A Privileged Journey

by David Maidment

  Ten days later I went for an evening trip to Peterborough and caught the 6.12pm Leeds express behind Copley Hill ‘A1’ 60133 Pommern. We took exactly the 80 minutes scheduled, without any firworks or any undue alarms, and it was surprising not to get an ‘80’ on the East Coast racing stretch after Hitchin. At Peterborough the last up Hull turned up with Grantham double-chimney ‘A3’ 60105 Victor Wild, which gave a super run with its nine-coach, 318-ton train. A 66mph minimum at Leys Summit was followed by a rousing acceleration to 89mph on the slightly rising gradients through Biggleswade and Arlesey, a minimum of 72 at Stevenage and another 83 at Welwyn North before we caught something up and took it easy for the remainder of the run to King’s Cross, where we arrived four minutes early, in a net time of 69 minutes for the 76 miles.

  I spent my 1961 summer holiday at the Lindors Methodist Guild House near St Briavels, in late July tramping the Forest of Dean with many fellow students. I’d gone down to Gloucester on the 11.15am with a pair of ‘Halls’ to Reading, where 5987 left us, leaving 6960 Raveningham Hall (81D) to struggle to Swindon, reached seventeen minutes late. Here we dropped three coaches for Bristol and continued with nine coaches, just about maintaining the booked schedule and arriving sixteen minutes late at Gloucester, where I found a Llanelli engine, 6843 Poulton Grange, surprisingly on the local to Lydney. 6843 reappeared the following week to take me back to Gloucester, and that city’s beloved ‘Castle’, 5017 The Gloucestershire Regiment 28th 61st, took me back to London very efficiently — early at every single stop and a maximum speed 75mph at Steventon with our eleven-coach, 405-ton train.

  On 26 July I went down to Peterborough again — on the 6.26pm King’s Cross–Hull this time, behind Grantham ‘A3’ 60046 Diamond Jubilee. Speeds of 81-85mph between Hitchin and Biggleswade ensured a three min-early arrival at Huntingdon, and another 80 at Connington gave us a two min-early arrival in Peterborough. The last up Hull had another Grantham double-chimney ‘A3’, 60064 Tagalie, which, unchecked, arrived seven minutes early at King’s Cross on an easy 87-minute schedule. We displayed some energy as far as Hitchin, touching 83 at Sandy, then took it very easily, drifting to around 60-65mph the rest of the way.

  The following Saturday I decided to experiment with a day on the Great Central main line and joined the seven-coach 12.25pm Marylebone–Nottingham behind 73053 of Neasden. It was a pretty undistinguished effort, managing only the low 30s on the climb to Amersham and nothing over 68 on the rest of the journey. I gave up at Rugby, having decided to chance my arm on one of the Saturday holiday services, and picked up Darnall ‘B1’ 61138 on the Saturdays-only 10.14am Hastings–Sheffield Victoria —a well-filled eleven-coach train, 385 tons gross — which was much more enterprising and touched 75mph between the Lutterworth and Leicester stops. At Loughborough I decided to try another, similar holiday train and got another ‘B1’, 61265, on the 11.38am Brighton–Sheffield. My return, on the 5.15pm Nottingham, was with another filthy Neasden Standard, 73158, on a light (six-coach) train, which largely recovered from a ten min-late departure from Aylesbury, after various signal and p-way checks, to reach Marylebone just two minutes late.

  Being a glutton for punishment, I determined to try the Berks & Hants on a summer Saturday again, especially when I saw that one of my favourite ‘Castles’, 5008 Raglan Castle (81A), was booked to the 12.0 to Plymouth. It was a heavy, thirteen-coach train weighing 485 tons gross, and we started inauspiciously, ten minutes late. Once we got going it became clear that 5008 was in fine fettle, and we picked up a couple of minutes to Reading, managing 72 on the level through Slough, and the deficit had been reduced to six minutes by the time we passed Bedwyn, before braking at Savernake to 52mph. A p-way slack to 30mph at Lavington prevented anything above 72 there, and we caught up the Summer Saturday queue at Brewham ’box after a splendid climb (minimum 54mph). Unfortunately further signal checks meant we were twenty-five minutes late into Taunton. Rather than go through to Exeter I decided to take a very late-running Wolverhampton–Ilfracombe service, onto which backed an attractive lined-green Mogul, 6372, of Taunton. It left forty-six minutes late and recovered three minutes before Dulverton after a lively 64mph at Morebath. I had to return immediately and picked up a four-coach local with Collett 0-6-0 2240, which left Dulverton eight minutes late (awaiting 1468 on the Exe Valley train) and arrived at Taunton fifteen seconds before time, with a suprising 60mph between the Venn Cross and Wiveliscombe stops. Then it was another drab run home with No D843 Sharpshooter, which proved anything but sharp, leaving Taunton ten minutes late and arriving at Paddington thirteen late, a two-minute stand at Newbury Racecourse and a p-way slack to 25mph at Slough being the only excuses. Most of the way we were travelling at 60-65mph, and I strongly suspect we were running on one engine again.

