76084 and Shedplates

Did 76084 ever run with a shed code plate other than 24D or 10H for Lower Darwen?

An original 24D shedplate

When new 76084 carried 24D 'SC'. I have seen 'SC' referred to as the 'the Scottish connection' in comments on one photo showing 2 locos with 'SC' plates. On Guard's whistles for the Scottish Region they were stamped 'BR (Sc)' so I can see some confusion coming into play but 'SC' under a shedplate meant self-cleaning and was there in the early days of the technology to inform cleaners on shed not to bother emptying the smokebox of fly-ash as there wouldn't be any there.

Here is a shed plate with 'SC'

Just as an aside here we intend fitting the screens which makes a smokebox self-cleaning to 76084 prior to her running on the mainline. This addition will drastically reduce the likelihood of lineside fires from her exhaust which seems to be a problem for Network Rail in dry spells
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Back to our main theme. 76084 went to two other North West sheds between early October 1958 and late March 1959 (totalling around 6 months) these being Lancaster Green Ayre and Skipton. We are about to share with you a photo of 76084 at Fleetwood which is far from being just another photo of a loco on shed and as such deserves to be the subject of another blog article. 76084 still carries 24D 'SC' in this 1958 photo. Moving on several years in 1966 when now at Sutton Oak, St. Helens, all her sisters from that shed had lost their 8G 'plates but 76084 still carried 10H.

When did she lose the 'SC'? Could it have been when at Lancaster (about 2 months total in 2 sessions) or Skipton (one 4 month stretch)? Did she ever run with 24J or 24G respectively? Or did the BR Midland Region management of the day plan not to take off the 24D 'plate as the periods at either shed were short or experimental?

What we do know is that eventually she wore 8G chalked or hand-painted on the smokebox before the short period at Wigan Springs Branch but never an 8G 'plate as they had all gone missing!!

Mainline Gets Closer

We launched the 'Go Mainline' Appeal on the day 76084 returned to revenue earning service on the North Norfolk Railway. That was in July 2013.

We are pleased to announce that we have raised sufficient funds to install 2 of the 3 technologies needed.

1. A Train Protection and Warning System (TPWS) is a must on today's modern national railway system. TPWS has been around since rollout in 2003 and is attributed with significantly improving railway operational safety since its full roll-out in 2003.
2. On-Board Train Monitoring and Recording (OTMR) provides a complete record of each state change of all monitored controls. Data recording takes place in a crash survivable memory module equivalent to a plane's 'Black Box', with journeys in excess of 24 hours duration easily accommodated. The data can is utilised for safety monitoring procedures and the analysis of operational performance.

Our last big push is to fund GSM-R - Global System for Mobile Communications-Railway which is an international wireless communications standard for railway communication and applications. It is used for communication between train and railway regulation control centres. The system can perform at speed without any communication loss. The train maintains a modem connection to the control centre at all times operating with higher priority than normal users. If the modem connection is lost, the train will automatically stop.

So. Please do have a look at our 'Go Mainline' Appeal page and see if there is something to sponsor that takes your fancy. Alternatively, you can donate, buy merchandise or even buy shares (joining the 76084 family).

let's get our 'Pocket Rocket' on the mainline in 2015.