Tag: Peak Rail

One This Day… In 2014, A Rarity At Peak Rail

BR Mk.1 SLF E2080-20140111 (Peak Rail)British Railways Mk.1 Sleeper First (SLF) E2080
Peak Rail, 11 January 2014

While British Railways Mk.1 passenger carriages are incredibly commonplace on heritage railways, Mk.1 sleeping carriages are definitely a rarity with (as far as I’m aware) only six still in existence.

Most were built with asbestos insulation, which was expensive to remove professionally and so were sold for scrap but a few were bought by preservation societies for use as volunteer accommodation.

E2080 was built in 1959 by Metropolitan-Cammell Carriage & Wagon Co Ltd and was preserved in 1983, initially on the Dart Valley Railway (now the South Devon Railway) before moving to target=”_blank”>Peak Rail in the late 1980s.

When I visited Peak Rail in April last year it was still undergoing restoration.

Spotted Today – D7659 (25309) at Peak Rail

Class 25 D7659-20230407 (Peak Rail)Class 25/3 D7659 (25309)
Rowsley South, Peak Rail, 7 April 2023

D7659 was the final Class 25 locomotive built by Beyer, Peacock & Co Ltd (in 1966) and had a fairly uneventful pre-preservation career.

Renumbered 25309 under British Rail’s TOPS system in April 1974 and again (to 25909) in December 1985, withdrawal beckoned in September 1986. After asbestos removal the locomotive left Vic Berry’s scrapyard in Leicester on 2 June 1988 for display at Coalville Open Day on 4 June before moving into preservation at the East Lancashire Railway (ELR).

Now owned by pop impresario Pete Waterman, D7659 is based at Peak Rail in Derbyshire and today hauled three return trips between Rowsley South and Matlock, the above pic is of the 13.00 departure from Rowsley South.