[Source: Nick Catford] Fawley Station Gallery 5: 25 April 1976 - May 1978 25.jpg) Fawley looking north-east towards tank 224 of the refinery and Southampton Water, left background, from the approach road on 25 April 1976. Class 33 No.33103 waits to depart with the 'Royal Wessex' railtour. The area beyond the gates was the goods yard and the station building is to the right, out of view. British Rail was very good with railtours and seldom did excuses not to run them crop up, unlike today. In 1976 health and safety paranoia was yet to appear and BR was reasonably tolerant of railtour passengers wandering around areas not otherwise available to the public, as the various photographs of railtours at Fawley show. No doubt the Ford Cortina Mk1 was keeping an eye on things.
Photo by David Burrows from his Flickr photostream 50.jpg) Fawley signal box in 1977.The box closed 9 July 1978 and was replaced by a ground frame hut of some sort which is still in use. Frost Lane box closed 1 March 1981 which left just Marchwood as an intermediate box. The token issued at Totton until 1982 would be for the Totton - Marchwood section and there would have been a separate token for Marchwood to Fawley and this is still the arrangement.
Photo by John Hinson 26.jpg)
Rakes of tank wagons in the sidings beyond Fawley station, photographed on 23 April 1978. This area covers only a small part of the refinery site and the number of wagons visible gives an idea of the volume of rail traffic once handled. Railway tank wagons (‘tanks’) for the oil industry were, and still are, owned by the oil companies, which in the case of Fawley was Esso, and consequently were not nationalised in 1948. The newly-former British Railways found itself with thousands of private owner wagons, many of which were ancient and not in the best of condition, among which were tanks restricted to a mean speed of 35mph and requiring stops for checks (for hot axleboxes etc) every 40 miles. The 1955 Modernisation Plan envisaged a speeding-up of freight services and around the same time, coincidentally or otherwise, Esso requested new tanks to the same end. The result was 15ft-wheelbase tanks with roller bearing axleboxes, vacuum brakes, 45mph capability and requiring far fewer stops for checks. These tanks were identified by two large stars and two such tanks can be seen on the left of this view. As would be expected with volatile liquids, things were by no means as simple as the aforementioned and there were numerous variations of loading and discharging arrangements, heating (via a shore supply) to aid discharge of more viscous cargo. Some tanks could carry any oil with the exception of petrol while others were for one specific type of oil or spirit. In the case of the latter, a 'Hazchem' label of the type familiar on road tankers would be carried, such as 3YE 1270 with the first part denoting how to deal with fire or spillage and the second denoting the oil or spirit carried. Hazchem labels are present on the two tanks on the left but are unreadable. Indeed, Hazchem labels will be present on all tanks seen here. Tanks described and seen here will be mainly Class B types, which did require barrier vehicles unlike Class A types which did. Many of these 4-wheel tanks were ultimately superseded by bogie 100-tonne types, examples of which can be seen in later photographs of Fawley.
Photo by Ian Nolan from his Flickr photostream 27.jpg)
A group of rather serious-looking railtour participants, complete with period clothing and hobby necessities, on the platform at Fawley on 23 April 1978. Organised by the now-somewhat-obscure British Young Travellers’ Society, who had organised an earlier railtour taking in Fawley in 1966, the event was not so much a railtour by two Totton - Fawley - Totton shuttles to mark the passing of Fawley station from BR to Esso, in other words the point at which the station became part of the refinery complex. Two Class 3H DEMUs, 1128 and 1131, provided the shuttles coupled together. The front of the power car of unit 1131 can be seen on the right. A number of tanks and a van can be seen in the goods yard on the left. The van is interesting for it is a long wheelbase 4-wheel Ferry Van (sometimes known as Ferry Wagon) which, as the name suggests, ran between the UK and Europe via the Dover - Dunkerque and Harwich - Zeebrugge train ferries. By necessity they were thus a mix of UK and continental practice. The UK's last train ferry, that to Dunkerque, ceased operation in 1994 owing to the opening of the Channel Tunnel. Even prior to 1994 a handful of Ferry Vans had been demoted to barrier wagon status and this may have been the reason for the presence of the van at Fawley. Under magnification the van bears the BR double-arrow logo and some lettering on the central sliding door but it is in very shabby condition. Sadly, and with a degree of irony, as of 2016 the Channel Tunnel is seeing - lorry shuttles excepted - virtually no, if any, rail freight.
