All Change at Crewe

Crewe was a location which often required a change of motive power type during the various stages of electrification and so the northern-most platform end on the station was a particularly popular haunt for spotters throughout the early and mid-60’s, with steam, diesel and electrics all in the mix. Some of my clearest memories are of watching the remaining steam giants backing down from the direction of the old Crewe North sheds to take over northbound expresses and possibly, in the case of the Britannia Pacifics, right up until 1968.

Though our first love was steam, I think that in the overall hierarchy of our home territory on the London Midland Region it is fair to say that we also preferred diesels to electrics. We referred to the English Electric Type Fours simply as “Type Fours” to tell them apart from the Peaks and from the Hawker Siddeley Brush Type Fours, which we called Brush Type Fours.

Namers from the Type Fours and Peaks were obviously more interesting than those without, and the shipping company ocean liner plates on the former class were really quite attractive, if a bit on the small side.

Two-tone green Brush Type Four No. D1908 is at the southern end of Crewe station on 26/8/66.