Vol 42 No 3 April 1996 Editor: Gordon Bruce, 2 Sawyers Close, Costessey, NORWICH NR5 0SR Tel. 01603 747256 Distribution : Graham Smith, 7 Caistor Lane, Poringland, NORWICH NR14 7QT No, the title of his Chairman’s address was not a misprint, said Keith King - it just emphasised that we would not have a learned discourse on a single theme. He began by telling us that at the age of 12 he had ‘driven engines’ - internal combustion ones on a narrow-gauge Bedfordshire quarry line! Then, under the heading “You Can’t Put A Quart Into A Pint Pot”, Keith proceeded to show that the M&GN had in fact done just that. Of its 125-mile ‘main line’, only 45 were double track; yet summer Saturdays in the 1930s could see as many as 20 holiday specials added to the regular timetable. With a set of diagrams Keith demonstrated that an up train can pass a down train on a single line even if the loop is shorter than either train. (Perhaps it is an old shunting chestnut - but I’m writing this the day after Keith’s talk, and without his diagrams in front of me I’m blowed if I can puzzle it out!) Next we moved from the Joint to the Underground - the early days of the Metropolitan, to be precise. John Fowler, the Met’s engineer, got Robert Stephenson & Co to make a prototype 2-4-0 which contained a chamber of firebricks in the boiler barrel. The plan was to stoke the fire up well in the open sections of the line, so that the heated firebricks would maintain steam pressure during the tunnel sections. Exhaust steam was to be condensed through a water tank beneath the boiler. But trails soon proved ‘Fowler’s Ghost’ a failure and the Met let the GWR work its services with more conventional motive power. In his final section “So What Went Wrong With the Steam Engine” Keith pointed to its unpleasant emissions, its poor availability compared to newer forms of traction and, despite compound expansion and (continued overleaf) MISCELRAILNY Report on Chairman’s Address A special committee has been formed to plan celebrations for the 150th anniversary of the first railway to Lowestoft, which opened as a branch from the Norwich - Yarmouth line on May 3rd 1847. Already pencilled in are an exhibition in the Central Library (April 28th - May 3rd 1997); a Rail Day at St Marks Church Centre, Oulton Broad on May 10th, and a commemorative booklet to be published by the Railway Development Society. It is hoped to run at least one special train and hold at least one outdoor event. A lecture by Dr Richard Joby is also planned. The organisers want to promote the present-day railway as well as recording the past. Any NRS member interested in helping is invited to contact the Secretary of the Anniversary Committee Rod Lock at The Beehive, Hall Road, Oulton Broad NR32 3AW. He would be particularly interested in hearing from anyone with items (e.g. old posters, handbills, small artefacts, old photos) which could be included in the exhibition. (Trevor Garrod) REEDHAM - LOWESTOFT 150th ANNIVERSARY Forthcoming Meetings May 2nd - Members’ Informal Meeting. May 16th - “Broadly Iberian” - Ken Mills June 6th - “The First Railway Murder” - Retired Chief Inspector Cliff Wraite. All Meetings to be held at United Reformed Church, Ipswich Road July 11th - Visit to Little Melton Railway. Cost £2 per head, guests welcome.