Photo by Ian Nolan from his Flickr photostream 28.jpg) An elevated view of the British Young Travellers’ Society shuttle train at Fawley on 23 April 1978. DEMU No.1131 carries a 'Fawley Flyer' headboard. Visible is the cooler group side of the DEMU power car. In the background can be seen an Austin Maxi, left, and nearest the platform is what appears to be a Chrysler Alpine with a Vauxhall Viva estate adjacent to it.
Photo by Ian Nolan from his Flickr photostream 29.jpg)
A track-level view of the British Young Travellers’ Society shuttle train at Fawley on 23 April 1978 with one of the spurs into the refinery at far left. Note that the dilapidated hut which had stood on the patch of land in the centre of this view has now disappeared. This view provides an opportunity to describe further features of the 'Hampshire' DEMUs. Above the left-hand buffer is the unit type code '3H' and to its right the cast metal plate giving details of dimensions, weight etc., of this particular car, the driving motor. At extreme right and partly obscured by the jumper cables is the code for Eastleigh, 'ELGH'. The jumper cables provided air and electrical connections for multiple working. The black triangle indicated to staff at which end of the unit the brake compartment was located. This was useful at stations when staff had items, parcels etc., to load or unload for they could position themselves in the correct place on the platform as soon as the train approached. In the days before yellow warning panels, some units carried a large orange-coloured 'V' in this position. Twin air horns can be seen on the cab roof. The headcode is something of a puzzle. The Fawley branch was allocated several two-character codes according to where a train was coming from or going to; for example to/from Southampton Terminus or Central, Portsmouth & Southsea, Eastleigh. There was also a code allocated to Alton - Fawley for some obscure reason. Code 99 was once Brighton - Bristol Temple Meads via Southampton and Salisbury. It was also used for Woking - Staines empty stock workings. However, the same code could and was used by the various divisions of the Southern Region where so-coded routes of one division did not overlap those of another and some of these codes were altered from time to time according to changes in service patterns. Given these complications it is difficult to say to what '99' referred in 1978 but we are probably safe in assuming it was the South Western Division's code for special workings. The power car, seen here, of unit 1131 was No.S60149 and this car went on to become part of Sandite/De-icing unit 930301. It was last heard of, in 2016, dumped out of use at St Leonards depot.
Photo
by Ian Nolan from his Flickr photostream
30.jpg)
Yet another view of the British Young Travellers’ Society shuttle train at Fawley on 23 April 1978 with one of the spurs into the refinery curving away to the left. As mentioned elsewhere, the 4-cylinder engines of the Southern Region's DEMU sets when in 3-car form were rather underpowered at 500hp. They were later uprated to 600hp by the fitting of new Napier turbocharges and this went some way towards solving the problem. BR, with its 1955 Modernisation Plan, was either too conservative in, or simply incapable of determining, power requirements and this became clear with the early and rather feeble Type 2 diesel locomotives as well as the various types of multiple unit. On the Alton - Winchester (Mid Hants) line, for example, gradients dictated, usually, the use of 2-car 2H DEMUs. However, on the final day of Mid Hants line services, 4 February 1973, 3H units 1122 and 1131, the latter seen here at Fawley, were in charge. Unit 1131 operated the final down service while the other had been taken off and replaced by Class 33 No.6511 and 4TC set No.406, which ensemble operated the final up service.
Photo by Ian Nolan from his Flickr photostream 34.jpg)
The platform side of Fawley station building on the occasion of the British Young Travellers’ Society shuttle trains, 23 April 1978. Note the partially obscured BR employee, centre, wearing the uniform of the period.
Photo by Ian Nolan from his Flickr photostream 35.jpg) A track-level view of the British Young Travellers’ Society shuttle train at Fawley on 23 April 1978 with one of the spurs into the refinery at far left. The shortage of people wandering about on the track may suggest that the train is about to depart.
Photo by Ian Nolan from his Flickr photostream 33.jpg)
A pleasant colour view of some of Fawley Refinery's storage tanks on 23 April 1978 seen from across the railway station. At the platform is the British Young Travellers’ Society shuttle train formed of DEMUs 1131, left, and 1128, right. Despite the Society name, the travellers clearly included people of all age groups, but presumably the shuttles were not restricted to Society members and others took the opportunity for a trip on the line. The 6-car train made two round trips.
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by Ian Nolan from his Flickr photostream
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Fawley station looking north-west in May 1978 shortly before boundary changes brought the station and access road within the refinery with no further public access to the site after that date.
Photo by Alan Young 47.jpg) Fawley station and signal box in May 1978. The box closed 9 July 1978 and was probably quickly demolished.Photo by Alan Young Click here for Fawley Station Gallery 6:
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