IWAS interested to read about the North Norfolk Railway’s restoration of BRCW Class 104 driving trailer car No. M56182 and the proposed rebuild of No. 50479 (October issue).
In my younger days, I worked at Stoke Cockshute depot from 1963 to 1966. The depot was purpose-built for the maintenance of DMUs drafted in to replace steam in the area, but because of subsequent electrification it was the shortest-lived purpose-built depot built by BR, opening in 1958 but closing in 1966.
I finished my apprenticeship atW G Bagnall and had been working for nearly four years as a fitter at Stoke MPD when I had the opportunity to transfer to Cockshute, coinciding with the transfer of Crewe and Longsight’s allocation of ‘104s’there for maintenance – making the depot responsible for all 52 of the LMR’s three-car sets (with the exception of the first four units allocated to Buxton 9D, which identified them by painting the cab roofs white).