Page 2 I t was in 1962, in the Peterborough area, that Peter Starling took his first colour slides, and his presentation to the Society on January 18th was an entertaining selection of 1962-67 views. Annual meetings of the Society of Pewter Collectors, which Peter had joined in the 1960s, had helped to justify visiting interesting rail locations; and family holidays, in places such as North Wales and Hampshire, had been chosen, it seemed, with an eye on their lineside potential! Those first shots on the ECML, as well as later sessions on the platform at Hereford and Banbury, contained a pleasant variety of 1960s motive power, although inevitably some of the locos were becoming careworn. With leanings towards my ‘home patch’ in the south~west, I was delighted to see the Culm Valley branch and its ex-Barry Railway gas-lit coach, the Lymington branch just before electrification, evocative Somerset & Dorset names such as Masbury and Evercreech, and Bulleid light pacifics on Boumemouth shed in steam’s last summer on the Weymouth route. Peter’s ‘industrial’ jaunts included Bowaters’ narrow-gauge Sittingboume line in the pre-LCGB years and Stewarts & Lloyds’ steelworks at Corby. With the RCTS he’d braved the wild Derbyshire moorlands to photograph the taxing gradients on the Cromford & High Peak line, and had enjoyed a trip behind 2-10-0 Gordon from Woking to the Longmoor Military Railway. Long-vanished local services he showed us included the push-pull between Stamford and Seaton, and the last day in 1964 of the Dudley - Old Hill stopper - the latter happily coinciding with a pewter meeting! (Meeting Report by Mike Handscomb) (Continued from Page 1) superheating, its thermal inefficiency. Regrettably, mid-twentieth century experiments such as Bulleid’s Leader and the Crosti-boilered 9Fs (where the exhaust finally emerged from an orifice near the cab!) had been unable to halt the frenzied drive towards diesel and electric power. (MJH) A Sixties H aving taken an interest in trainboat connections for many years, Graham Smith entertained us with a programme of slides illustrating the changes he’d witnessed at Harwich and Felixstowe. In 1970 he’d taken a London - Harwich boat train in order to connect with a paddle-steamer excursion up the Orwell. His first set of slides covered this journey : green Class 31s and maroon coaches at an unmodernised Liverpool Street, from-the-window shots all the way to Harwich’s 'navy yard’ where the Prins ferries used to berth, and a selection of vessels seen from the paddle-steamer. This was followed by a dmu trip along the branch in 1977, pictures of a Prins ecs working, and several DFDS, Sealink and Townsend Thoresen vessels seen on a voyage to Esbjerg. At Felixstowe the railway layout has altered considerably over the years, and Graham’s sketch maps made things clearer for us. In his pictures the dock company’s ex-BR 08 shunter Colonel Tomline busied itself around the docks, and a harassed signalman supervised the old Beach station’s level crossing while trainloads of conflats passed through. We also saw the 1977 waterside ceremony which marked the arrival of the Royal Yacht Britannia at Felixstowe during the Queen’s Silver Jubilee. Though most of the evening was focussed on those havens at the confluence of the Stour and Orwell, Graham also found time for us to see East Anglian ports. He illustrated a brake van tour when he and other NRS members had been hauled round lpswich docks by side-plated Drewry 0-6-0 shunters. Long -obsolete cars and Street furniture gave a surprising amount of period charm to his 1970s quayside pictures of the railway at Yarmouth, and the BR road tractor he’d found hauling wagons across the road at Lowestoft was a wonderful curiosity. Before a packed evening concluded, there was even time to move to the opposite coast for a glimpse of Holyhead’s railway and dockyard full of containers. (MJH)
Page 3 S tudying goods rolling-stock must be one of the more esoteric branches of the railway hobby, particularly when you’re not a model-maker. And if you go on to concentrate on the stock of just one preGrouping company - in this case the Great Eastern - well, it’s a brave man who dares challenge your findings! John Watling, by his own admission, enjoys railways’ less-than-mainstream aspects - company administration and architecture, for example. But wagons have always come first. His early years were spent with stetch-pad and tape-measure in sidings and coal yards. Things looked up when he gained access to official records and drawings, first at Stratford Works and then at BTC Historical Records. He ploughed a lonely furrow (or shunted an isolated box van, perhaps?) until the formation of the Great Eastern Society in 1973 brought to light others who shared his passions! The Great Eastern, he told us, encouraged coal merchants and other traders to supply their own wagons. Of GER-owned stock, the predominant