The poorer levels of train services on Sundays were very often compensated for by the overhead line power being switched off for maintenance. This produced DMUs on EMU diagrams, and what have now become known as 'drags'. Here an English Electric class 40 (EE type 4) diesel hauls a dead class 87 electric loco and it's train up the 1:80 through Bathpool Park, Kidsgrove about six miles north of Stoke on Trent. The line with it's new tunnel was opened in 1966 as a replacement for the original 1849 alignment which was deemed un-suitable for electrification owing to the tight clearences in the mile long Harecastle tunnel. The old formation ran left to right in a deep cutting masked by the trees above the train. Bathpool Park gained notoriety in the mid '70s as the scene of the murder of coach company heiress Lesley Whittle by 'The Black Panther'
Loading contexts...
