In March I decided to spend a day in Birmingham and sample briefly the former Midland line to Bristol. 6018 King Henry VI got me to Snow Hill on the 8.30am Paddington–Wolverhampton, running non-stop to Birmingham in 124 minutes (113 minutes net) — four minutes late, after signals forced us through the platform lines at Beaconsfield and High Wycombe and a prolonged p-way check to walking pace at Aynho Junction; we attained no higher speed than 78mph anywhere but managed 53 at Saunderton and 50 minimum at Hatton.
I walked across the city to New Street and caught a Bradford–Bristol train leaving Birmingham at 11.24 with Bristol Barrow Road ‘Jubilee’ 45662 Kempenfelt. With a light load of eight coaches (270 tons gross) the rather dirty ‘Jubilee’, unchecked, just made the scheduled 54 minutes to Cheltenham, a very slow start being offset by sustained running in the high 70s after Abbotswood Junction, with a maximum of 80 at Depford. With a quick change at Cheltenham I was able to sample the northbound ‘Devonian’, with No 45576 Bombay of Sheffield Millhouses on nine coaches (315 tons gross). We left two minutes late, and Bombay failed to distinguish itself, with no speed higher than 65mph. We were banked up the Lickey Incline by a pair of Hawksworth panniers, 8403 and 8405, accelerating to 25mph while the ‘Jubilee’ took a breather. On arrival at New Street we were four minutes late after a check through the tunnels, but we had barely held schedule even on net time. Then it was back across the city to catch the two-hour 4.45pm Birmingham–Paddington with 6027 King Richard I, which would have run in on time but for a signal stop for half a minute outside Paddington station. It was a good steady run, with nothing spectacular, but efficient enough, in 112 minutes net.
It was now time to do some revision during the Easter vacation, because my Finals would start in May. Have all my trips between Woking and Waterloo reading poetry and plays paid off? Have my Arthurian knights helped? Will ‘Sir Harry le Fise Lake’ (or ‘Erec fils du roi lac’, as he was known in the Breton/German epic) feature? However, right in the middle of the exams I braced myself to take a day off. On 14 May I joined an Ian Allan special, the ‘Severn & Wessex Express’, at Paddington, starting behind 6000 King George V. The load was just seven coaches, and the ‘King’ massacred the schedule, arriving at Severn Tunnel Junction more than twenty minutes early, in 116 minutes (103 minutes net) for the 123 miles, the high-spots being 82 on the level at Maidenhead, 87 at Cholsey, 87 at Little Somerford, a minimum of 76 at Badminton Summit and another 80+ down through Winterbourne. We coasted through the Severn Tunnel, still doing 54 as we emerged, before an unsurprising signal stop outside the station. Ex-works Churchward Mogul 6384 took us to Bath Green Park via the other Severn Bridge at Sharpness, but a Somerset & Dorset 2-8-0, 53807, struggled, stalling on the climb to Masbury Summit, stopping at Chilcompton to raise steam and finally clambering over the top at 14mph, arriving at Evercreech Junction eighteen minutes late. We recovered five minutes at this stop and managed to lose no more time to Bournemouth West, whence 35008 Orient Line made an easy run to Waterloo, with nothing over 80mph, arriving a minute early.
Despite this indulgence my revision and my mediaeval Arthurian studies paid off — nothing too distinguished, but I got my 2.2 and graduated at the Albert Hall with 1,400 other successful students, filing in line to touch (not squeeze!) the proffered hand of the Chancellor, the Queen Mother. Finals were over, a letter had been received from the MoD indicating the end of National Service (which I’d framed and hung on my bedroom wall), and I was in negotiation with BR (Western Region) to start work at Paddington Passenger Train Office in August, pending an application to become a Traffic Apprentice (Management Trainee) the following year. In other words, at least until the results of my degree examinations were received, all was well in my world.
There were the more conventional celebrations with colleagues in UCL’s German Department, but I owed myself some relaxation and decided to purchase a weekly season from Paddington to Reading again, to see if I would fare any better than the previous year and to fill the gaps of Western locomotives behind which I’d travelled. So it was ‘Nelson’ time once more via the 7.51 Woking–Waterloo (they had a few more months — not many — before withdrawal), and I was at Paddington in time to buy my ticket and find I had a choice between the 8.55 to South Wales and the 9.5am to Bristol. Both locos were normally attached in good time, and they ran from adjacent platforms, so I could reflect on my choice. On Monday 20 June 1960 I rejected the Landore ‘Castle’ on the 8.55 in favour of a Penzance ‘County’, no less, on the 9.5 — 1008 County of Cardigan, with eleven coaches (378/405 tons). At least this year there were no engineering speed restrictions on the down line, although on the Monday and Tuesday there was a 15mph temporary speed restriction on the up fast at Iver after re-laying over the previous weekend. However, we got no further than Old Oak Common West before we were checked to 25mph, and with no higher speed than 64 between Slough and Maidenhead and a dead stand for signals at Ruscombe sidings, resulting in an eight min-late arrival at Reading, the omens were not good.