  Yet another trip to Peterborough followed on 2 August, ‘A1’ 60118 Archibald Sturrock (56C) losing five minutes on the 80-minute schedule, with just one p-way slack to 20mph at Oakleigh Park. The return, with another double-chimney ‘A3,’ was much better. 60077 The White Knight (56C) had twelve coaches (435 tons) on a Bradford–London express and followed a late-running ‘Heart of Midlothian’ out of Peterborough. After a 20mph p-way slack at Yaxley the ‘A3’ was opened up, and, having slowed to 72mph around the Offord curve, we built up speed against the collar, hitting 82 at Biggleswade. We were then stopped and asked by the signalman to examine the down line and drew into Hitchin five minutes late in consequence. A brisk run onward to London picked up three minutes, and on arrival the driver described the ‘A3’ as ‘a real clipper’.

  I’d gone down to Swindon on the Friday before the 1961 August Bank Holiday, travelling behind 5066 Sir Felix Pole a relief South Wales express. I was hanging around the station to see what might be about on the up road when one of the huge Churchward 2-8-0s, 4708, came off shed and ran through the station, coming to a stand on the London side of the up platform. I assumed it was going for a freight, but I just wondered with a glimmer of hope … A few minutes later a relief from the Gloucester line appeared behind one of the spanking-new ‘Hymeks’, D7003. I was about to ignore it when I noticed a shunter drop down between loco and train and begin to uncouple the ‘Hymek’. Surely not, I could scarce believe it … was 4708 going to replace the ‘Hymek’? I watched with bated breath as D7003 cut away and ran briskly into the distance and saw with growing excitement that 4708 was stirring into life and was beginning to back down onto the eight-coach train.

  My mind was made up — I had longed for a run behind one of these superb locos, trying to get one on a Saturday West of England relief but always in vain. The previous year I’d gone to Taunton on the 1.25pm Paddington–Kingswear and had seen No 4706 back onto the following ‘Royal Duchy’, but unfortunately that service was barred to staff with privilege tickets. However, nothing could prevent me from joining the service at Taunton and taking it as far as Exeter, where I could pick up the last London service — the 1.50pm Penzance. So I waited and waited and waited. It was indicated thirty late, then forty, then a full hour, and in the end I abandoned the wait and took a heavy Cardiff–Paignton train with 6921, only to arrive at Exeter just as the Penzance was departing with ex-works Laira ‘Castle’ 5058 Earl of Clancarty, so I had to return home via the last train on the Southern route behind 35014 Nederland Line.

  4708 justified the wait. The lined-green monster (how suitable those projected names like Behemoth or Leviathan would have been) started slowly, then accelerated steadily until we were charging through Didcot at 75mph. After the Reading stop 4708 erupted, and we accelerated at extraordinary speed, rousing the echoes through Sonning Cutting until we were travelling at a full 80mph just beyond Ruscombe sidings. A magic moment — well … two actually: when I saw for real that 4708 was going to back onto our train at Swindon, and at Ruscombe, when I recorded 80mph, just before the driver decided that perhaps this speed was unnecessary — and illegal; I found out subsequently that the Swindon driver did not realise that these engines were restricted to 60mph! (The
full log appears in the Appendix, Table 13.) Just a few weeks later, when I was commuting from Reading to Maidenhead daily, instead of the usual Didcot ‘County’ or ‘Modified Hall’ my train turned up behind Old Oak’s 4701. You wait for ages, and then two come along at once …

  Not content with this, I turned up on the Saturday at King’s Cross and found 60014 Silver Link (34A) on the Saturday ‘Elizabethan’ — first stop Newcastle. I looked at my meagre cash, took a deep breath and bought myself a ‘priv’ return to Newcastle and ensconced myself in the twelve-coach, 475-ton train. (I learned later that 60014 had been the Top Shed standby engine — we should have had Haymarket’s 60031 on the ‘Elizabethan’ turn, but this had failed on shed.) We left on time, and speed built up after Hitchin until I recorded a full 90mph at Three Counties. With a long p-way slack to 20mph through Holme to Yaxley we passed Peterborough in 80 minutes from London, climbed Stoke with a minimum of 56mph and passed through Grantham in 111 minutes. From Doncaster the weather deteriorated rapidly to heavy rain, and our performance similarly, as we were badly checked before York, then at Northallerton a freight was crossing in front of us, and at Darlington a DMU afficted us similarly. Running when possible in the mid-70s got us to Newcastle nine minutes late, in 311 minutes from King’s Cross but just 277 minutes net.

