Lostock drags - 1986

If the West Coast Main line was blocked north of Wigan and south of Euxton Junction (near Preston) diversions via Lostock Junction, on the Manchester Victoria - Preston via Bolton route could come into effect. With northbound services, upon arrival at Wigan, a draw back loco would be attached at what had been the rear of the train, which would haul the service over to Lostock with the train loco still on the rear. Upon arrival at Lostock, the draw back loco would be detached and the original train loco would continue north. If southbound services were also effected, the process would be reversed, the drawback loco added at the rear of the service at Lostock to work forward to Wigan with the main loco on the rear to Wigan, before continuing south from there.

During the summer of 1986, on Sundays, there was three northbound services, all booked to be diverted via Lostock and those were, in order of departure from Wigan, at 1010 1P08, 1P14 at 1024 and then at 1130 would be 1P06. 1P08 was the 0922 Liverpool Lime Street - Preston, which was a portion for 1S41 1005 Manchester Victoria - Edinburgh Waverley. Second up, 1P14 which was a 0900 Crewe - Blackpool North, which would start back from Stoke-on-Trent each week from 22 June, while the third turn, 1P08, was the 0822 Birmingham New Street - Blackpool North. All three of these trains were booked, and usually got, a Class 47/4, while the two drawback turns were each booked for 2x Class 20's, one pair to work 1P08 to Lostock, then return light to Wigan to pick up 1P06, the second pair to work 1P14 only to Lostock.

For all currently known details of the locos that worked these trains, visit the RailGenArchive website. Enter the site, then select the date search option, enter a date, such as 18-05-1986, the first Sunday of Lostock drags, select a data filter to see a single class (or leave it with the default 'All' to see everything), then enter or click the GO button. After that, you can use the +7 and -7 day buttons to loop through Sunday's during 1986.

There are some conflicting details currently showing on the RailGenArchive, this due to conflicting reports received (especially re the Lostock drags for Sundays 29th June, 13th & 20th July), so any help resolving these, to either confirm or refute anything shown anywhere on the site is always very welcome. We can be contacted either using the comments box below or via the Contact Us page on the main site either via email or the contact form provided.

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