The Weymouth express due Paddington at 11.15am duly arrived on time with Westbury’s 5974 Wallsworth Hall on eight coaches (264/285 tons) and started vigorously, although the engine began to prime. It was in good nick, however, and flew, hitting a maximum of 76mph before Slough and then a resounding 80 at Ealing and 81 at Acton, after the Iver p-way check. Unfortunately a two-minute stop outside the terminus made us a minute late in, but net net time was a praiseworthy 36 minutes. The 11.30am Paddington–Plymouth was one of the few West of England diagrams still booked for steam haulage, and an Old Oak ‘King’ seemed to be alternating with the two ‘Kings’ (6002 and 6016) remaining at Laira. 6002 King William IV was in charge that Monday on nine coaches (312/325 tons) and ran very steadily, with a top speed of 70mph and a signal check (outside Reading) to walking pace, which failed to prevent a punctual arrival.
Another Weymouth express due Paddington at 1.15pm was now booked for a Reading ‘Castle’ and duly appeared behind double-chimney 4074 Caldicot Castle. This engine, together with 4073, had been slated for withdrawal in 1955, but here it was fitted with all ‘mod cons’ and still going strong. It arrived at Reading three minutes early with eight coaches plus three bogie vans (366/390 tons) and reached 74mph before being checked at Slough in advance of the Iver p-way slowing. A speed of 64 was again reached at Hanwell, but signal checks from Westbourne Park made us a disappointing ten minutes late into Paddington.
After a couple of steady runs with ‘Castles’ I decided to see if the 5.5pm Paddington–Weston-super-Mare was any better this year than last and found 6019 King Henry V once again in charge. The load was a modest ten coaches (342/370 tons), and we started reasonably enough, achieving 63 by Southall; however, we were checked by signals at Hayes, and all went horribly wrong thereafter; the recovery was almost non-existent, culminating in a six-minute stop just after Slough to raise steam and a further ten-minute stand at Ruscombe sidings for a similar purpose. We eventually dragged our way forty minutes late into Reading, where 6019 was removed and replaced by Reading’s down-line pilot.
On the Tuesday I discovered a ‘fun’ train. The 2.55pm Paddington–Swansea, with a Gloucester portion, was booked for the rostered Landore engine to be double-headed by the Swindon loco off the 10.30am arrival. On this occasion it was 5080 Defiant with 5000 Launceston Castle, and the two romped away with the heavy, thirteen-coach train (458/480 tons), passing Southall in 11 minutes 49 seconds and arriving at a dead stand in Reading in 37 minutes, after 70-72 all the way from Hayes to Twyford. On the whole I did not suffer many really bad runs or failures, notwithstanding 6019’s spectacular collapse the previous day, but I didn’t do too well on Tuesday afternoon. The 12.30 Cardiff (3.10pm arrival in London) was announced as ten minutes late at Reading and ran in fourteen minutes late behind Old Oak’s No 5093 Upton Castle, which looked to be in difficulty: it was emitting dirty brown smoke, and the blower appeared to be on as it arrived. The tender was full of the ovoids heartily detested by most crews, and w
e struggled up to 60 at Ruscombe before being brought to a complete stand for three minutes before Slough. This finished us off; the ‘Castle’ was clearly in dire trouble for steam thereafter, just making 50mph at Ealing, and we were thirty minutes late into the terminus. The driver said that, in addition to the poor coal, the boiler tubes were overdue for cleaning.
6002 King William IV accelerates through Reading’s middle road with an up West of England express in June 1960.
5003 Lulworth Castle ready to depart Paddington on the 9.5am to Bristol, 22 June 1960.
On my next ‘up’ opportunity a very late-running train from the West of England appeared around the Reading West curve headed by a ‘Warship’ diesel-hydraulic, with, intriguingly, a steam locomotive coupled inside. It drew to a stand in the up main platform, and I dithered for some time as to whether I should join D832 Onslaught and the Taunton standby pilot, 4904 Binnegar Hall. Curiosity got the better of me, and I embarked for the experience. It being mid-June, the inability of the diesel to provide steam heating was clearly not the reason for 4904’s presence, and it quickly became apparent that the well-groomed ‘Hall’ had been added at Taunton because one of D832’s engines had failed. The ‘Hall’ gave vigorous assistance in accelerating the heavy (twelve-coach) train to the low 70s by Ruscombe sidings and then eased, allowing Onslaught’s sole functioning engine to maintain this speed until the Iver 40mph slack, when the ‘Hall’ exhibited more energy until 70mph was again reached. Signal checks into the terminus turned an already very late train into a forty min-late arrival, the net time being about 38 minutes.
