ISSUE Number 64

Keeping Calm & Carrying On!

st WATFORD BRANCH NEWSLETTER Issue Date – 31 March 2020

From the Chairman

elcome to a rare event – another Watford Branch Newsletter! By now, every one of our members will be W aware of the current crisis with regard to the Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, and the restrictions it has put on all our lives – especially as many of us are in the ‘vulnerable’ demographic. The branch committee hopes that everyone is safe and well and that once this period is over we can get back to a more normal situation – though that timescale at the moment is an unknown.

Prior to the government’s decrees on social distancing and any sort of mass gathering not being allowed to go ahead, your committee was in discussions as to whether we should continue with meetings as advertised and Rob Davidson sent out emails to all those on our e-mail contacts list to sound out opinions. We received a good number of replies though without any consensus, some wishing to carry on and some thinking we should cancel. I gave a presentation to a reduced audience at the RCTS Peterborough Branch on Thursday 12th March 2020 – and the subject came up as to whether meetings could still go ahead, or if some sort of guidance might come from the Management Committee/Society Trustees.

Things rapidly escalated and the decisions were taken out of our hands, firstly by the speaker due to give the Watford Branch presentation on 7th April having to pull out as he is in one of the groups with serious underlying health problems and is also his elderly mother’s prime carer. Adrian had also had to pull out of his presentation to the South Essex Branch on Monday 16th March and also had to cancel meetings of the Stevenage Locomotive Society, where he is the Fixtures Secretary, and where I was due to give a presentation on Thursday 26th March.

Secondly, David Jackman, who had been involved in our discussions and is also one of the society webmasters who was updating the RCTS site as things developed, informed us that some branches were cancelling and some not, at that stage. David informed us that a MC/Trustees meeting was scheduled for the following Saturday, 21st March and the prospect of postponing April’s national AGM in Coventry would be discussed.

Events then overtook that as well as the government edicts went out that all social contact must be kept to the minimum, with all those that could to remain at home apart from essential and key workers, so the decision was made that all RCTS meetings, events, visits etc. would be cancelled/postponed for the foreseeable future – the website being updated to show the status of events.

The committee hopes that we will be able to recommence our programme in the not too far distant future, subject to speaker availability, venue availability and so on.

In the meantime, our Treasurer, Richard Dyett, came up with the suggestion that occasional Newsletters should be sent out to keep everyone informed and also to make sure that by the end of several weeks/months of self- isolation/quarantine that the RCTS was at least still somewhere in everyone’s minds and not forgotten.

Apart from simply keeping in touch with news of what’s happening, Richard also thought it would be a good idea if we asked for contributions to the Newsletter from our members to keep us all interested, informed and entertained, something along the lines of: "My earliest railway memory", "my best cop", "brushes with the authorities when shed bashing", "recent gossip" etc.

A Charitable Incorporated Organisation registered with The Charities Commission. Registered number 1169995. If anyone does have something in mind they would like to contribute, including photos, please send your articles, scribblings or whatever to me at: [email protected] and I will attempt to incorporate them into some sort of document to be sent out by e-mail.

Please submit written contributions as Microsoft “word” documents and photos as jpeg files (not too large! 800 x 600 pixels, or thereabouts, is fine).

Thanks in advance and stay safe.

Geoff Plumb, Chairman, RCTS Watford Branch

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To get things under way, I was contacted on the evening of 25th March by Humphrey Gillott, one of our regular attendees at meetings, who kindly phoned to wish me a “Happy Birthday” (71st, since you ask!) whilst I was enjoying a pint of real ale delivered from my local pub in Haddenham (they have had to close for the duration and were giving away their remaining stocks to regular customers – very kind of them) in front of a log fire and listening to a bit of Bach on the CD player (that’s Johann Sebastian, not Dai!). We had a long and enjoyable chat covering various subjects, including model railways, and also talked about various footplate trips on railtours long gone by. One that came up was the RCTS ‘The Grafton Railtour’ that ran on 9th August 1959, so I thought I would reminisce a little about that trip. RCTS (London Branch), ‘The Grafton Railtour’, Sunday 9th August 1959

This was a very complicated tour involving the use of six engines (not all at once!) over diverse routes, inevitably eventually running at ‘Railtour Standard Time’ and then some! Weather-wise, it was mostly cloudy and dull.