  At Newcastle the relief to the up ‘Heart of Midlothian’ acquired Gateshead ‘A4’ 60020 Guillemot, and I took that to York, the filthy ‘Streak’ completing the 44-mile ‘racing’ stretch from Darlington to York in 44 minutes exactly, with a sustained 84mph after Thirsk, with the twelve-coach, 445-ton train. I decided to change at York to the ‘Heart of Midlothian’ itself, for I’d seen a Kings Cross ‘A4’ waiting on the King Edward Bridge, and 60026 Miles Beevor was a new one for me. The train was thirteen coaches (485 tons gross), and we actually departed York three minutes early! After Grantham we accelerated to 48mph by Stoke Tunnel and, after touching 84 at Essendine, ran hard in the mid-70s from Huntingdon to Hitchin, then eased up considerably, as we were running very early on the Saturday schedule. We arrived at King’s Cross just under ten minutes early.

  I now had my first free Continental pass to enjoy, and on 15 August I took the Newhaven boat train from Victoria behind Southern electric loco 20003. From Dieppe I travelled to Paris behind a ‘Chapelonised’ État Pacific and continued to Lake Constance via Strasbourg and the Black Forest, steam all the way (to be described in detail in the next volume). My aim was to spend a couple of days renewing my acquaintance with the Lindau-based former Bavarian four-cylinder Compound Pacifics (the famous ‘S 3/6’ Pacifics that had hauled the ‘Rheingold’ in the 1920s and ’30s). After a highly successful trip I returned a week later and experienced an appalling Channel crossing in a Force 10 gale, when I saw even sailors being seasick. This was the only time I’ve ever succumbed, and I can vouch that you cease to worry about the boat going down when you actually feel suicidal. I was still hanging out of the window, feeling sick, as we returned to Victoria behind electric E5010.

  I had one last major weekend tour before the next chapter of my life began. I’d had my appetite whetted by the Saturday ‘Elizabethan’ and wanted to try the non-stop mid-week run. I therefore came to King’s Cross on 1 September to find Haymarket’s 60009 Union of South Africa on duty with Driver McKinley (substituting for Driver Hooper, who was ill) and Fireman Wilson as far as Alne, there exchanging, through the corridor tender, with Driver Porteous of Haymarket. The weekday load was ten coaches, 380 tons gross. We ran the 392.5 miles in 392 minutes 30 seconds exactly, arriving two and a half minutes early. Highlights were 88mph at Three Counties, 92mph at Hougham and a time of 118 minutes from Newcastle to Edinburgh, with speeds of 85mph at Christon Bank, 61 at Grantshouse and a steady 80 from Drem into the outskirts of Edinburgh. 60009 was a month ex works and in obviously good nick. Net time was 370 minutes overall.

  I continued to Glasgow Queen Street behind a very run-down and filthy ‘A3’, 60076 Galopin of Darlington, which just about got its lightweight, five-coach train to Glasgow in reasonable shape (speed in the 50s most of the way), but the schedule was so easy. That evening I intended to catch the Fridays-only 8.55pm Glasgow Central sleeper service to Euston as far as Carlisle before returning to Edinburgh via the Waverley route and got Polmadie’s 46232 Duchess of Montrose on the twelve-coach, 445-ton train. We cleared Beattock Summit at 41mph and had a curious run, our speed rising suddenly from the low 60s to the high 70s and then dropping again as the driver opened up and then shut off, and we were 3 minutes late in after a signal check outside Carlisle station. A classic engine change took place at Carlisle, 46232 being replaced by 46206 Princess Marie Louise. I was sorely tempted to abandon my Waverley plans, but I satisfied myself with a shot of the ‘Princess’ at the head of the sleeping-car train.

