Page 1 EDITOR : Gordon Bruce, 2 Sawyers Close, Costessey, NORWICH NR5 0SR (Tel. 01603 747256) DISTRIBUTION : Graham Smith, 7 Caistor Lane, Poringland, NORWICH NR14 7QT (Tel. 01492 492096) NEWSLETTER Vol 43 No 1 January 1997 12345678901234567890 FORTHCOMING MEETINGS Jan 16 - “The Talyllyn Railway and Other Matters” - Arnold Hoskins. Jan 18 - Society Open Day. See Page 5 & flyer at back for details. Feb 6 - “A Rail Strategy for Norfolk” - Mike Youngs. Feb 20 - “Very British Railways of Egypt, Hellesdon and India” - David Wright. March 6 - “Bohemian Rhapsody in Blue” - Chris King & Paul Hudson. All Meetings at Ipswich Road United Reformed Church The Society enters its 42nd year in fine style with an Open Day on January 18th. Please try to come along for as long as you can - there is sure to be something for everyone! Full details of what’s happening can be found on p 5. Subscriptions for the coming year are now due, and a renewal form can be found at the back of this newsletter. In this issue : Meeting Reports . . . . . . . . . . . 2 GOODS TRAFFIC ON THE ECR - Part 2 Richard Joby continues his account . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 WITH THE KING TO DRAKE’S ANCHORAGE Ken Mills takes a steam trip on a GWR giant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 OBITUARY to Bernard Adams . .8
Page 2 SURPRISE PACKET 7th November 1996 After dropping his slides in the rain and dark on his way to the meeting, Richard Adderson was far from confident that his show would go according to plan. But he need not have worried, as he provided an excellent evening’s entertainment. He began by announcing the sad news that ex-NRS member Bernard Adams had died a few days before. By way of tribute he showed some slides from Bernard’s camera. Thereafter, his evening was split into themes. First came ‘Cranes’, which covered both modest ex-GER static goods yard devices and travelling steam giants. An awesome sight was the preserved steam crane from Exmouth Junction demonstrating its capabilities on the Mid-Hants Railway. The next section could perhaps be called “How I Spent the Summer”! Richard had visited the defunct ‘royal’ display at Windsor & Eton station, the Leighton Buzzard narrow gauge railway, the Severn Valley (as usual!), Quainton Road (home to a wonderful array of preservation projects) - and Florida, where it seemed he’d gone AWOL from the family holiday every evening in order to watch and photograph sparse Amtrak workings. Back in the UK, a ‘Deltic’ sequence included nearly all 22 locomotives, photographed at different ECML spots. Richard found the class particularly charismatic and he displayed an extraordinarily complete knowledge of their names, numbers, withdrawal dates and shed allocations. In an unusual ‘people’ section, Richard demonstrated that including one or more figures in a railway scene - be they passengers, footplatemen or even a line of enthusiasts taking their own shots! - could enliven an otherwise dull photograph. “Welcome back!” was the title of his final section. It featured locomotives he’d photographed twenty or more years ago, never imagining that one day they’d be brought back to life in preservation allowing him to take them once again in a new guise. An old friend was one of the very earliest Drewry-built ‘04s’, no 11103, which he remembered trundling along the Yarmouth quayside; as D2203, it was now in service on the Yorkshire Dales Railway. There were similar before-and-after slides of ‘WC’ Pacific 34101 Hartland in the 1960s at Basingstoke and after restoration on the Great Central; and GWR 0-4-2T no 1466 on the last day of the Tiverton Jct to Tiverton service, and in recent years wandering from one preserved line to another. Birmingham Snow Hill provided another fascinating contrast, its previous and current roles separated by many years of dereliction. Finally, a Cromer picture of ‘B12’ no 61572 in a rusty and woebegone state, being towed to an uncertain future, was juxtaposed with several attractive shots of its triumphant first workings on the North Norfolk Railway. (MJH) MEETING REPORTS MURDER ALONG THE LINE I, for one, no longer believe in the old complaint that there is never a policeman around when you need one. Within minutes of receiving the news from Dave Carson that he could not appear on October 3rd as promised, Cliff Wraite phoned to volunteer his services as ‘deputy’. As usual, the railway content in his talks was only ‘the coffin in which to put the body’; having said that, the evening was, once again, rich in entertainment. The main line detail of the murders in question was liberally sprinkled with short (and sometimes not so short) excursions onto connecting branch line themes. However, arrival at the final destination was more or less dead on time. No doubt the inquest will be reopened in the not too distant future. (Dave Carson will be visiting sometime in the Spring.) (GLK)
