STEAMING SIXTIES SERIES IN COLOUR

OUT NOW!

Euston to St Pancras via Yorkshire

Or: A Tale of Two Cup Finals...

By Robin Charlton

A giant cake slice of London Midland steam, roaming north on Cup Final Day from Euston, then in the turmoil of rebuilding, followed by a ramble around some of the coal country of Yorkshire, still barely touched by diesels and returning via the Midland to St Pancras, on yet another Cup Final Day. Magical.

DUE JUNE

By George Reeve

The map of the Southern, or rather the South Western part of it, rather resembles a river flowing east, that dendritic, tree-like pattern that ends 'upstream' at its extremities in the west in branches, though 'twigs' are what some of its farthest reaches call to mind. In winter a South Western branch to the seaside might be a branch like any other yet, especially in summer, they became linked directly to London, as a sequence of expresses were timed to make a succession of main line connections, dropping off coaches in an intricate system that would be wholly impossible with the stock, low staffing levels and simplified layouts we have now. Not to mention the closed and lifted branches! This access to the capital was unique; nowhere else in the country could you board a coach at your local sleepy station, amid fields, hedgerows and twittering birds and expect next to be in London, more than 200 miles away. It derived of course from the West Country and its singular attraction to Britain's growing army of holidaymakers. It was what historians called the 'seaside holiday habit' (making it appear slightly disreputable) and they came not just from London but from the Midlands and the North. In a direct through coach your bulging suitcase, hoisted with a sigh of regret (or maybe not, given the weather) into the luggage rack within sight and sound of seagulls and the sea, didn't move till the slamming of doors and the steam and smoke of Waterloo. A perfect system!

Slides from the cameras of George Powell and John Eyers

DUE JUNE

By George Reeve

How a boy's horizon has widened from those far off days. The height of adventure for us in 1964 was an afternoon/early evening session watching trains at Woking - the highlight of course being hauled by Pacifics there and back - something not possible anywhere much else in the country by then. A cheap day return from Streatham Hill was the order of the day (or rather long summer evening) which cost about 3/4d - I remember that because one day we didn't get the right train from Waterloo and to our horror the guard warned that 'next time he caught us' (and we believed him) he'd charge us the full adult fare of Waterloo to Woking which was 6/8d, a third of a pound and the price of a 45 rpm single. A faded and folded but precious relic, one of my surviving notebooks for 1964/65; on a special 25th May 1964 we left Waterloo (me, Les Hewitson, Les Tibble and Lucien Kmiotek) on the 4.15 behind 34005 BARNSTAPLE to arrive at Woking, returning behind 35019 FRENCH LINE CGT as dusk beckoned. But of the wider Southern beyond, we knew too little until our holiday in Bournemouth that same year, staying with another class mate, a one Robert Millard, and his aunt - a strange woman to say the least... The following summer the railway press (I've never been able to establish the veracity of this) announced that it 'was understood' that ten Duchess Pacifics might be coming from the London Midland Region 'to replace the Merchant Navy class on the Bournemouth line'. We were outraged!

Slides from the cameras of George Powell and John Eyers

OUT NOW!

Paul Anderson

During the summer of 1967, despite the imminent extinction of BR steam in the North East, there were two lines where ageing locos could be seen in all their volcanic glory. These were the railways serving coal mines at Silksworth and South Hetton south of Sunderland. Both of them involved very steep gradients, but the origin and setting of these railways were entirely different. The Silksworth branch was built specifically to give access to the colliery of that name. Part of it was completely dominated by the gigantic spoil heap of Ryhope pit and the views of J27s slogging uphill were truly spectacular. Access to South Hetton involved the very early Durham & Sunderland Railway, which was almost entirely worked by stationary engines and ropes for many years. The steepest part of the line was Seaton Bank in open farmland, so there were no birds-eye panoramas to be had. However, J27s and Q6s were pounding away just as heavily and the visual effects on these pages are virtually audible.

AVAILABLE SEPTEMBER 2008