Cambridge University Railway Club

Our ever observant source details the latest comings and goings around the CU shed

As the first warm rains of Summer fall over 31A, it is again time to look at the changes at the CU shed. Undergoing F-exams at the moment are 46134 "The Cheshire Regiment", Director Class "McAllister", County Class 1000 "County of Middlesex" and Jubilee Class 45743 "Ulysses". There may be a possibility of the latter two locomotives remaining at the CU shed for some time.

"The Cheshire Regiment" is to be lent to the "Old Worse and Worse" for Route learning purposes, and might therefore be seen in the OU shed next year, despite still being allocated to JE duties. Sightings of visitors in the OU Shed are not uncommon however, as recently 47672 "Strathisla" was seen there, prior to hauling a "distressed" OURS tour North of the Border.

As much as he likes the Travelling Post Offices, your correspondent does not receive all his news by rail - an exciting snippet recently arrived by "Hillman Imp". It concerned Lord Nelson Class 30854 "Andrew of Effingham", seen on a Heathrow Express 'trial' service behind an American OJ class locomotive.

The noise of CU locomotives often carries far - especially in the case of West Country class 34092 "City of Wells" which featured briefly on local radio last term. This was part of a response to a study comparing 'Spotters' to 'Super Models'. However I think that loco owes more to Hornby than Claudia Schiffer!

Meanwhile, despite minor service disruptions, such as finding 'The Wrong sort of Pub' in Meldreth, the regulars have been steaming away. Of note here is B17 "Sunderland" which is returning to S-Class duties. Also to be noted is the retiral from main-line duties of the GER paper-fired (double-lagged) loco "Swaffham". This however has not yet prevented this loco from being first with the news.

Finally, some more news about the problems I reported with the phone number - apparently they were all due to the cold weather we were having, so they've sent it away to put some Heat-on. All these problems were sending me over the hump, so instead I've started writing the life story of one of my ancestors - "Eddie 'The Eagle' Hill", who first started work on the railways on 08/7/11.

Until next time,

Neville.