type was the open, general merchandise wagon, but cattle wagons were also important. There were very few covered vans. At Grouping the company posessed 30,000 wagons - it sounded a lot, but not compared to the NER’s 133,000 or the Midland’s 105,000. The GER’s initial policy of buying wagons from specialist builders was questioned by C H Parkes, the Chairman from 1874 to 1893 and a personality much admired by John. Under Worsdell, Loco Superintend ant in the early 1880s, Stratford began to build all its own stock. This amounted to 600 - 800 per year, but once Temple Mills wagon works was established in 1896 annual production rose as high as 2,500. It was really an assembly line, though - most components were still made elsewhere. The set of slides John chose to illustrate his talk included, among the commonplace five-plank types, curiosities such as a butter van in yellow livery with a louvred body and clerestory, an open-roofed egg wagon and a steel-bodied gunpowder van. (MH) C ollecting railway relics (‘railwayana’) is a hobby which has spawned many variants. It covers everything from tickets and similar ephemera to engine nameplates and massive station nameboards. Tickets are very popular : more than one NRS member, if pressed, will admit to having paid more than he should for, say a “Market Day 3rd return : Wisbech to Outwell” or “Privelege Dog : Pulham Market to any station up to 35 miles". . In turn, I’m guilty of cluttering up the home with uncompromisingly large lumps of rusty cast-iron and enamel - and of persuading others to do likewise! This meeting, addressed by Tony Edsor, featured his Great Eastern collection. Tony told us that he’d spent the last twenty years seeking out small items produced by or for the GER, many of which he’d brought for us to see. A number were smoking-related (ironic, he thought, with that activity now banned from many parts of the rail network!) including a GER cigar box, a copper ashtray and a number of decorated boxes which once contained vesta matches. The GER was the proud owner of several hotels, and among Tony’s pieces relating to this sphere of operations were a complimentary letter opener and some attractive brass key fobs with the hotel’s name and “If Found Please Return” instructions cast in. George Measom produced ‘Official Illustrated Guides’ to many of the early railways, and one thing Tony was very pleased to have come by was a very early Measom’s Guide to the GER. Other exhibits included horse brasses of varying designs, medallions, a lady’s fan, a calling-card wallet complete with GER Mineral Manager’s cards, and several momentos which once belonged to Stan Frost, the secretary of the GER Amateur Athletic Association. Much of the collection had come from hours of searching antique shops and stalls, but now that railwayana collecting had become so popular he found himself having to pay high prices at auctions the figures mentioned made many gasp with disbelief! After a most interesting talk members enjoyed the opportunity to browse among the items Tony had brought along. (Meeting Report by Mike Handscomb) G E R
Page 4 Trainspotting or . . . A TRIP TO THE STARS A rriving at a newsletter near you. The sordid, gritty, upfront no-holds-barred tale of society’s parasites who eke out their miserable existence indulging in utterly pointless and uncreative activities on the streets of Britain. These people are regarded as scum, foul-mouthed rejects of the human race who only live for their next fix, their next jab against Society which keeps them alive. But that’s enough about the Government. This article is supposed to be about trainspotters. You know, those sad people who eke out their miserable existence indulging in their utterly pointless and uncreative activities on the railway stations of Britain. And four such people, Messrs Peter Knights, Mike Fordham, Chris King and (interloping from outside Poringland) your Editor met up on Thursday 28th March 1996 for a trip to the stars. In fact, the stars were already present in the sky when we rose at 4am from our cardboard boxes to catch the 5.05am to the trainspotting capital of England -London, armed with a motley assortment of Apex and Advance Purchase tickets (whatever they called them they all cost £21). Mike had already provided a rough itinerary (although based on a rather more civilised departure time) and he and Chris had come armed with maps and timetables, the copious study of which was interrupted only at Ipswich to note 08775, 37892 Ripple Lane, 56084, 86620, 86637 and 90145. Then it was straight back to business, our eccentric conversations causing considerable concern amongst the ‘normal’ passengers armed with their laptop computers and Daily Telegraph crosswords. We arrived about 3 minutes early, and had a quick walk around Liverpool Street and then out by the Bishopsgate side steps to walk round the Plaza built on the site of Broad Street, and