Waverley Route workings at Carlisle

Sir: I refer to Chris Forrest’s letter in the July 2021 issue of Steam Days. LNER carriage working books for October 1941, May 1945 and the early BR era (summers of 1948 and 1952) show that the empty stock of the mid-day Saturdays-only passenger train from Hawick to Carlisle was worked forward to London Road, returning later in the day to form an evening service to Hawick. In addition, the last daytime Edinburgh-Carlisle service, which formed the following day’s morning service to Edinburgh, stabled overnight at London Road. An extract from the November 1947 Sectional Appendix (below right) shows that the LNER had two headcodes for use with empty stock trains. That shown in Diagram 3 was used for ‘Empty Coaching Stock trains going to work excursion, ordinary or additional passenger trains’ whilst that in Diagram 4 was used for ‘Empty Coaching Stock trains, other than as shown in Diagram 3’. As the stock of the incoming train from Hawick was working empty to the carriage sidings, the arrangement in Diagram 4 would have been the correct headcode. Presumably, when returning later in the day to form the return service to Hawick, the arrangement in Diagram 3 would have been displayed. Given that all of the carriage workings listed above show the train to be formed of non-corridor stock, I would suggest that the photograph on page 19 of the April issue does not depict this train. Furthermore, in March, the evening service from Edinburgh did not arrive in Carlisle until well after dark, perhaps Carlisle Canal has borrowed Redgauntlet to remove the empty stock of an incoming service from Newcastle. Sentinel railcar Retaliator was allocated to Stirling from August 1941 until condemned in May 1946. The former Forth & Clyde shed at Stirling was the maintenance base for the Scottish area railcars between visits to the main works. There was always at least one car available for release to other depots for maintenance cover. The May 1945 carriage working book shows that railcars were still working on the Langholm branch, so perhaps Retaliator had been loaned to Carlisle Canal (a ‘Scottish’ Area shed) to enable maintenance of one of their own cars. Brian McDevitt Rosyth, Fife