Wot - no wires!

[Tony]

Looking like it is managing to pull a train with no overhead wires, here is an 86/2 on the back of a diverted Birmingham-Euston service running 'wrong line' so it can take the Nuneaton branch at Water Orton

http://wmbusphotos.com/Trains/class86/862unknown.html

[Justin Tyme]

I like it!

Around 1979 I did a Sunday morning New Street - Coventry trip this way, thanks to engineering works on the direct line.  A class 47 hauled a class 86-headed train to Nuneaton, where I had to change onto a DMU for Coventry.

I enjoyed this for two reasons: (1) I did it all quite legitimately using a WMPTE Travelcard - it was the official diversion that morning - and (2) there wasn't a passenger service on the Nuneaton - Coventry line at the time.  IIRC the DMU had to reverse onto a parallel line before we could get into Coventry Station.

This arrangement didn't last long.  A few weeks later, when I next travelled to Coventry on a Sunday morning, the diversion meant an EMU to Birmingham International and then a WMPTE (Coventry) Fleetline or Metrobus to Coventry Station.  That was a good blast along the Meriden by-pass but not as "exotic" as via Nuneaton!