The train, consisting of seven coaches of mainly former LNER stock, including a restaurant car, was booked to depart from King’s Cross at 09:10, the first leg to Hitchin hauled by North British built Class 21 (later Class 29) Bo-Bo No. D6101, then only a few months old. At Hitchin, the diesel came off and was replaced by a somewhat older engine in the form of MR 3F 0-6-0 No. 43474, built by Neilson, Reid in Glasgow in 1896. This was a Bedford allocated engine and hauled the train to Bedford Midland Road via Shefford, over the line later used for the filming of the wonderful sequence with the ‘Jones Goods’, HR No. 103, for ‘Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines’ with Terry Thomas, among many others. The 3F, like all the other steam locos involved in the tour, was filthy dirty.

The 3F came off the train at Bedford and was replaced by ‘Black 5’ 4-6-0 No. 45193 for the next stretch. My father Derek, whom many of you will remember, was conducting his usual duties on many tours, that of fitting the RCTS headboard to the engines involved. This was always a good way to introduce himself to the engine crews and having ‘the gift of the gab’ he would often be offered a trip on the footplate, in those far off days of flexible interpretation of the rules!

So it was on this occasion, except that I, as a ten-year-old, was included as well, much to my delight! Not only was the engine filthy, it was obviously rather a long time out of works and was a pretty rough rider as we set off northwards along the Midland Main Line, though only as far as Oakley Junction where we took the line through Olney to Northampton Bridge Street and on to Blisworth. The junctions here were rather complicated and involved crossing the WCML, the train having to reverse here to continue on the S&MJR line towards Towcester. No. 45193 came off the train and was replaced by an equally filthy No. 45091 on the other end of the train.

With the change of engine came a change of the headboard too, so my father and I continued on the footplate of this engine, to another reversal at Byfield. Here the engine ran-round, and we continued to Woodford Halse running tenderfirst. Having run-round again the train set off southwards down the (the GCR went down to London, whereas most lines went up to London). So far, I had spent much of the time on the footplate standing up and trying to keep out of the fireman’s way, also quickly learning that it was not a good idea to stand on the fall-plate (the flexible flap that covered the gap in the floor between the engine and tender) as this bucked about quite violently. On this section of the main line I was advised to sit in the fireman’s seat and hang on as the train got up to over 70mph as we roared through Brackley and (see later article) to yet another reversal at Calvert. Page | 2

We ran-round again at Calvert and then it was another tenderfirst run through Claydon and onto Verney Junction where another reversal took place. In order to run-round though, the engine had to go all the way to Winslow to cross over and return, this exercise taking around twenty minutes against the booked eight minutes allowed.

Setting off from Verney Junction, the train took the line to and through Brackley for the second time, though on a different route, then via Cockley Brake Junction, where the line from Green’s Norton Junction trailed-in and on to Banbury Merton Street, the terminus of the line. Fortunately, plenty of time had been allowed here for the complicated moves to get the train from Merton Street to the adjacent Banbury General station.

I can’t recall the exact moves to accomplish this, but one possibility was that 45091 ran-round the train in the Merton Street platform and then hauled the train out of the station passing the gas works yard to cross over to the far side of the lines, as there was only one track that connected between the two stations. As there was a loco change here, presumably the next engine, GWR 57xx 0-6-0PT No. 3646 would have come on to the other end to take the train onto the GWR metals. However, the connecting spur only went into the GWR upside sidings, so perhaps further shunting was required to access a platform road. Presumably, passengers had to detrain for these manoeuvres, but an hour and ten minutes were booked for the shunting. Nevertheless, it seemed there was not enough time for the RCTS headboard to be transferred from the ‘Black 5’ to the pannier tank, as photos of the next leg to Leamington Spa show the train without it – and the pannier was as dirty as the previous engines. The cabs of panniers are rather cramped, so we did not ride on the footplate on this stretch.

