Class 08 Shunter On The Circle

[spsmiler]

On one of my Steam On The Met films someone had posted the following message...

Apart from chasing LTs around the network up until June 1971 I was once at Kingscross waiting for a Baker Street train, it was a weekday afternoon and to my amazement a BR class 08 shunter with goods train came through.    

[Harsig]

Jun 12, 2020 9:02:37 GMT spsmiler said:

On one of my Steam On The Met films someone had posted the following message...

Apart from chasing LTs around the network up until June 1971 I was once at Kingscross waiting for a Baker Street train, it was a weekday afternoon and to my amazement a BR class 08 shunter with goods train came through.    

www.lurs.org.uk/02%20jan%2017%20FREIGHT%20ON%20THE%20UNDERGROUND.pdf

The above document suggests that 08s were used on the freight trains to Smithfield Meat Market from about 1960 until this traffic ceased in 1962, so an 08 could have been seen at Kings Cross during this period.

[John Tuthill]

Jun 12, 2020 14:23:04 GMT Harsig said:

Jun 12, 2020 9:02:37 GMT spsmiler said:

On one of my Steam On The Met films someone had posted the following message...

www.lurs.org.uk/02%20jan%2017%20FREIGHT%20ON%20THE%20UNDERGROUND.pdf

The above document suggests that 08s were used on the freight trains to Smithfield Meat Market from about 1960 until this traffic ceased in 1962, so an 08 could have been seen at Kings Cross during this period.

Thanks for that. A greatly informative article and good photos. Thank you again.

[spsmiler]

yes, very interesting, Thanks. Effectively what the person who commented on my film encountered the end of an era that dated back to days of the GWR and the Met.

Oh how I wish I'd been there to see it, but I was too young at the time.

In a way its sad that it ended / been transferred to roads, although with CBTC in mind it would have posed yet more interesting challenges (similar to those experienced elsewhere on the Met and District) which few other 'urban metros' face. But then large swathes of the LT railway system always were more than just simple 'urban metros'.

[roythebus]

There used to be a 350hp shunter (later class 08) at the spur siding at Farringdon to bank trains up Snow Hill to Holborn Viaduct or up the incline to Kings Cross. These workings finished when the Snow Hill line closed in about 1968. It's possible a 350 was hauling a BR goods train,but probably on the windend Lines, not the Met side. If I remember correctly, freight from Paddington Suburban finished around the same time.