Gronk Geek: March 2018

Allerton TMD in South Liverpool was always considered a Shunter specialist site. Often having dozens on site at any one time. Indeed visits in the 1980's and 1990's would guarantee large numbers of Class 08 (and to a lesser extent Class 09) being on the depot in varying states. Under BR control, Allerton serviced the requirements for the Liverpool area for freight and station pilot duties. The sphere of operation even extended in to Cheshire with Allerton Gronks being deployed to locations such as Ditton, Runcorn and Widnes.

By the time sectorisation came around, large numbers of British Railways Standard Diesel Electric Shunter were still in existence, although their duties had already started to dwindle down in number. RFD inherited Allerton and continued to invest in the Shunter fleet. Eventually, RFD was purchased by EWS, subsequently the final part of BR to be sold off. EWS continued to concentrate Shunter repair work for the North on Allerton. With the recoding of locomotive Pools, the EWS Shunter fleet for the North West was allocated 'on paper' to Allerton. Pool code WSNW was born. In theory what this meant was that Allerton was the home base of the fleet, but Shunters out based at Carlisle or Crewe for example would still see basic maintenance undertaken locally, with visits 'Home' only for major exams/repairs. Rail Express Magazine kindly provided a spotlight on the various EWS Shunter pools in 2001 and the WSNW pool in particular in their August 2001 issue. Please see below the dispensation of the Allerton fleet in July 2001 updated with todays state of play.

Loco	Rail Express August 2001 location	Current Fate	Location as of March 2018	Notes
08397	Crewe Diesel	Scrapped	N/A
08460	Halewood	Owned by RSS	Axiom Rail, Stoke	On hire to DB Cargo UK
08485	Trafford Park	Owned by WCRC	Carnforth
08561	Trafford Park	Scrapped	N/A
08578	Earles Sidings	Owned By HNRC	Long Marston	Stored pending developments
08599	Immingham TMD	Scrapped	N/A
08632	Crewe Diesel	Owned by RSS	Leeds Neville Hill
08701	Warrington Arpley	Owned By HNRC	Long Marston	Stored pending developments
08703	Warrington Arpley	Owned by RSS	Wigan Springs Branch	On hire to DB Cargo UK
08709	Carlisle	Owned by RSS	Goodmans, Wishaw	Stored pending developments
08737	Warrington Arpley	Owned by LSL (Hoskins)	Crewe Diesel	Awaiting Overhaul
08738	Crewe Diesel	Owned by RSS	Goodmans, Wishaw	Under repair
08782	Castleton	Owned By HNRC	Barrow Hill	Stored pending developments
08784	Warrington Arpley	Preserved at GCRN	Ruddington	Awaiting Overhaul
08802	Crewe Electric	Owned By HNRC	Goodmans, Wishaw	Stored pending developments
08866	Shotton	Scrapped	N/A
08897	Crewe Diesel	Scrapped	N/A
08909	Padeswood Hall	Scrapped	N/A
08912	Carlisle	Owned by AV Dawsons	AV Dawsons, Middlesborough	Spares Donor - Grounded
08915	Warrington Arpley	Preserved	Stephenson Railway Museum
08922	Carlisle	Preserved at GCRN	Ruddington	Under repair
08946	Allerton	Scrappped	N/A
09022	Garston Yard	Owned by Port of Boston	Port of Boston