One of the fastest runs of the week was on Thursday 23 June on the 11.30am West of England train, which produced an 81A ‘Castle’ rather than the booked ‘King’. No 5065 Newport Castle, looking in good condition, had a light, eight-coach load (266/290 tons), and a very fast run followed, with 80mph reached by Slough and a top speed of 82 at Ruscombe. Unchecked, we drew to a stand exactly 36 minutes after leaving London — 4 minutes early. The driver was an Old Oak man I knew — Driver Beak.
Next day I again caught the 11.30 West of England train, which had a burnished Old Oak ‘King’, 6025 King Henry III, and an easy, nine-coach load (312/330 tons). We started with great energy but caught out the signalman at Southall, who had allowed a tardy freight to cross our path into the sidings at Hayes, and ground to a halt there for four minutes. Once we got the road the driver really pushed the ‘King’, and we roared through Slough at a full 80mph, reaching a maximum of 83 between Maidenhead and Twyford. Although we took 47 minutes, dropping seven minutes, our net time was only 36 minutes — identical to that set by 5065 the day before.
Now for the week’s tour de force. There was a Fridays-only Bristol–Paddington train, due to reach its destination at 5.43pm. This arrived at Reading just over three minutes late, Old Oak rebuilt ‘Star’ 5087 Tintern Abbey being in charge of a very heavy load — a packed thirteen coaches (451/505 tons). My experience so far had been that ‘Castles’ ran exceedingly well with up to ten coaches but that twelve-thirteen coaches taxed them on the level, and speeds higher than the upper 60s with this load on the Reading–Paddington section were rare. This ‘Castle’ made mincemeat of that notion. A comparatively slow start to Twyford (although we’d reached 62mph by then) was followed by a steady, roaring acceleration to 77mph by Maidenhead and 81 by Slough and subsequent running between 78 and 80 all the way to Acton. An unusually clear road into Paddington meant that, having left Reading late, we drew to a triumphant stand three minutes early, in 37 minutes start-to-stop. It rounded off a very satisfactory day.
I was going to have a hard job to repeat that success on the following day, a summer Saturday (25 June). The 9.5am to Weston-super-Mare had fourteen coaches (480/525 tons) and Old Oak ‘King’ 6010 King Charles I, which ran unchecked to Reading in 42 minutes, with nothing higher than 68mph (just before Slough). However, this was sufficient for timekeeping on the Saturday schedule. I returned with the Westbury ‘Hall’ turn on the up Weymouth, which arrived at Reading punctually behind a ‘Modified Hall’, Westbury’s 7917 North Aston Hall. The load was nine coaches (304/325 tons), and the locomotive accelerated vigorously, sustaining 80mph on the level between Maidenhead and Slough, then easing to avoid getting too far ahead of time but still running in the low 70s until the inevitable signal checks between Acton and Paddington, but we still managed an on-time arrival (net time 36½ minutes). A long delay in the afternoon, exacerbated when, eventually, a run-down Canton ‘Hall’ turned up instead of the booked ‘Britannia’, was followed by a vigorous evening run behind a ‘County’ (1009) on the up ‘Merchant Venturer’, which brought my week to a close.
Full details of the entire week’s running are given below.
Record of runs from Paddington to Reading, 20-25 June 1960
Record of runs from Reading to Paddington, 20-25 June 1960
Landore’s 5004 Llanstephan Castle at the buffer stops of Paddington’s No.10 platform with an arrival from West Wales during the author’s weekly season ticket escapade, June 1960
