A Privileged Journey

by David Maidment

  I find I am to be joined by ‘Terry’, the London Division DMU and local-train diagrammer, as on summer Saturdays he has to replace certain DMUs with engines and coaches — partly as a result of reduced weekend availability, as the depot staff take advantage to undertake planned maintenance outside the peak commuter weekday times, and partly because the increased passenger loadings are expected to exceed the capacity of a four-car DMU. He is nervous because he has not retimed the DMU replacements but has banked on ‘Halls’ pulling eight-coach non-corridor sets keeping to the diesel-unit schedules. ‘They run better when we have high expectations of them’ was his opinion. I certainly had found the reverse to be true on my Saturday trips on the ‘Pembroke Coast Express’, when timings were eased in the Working Timetable to allow for increased loads, only for drivers to make no attempt to keep to the published timetable, despite having good engines with steam to spare.

  The majority of traffic in the up direction on a summer Saturday is, of course, from the West of England, whence trains are dominated by the Maybach-engined, Swindon-built ‘Warship’ diesel-hydraulics. Some of the North British-built, MAN-engined, Voith-transmission locomotives are beginning to appear, but few are yet in evidence. No ‘Hymeks’ or ‘Westerns’ have yet arrived on the scene. However, only the key trains, the regular Penzance/Plymouth, Kingswear and Weston-super-Mare/Bristol trains, are diesel-hauled. Most of the Summer Saturday extras are still steam, interspersed between the diesels, and all have to go at the speed of the slowest, as the frequency of trains on the route is intense, hampered as far as Cogload Junction by numerous holiday trains to the West and East Midlands and the Liverpool/Manchester area, nearly all steam-hauled, at least as far as Bristol.

  Of course, I take an interest in the departing trains also, although I’m not required to record them, as departing trains do not interfere with arriving trains. (Not until after the complete resignalling planned for 1966 will all platforms be regularly used for arriving and departing trains.) The first train likely to be of interest (to me) is the 12noon Paddington–Kingswear, booked for an 81A ‘Castle’ but frequently hauled by a ‘Modified Hall’ and a occasionally by a ‘47xx’ 2-8-0. Today it is indeed a ‘Castle’ (rather than a ‘47xx’, which is a pity), but although I observe departures I am sufficiently occupied taking notes of just the arrivals, for I’m required to record the time of each terminating train, the platform number and whether the train is held outside the station (I can see a couple of signals out as far as Subway Junction), as well as timing the ‘87xx’, ‘94xx’, ‘15xx’ pannier tanks or ‘61xx’ Prairies attached to the ECS and noting the departure times of the ECS for Old Oak carriage sidings and of the trailing locomotive — and whether the latter goes attached to the ECS to Old Oak or reverses light-engine across to Ranelagh Bridge.

  I’m kept extremely busy, for it is not long before the procession of trains approaching after morning departures from the West begins to build up. The 8am Kingswear has a ‘Warship’ and is reasonably punctual, and a Minehead follows it in behind a Laira double-chimney ‘Castle’, but the following Paignton — a heavy train with a St Philip’s Marsh ‘Hall’ — is not doing well and is preceded by trains from Worcester and Wolverhampton and the ‘Red Dragon’ from Swansea, this last with a beautifully turned-out double-chimney ‘Castle’, 4080 Powderham Castle, by now based at Canton. The gap before the ‘Hall’ arrives enables platforms 6-11 to be cleared ready for the rush, which soon comes. The trouble is that the trains are stacked up behind the late-runner, so, to avoid holding up following trains, the six platforms are allowed to fill before the locomotives for the ECS movements can be attached. Then, by the time the tank engines have been attached, brakes have been tested and ‘right away’ to Old Oak given, there are already trains waiting at both signals I can see. This continues for at least a couple of hours.