Page 3 On the other side of the region, Ipswich was left isolated by the 1839 decision of the ECR not to build north of Colchester. Local endeavour by the Cobbold family of bankers and brewers led to the construction of the Eastern Union Railway in 1846, continuing to Norwich in 1849, but even before that the need for a railway was noted by the press. Many of the roads in Norfolk were stated to be half a yard deep in mud and almost impassable. Heavy goods in large quantities had lately been sent from Norwich to London and thence to Ipswich - 196 miles instead of 40 by road - rail being cheaper and quicker. There was a suggestion to widen and level the turnpikes and lay down tramways for horses or engines of small power to connect to the principal railway. The Eastern Union Railway, centred on Ipswich, was independent of the ECR for eight years after opening from Ipswich to Colchester. Partly because of the obstructive attitude of the ECR, the EUR built up a fleet of steamships which it used to bypass the ECR connection to London. Most of its locomotives were passenger or mixed traffic types. An early description of the line (1849) indicates one of the traffics : “The tall chimneys of the Stowmarket brewery, from which manufactory issues a beautiful ‘pale ale’, now running a tilt in the East India markets with the beverages of Bass and Hodgson, and the numerous lofty cowls and gables of malthouses give liveliness to the prospect.” The other railways feeding the ECR included the East Anglian Railway. Goods facilities were constructed with the railway. Sheds and pens were installed and sidings put in at St Germans, Denver, Hilgay and Sporle. Profits were made from goods traffic, even during construction, as chalk from the deep Swaffham cutting was made into lime and sold to local farmers. There was a ready sale of gravel taken from the works which was sold to fenland farmers to make roads. Income from goods in 1853 was : Parcels & horses £653 Goods, coal, cattle etc £13,363 Mails £360 as against £8937 Passenger income, yet only two of the ten locomotives were for goods traffic - 0- 4-2s built by Sharp Stewart. The main goods traffic that developed on the ECR was coal. Some 40% of its total goods traffic was the great flow of coal from Peterborough Stanground Exchange Sidings to Stratford, but there were also other important flows from coastal ports and the Thames to inland sites, many of them quite short hauls : “The last branch railway it behoves us to speak of is the line to [North] Woolwich : but though we allude to it last, it is by no means the least important. Diverging at Stratford, it runs to the north bank of the Thames, a distance of two and a half miles, and terminates at a pier constructed for the purpose of unloading coals from the colliers. This line was projected by Mr G P Bidder, the engineer, who saw that the great public advantage would arise from the transmission of coals from the river Thames to Stratford, and thence by Eastern Counties Railways into Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Essex, and other counties. The Act for making the line was obtained in 1844; and passing over a flat district of marshes, it was made at a much less expense than most other lines. Near the pier is where the coals are screened and sorted.” (Guide to the ECR, London, 1851) The North Woolwich line served industrial sites, but its terminus was the site of a pleasure ground and developments of the North Woolwich Land Company. David Waddington was in charge of this side of the business, negotiating an agreement with the General Steam Navigation Company, GOODS TRAFFIC ON THE EASTERN COUNTIES RAILWAY FROM 1839 (Part 2) Richard Joby
