The loss of traditional Scottish Region ‘V1’ and ‘V3’ work to the rise of the diesel-multiple-unit and Glasgow ‘Blue Train’ resulted in a short period of far more variety for these classes, both in terms of work and the spread of the fleet, but as David Anderson and Andrew Kennedy explain, all this ceased on 29 December 1962.
At the turn of 1957 the Scottish Region’s Gresley 2-6-2T fleet was busily going about its everyday business of hauling medium distance stopping passenger services in the central belt of Scotland. As already covered in our ‘Scotland’s Gresley 2-6-2Ts – the prime years’ article (Steam Days, April 2023), the local fleet was built with such work in mind and the spread of the allocation was from Stirling and Dunfermline in the north, to Haymarket and St Margaret’s in Edinburgh, Hawick to the south, and Kipps, Eastfield and Parkhead were the main sheds for Glasgow, but with Balloch and Helensburgh enjoying a ‘V1’ and ‘V3’ presence as sub-sheds at west end termini of the core commuter service.
It is not the intention to overly depict the long-established work in photographic form here but instead to concentrate on the changing times for the classes in the lead up to, and once they have been affected by, modernisation of core services in Edinburgh and Glasgow, as well as the work to and from these cities, and thus instead look at the duties of the usurped/cascaded locomotives. That said, there are always some oddities which, if photographed, are too int
