Railway Herald
An unidentified Class 86 comes of the North Staffs Line at Norton Bridge on an unrecorded date in June 1983 on a Manchester Piccadilly-Birmingham New St in June 1983. The track layout has since been rationalised and the Down NS Line Loop and Crossover between Up and Down NS Lines have been eliminated.The points were at that time still operated by the Westinghouse Electro Pneumatic System which was installed in 1960 which gave trouble free service but BR replaced it with Electric Switch Locks which have given endless trouble ever since, particularly on the Swithch Diamonds seen adjacent to the loco. All will disappear when the North Staffs Diversion Scheme becomes operational in 2016.
Geoffrey Dingle