Page 4 investing in vessels and buying Southend Pier on behalf of the ECR. Developments at North Woolwich were slow in appearing. A comment by the vicar of Dereham, the Rev Benjamin Armstrong, sets the scene for the effect of railways observed by a member of the public : “What wonderful things are railways! And how enterprising are Norfolk farmers! Found a parishioner going into Hampshire to spend £300 on sheep and, by the power of steam, thousands of pigs are sent from our market at Dereham to be converted into Hampshire hogs! Carriage all the way 1/6d each!” (B Armstrong - Diaries, 1857) Ports from the Thames to the Wash were actively developed during the life of the ECR (1839- 1862). The fastest growing port was Lowestoft, where the contractor for much of the ECR and Norfolk lines, Samuel Morton Peto, lived nearby and made it one of his most important projects. Peto used the harbour that he had expanded for importing coal, timber, cattle and for landing fish and also for exporting the rails, locomotives and other hardware for his Danish and Norwegian railway contracts, using his own steam shipping company. The harbour was then sold to the ECR, from which a bad-tempered report issued by the Committee of Investigation emerged in 1856 : LOWESTOFT HARBOUR “We briefly direct your attention to Lowestoft Harbour. We cannot understand why this harbour has been taken by the Eastern Counties. It can result only in taking the trade from Great Yarmouth, and involving this company in vast expenses and loss; no favouritism, no preference shown to it, can ever make it of any value to you; its cost exceeding its earnings. Much injustice towards the agriculturists of England has been practised, as is instanced in taking foreign beasts from Lowestoft to London for 5s a distance of 145 miles, bringing those beasts through Norwich 20 miles nearer to London, whilst the English farmers’ beasts are charged 12s for the carriage of 125 miles; it is and must remain a ruinous adjunct to the Eastern Counties; unless indeed the sea should wash up the sand to the destruction of your harbour - which your committee were informed on their visit of inspection to that place was most probable - thus relieving this company from any further loss. “Your committee in the inquiry into this subject were informed that Sir S M Peto, in the first instance, brought the parties (Messrs E & A Prior) who represent this firm to Lowestoft as coal merchants, and in that year 1853 there was no arrangement or agreement with this company to have coals conveyed over the Eastern Counties and the Norfolk, at a rate averaging not more than seven-sixteenths of a penny per ton. This sum as alleged to be charged in consideration of their bringing a large quantity of coal over the line and that no other firm was to be charged so low a rate.” (ECR Committee of Inspection Report, Bradshaw, 1856) Coupled with this low rate were other advantages. Norfolk & Eastern Counties Coal Company Advertisements in the paper headed ECR stating coal prices. “Sir S M Peto bought Messrs E & A Prior and in 1853 agreed to convey coals over the ECR and NR at 7/16d per ton. This was the lowest rate of any. 200 wagons were in constant use, coal depots, sidings etc, with ECR paying coal dues. Coal bought for cash, but 2 - 3 months credit for haulage from ECR. Station masters were fully occupied with coal, so complaints from other customers. Gooch and Peto were the principal partners - this was known to Waddington - he traded with them for locomotive coal. This helped destroy other coal merchants. In 1854 NECCC sent coal onto EUR lines. Gooch interfered at Waddington ordered Moseley (Traffic Manager) to reduce rates. A rebate of £1900 was made on the retrospective lowering of rates. Coal wagons for the NECCC increased to 500, thus excluding others. These were repaired at Stratford and the account for repairs was unpaid. The committee recommend throwing open the trade.” (ECR Committee of Inspection Report, Bradshaw, 1856) (To be continued)
Page 5 NORFOLK RAILWAY SOCIETY OPEN DAY The Norfolk Railway Society will be staging an Open Day on Saturday 18th January 1997 at Ipswich Road United Reformed Church. The aims are to show the public the Society’s aims and interests, and also for members to get together and have a good time! As with the 40th Anniversary Open Day in 1995 there will be archive material on display, model layouts (bring your own 0 or 00-gauge models to run), slides, videos and refreshments. There will also be a Photographic Competition on steam subjects, in which members can submit up to three subjects per class. Two classes - colour slides/prints and black & white, with prizes (rolls of film) in each together with an Overall Winner. (See note at rear of newsletter for more details.) Order of Events (approximate timings) - 10.00 - 1pm Setting up 1.00 - 4.00 Archives, model layouts, slides videos plus a Photographic Clinic 3.00 Audio - Visual Slide Show - Gordon Bruce (probably a new one) 3.30 NRS Members’ visits to Paris and Amsterdam - Mike Fordham 4.00 Photographic Contest Display 5.00 Refreshments 6.00 Photographic Competition - Results 6.30 “Railway Poster Art” an illustrated talk by Peter Larter. 8.00 Raffle draw, snacks. 8.15 Quiz.
