STEAMING SIXTIES SERIES IN COLOUR

By Terence Dorrity

A collection of colour photographs from the ancient counties of Merionethshire, Montgomeryshire and Cardiganshire. Manors, moguls and many others amid glorious scenery. Early narrow gauge too, in those unimaginable mists of time when BR actually owned the Welshpool and Llanfair!

64 pages, hardback

ISBN 978-1-906919-83-2

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By Terence Dorrity

In the 1960s railways in Ireland were run by the Ulster Transport Authority (UTA) in the North and Córas Iompair Éireann (CIE) in the Republic. Like British Railways and CIE, the UTA was the result of nationalisation of the railways and it also included bus services and road haulage under its remit. Although obviously not part of British Railways the UTA network was, in a sense, the United Kingdom’s seventh railway region. At the time that the photographs in this book were taken, in 1963 and 1964, there was still a lot of railway activity to see and a fleet of steam locomotives that was very much to the British taste. The most numerous NCC locomotives, the WT class 2-6-4Ts and the W class 2-6-0s, clearly showed their LMS Derby roots. The ex-GNR(I) locomotives were of particular interest. A number of them were 4-4-0s, a wheel arrangement that was becoming rare in Britain at the time, and some of them still carried the GNR(I) blue livery and names. Steam locomotives could be seen hauling express, local and freight trains. There were two busy operational steam sheds in Belfast, at Adelaide and York Road and, among others, a roundhouse at Portadown. It was all shortly to end, but with the pictures in this book we can relive a little the swansong of steam in Ireland.

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By Paul Anderson

There were 44 coded sheds in Scotland during BR days and with one exception all of them lasted until the 1960s. In addition around forty sub-sheds and a number of signing-on points were in use. St Margarets, in the east end of Edinburgh, was a classic example of a shed having outstations, no less than eight sub-sheds and eleven signing-on points existing at one time or another. There were little sheds like Helmsdale and Forres, with an allocation of just five locos some time during the 1950s and enormous depots such as St Margarets, with 221 engines in 1950 and Polmadie in Glasgow with 182 in 1959. Each shed had its own character and the allocation reflected its duties. In 1950, nine out of twelve locos at Fort William were named K2s and K4s, the balance being three 0-6-0s for goods. At the same time, the six residents of Helensburgh were all V1 2-6-2Ts for suburban passenger work. Also in 1950, only three of the 35 engines at Grangemouth were classed as passenger locos. Then there were the two main sheds with Pacifics and other large engines for express passenger trains, Polmadie serving the West Coast south from Glasgow Central and Haymarket for East Coast services out of Edinburgh Waverley. This book is a glimpse of locos on shed in Scotland during the last decade of steam, although a few interesting 1959 views have been included. It is obviously not comprehensive as everything depended on where A.G. Forsyth ventured, when he went (the weather was always vital for success) and what he decided to photograph. Haymarket, St Margarets and Dalry Road in Edinburgh are featured, but in their declining days. The same applies to Polmadie, Eastfield and Corkerhill in Glasgow. Perth and Dundee are covered well, as are less celebrated sheds such as Bathgate and Dunfermline. There is also an impression of the final years at Thornton, Ferryhill and Stirling. Hints of Hawick, Dawsholm, Balornock, Ardrossan and Kittybrewster are included. Finally, the sub-shed at Montrose gets a look-in and two immaculate locos are seen at Inverurie Works. The reader will no doubt enjoy seeing several engines in sparkling condition, including WD 2-8-0s. Not every BR loco was disgracefully filthy in the 1960s!

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By Michael Poulter

One summer’s day in July 2010 the author made an excursion to the Peak District to revisit haunts of times past, to discover if any of that sixties nostalgia still lingered on in those limestone hills. He trod once again on the ground of the Cromford and High Peak Railway at the bottom of the Sheep Pasture Incline nestling in the Derwent Valley about a mile south east of Cromford Village. It was the water tower here that seemed to embody that nostalgia with fatigued paintwork and blobs of mold. Out of use since closure in April 1967 the four ton wrought iron water tank still sat on a five metre high stack of tar covered timber baulks. It would have probably lived through a hundred years in this form. In sharp contrast a steaming sixties reminiscence was sampled on the 30th January 2010 in the form of ‘The Cotton Mill Express’. A bright frosty morning yielded a day of bitter cold. Huddled in the waiting room at Lancaster were many expectant passengers of a more than a certain age. The lack of heating was a chilling reminder of the sixties although when the special rolled in over an hour late with a paucity of information there was a sense that not much had changed after all.

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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.

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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

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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

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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.