5023 Brecon Castle enters Paddington with a local train from Oxford and Reading, 12 February 1958.
Thus ended my second week. So how did it compare with the previous year? For a start, general punctuality was much improved. There were no engineering works on the down line, and the re-laying check on the up at Iver was eased mid-week and lifted towards the end. There were some excellent performances, especially from ‘King’ 6025, ‘Castles’ 4076, 5000, 5003, 5023, 5065, 5081 and 5087, ‘Halls’ 5974 and 7917 and ‘County’ 1009. There were three instances of real locomotive problems (6019, which was a failure, D832 and 5093) and one where there had been presumably a failure earlier, necessitating a replacement (6943). Of the other thirty-six runs timed, nineteen were on time or early, and a further nine recovered time from late starts or tried desperately hard to regain time or minimise the impact of delays. That leaves eight runs on which time was lost by signal or p-way checks without any real attempt to recover time. Over the two weeks in the two years I had five ‘Kings’ (6002, 6010, 6019 [three times], 6025 and 6028), fifty-five ‘Castles’ (4074, 4076, 4078, 4082, 4085, 4088, 4089, 4093, 4094, 4097, 4099, 5000 [twice], 5003, 5007, 5008, 5009 [twice], 5014, 5016, 5018, 5023, 5028, 5030, 5034, 5035, 5036, 5037, 5042 [twice], 5044, 5052, 5056, 5057, 5058, 5062 [twice], 5064, 5065, 5068, 5073, 5078, 5080 [twice], 5081, 5082, 5085, 5087, 5090, 5091, 5093, 5094, 7000, 7002, 7006, 7007, 7008, 7009, 7016, 7022), four ‘Counties’ (1008, 1009, 1012, 1019), two ‘Britannias’ (70024, 70029), ten ‘Halls’ (4904, 5958 [twice], 5964, 5974, 6920, 6943, 6955, 6960, 7914, 7917) and two ‘Warships’ (D804, D832). This demonstrates the dominance of ‘Castles’ on all bar the diesel-hauled West of England trains passing through Reading, the Wolverhampton route being at this time the main stronghold of the Stafford Road and Old Oak ‘Kings’.
Chapter 12
Working for British Railways, the first year
‘43xx’ Mogul 5369 leaves Barmouth for Dolgelly and Ruabon in July 1960.
After a hectic week using my Paddington–Reading season ticket to the maximum I gave myself a fortnight’s break from trains before my annual holiday at one of the Methodist Guild resorts much frequented by teenagers and students from the Methodist Association of Youth Clubs, a youth organisation that had more than 50,000 members in the 1950s and ’60s. That year, 1960, I’d chosen the Barmouth centre and travelled down from London on 16 July on the heavy, thirteen-coach 9.10am Paddington–Wolverhampton with 6024 King Edward I of Old Oak, which ran well, early at all calling-points, the highlights with this load being the 53mph minimum at Saunderton Summit and 41mph at Hatton, although there was nothing over 77mph.
We arrived nearly two minutes early at Snow Hill, where I alighted to see what was of interest, as I had all day to get to Barmouth. There was a Tyseley ‘Manor’, 7824 Iford Manor, on a relief train to Aberystwyth, so I took that to Wolverhampton and then decided to await the ‘Cambrian Coast Express’, which arrived twe
nty-three minutes late behind 6000 King George V. Two locos then backed onto the thirteen-coach, 500-ton-gross train — 7811 Dunley Manor, of Shrewsbury depot, and Churchward Mogul No 6340, of Stourbridge Junction. A bright start, passing Albrighton at 73mph, was then spoiled by continuous signal checks behind a local DMU and a p-way slack to 15mph at Shifnal before we recovered to 38mph at Hollinswood Sidings ’box; then more signal checks made us forty-six minutes late as we took the southern leg of the triangle avoiding Shrewsbury station and made for Welshpool. Running in the mid-50s between slowings to get the single-line token recovered some time, and we were only thirty-five minutes late when we arrived at Welshpool and exchanged our pair for Machynlleth’s resplendent 7818 Granville Manor and the same depot’s ‘Standard 4’ No 75026, with which we touched 65mph descending Talerddig Bank, and, despite more signal stops, as we were way out of our path, we arrived just thirty-two late at Machynlleth, whence 7818 went off to Aberystwyth, leaving the Standard to take our six coaches to Barmouth, where we arrived forty-three minutes late.
The fortnight was spent on a challenging hike to the top of Cader Idris and easier walks along the Mawddach estuary, with me ‘escaping’ to Aberystwyth and the Vale of Rheidol — runs with ‘Manors’ 7807, 7817 and 7822, Moguls 5369, 6333 and 6371 and 0-6-0 2217, plus VoR Nos. 8 and 9. I had to suffer some mild teasing that I preferred the company of steam engines to that of the many teenage girls staying at the house, although I believe I balanced it fairly well! One evening I thought I’d managed to catch one of the last ‘Dukedogs’ as I spied 9014 and 5399 crossing Barmouth Bridge, and I ran to the station and bought a ticket to Harlech only to find that the pair had unhooked and been replaced by a couple of ‘78xxx’ Standard Class 2 2-6-0s.
A Privileged Journey Page 16