Page 6 A rriving via the Hammersmith & City Line meant entry to the station via the long footbridge, offering wonderful elevated views of Paddington’s platforms, tracks, trains and graceful roof spans. The stage was set for a day tracing the erstwhile broad gauge of Brunel fame for some 225 miles south-west to Plymouth, and if this alone wasn’t sufficient reason, the motive power certainly was. It had been over ten years since the GW150 celebrations, which had brought various steam locomotives back to former Great Western lines, and, at that time, one of the famous ‘King’ class 4-6-0s had ventured along its old haunts as far as Plymouth. We were repeating the exercise by utilising the ‘Flying Dutchman’ railtour on Saturday 9th November 1996. Fifteen minutes before departure time, the consist, composed of a Brush class 47, 13 coaches and the 4-6-0, set back carefully into Platform 1. No 6024 King Edward I, looking regal in his highly burnished livery, sat quietly and revelled in the fans’ admiration. A shrill ‘peep’ from the guard’s whistle, quickly followed by a mellow ‘toot’ from the ‘King’ and we were rolling. Easing gently away from the platform and over several crossovers to gain the main running lines, the sharp crack of the 4- cylinder exhaust reverberated from the trackside buildings. Opening the regulator wider now, we passed Old Oak Common and Acton, and rolled quickly through Ealing, the ‘final frontier’ of the Underground system in West London, on through the cutting beyond and out onto Hanwell viaduct. Rattling at a steady 60mph past the Southall Preservation Group’s depot, we spotted Flying Scotsman’s tender outside plus a couple of industrial tank engines in the yard. First pickup was at Slough, and after a further pleasant run through the sunny autumnal shades of Sonning Cutting we made our second stop at the busy junction of Reading. Here we were supposed to meet up with another steam excursion which was booked to pass Reading at the same time, but we learnt that No 828 was running 40 minutes late so an interesting event was missed. Taking the left-hand tracks onto the Taunton Direct route through Reading West, we followed closely the Kennet & Avon canal through to Newbury, where, at the Racecourse platforms, a water stop occupied some 25 minutes, while the regular HST services overtook and cleared our way for the next section. After a brief pause at Newbury station to pick up further fans, the ‘King’ now faced a 50- mile non-stop run, negotiating a steady rise up to Savernake Forest and then a downhill swoop through Westbury and on to Frome, where the loco took its second drink. The station here, bypassed in 1933, still boasts its all-over wooden roof, which must rank as one of the very few now remaining. Strolling along the platforms in the warm autumn sunshine the 25-minute water stop seemed to pass quickly, and soon King Edward I was whistling for us to entrain once again. While taking water, the locomotive had, as usual, been photographed and admired, but for me the most significant event was hearing the gentle ‘doof-doof . . . doof-doof’ of the power brake pump. I realised that, at last, the Great Western had caught up with the Great Eastern in the choice of brake system! With another 40- mile stretch to Taunton ahead, plus a gradual rising grade to Brewham, the stack-music from the front end was strident. Sweeping down from the summit through the pleasant Somerset countryside, passing Bruton and Castle Cary en route, our momentum carried us along at a fine rate of knots until the flyover supporting the down track of the main line from Bristol hove into sight at Cogload Junction. Although booked to stop at Taunton to pick up our last passengers, somehow the wires got crossed and we sailed through the station to a siding two miles south to take on further water supplies. Later we discovered that six fans left behind had hitched a lift on an HST which passed us while we were watering, and arrangements were made to make an unscheduled stop at Exeter to accommodate them. Their only compensation was that they now had photographs of the ‘King’ entering both Taunton and Exeter. Getting away smartly from the Taunton water stop we passed the renowned Taunton Cider works and could easily follow the route of the With the King to Drake’s Anchorage Ken Mills enjoys a steam trip along the Great Western to South Devon
Page 7 West Somerset Railway connecting line at Norton Fitzwarren. The ‘King’ class locomotives, totalling 30 in number, were built at Swindon between 1927 and 1930, with No 6024 being among the final batch to emerge. The represented the most powerful and heaviest 4-6-0s in the country, weighing in at 136 tons and offering 40,285lbs of tractive effort. Because of their high axle loading they were restricted as to the lines on which they could operate, and tended to work only the Paddington to Wolverhampton, Bristol, Cardiff and Plymouth services. So here we were, with 66-year-old refurbished equipment and 450 tons behind the tender and faced with a stiff 10-mile ascent to Whiteball summit. This commences with a relatively easy five miles at an overall grade of 1 in 175, but culminates with a daunting 5 miles at 1 in 85. Charging the earlier section speed remained steady, but the last four miles saw our velocity drop to around 30mph through the tunnel, but although light rain was now falling there had been no sign of a slip from the traction. The following twenty miles of downhill glee was reeled off in even time, and soon we were rumbling over Cowley Bridge Junction and slowing for the unscheduled Exeter pick-up. Away again