puzzled over what an open-air ice rink was doing above the platforms of the busiest commuter station in East London. It was also fascinating to look down from the stars shining around the barge boards at the end of the train shed at the cavernous station below as it prepared itself for the onslaught of rush-hour commuter traffic, and ponder over approximately how many of the office workers who spend their working lives in the office block over the station throat actually realised that they were working in a giant bridge and that eight carefully-placed lumps of Semtex would leave their building without any foundations. It was still just after 7 am. Some or me sandwiches were already being consumed, yet we were already getting withdrawal symptoms. To get our fixes from sundry Railtrack dealers scattered around the Smoke that day we would need to be armed with a pass, in order to detract attention from the authorities. So, duly armed with four £5.50 Zone 4 passes, we hit the Circle Line and headed for King’s Cross. Underground trains are always full. I believe some people actually live on them. And while their typical image is of people playing sardines and indulging in each other’s aftershave, strands of conversation about “this is not a tube train as the tunnels are cut-and-cover and built to the standard loading gauge” or “the Widened Lines section of the Metropolitan was built to take Broad gauge GWR trains” or “I was squeezed on Barbican station when the last LT panniers worked in 1971” are guaranteed to make other sardines fight to stand a bit further away. King’s Cross, 7.30am. The platforms were full of Class 91s, bound for far-away places. Obvious comment of the day - This was never a GWR station. But somehow a relevant comment - one could rack through one’s memory (or in your Editor’s case, watch the videos) for images of magnificent “King” class 4-6-0s at Paddington, with their gleaming brass nameplates, at the head of trains bound for far-away points west, and compare the image with the rather pathetic plastic transfer proclaiming the name Queen Elizabeth II stuck cheaply on the side of 91020. Other Electras present were 91007/17/21 and 29, while on the stabling point were Res-liveried 47770 and 86424, the former still carrying the silly name Reserved. Later in the day we saw Resolve and Irresistible - I wonder if there is any truth in the rumour that the final renaming before the Wisconsin image-change will actually be Respray? Cameras were duly pointed at every loco in sight and numbers scribbled down (at least by those pertaining to be real trainspotters), but Chris and Gordon also wanted to capture some of the barely-surviving remains of the old suburban King’s Cross - namely, the York Road platform, the suburban ‘rat hole’ platforms nestling beneath the towering edifice of St Pancras, and the fenced-off entrance to the up suburban tunnel which still looked as though it would have trouble accommodating a 00-gauge train, let alone an N2 and two quad-arts. Back to the Underground, and the Hammersmith & City line (built to take GWR broad gauge trains, so this couldn’t be a tube line) to Paddington, where, after scrambling up and down several sets of steps, we jumped straight onto a Turbo dmu bound for the scenic delights
Page 5 of Ealing Broadway, a place obviously so popular with tourists that we had to stand the whole way. Passing, en route, 47313 in Acton Yard and an almost empty North Pole Eurostar depot - the stars must have all been out that day. We stayed at Ealing Broadway from 8.50 to 10.15 am, during which time approximately eighteen HSTs passed. The ones heading towards London seemed to be travelling considerably faster than those leaving the capital - could they stop in time? A deep craving for Class 59s on stone trains went unsatisfied, although we did see, running light engine, green livened 47004, the owners of which were so determined to recreate the Modernisation Plan era that they had, some years earlier, painted it in the correct shades of two-tone green, restored to working order its route indicator panels and finally bestowed the name Old Oak Common Traction & Rolling Stock Depot - Quality Assured. (I cynically await the name Eccles Road Grain Siding - Quality Assured to adorn one of the 4-wheeled diesel shunters parked at Hardingham on the Mid-Norfolk Railway.) Another Res-liveried Duff also passed light engine, while 47844 headed the only non-HST-orTurbo passenger train. But no 59s or stones, so we couldn’t get no satisfaction. Had we come too early in the day? Ealing Broadway District Line station is still very much its own entity - well I suppose it was the first on the scene. The District took us to Victoria (arrived 10.15), where, in the heart of Electroland, a 47 could be heard. This we tracked down and identified as 47769 Resolve, which had brought in the empty stock of the Venice Simplon Orient-Express. The