A further engine change took place at Leamington exchange sidings, the pannier coming off and replaced by another filthy ‘Black 5’, No. 44833. Again, I’m not sure how this happened but there was presumably an opportunity to get the headboard on the ‘Black 5’ and also onto the footplate. It took some time here to move over the boundary from the Western Region to the London Midland Region – so much for the joined-up thinking of a nationalised concern! Once we got away it was then onwards tenderfirst to Kenilworth and the junction for the line to Berkswell, where we were booked to reverse again. As we approached Berkswell, a family having an early evening picnic in a field adjacent to the line waved to us as we went by – the engine crew and ourselves waving back – an idyllic English scene!

It was at Berkswell that the fun really started – it being a Sunday, there were engineering works on the Trent Valley line and all trains diverted through Coventry and on to Birmingham. The only way for 44833 to run-round the train, which it had to leave on the down line from Kenilworth short of the junction, was to go out onto the mainline and cross over in the station in order to reach the up line to Kenilworth. Normally, this would have been fine but with all the diverted trains taking up the available paths it took ages before No. 44833 could crossover between the other trains. To compound the issue, there was no crossover from the up to down Kenilworth line at Berkswell, so the engine had to work light all the way back to Kenilworth Junction to crossover. As the engine was going back to Kenilworth, the picnic family were still in the field, so we waved again.

I cannot now recall whether we were able to cross over at Kenilworth Junction or if we had to go all the way to Kenilworth station and crossover there. Whichever it was, we were soon back on the line to Berkswell to pick up the train again. By this time, our mystified family were still in the field, giving us a wave again. We coupled up to our train and soon set off back towards Kenilworth and Leamington Spa, passing the same field once again. The family were still there, now giving only a tentative wave, looking at each other and perhaps thinking: “I wonder who those idiots are playing trains and rushing backwards and forwards?!”

After this ‘run-around run-round’ we were more-or-less running on ‘Railtour Standard Time’, i.e. an hour late, but more time was lost at Leamington Spa again in transferring from the London Midland Region to Western Region and then taking the line towards Daventry and Weedon. At Weedon we had to wait for a path south on the WCML, whilst at least one southbound express went past, behind a ‘Coronation’ Pacific. The tour train then continued south to Leighton Buzzard and then over the branch through Dunstable to Luton Bute Street. There the ‘Black 5’ came off the train to be replaced by D6101 again for the final leg through Harpenden East to Welwyn Garden City and then up the ECML to King’s Cross. Arrival time was 22:35, against a booked arrival of 20:42 – quite a day out! Sadly, this was in the days before I had a camera, so I have been fortunate in being sent some photos of the trip by well-known photographers and society members, so I hope it’s not out of order to reproduce a few pictures in this account.

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Above Left: From the Geoff Plumb Collection, photo by Les Hanson. Filthy ‘Black 5’ 4-6-0 No. 45139 is at the head of the RCTS ‘The Grafton Railtour’ at Northampton Bridge Street Level-Crossing with my father Derek and myself leaning out of the cab window, Sunday 9th August 1959. This loco worked the leg of the tour from Bedford to Blisworth, part of a very complicated itinerary that started from King's Cross and I spent much of the day on the footplates of three different ‘Black 5s’ - happy days!

Above Right: From the Geoff Plumb Collection, photo by Michael Mensing. After the engine change at Blisworth, No. 45091 is leading the train as it approaches Byfield on the S&MJR, where it reversed again to make its way to Woodford Halse, on Sunday 9th August 1959. My father and I can be seen looking out from the cab of the engine. This photo appeared in the RO together with the report of the tour.

Above Left: From the Geoff Plumb Collection, photo by Michael Mensing. LMS Stanier ‘Black 5’ 4-6-0 No. 45091 in full cry southbound along the GCR main line near Culworth at the head of the RCTS "The Grafton Railtour" at 13:27 on Sunday 9th August 1959. A young Geoff Plumb can just be seen hanging on for grim death in the fireman's seat as the engine was somewhat of a rough rider!