  5922 Caxton Hall on a local passenger train in the London Division, 1952.

  (Gordon Coltas Trust, J. M. Bentley collection)

  Terry has one bright spot when a ‘61xx’ tank, with its eight non-corridor coaches, scurries amid the DMUs and Hammersmith Line tube trains into platform 13 only a couple of minutes late. Then, mid-afternoon, there is a slight lull, and Paddington signalling staff manage to clear three platfoms so that the next trains run in under clear signals or are only momentarily delayed outside whilst an ECS cuts across the the carriage line to Old Oak or the released locomotive backs out to Ranelagh Bridge. I do not record the engine numbers, only the train reporting numbers, which I will try to tie up with the scheduled services next Monday morning when I’m drawing up my magnum opus for the bosses. One memory I will retain is of the unimpeded arrival at platform 7 of 4037 The South Wales Borderers with what purports to be an extra from Treherbert, though I’m highly dubious, as a Newton Abbot ‘Castle’ on such a train seems unlikely, although on a summer Saturday almost anything is possible. I thought 4037 was still active on the North & West (see next chapter). If indeed it is the Treherbert it’s early — a most unlikely scenario at this time of the day! The engine carries no reporting headcode to aid me, and I can’t trace any other train that might be the relief shown in the extra weekend supplement to the Working Timetable with which I’ve been issued.

  As the situation eases and teatime approaches, a DMU-replacement semi-fast from Reading rushes into platform 6 a minute early behind a Chester (!) ‘Modified Hall’, 7921 Edstone Hall, and Terry is chuffed, telling me that this train has a particularly tight schedule for a steam loco and eight coaches. He feels his policy is vindicated. (Incidentally, I always associate this engine with a Children’s Hour radio play about a boy detective named — if I remember rightly — Norman Bones, because in the drama the boy actually talked of seeing a train leaving a station somewhere in the Midlands with an engine called ‘Edstone Hall’. Later, during my footplate training at Old Oak, described in Chapter 15, I had a run on this engine — no longer at Chester — back to my lodgings with Bob Poynter, Stationmaster at Twyford.)

  Eventually 6 o’clock arrives, and I can put away my notebook and pencil. Although plenty of trains are still arriving, and I can see a train waiting patiently opposite Royal Oak tube station, it is assumed that I’ll have recorded enough data by this time to serve the purpose, and the officers will pore over my graphical representation of the afternoon performance and take some positive decisions. Whether they will or not, I don’t know. Probably I’ll never know.

  Chapter 13

  No 4037 - the Western Region’s highest-mileage locomotive

  ‘Castle’ 4037 The South Wales Borderers with the 8am Plymouth–Liverpool at Pontypool Road on the occasion of the author’s footplate trip, 15 February 1961.

  Few locomotives on the Western Region achieved the two million miles mark in their career. In fact, I am only aware of three locomotives for certain that reached this mileage — the last surviving ‘Saint’, 2920 Saint David, and rebuilt ‘Star’/’Castles’ 4000 North Star, which covered 2.1 million miles, and 4037 The South Wales Borderers (formerly ‘Queen Philippa’), which had accumulated 2.4 million miles by the time of its withdrawal from service in September 1962. Certainly they were the only ‘Castles’ to achieve this mileage, 4080 and 4096 just falling short of the two million mark, and most other engines in the ‘40xx’ series clocking around 1.7-1.9 million.

  During its latter days at Old Oak Common (1955/6) 4037 had a terrible reputation for rough riding. I was told during my sojourn at Old Oak in 1957 that it was most often used as the Ranelagh Bridge standby loco — always an Old Oak ‘Castle’ — as no incoming driver would exchange it for his own steed unless his loco were in dire straits! It underwent heavy repairs at Swindon in 1958, during which it acquired a new front end to its main frame, and again in 1960 and seems to have built a quite different reputation following reallocation to Newton Abbot. In February 1961 I obtained a number of passes for an article I intended to write on the North & West route, and (as described in Chapter 12) these enabled me to take brak
e-van trip on a freight from Newport to Shrewsbury and another on a night parcels working from Shrewsbury to Cardiff. The highlight, however, was a footplate pass for the Plymouth–Liverpool restaurant-car train between Pontypool Road and Shrewsbury, which was the celebrated ‘double home’ through working by engine and men, shared between Newton Abbot and Shrewsbury depots. My trip was on 15 February 1961, and I was somewhat surprised, to put it mildly, to see Newton Abbot’s 4037 run in about ten minutes late with the 8am Plymouth. Previous recent journeys with this train had been with the alternating Shrewsbury locos. I had seen nothing of 4037 since its removal from Old Oak and was not aware that it was now at 83A nor of its redeemed reputation, as only the best locos were chosen for this arduous turn. 4037 looked good, and I was met by the Newton Abbot crew, Driver D. Lewis and Fireman R. Aggett. I had been previously joined by Loco Inspector George from Newport as we travelled to Pontypool Road behind 4086 on the 08.55 Cardiff–Manchester.