Pullmans were rapidly loading with the toffs and well-heeled for their two days of indulgence and gluttony (well, when my lottery ticket comes up . . .), many of whom were having their mandatory photos taken alongside the carriage names only to have a trainspotter walk in front of the lens at the wrong moment. Chris, fully in keeping with the spirit of the occasion, went up to note the loco on the front end. The rest of us saw the loco when we set off on a London Bridge-bound Class 456 - Mainline blue 73114. A goods (sorry! freight-sponsored) loco heading Britain’s most prestigious and luxurious train. Welcome to 1996. The two-car 456s were designed with two purposes in mind - to work the London Bridge to Victoria suburban route and to strengthen some 4-car Class 455s on other routes out of Victoria and Waterloo. For an accurate impression of the 456s in 1996, see my article in the December 1988 Newsletter about the Class 455s. Maybe appropriately, we alighted at Wandsworth Road. To the uninitiated, Wandsworth Road must rank as one of the filthiest, least salubrious stations in the UK, let alone London - two bare platforms, two heavily vandalised and graffitised bus shelters, and a footbridge. It is also a Mecca for trainspotters and trainphotters, on account of its location just south of Factory Junction. Here we can see countless routes veering off to the left, the main line out of Victoria, the entrance to Stewarts Lane depot, and, in front of the shell of Battersea Power station, the flyover across the Waterloo line taken by the Eurostars. We arrived at 11.10 and took up position on the footbridge. Within five minutes, the VSOE appeared leaving Victoria, its attractive umber-and-cream Pullmans headed by a bright blue loco and green support coach- truly, a sight to behold at that rat-hole of a station. You certainly don’t have to wait long to see a train at Wandsworth Road, although the majority are electric units - 4-CEPs, 4-VEPs, Networkers and the half-hourly 456s pass at frequent intervals. But Factory Junction(s) is (are) the focal point for the cross-London freight traffic, and during our two hours we saw 33030/46 on ballast working, 58014 in Mainline Blue on stone MIs, 60076/83 also on stone traffic, plus further appearances by 47004. In the distance, 73/2s could be seen on the Gatwick Expresses, while 73201 plus a DVT came out of the depot. But the reason people go to Wandsworth Road is to see the Eurostars, and we saw no less than five on Paris and Brussels workings - on two occasions, incoming and outgoing stars crossed near the station, the first time at Factory Junction itself. This meant that we could marvel at the sight of solid Eurostar stock from the station almost as far as we could see. (I wonder how many fitters are asked to find which fuse has blown on a Eurostar on April Fool’s Day, and whether they are given a motorbike to assist them?). Time to adjourn to the Horse Shoes pub for a pint. I did tell the others about the Phoenix & Firkin two stations away but they weren’t interested. Serves them right then that a Freightliner was glimpsed while we were walking along Wandsworth Road to the pub. Then some fish and chips, before returning to the station (just in time for another Eurostar) and then the 1330 back to Battersea Park, passing over Stewarts Lane depot which contained locos of all shapes, sizes and colours but particularly stored Cromptons. The glorious weather which we had enjoyed so far that day had by now clouded over somewhat and it was obvious that the best of the day had passed, so now was the time to start riding on trains in earnest. We caught the 1335 to Clapham Junction, where there was just time to see 73205 on a Gatwick Express, before boarding the 1345 to Willesden Junction, formed of a Class 117 dmu with its heating turned up to maximum and windows rattling en masse, passing Earls Court Underground depot with its battery-electric locos including nos L29 and L52. The extension of the old ‘Kenny Belle’ service to
Page 6 Willesden is certainly a logical one, but old habits are apparently reluctant to die as the train waits for an interminably long time at Olympia. Maybe this is recovery time - the 117s don’t exactly have a good availability record. By the time we reached Willesden it was raining. 