The Condor, London - Glasgow nightly fitted freight.... Options

[16A]

Anyone have any pictures? particularly interested in those of steam engines used to replace the ever troublesome Metrovic diesels assigned to this duty.

I vaguely remember seeing this express conflat train on the down line at Toton, about tea time-ish on weekdays tearing down the Erewash Valley main line, but cannot for the life of me remember what locos were being used, however, a wild guess would be black fives or jubilees, maybe even 9F's. Strangely enough I cannot ever recall seeing the Metrovics but can recall larger diesels (maybe 45's?) My memory seems to generate images of Peaks hauling this fitted freight but, as I've never had the slightest interest in diesels, can't tell one from another, is a Peak a 45? - I don't know, but do remember an occasional Peak rumbling past our office on Toton shed, shaking the place to bits something akin to an earth tremor, and the introduction of these machines ultimately bought my train spotting days to an end.

Thinking back, if the Condor was a nightly service, supposedly leaving London and/or Glasgow each night, why did I see it so often at tea time, always on the down line, some 2 hours away from London? was it early (unlikely), or late from the night before following another Metrovic failure somewhere?

One thing I can remember is the cost. A container was delivered to a customer who would load it; this was then collected and placed on a conflat; transported to London or Glasgow; then the container removed and delivered to its destination, all for the princely sum of £16 to £18 depending on what size container was used. This was for delivery to one address but, they would deliver to a maximum of three destinations for an additional -/10 (ten shillings or 50p in todays parlance) per drop.