashing in the late 70s/early 80s. Brilliant quality Video considering how old they are!

[@rmwebsimonmoore]

Brilliant videos Aureol40012 They've been fantastic in researching my new model railway based on Victoria & Newton Heath. Happy memories of seeing peaks & blue grey era locos just wish i had managed to see the class 40's. Thanks again for the share.

[@magicgeezer]

Absolutely fabulous my good friend! and superb quality! I did notice from 1:50 it took 22 seconds for the signal to turn red!

[@highdownmartin]

MagicGeezer you could put almost the whole train past and still get away with it! Fab stuff

[@petercollingwood4108]

Nice signal to spad 😂

[@tallyhochaps3216]

Superb video, I remember the Crewe 'death row' of withdrawn locos including 40106 amongst the 25's and other 40's just south of the station, that was one hot summer for 'bashing '40's!

[@class45peak]

Absolutey brilliant video.lovely locomotives and multiple units .great thanks .

[@Bevoin1970]

I live close to a railway line, sadly closed today but looking back with hindsight I wished I'd taken video of all the trains that passed by. Thing is at the time all these diesels were such a common and every day sight that the idea of filming them seemed ridiculous..... how wrong I was!! that's hindsight for you.....

[@aureol40012]

Lancashire born and bred until 1978 when I had a brief stay in Yorkshire (Hebden Bridge) until 1984. So both really!

[@duxberry1958]

A load of my mates from Warrington were doing up that old coach in Northwich shed

[@aureol40012]

Thank you very much mate. I actually sell a 5 DVD set of the unedited footage if you are interested. Yeah, its Northwich. And 40 028 was my first one for haulage as a basher.

[@thehoff1982]

does any1 have any footage of trains on the wcml liverpool branch around the early-mid 80s? i grew up watching the trains in runcorn.

[@duxberry1958]

Lovely Stuff ....

[@michaeldelz]

love your vids, have got the 3 whistling giants dvds. do you think any more will come along? wondering did you get to Birkenhead or Liverpool?

[@nigelterry9299]

Happy days indeed......

[@silverbullet1759]

Why were class 40s decommissioned before class 37s? I would have thought that they are better.

[@jprp999]

40's were older, heavier and had a lower max tractive effort than 37's, they were still great loco's that could have served a lot longer, as could many other classes.

[@beeble2003]

I think it's partly that a single class 40 wasn't enough for a lot of things, but a pair of them was over-powered and expensive to run. Conversely, a single 37 (or a pair of class 20s) could cover a lot of the trains that a 40 could pull, and a pair of 37s was a useful amount of power in its own right.

[@garthcox4307]

​@jprp999 like the 25s had a higher tractive effort and could haul more than a 31, which had the reputation of being pretty weedy. Yet they lasted longer. Maybe the 25s just wore out quicker as they were less sturdy.

[@RICKD790]

@britishbulldog5505 too prone to bogie fractures I think

[@taffboyslim]

30 years ago... ffs!