08451/651, 47771 and 31229 were seen on the depot by Mike (he had the binoculars), while on passing trains were 87020/6/8, 90146 and 86248, with 47474 (Parcels red) and 47225 (Freightliner) topping’n’tailing a freightliner into Brent Yard. Then it was over the long footbridge to find Old Oak Common depot. Thanks to Chris and his A-Z, we got lost and ended up on the canal bank overlooking North Pole. The depot boasted three EPS-sponsored Class 73s - 73118/140 plus one carefully positioned behind a building. As we walked along the canal to Old Oak, two HST sets entered and exited the remains of the car sheds at the eastern end of the now barely-used GWR depot. It seems appropriate here to cast your minds back to December and the NRS 40th Anniversary celebrations at Ipswich Road. During the afternoon, one of your contributors presented a musical montage of slides of derelict locos and railway locations which he had dug out of his collection, to the sombre accompaniment of Gorecki’s Third Symphony. Such a performance could easily have been put together from the scenes witnessed at what was once the nerve centre of the Western Region in London. Everywhere was a mass of decay; the buildings, the locos, the tracks. The derelict locos didn’t even give the impression that they had simply been dumped there - rather that the depot had suddenly closed and no-one else wanted its allocation, so they simply stayed where they were and rotted. And they have been rotting for quite a few years now. All around the Factory Class 47s abounded in varying states of decrepitude, with the occasional interloper like 37373, one Class 31 and one 33 eerily suggesting that they had wandered into a deadly trap from which there was no escape. Ed Burghardt, on his recent takeover of the three freight companies, has made public his opinions of the Class 47 - one could not help wondering whether he was introduced to the delights of the Duff round the back of the Factory. We walked back to Willesden as the bus didn’t turn up, and here the fun really started. Chris and Gordon wanted to do the Gospel Oak - Barking dmu run, but the North London line east of Willesden was closed for long-term repairs. Replacement buses were provided - but not along the route of the closed line. The ‘NL’ bus ran round in circles and ended up at Kensal Rise, less than a mile from where it started, and here we had to change onto the No 46, a service which must qualify for the most circuitous bus route in London. We had been advised on the ‘NL’ to stay on the 46 to Camden Road and then catch another railreplacement service back to Gospel Oak. Well, after about 45 minutes of free-for-all in the North London rush hour traffic we got off and walked the last mile. Forget your central London tourist spots. Forget Oxford Street, forget the ‘glamorous’ railway stations. This was real London, the nitty-gritty, where real Londoners live. And I hated everything about it. Give me smuckling good Norfolk any day. When we eventually found Gospel Oak, a Class 117 was waiting, and took us over the rooftops of Leytonstone and E17 to Barking at 1745. Ever since Willesden, some of the party had been looking for a toilet. There was hardly likely to be one on the buses, but neither could one be found at Gospel Oak or on the dmu. There must be one on Barking station. No - we asked - go to the shopping mall over the road. We did - just as it was closing at 6 pm. Nothing for it - catch a train to Fenchurch Street - after all, they were fairly empty in that direction. The Misery line lived up to its name - the toilet on the Class 302 was locked out of use! Chris commented on the refurbishment of the stock, since he had used it to commute, but to the rest of us it looked rather past its sell-by date! Fortunately, toilets were found at Fenchurch Street, and were not chocka with commuters - they were all crammed on the platforms waiting for the late-running trains. After further refreshment we walked to the Docklands station at Tower Gateway (not well signposted!) - by now, at 6.45pm, it was dark and not many travellers were using the DLR. So we got front seats, all taking turns to be driver! As the line beyond Canary Wharf was closed due to the IRA bomb outrage and buses being substituted, we travelled on the Beckton line as far as Royal Albert, returning to Poplar and then to Stratford. What a scenic railway ride it was, even at night, twisting and turning, up and down, with thousands of lights shining like stars in the dark and reflecting off the dock waters, with Canary Wharf tower standing like a very large candle, firstly to the right, then to the left. All too soon it was over as we arrived at Stratford, passing the new station at Pudding Mill Lane. Then Central Line tube back to Liverpool Street, with time for a drink and reflection, before catching the 2030 to Norwich, which arrived home (late, due to a faulty signal between Claydon and Needham Market) at 2228. 16 trains, 2 buses and miles of walking had been endured in 17½ hours. Who says trainspotters have no stamina? During the excitement of the day, Mike’s camera jammed as 58014 passed 47004; Chris’s camera stopped working when his battery exploded in the excitement as two Eurostars passed and forcing him to scour most of the chemists of NW London for a replacement; Peter was so heavy with his shutter finger that he ran out of film; while Gordon just . . . .ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Gordon Bruce, with assistance from Mike Fordham (he wrote down the engine numbers!)