beside the Exe river estuary, past Brunel’s original 1847 pump-house at Starcross built for the Exeter to Plymouth atmospheric railway, then speeding along the infamous Dawlish sea-wall, where photographers were out in force not only on the promenade but also on precarious cliff-top vantage points. Our next halt was at Newton Abbot, where two major events were to take place, before the assault on the difficult section over the Dainton and Rattery banks to our destination, Plymouth. One of the events went according to plan, the other did not. Already some 23 minutes behind schedule into Newton Abbot, the final water stop proved to occupy around 1½ hours instead of the 30 minutes allowed. Apparently, the whole town was in the midst of extensive renewal of their water services infrastructure, and this caused the pressure to remain at a much reduced level, a fact which certainly failed to assist the transfer of much-needed H2O into our ‘King’s’ tender. After some time it became evident that some additional backup supply was required, and so the town fire brigade, complete with full bowser, turned out at short notice to come to our rescue and top-up the reserves. The second event posed no problem at all. We were scheduled to add a second locomotive at Newton Abbot to assist No 6024 over the banks to Plymouth. The assistance appeared on time in the form of 2-6-0 No 7325, which I understand lives on the Severn Valley Railway. After coupling up, then waiting for the tender of the train engine to be filled, the mogul also took a top-up, just in case! Because of the time over-run, darkness had now fallen and it was obvious that we would not be able to observe the two locomotives at work over the difficult section to Plymouth. Finally, at 1720, with two locomotives whose combined tractive effort added to only a little short of the massive 2-8-8-2 LNER Garratt, there was a sweet exchange of whistles, about a semitone apart, and the battle commenced. The ascent proper starts at Aller Junction, a mile along the way, but for the following 2½ miles to the tunnel at Dainton Summit gradients average 1 in 45, with some sections at 1 in 37. As ability to see diminished hearing became more acute, and it was fascinating to listen to the twin exhausts of the double-headed train, sometimes in unison, sometimes separate, as the different wheel diameters told their stories. Always the 4-6-0 would be heard above the mogul, whose beats were only audible when not coinciding with the larger engine. Surprisingly soon, and with a good steady haul, we reached the summit and enered Dainton Tunnel, while the ensuing equally steep descent took us at breakneck speed into the Dart valley at Totnes. Using our thus-gained momentum, we were able to begin the charge of Rattery bank in fine style. The early 1 in 55 section levels out to 1 in 200 at Wrangaton, the summit point and 9 miles from Totnes. With the easier grades coming later this was to the locomotives’ advantage, as the steeper climbs could be overcome with the momentum from the previous descent. 6024 and 7325 did not stutter once, but with their combined Garratt power it was almost to be expected. Morley Tunnel filled our carriage with smoke, but this soon evaporated with another ‘big dipper’ descent, this time to Tavistock Junction, close to the well-known Laira engine sheds. A short uphill section and shorter tunnel brought us slowly into North Road station about 1¼ hours late, amidst many flashes from the cameras of the night photographers. The flashes continued as the engines uncoupled from the train and ran back into a further platform, providing Plymouth with a rare sight of two preserved steam locomotives whose ages totalled 130 years. Even at their ‘OAP’ time of life, they experienced no trouble at all in wheeling 450 tons over two steep banks for 31 miles in rainy conditions. Due to the lateness of our train, the return working left us with no time to visit Sir Francis on the Hoe. The Brush ‘47’, performing faultlessly, whistled us back to Paddington in 4 hours to the minute. Although speed up the bank from Tavistock Junction really wasn’t much better than earlier with the steam locomotives and that was with the support coach which stayed behind at Plymouth. It was rumoured that the
Page 8 Longer-serving members of the Society will be sorry to learn that Bernard Adams died on November 4 th, at the age of 79. He was a member for some 20 years, from the mid-sixties to the mid-eighties, during which time he served on the Committee and held the office of Treasurer for some years. Bernard was interested in, and wellinformed on, most aspects of railways, but particularly enjoyed his practical involvement with standard gauge steam through the NRS. He was a keen member of the Sunday morning Thundersley gang at Attleborough and the Green Arrow gang at Norwich, and later spent some memorable weekends as a volunteer fireman at Bressingham. (RJA) CAPTION CONTEST “Now let’s get our story right - when the fire in the tunnel started we followed instructions - uncoupled the train and kept going!” (Mike Fordham) two engines would ‘lodge’ at Paignton until their next turn of duty three weeks later. 450 miles, 225 behind steam, good company and a steady supply of ale, what could be better? Why, 450 miles behind steam!! See you on the next trip! OBITUARY to David & Suzy Pearce, on the birth of a son. At the time of going to press, a name had not been chosen, although a number of suggestions based on former GCR stations have been offered by members (and subsequently rejected!). Any other suggestions would - I understand - be welcome.