  All looked in good shape on the footplate, and we accelerated rapidly to 63mph on no more than half regulator before shutting off for a 30mph slack at Nantyderry. A swift recovery to 59mph was followed by a slowing to 52 around the Penpergwm curve and then a dreadful p-way restriction to 10mph just before Abergavenny station, right at the foot of Llanvihangel Bank. With eleven coaches (410 tons gross) behind us and the winter sunshine beaming on us and on the distant Sugar Loaf Summit, the engine now blowing off steam, with 225psi on the clock, Driver Lewis opened 4037 right up, full regulator and 35% cut-off. Speed crept up to 34mph past Abergavenny Junction but fell to 28 on the steepest part as pressure dropped slightly, to 215lb; then, as we hit the slightly easier grades, we dropped back to 30% cut-off and accelerated initially to 36mph before storming over the summit at a full 40.

  We now took things easy downhill, with a maximum of 68 before Pontrilas and exactly 70 after yet another p-way restriction (to 15mph) before Red Hill Junction. Firing had eased, and pressure dropped to 195lb, before the Hereford stop. I noted that, despite her reputation, 4037 rode extremely well, although some of the cab fittings started a rattling war-dance at speeds above 60mph. Despite the p-way slacks we had dropped only one minute on the Working Timetable (WTT) schedule. Arrival at Hereford was still eleven minutes late, in 49 minutes 5 seconds from Pontypool Road, inclusive of the three severe p-way slacks and a further slight restriction to 50mph at Pandy.

  We were blowing off steam before we left Hereford, having recovered a further two minutes from the station allowance, but got a signal check to walking pace before we got to Barrs Court Junction. Then it was full regulator to Shelwick Junction, where we were already doing 56mph, before Lewis dropped back to the first port and 15% cut-off, which sustained 60mph through Moreton-on-Lugg; 20% cut-off took us over Dinmore Summit and into the tunnel at 53, and 15% thereafter kept us rolling in the mid-60s through Leominster, in 16 minutes 45 seconds from Hereford.

  By now the fire was beginning to get a bit dirty (the coal being mainly dust and those awful chemical-compound ovoids), and Aggett was using the pricker quite regularly to stop clinker forming. We swept on, 71mph at Woofferton, 60 around the Ludlow curve, 61 through Bromfield (where we failed to pick up any water from the near-empty troughs) and a minimum of 51 at the top of the 1-in-112 climb to Onibury — now 17% cut-off and still first port of the regulator, pressure 218lb.

  We got up to 60 in the Craven Arms dip, the time deficit now reduced to five minutes, and were tackling the climb to Church Stretton very nicely, when we suddenly got signals on and — from 47mph at Marsh Farm Junction — ground to a complete stand on the steepest part of the climb, at Marsh Brook crossing. We stood for a couple of minutes — I suspect a gates problem — and then opened up with full regulator and 25% cut-off to the summit at Church Stretton, achieving 30mph at the top of the steepest bit and 35 at the summit, pressure now down to 195lb. With the regulator just cracked open we rolled through Leebotwood at 73mph before catching a sight of distants on before Sutton Bridge Junction.

  We crawled over the English and Welsh bridges at Shrewsbury after a 5mph signal check and then a 5mph p-way slack approaching the station throat, drawing up at the platform just three minutes late by the WTT, in 66 minutes 58 seconds from Hereford — but on time according to the published timetable. I calculated the net times to be 37 minutes from Pontypool Road to Hereford and 58½ minutes from Hereford to Shrewsbury — a net gain of twenty-seven minutes on the WTT schedule over this exacting route. (For the full log see Appendix Table 12.)

  The astonishing thing to me was the apparent ease with which this run was made. The engine had been pushed hard only twice (recovering from the checks uphill at Abergavenny and Church Stretton), the rest being done on the first port of the regulator and 15-20% cut-off. The working had been extremely economical. Inspector George took measurements and calculated that we had used only 1,400 gallons of water from Hereford — about 24 gallons per mile — and estimated our coal consumption at no more than 30-35lb per mile. These figures are on the same level as some of the best work recorded by the ‘Castles’ in their triumphant 1925 Locomotive Exchanges days — and we were not burning best Welsh coal either!