Page 7 T he “Norfolkman” had just arrived from London with Stratford-allocated Class 7MT 4-6-2 No 70000 Britannia in charge, and stood quietly at the Thorpe Station buffer stops, with the locomotive crew patiently awaiting removal of the coaching stock before reversing out of the platform to the depot for servicing. You could be forgiven for thinking that this was the first paragraph of another of Ken Mills’ reminiscences of forty years ago. But Norwich was treated to such a spectacle as recently as Saturday 23 March 1996. It all started with my brother Neil, a ‘born-again steam fan’, ringing me our of the blue to say that he had booked us on the Britannia Locomotive Society’s excursion from Finsbury Park to Norwich and back. Here was an opportunity to turn back the clock and sample once again the sounds and smells of a giant returning to its spiritual home. Looks of astonishment from commuters on the King’s Cross suburban trains greeted the large crowd of steam enthusiasts on Platform 2 at Finsbury Park station, as they awaited the arrival of their excursion train to Norwich. Rarely had such a destination appeared on the electronic destination displays. Anticipation grew to fever pitch as the station announcer warned us of the train’s impending arrival. Stored overnight at Bounds Green Depot, north of Finsbury Park, the locomotive heralded its approach with some nice chords from the chime whistle. Through the crowd I caught a brief glimpse of David Ward, and couldn’t help wondering if he had somehow had a hand in the day’s events. Oddly, the train headed south from Finsbury Park towards King’s Cross, in the opposite direction to Norwich, before soon turning left, beneath the ‘Up Goods’ flyover, to gain the spur through Drayton Park and the 545-yard long Canonbury Tunnel. Once out we again turned left to join the tracks of the former North London Railway at Canonbury West Junction. Now proceeding eastwards, we passed an electric-hauled westbound container train and one of the third-rail emus on the North Woolwich service. On through Dalston, Hackney and Homerton, passing beneath the Liverpool Street to Enfield line, until, just beyond Hackney Wick station (formerly Victoria Park), we swung left again through Lea Junction and High Meads Junction, taking the route which avoids Stratford station and passes to the west of the depot and works complex. Left again at Temple Mills East Junction, and we were now running westwards along the Lea Valley, past the site of the marshalling yards and Lea Bridge station. Just beyond the Chingford branch overbridge we gained the Liverpool Street to Cambridge main line at Copper Mill Junction, while the speed, which had been very low to this point, started to rise a little, although the booked stop at Tottenham Hale precluded any sustained effort. It had taken us over 40 minutes and 9¼ miles of track in a Uturn pattern to reach Tottenham Hale, which stands about 3 miles from Finsbury Park as the crow flies. A well-filled platform of railway fans here, the first of many similar sightings throughout the trip. While we were a few minutes late away from Tottenham Hale, the relatively easy recovery time of 36 minutes for the 24 miles to the next booked stop at Bishops Stortford ensured us an on-time schedule there and as far north as Ely. Speed rose significantly now, as the Pacific started to show the world that not all steam locomotives run as slowly as those on preserved lines. We were running within the current timetable, designed for the electric services, so keeping our path was essential to avoid any delays to following trains. Ten o’clock saw us departing from Bishops Stortford for the 26 miles north to Cambridge, where our booked arrival time was 1034. Speed was steady in the mid-50s as we passed the triangular junction to Stansted Airport, and this was held on the up-grade over the frequently-curving track through Elsenham and Newport to Audley End and the twin tunnels beyond. From here on, with grades in our favour, the final thirteen miles to the University city seemed to pass quickly as speeds rose to above the mile-a-minute. Significantly, a Cambridge to King’s Cross emu was held at Shepreth Branch Junction to await our passing. Platforms were crowded with fans and families at Cambridge, where we rested for eight minutes before pressing on northwards across the featureless fen to Ely, fifteen miles distant. Pulling into platform 1 here, the 12- car train was only just accommodated as we paused for 45 minutes to take on water. The opportunity was not missed by the passengers, and many rolls of film and video were duly exposed. Water was provided via a fairly small-bore hose connected to the station hydrant. I was told by a presiding fire officer that their bowser was unavailable, and alternative arrangements had had to be made. Due to the close proximity of the overhead wires, the water plug on top of the tender (built to take water from the numerous platform-end cranes formerly in use) could not be utilised, and consequently water had to be TRUE BRIT Ken Mills
