Steam - BR and beyond-

In 1969 this engine headed a five week ‘Buy British’ campain in the United States of America, which meant that the engine, along with a complete advertising set-up including authentic London Transport double decker bus, was shipped across the Atlantic. Unfortunately things didn’t turn out as well as people were expecting, and over the next year or so, it looked as if the engine might not return to Britian.

The picture below shows some of the ‘roving sales ambassadors’ along with examples of typical ‘souvenirs’.

Only recently I unearthed an old scrapbook containing a wealth of railway related pictures and newspaper cuttings spanning the late sixties and the early seventies. Over this short period of time, Britain saw the end of regular steam hauled trains as well as the forming of the first of the societies who were to preserve a cross-section of locomotives, rolling stock and branch lines for future generations to enjoy.

Whilst this web site is far too small to host the entire contents of my collection, it covers a representative selection of articles mainly in chronological order, along with any associated pictures.

STEAM BR and BEYOND PAGE LINKS:

PRESERVED RAILWAYS 2001 IMAGE CDROM

Preserved railways from the South of England, featuring high resolution images of everything from locomotives and rolling stock, to station details and signals. Perfect for nostalgia, railway modellers and simply those who wish to see what is available before setting out to see one of the NINE railways depicted.

LINK: LONDON TRANSPORT STEAM 1863-1971

LINK: STEAM BR AND BEYOND PAGE 2

LINK: MISCELLANEA PAGES

LINK: BULLEID PACIFIC PAGE

LINK: BARRY SCRAPYARD PICTURES



		L94 at Neasden on the London Underground in 1971.


	LINK: THE LATEST IN STEAM ENGINE DESIGN - THE YEAR IS 1912


	LINK: GARRETT LOCOMOTIVES AND RAILWAY NEWS - from 1932


	LINK: MODERN RAILWAY SIGNALLING and BLOCK WORKING - from 1932


	LINK: STEAM SPOT A varied collection of images from vintage BR RAIL NEWS


	Although my interest in railways has never extended to diesel locomotives, I feel that the picture which follows is appropriate. Dated June 19th.1962, it is headed ‘Flying Scotsman does Centenary run in six hours’. In an attempt to compete with the airlines, BR managed to knock off sixty-two minutes from the average journey time as well as offering ‘a better view of the scenery’ along the way. The train was hauled by diesel electric Deltic locomotive ‘Nimbus’.


	In 1862, the 392.7 miles from Kings Cross to Waverley station Edinburgh took ten and a half hours. By 1876 this had been reduced to 9 hours and from 1937 until the outbreak of war in 1939 it was down to seven.


	With steam traction departing from the Midland and Northern regions first, many classes of locomotives were to disappear without any examples being preserved, particularly in the goods and mixed traffic areas. Even one of the best known express locomotives, namely the Gresley A3, has only one example remaining.


		The ‘sister’ streamlined A4’s fared much better however, as 6 of the class were to survive, including ‘Dwight D Eisenhower’, which is seen in the picture (below right) being shipped to the American National Railroad Museum in Winconsin as a gift of friendship from British railwaymen to their American counterparts.

	*LAST STOP - BUTLINS* FAMOUS RAILWAY ENGINES PURCHASED FOR HOLIDAY CAMPS

(Left). The band of the 1st. Bn. the Royal Scots Regiment form a guard of honour as the ‘Royal Scot’ is laid to rest at Skegness.

( Below). Mr. Charles Keighley shows a party of children over the Princess Margaret Rose at Pwllheli


	Two of the few lucky survivors from the ex. London Midland and Scottish region were the ‘Royal Scot’ and ‘Princess Margaret Rose’, rescued by Billy Butlins for static display at his holiday camps at Skegness and Pwllheli. The two engines deteriorated rapidly in the sea air, and have since been relocated.

The picture of the Royal Scot to the left, was taken at Boston Loco. on the 22nd. June 1963, a weeks before it went to Skegness. Ex. LNER Fireman Roy Hudson acted as guard on the footplate when both Royal Scot and a smaller J6 loco. were towed to Butlins.

Many thanks to Roy for both the information and for letting us use this picture on the site.


	1967 was to see the end of steam in the few remaining BR regions such as the line bound for the South coast from Waterloo. The picture below shows ‘Orient Line’ leaving Waterloo on the last day of steam on the Southern. ‘Clan Line’, another Bulleid Merchant Navy pacific, was the other locomotive to haul the special trains that day, but unlike it’s sister engine, has survived as a preserved locomotive and was often seen hauling ‘steam specials’ well into the late 1990’s.