  I was at Bristol about three months later and saw that 4037 was still on the southbound Shrewsbury double-home working. I saw further photos of 4037 on this working months later and concluded that she must have done at least eight months’ continuous work on this diagram. It would be normal practice, after between three and four months, to stop the loco for a valves-and-piston-ring exam and change and to substitute another loco more recently out of shops, but Driver Lewis told me that 4037 had gone back onto the Shrewsbury link because she was at that time the only 83A ‘Castle’ fit for the work. (I understand that when 4037 was finally retired from that diagram Newton Abbot had to borrow Laira’s double-chimney 4087 for its leg.)

  4037 spent the last few months of her life at Exeter, although I remember seeing her quite frequently later in 1961 and the early part of 1962, and I could have sworn she had been reallocated back to Old Oak. However, it’s probably just my memory playing tricks. Ultimately she became a victim of the purge of Western ‘Kings’ and ‘Castles’ at the end of the 1962 Summer Timetable.

  4037 running back to shed at Shrewsbury, 15 February 1961.

  Chapter 14

  Commuting in the London Division

  In September 1961 I was appointed as one of six Western Region Traffic Apprentices (known in later years as Management Trainees). I had an unfair advantage in the selection process. Normally around twenty young men (there was little encouragement for potential women managers in those days) would be selected throughout BR by examination and interview — but after negotiation with the clerical trade union, TSSA, it had been agreed that 50% should come from the ranks of railway staff and not be recruited directly from university. Because of my year’s service I counted as a staff entrant, and therefore the railways got the bonus of an additional graduate! At that time the scheme consisted of three years’ training, the first year being basic training in railway-operating activities at ground level. Managers in those days had a belief that it would be useful for managers of the future to have an understanding of what their staff were meant to do (and did do!).

  After a final interview with Assistant General Manager, George Bowles, I was sent to the Headquarters Staff Officer in charge of trainees, to be allocated to a Division for Year 1 training and to receive my initial programme. For my first year I was based in the London Division, the immediate programme comprising six weeks at a passenger station (Maidenhead), six weeks at a goods depot (Slough), four weeks at a larger goods depot (South Lambeth), four weeks at a medium-sized station (Oxford), four weeks at a large station (Reading) and six weeks at a locomotive depot (Old Oak Common). After that I was to go to Margam Yard in South Wales, as the London Division was not considered to have a large enough marshalling yard for training purposes; Acton apparently did not qualify.

  As Reading seemed to be the focal point of the pro
gramme (and daily commuting from Woking seemed impracticable, my personal transport being still the 1936-built pedal-cycle) I took lodgings with an elderly widow in a terraced house five minutes’ walk from Reading station. The initial six weeks from late September until mid-November was spent at Maidenhead station, where I was initiated into the work of booking and parcels offices, platform staff, the small coal yard (including handling a shunting pole) and Maidenhead East signalbox. My first dose of real responsibility came during such a spell, when the signalman, closeted in the loo, shouted instructions to me to clear signals for the down ‘Cornish Riviera’ (again — this train was becoming my nemesis). I accepted the train, pulled off the semaphores, watched with some trepidation as the ‘Warship’ roared past and remembered to give ‘train out of section’ and replace the pegs before my mentor emerged from his cubbyhole.

  The local stationmaster agreed to my working fairly normal day shifts to begin with, which meant that I could catch the 6.45am Swindon–Paddington commuter train (Maidenhead being the first stop after Reading), returning in the late afternoon on the 4.35pm Paddington–Swindon (which stopped at Twyford also). The morning service was allowed 15 minutes start-to-stop for the 12-mile run, which required fairly smart running with the nine-coach train, a set weighing 306 tons tare and usually about 340-345 tons gross. It was booked for a Didcot (81E) locomotive, usually one of the depot’s three ‘Counties’ (1002, 1015 and 1018) or a ‘Modified Hall’. However, as the train started from Swindon, interlopers sometimes found their way onto the train, which meant that I awaited it at Reading with some anticipation. I always stood in the corridor of the first coach, as the noise from GW engines was worth hearing (unlike that of many of the soft-voiced Southern engines, with which I was more familiar).