Page 8 pumped in at the bottom of the tender, the device being later returned to the support coach for safekeeping. A further oddity was the sight of several ‘hundredweightbags’ of coal, secured by chains and stacked in the redundant space around the water plug at the rear of the tender. Better to be safe than sorry! Away on time from Ely at 1145, the lively run to Wymondham was marred by an unscheduled halt at Brandon, where employees with a red flag notified the crew that the signalbox was switched out. While this annoying occurrence cost us around 10 minutes on the schedule, the pacific was taken to task to accelerate the 400-ton load from a standing start over the gently rising and curving road through the pine forests to Thetford, where the station and footbridge were packed with well -wishers. Personally, I couldn’t remember a previous occasion when we hadn’t stopped there, but Britannia was in no mood to linger and stormed through at full speed in what must have been a very stirring audiovisual happening. Wymondham did us proud, with a brass band playing and TV cameras rolling, plus the now expected throngs of people turning out to witness the unusual event - incomplete until Mr David Turner was spotted wearing his stationmaster’s hat. Away from Wymondham about 10 minutes down for the short sprint to Norwich, we arrived to a great welcome of photographers and sightseers all the way in from Lakenham. Various NRS members were seen in fields or on bridges and, of course, on the platform at Thorpe Station. Fellow passengers were most impressed to learn that my wife Sandy brought my lunch down to the station for me - nothing like a little sophistication now and again! While the loco ran back to Crown Point for turning and servicing, a Class 08 shunter marshalled the stock out of and then back into Platform 2, where the departure indicator noted that the train was the 1422 for Finsbury Park ‘Special Steam Excursion’. My brother and Graham Kenworthy retired to a nearby hostelry to renew their acquaintance after some 38 short years had slipped by, while I chatted with Gerry Wright and Graham Smith on the station concourse, where I couldn’t help noticing a bewhiskered gentleman shuffle past. Alan Peglar, in my estimation, can be attributed with the accolade of being the ‘father of preservation’ in some respects. ‘The Man Who Bought The Flying Scotsman’, in his own way, started what we and hundreds of others were enjoying today - privatelyowned steam locomotives running excursion trains for enthusiasts over BR metals. Somebody had to be first and show the way ahead. Well done, Alan! Servicing at Crown Point took a little longer than expected, and we were about 10 minutes late away from Norwich and consequently from the Wymondham stop as well. But from here until a slowing at Lakenheath (31 miles) No 70000 showed us a modicum of what we used to expect from these engines in East Anglia. A cracking start from Wymondham soon accelerated us to the 15-seconds-per- ¼-mile and then beyond. Speeds ranged consistently between 66 and 73mph for the whole of the journey until the Lakenheath check. Rollicking through the Norfolk countryside with the continuous ‘stack music’ from the front end, punctuated by frequent chimes from the whistle, brought back past memories, aided by the while fleecy steam clouds drifting past the windows and the manner in which the exhaust hung fleetingly under the road overbridges. Water was once again taken at Ely, and this procedure caused us to miss our path south, following rather than preceding the 1636 to Cambridge and King’s Cross. We remained 20 down leaving Cambridge, from which point a further lively run ensued to Bishops Stortford, although again the run was marred by having to wait at Stansted South Junction for one of the Airport expresses to go ahead of us. While passing through the Audley End tunnels, I had again forgotten what used to be a regular phenomenon in steam days - that the windows became white with the smoke and steam inside the tunnel, only to rapidly evaporate on contact with the fresh air. Our 20-minute time deficit was reduced by 5 mins with smart running on to Tottenham Hale, but as we retraced our tracks through Temple Mills and back along the North London, disaster struck at Canonbury. It had been pleasant, hearing the chime whistle, then looking up to see the residents of nearby terraced houses waving from their windows, but a points failure here set us back a further 50 minutes as maintenance staff had to be summoned from King’s Cross to effect repairs. A loud cheer greeted the loco whistle as we moved off gingerly through Canonbury West Junction, through the tunnel and finally gained Platform 7 at Finsbury Park by using the ‘dive-under’ beneath the main line tracks from King’s Cross. Intended arrival time was 1816, but the actual was 1930. Although I estimated the passenger loading to be between 650 and 700, everybody left the station very quickly and quietly. While I was buying my ticket for Liverpool Street (I had to return to Norwich, and in doing so passed through all of East Anglia’s tunnels!) the final sound of the chime whistle indicated the loco and train were leaving for Bounds Green. It had been an interesting, well-organised and nostalgic day with good company en route, all the right noises from the front end, plus a total of 254 miles of steam haulage. Here’s to the next time!!