  Carlisle as dusk fell on a Friday in summer was a fascinating and atmospheric place to be — I think only Carlisle and Crewe were more interesting by night than by day. I therefore watched the night working until the 9.10pm sleeper from St Pancras arrived behind ‘Peak’ D11, a poor exchange for 46206. I took this to Galashiels, where I spied a ‘B1’ waiting to follow it with a semi-fast for Edinburgh, so I hopped out and took my seat in an empty compartment, feeling the steam heat ooze through from 61221 Sir Alexander Erskine-Hill of St Margarets. Then it was back to King’s Cross after the sleepless night, initially behind Haymarket ‘A3’ 60094 Colorado on the 10.10am Edinburgh–King’s Cross (see Appendix Table 16). We had a heavy, thirteen-coach load (500 tons gross), and 60094 did well to hold 33mph on the climb to Grantshouse, which it followed with a maximum of 82mph at Beal after the Berwick stop. We were on time at Newcastle, where we exchanged 60094 for an ex-works Heaton ‘A1’, 60147 North Eastern, which was heavily delayed at Northallerton but then whisked the heavy train up to 83 at Tollerton. I decided to pause at York and get some food and then picked up the Saturday relief to the ‘Heart of Midlothian’ (1.10pm Edinburgh), which arrived at York with the home depot’s 60138 Boswell. This ran punctually to Grantham without any strenuous effort. ‘A3’ 60063 Isinglass (34A) was waiting for us at Grantham and whirled us down Stoke Bank at 93mph below Essendine and continued without hindrance to London, where we arrived seven minutes early.

  Awaiting departure from Edinburgh Waverley on 2 September 1961, locally allocated ‘A3’ 60094 Colorado has charge of the 10.10am Edinburgh–King’s Cross, which it will work as far as Newcastle.

  During the spring I had duly applied for the Traffic Apprenticeship scheme and as a staff entrant, and, having taken the exam and passed the interview, I was ready to start in the autumn of 1961. However, in the interim, after nine months or so in my first clerical job, I’d applied for promotion to a Class 3 post in the Freight Train Office, where I was in charge of special and out-of-gauge loads, a subject on which I knew virtually nothing, but apparently I was the only serious applicant for the post, so I was appointed. My boss was astounded, telling me that it had taken him twenty-five years to get his first promotion from Class 5 clerk (a grade long since abolished) to a Class 4!

  Although my new office was next door to the Passenger Train Office the culture was as different as could be. The practice in the Passenger Office was to work hard and play hard — when we had a lot to do we knuckled down, took short lunch breaks and worked until everything was done without claiming overtime; when things were slack we took longer breaks and went home when everything was finished for the day. There was a lot of interplay and banter between staff — including a degree of black humour when we were under pressure — and a lot of laughter.

  In the Freight Office everyone watched the clock and tried to look occupied, whether or not there was work to do. Throughout the day silence reigned; you could hear the occasional rustle of papers. The phones seldom rang — in the Passenger Office they never seemed to be silent. At one minute to five o’clock everyone would rise and put on their overcoats, and at five o’clock precisely the room would be empty. One day I had a bout of hay fever or some a
llergy for which I was prescribed anti-histamine tablets, with a warning that they could make me drowsy. I duly turned up to work, and within half an hour my head was down and I fell into a deep sleep. I woke at midday, and no-one had noticed — or at least, if anyone had, no-one said anything. I had a desk in the corner of the room, so I was not too conspicuous, but even so … I was not happy in this atmosphere, and it was with some relief that I commenced my management training, less than three months after promotion to this section.

  Tableau 7

  Paddington Platform 8, July 1961

  The Divisional Operating Manager is getting heavily criticised for the long delays encountered by holiday trains returning to London on summer Saturdays. After struggling up from the West Country or West Wales the coup de grâce is frequently the inordinate delay incurred within sight of Paddington station, because all the arrival platforms are occupied. This had been a feature of the 1960 summer season, when too many arrivals were recorded on the station indicator as 99 minutes late (the maximum the two-digit slats could allow). The 1961 holiday season has started badly, and in early July I’m asked by the Assistant Divisional Operating Manager if I’ll be prepared to spend the afternoon, from 12 noon onwards, on overtime, recording the occupation of Paddington platforms and noting as far as possible the length of time that trains are held outside the station, awaiting a platform. I’m to join the train-spotters at the end of platform 8 and be paid for it, because of my apparent prowess at drawing graphs and generally presenting neat and readable reports. I am not only to record all this data but also to chart the platform occupation, noting all light-engine and ECS movements.