Old Oak Open Day

Created: 4/9/00		email: DaveDenham@ddenham.fsnet.co.uk
	Old Oak Common Open Weekend
Last modified : 20/9/00

The Old Oak Open Days were held over the weekend of August 5th & 6th 2000. Unusually for this summer, the weather was very pleasant! EWS employees made a tremendous effort (both paid & voluntary) and the results are shown below...... A notable effort was made to create secenes from the past by grouping locos of similar liveries close to each other. This was very much appreaciated by the photographers!

My journey to and from Old Oak on the 5th was by Pathfinder Tours 'The Anglian Capitalist'. The tour ran from Preston to Ipswich via the WCML and North London lines, stopping off at Wembley for Open Day visitors. I joined the train at Nuneaton, and haulage was provided by DRS pair 37609 + 20307. Apparently this was the last DRS-hauled charter for the forseable future - the company wishes to concentrate it's efforts on freight haulage, and I assume they wish to use weekends for maintenance.

37609 + 20307 at Wembley 5/8/00

20307 + 37609 at Nuneaton 5/8/00

The locos performed without fault - the same could not be said for the stock! Apparently someone had forgotten to release the handbrake on the generator coach, which was duly dragged from it's carrage shed screaming in pain! This episode resulted in some nasty wheel flats, and the verhicle had to be abandoned on the way to Ipswich (fortunately it was at the rear of the train!). Some poor signalling cost time on the return journey (we were actually *early* at Milton Keynes!) and we arrived at Nuneaton some 15 minutes down (having hung around Rugby for 10 mins). A great day out was had by all.

The Photos

All photos taken on 5/8/00 by Dave Denham at Old Oak Common

Click on image to enlarge. More photos will be posted in the future....