Above Right: From the Geoff Plumb Collection, photo by Michael Mensing. GWR 57xx Class 0-6-0PT No. 3646 worked the leg of the RCTS ‘The Grafton Railtour’ from Banbury General station to Leamington Spa, here seen along the route in about the only sunny spell of the whole tour! Sunday 9th August 1959.

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Previous page bottom left: Kenilworth Junction as it is today - The Branch Line Society ‘Fenny Crompton’ tour is passing the site of the old Kenilworth Junction where the former line from Berkswell trails in from under the bridge on the left. This is also where the double track starts for the Up & Down Loop at Kenilworth North Junction to Kenilworth South Junction, as seen from the rear cab of 47746 at 11:49¾ on Saturday 3rd March 2020. Photo © Geoff Plumb.

Previous page bottom right: From the Geoff Plumb Collection, photo by Michael Mensing. Filthy LMS ‘Black 5’ 4-6-0 No. 44833 heads the RCTS ‘The Grafton Railtour’ along the line from Leamington Spa to Weedon just east of Napton & Stockton. The train was running about an hour late at this point at 18:59 after earlier run-round problems at Berkswell and other delays. The small boy looking out of the cab window is yours truly, I spent much of the day travelling on the footplates of the various locos involved in the tour!

That’s all from me for the moment folks, now over to our branch secretary Rob Davidson. ********************************************************************************

Back in November 2009, whilst working at Baker Street Signalling Centre, I went and took a few photos of now long gone scenes.

Starting at Liverpool Street Station Metropolitan, Circle and Hammersmith & City, we see the boarded up Platform 3 where in the peak hours Amersham and Chesham trains would depart and also H&C and Circle in early morning and late night workings. It faced West and if you look carefully out of the window on the right just before the station heading East you will be able to see what’s left.

The first one on the left shows the buffer stops at the tunnel wall and the second one shows the view looking in.

The third and fourth ones are another two views looking in and the fifth and sixth ones are looking out – top of next page.

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Next, moving down to Moorgate where we see the disused NR City Widened Lines P5 & P6 looking in (left below), and the next two are P5 looking out and P6 looking out.

Finally we move down to Barbican Station, once again concentrating on the City Widened Lines and the following photos as below:

1. Barbican Station & Signal Cabin

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2 & 3. Barbican Station Disused Crossover Up to Down 4. Barbican Station Looking Down to Farringdon 5. Barbican Signal Cabin 6. Barbican CWL Ground Frame The Signal Box was transformed into an office for the Divisional Inspector but has now sadly been pulled down as it was deemed dangerous. The ground frame was between the two running lines as l remember

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Now over to Bernie Holland for a report on his visit to the Network SouthEast Railway Society at Finmere Station.

FINMERE STATION GALA 13th August 2016 – A Report by Bernie Holland (ex-RCTS)

Finmere Station can be regarded as one of the best kept secrets of modern day railway preservation, as if you don’t know exactly where this former Great Central station is located, then you have little or no chance of ever finding it. Nevertheless, on Saturday 13th August 2016, I was able to complete a 50 mile road trip from my home in Wealdstone, to arrive on-site some 1¼ miles southwest of Finmere itself. This site, which accommodates a limited stretch of standard gauge track and sidings, is currently at risk of obliteration by HS2, that being a topic which continues to raise controversy to date but need not be discussed here.

On arrival I was greeted by the sight of a large freight-container painted up in NSE colours, bearing a British Rail station sign together with Red Star –Parcels Point logo. More of this unusual object later. . . .

Another weird and wonderful ‘large exhibit’ was what I can only describe as a ‘composite vehicle’ which consisted of the front section of a London Bus (DMS 1515) along with a rear section of Electric Multiple Unit No. 321434 (replete in NSE colours) connected by a middle piece resembling a section of London Underground ‘deep-level’ stock. The complete item bore registration plates THM 515M which would suggest it can operate on the national road system.