I myself took several trips up to Waterloo in the last few months of steam in 1967, and on one afternoon managed to ‘log’ the following steam locomotives. Note that all three of the ‘named’ engines were minus their name plates by then:

34024 ‘Tamar Valley’ West Country class

34102 ‘Lapford’ West Country class

34013 ‘Okehampton’ West Country class

41312 ex. LMS 2-6-2

Sadly, out of this group of locomotives, only the Ivatt 2-6-2T was to survive into preservation.


					Built in May 1952, this locomotive spent all of it’s 15 year life working on the Southern region of British Rail, seeing service initially in the Dover and Margate areas before being transferred to Barnstaple Junction on the North Devon coast. In 1963 No. 41312 was re-allocated to Brighton, but moved again a year later, this time to Bournmouth. As the steam services were gradually withdrawn over the coming years, No. 41312 worked the last booked steam service over the Lymington branch before being transferred for the last time to Nine Elms, where it spent the remainder of it’s BR days on shunting duties around Waterloo station. Sent to Woodham Brothers scrap yard in Souh Wales, the loco spent 6 years amongst the ranks of condemmed locomotives before being acquired by the Caerphilly Railway Society in August 1974.

	TOO OLD AT 41.. stated the Sun newspaper on Thursday November 14th. 1968. Saved by Bulmers the cider manufacturers, ‘King George V’ ran on the private track in Hereford being disallowed from travelling on BR metals after the ‘ban’ on private steam locomotives had been put into place. The British Railways board had claimed that a steam locomotive would ‘harm their progressive image’.


	Elsewhere in the country, other regions were running their last steam hauled trains. On August 11th, a special with 15 guinea seats (£15.75) claimed that only 50 of the 462 seats were untaken for the trip. Several locomotives were used for the excursion, including Britannia pacific 70013 ‘Oliver Cromwell’ and Stanier ‘Black 5’ 45110, both depicted below:


	45110 stops at Parkside. It was here in 1830 amid similar excitement that Mr. William Huskisson, MP, was run down and killed by a train at the opening of the Liverpool to Manchester Railway.


	‘Oliver Cromwell’ makes an unscheduled stop for water at Hellifield before the climb up Ais Gill and onto Carlisle.


	Even with regular steam hauled trains now at an end, there were still opportunities to see a few of the preserved locomotives hauling special trains every few months, until British Rail finally put a ban on all such operations. One of the regular visitors to the LNER lines out of London even after the ‘ban’ was ‘The Flying Scotsman’; but only because a special contract had been drawn up beforehand. Seen here passing the ‘Standard Telephones and Cables’ building about 10 miles North of Kings Cross; the second tender being added to enable the engine to carry sufficient reserves of coal and water to complete the long runs without stopping.



	Taken in the United States, the requirements of the American ‘Railroads’ are all too clearly seen in the form of the headlight, the bell on the bufferbeam, and the ‘cow catcher’. (below)


	Of course locomotives are not much use for pulling trains when there are no lines to run them on, so a number of preservation societies started negotiating to buy up sections of branch lines which were either closed, or on the point of closure. Following in the footsteps of the ‘Bluebell Line’ down in the Southern counties, the Keighley and Worth Valley railway opened up at about this time. This line has subsequently been chosen as the location for the making of several films. Seen below is the ‘Re-opening special’ train as it leaves Keighley on it’s first trip to Oxenhope headed by former LMS 2-6-2T No. 41241 and USA class 0-6-0T No. 72.


	Funding is perhaps one of the most difficult sides to securing a locomotive or a branch line, so when there is a popular television programme with the same name as that of your locomotive, the extra interest it creates can only be good news for generating badly needed support. This is what happened in the case of Peppercorn A2/3 pacific No. 60532 ‘Blue Peter’.



				In the far left hand picture, BBC ‘Blue Peter’ programme presenter Peter Purves is watching chargehand painter Herbert Betts attempting to have the job done by the time he retires after 49 years’ service painting locomotives at Doncaster works. In the picture (below) an estimated 50,000 people turned out to witness the re-naming ceremony by Valerie Singleton and John Noakes, personalities from the programme.



	It is interesting to note that as the engine was actually completed under BR management, it would have never been seen running in LNER livery.


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