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Author’s Note: In the appendix to this article will be found an image of EMU 321434 in the ‘Silverlink’ purple and green livery, photographed by me in January 2002 at my local station – Harrow and Wealdstone, which was part of the Network SouthEast system from 1986 until 7th February 1997 when the new ‘Silverlink’ franchise was awarded to National Express who were to take over North London Railways Ltd, a shadow franchise created when the Network SouthEast sector of British Rail began to be prepared for privatisation on 1st April 1994. This new franchise began on 3rd March 1997 and was due to end on 15th October 2006, but on 11th August 2006 the DfT extended the franchise to finish on 11th November 2007. Chris Green inaugurated the Network SouthEast initiative at Waterloo on 10th June 1986, however, it was not until 1989 that the Class 321 25kv AC EMUs were first turned out from BREL, York, as ‘state-of-the-art’ traction capable of running at 100 mph.

The first types of the 1963 design BR(S) EMUs to be introduced were the 4 CIGs and their buffet equivalents the 4 BIGs. The first batch were assigned to the Brighton line which gave the units their designation - IG was the LBSCR telegraphic code for Brighton. Early units introduced in 1964/5 were painted BR(S) green with small yellow panels, the only 1963 design stock to be so. This generation of stock was built to the later Mk1 body design, and as an innovation to SR EMUs the two driving cars were unpowered (driving trailer composites - DTCs) and the formation includes an intermediate non-driving motor brake coach (non-driving motor brake second saloon - MBSO) with two power bogies. The fourth car in the formation is a trailer second saloon (TSO) in the CIGs and a trailer buffet second (TBUF) in the BIGs. (Again, see Appendix for images of these slam-door units in their final years – and being dragged to scrap yards in South Wales)

However, this is all purely academic as the layout at Finmere is non electrified. Returning to Finmere Station we see 4-CIG 1753 carrying the special ‘30 Years’ celebration headboard on the rear of the special train. In the back ground can be seen staff involved in preparing refreshments for the guests who will attend the ‘naming ceremony’ of 1753.

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Interior of 4-CIG No.1753

Whilst all the preparations were going ahead, I decided to take a look inside the interior of 1753 and I was very impressed with how clean and tidy it was, however, to be quite realistic here, back in the day of packed commuter trains which allowed people to smoke inside, I doubt whether the interiors would have been as pristine as seen here. Another consideration was that the toilets used to empty directly down onto the tracks and the signs requesting ‘please do not use the toilet whilst the train is standing in the station’.

Boxes of cartons, for use in connection with the refreshments, are piled high on the seats here, which are upholstered in the 1980s Network South East ‘Blue Blaze’ moquette.

The Inaugural Train – 4-CIG 1753 ‘Chris Green’ headed by EPS E/D 73130

When I took this photo of the train, I had to ask the identity of the locomotive as it carried no numerals. When informed it was 73130, I remembered seeing this ‘electro-diesel’ many times from the platform at Kensington Olympia as it was one of a pair (along with 73118) that had been equipped with the rather unsightly Scharfenberg couplers and Air and Electro-Pneumatic Brakes for use on European Passenger Services stock moves between Waterloo International and the Eurostar Depot which was originally sited at North Pole Depot, not far from Old Oak Common. The characteristic EPS ‘three rings’ can be seen on the bodyside which was an identifying feature of these locos. Page | 10

When I got back home much later, I managed to find a couple of transparencies in my extensive slide collection, showing 73130 when it was in everyday service. You will find these images in the Appendix to this article.

Here we see Dave East waiting for Chris Green to join him for the naming ceremony which involved the unveiling of the nameplate and plaque by a rather ingenious method. Earlier that morning I was on the other side of the coach and I observed two gentlemen filling a pouch, made from the red cloth seen here, with a fair amount of ballast. This weighed it down creating sufficient tension for the cloth to ‘fly off’ when the ribbons were cut by Chris, who was heard to say: “I hope I don’t fly off with it, when it goes!”.

The box placed on the table in the foreground here, contained a special cake commemorating the 30 years – 1986 to 2016 - as the spirit of Network SouthEast was alive and permeated this entire event.

After the naming ceremony came the customary ‘photo-call’ and here we see, from left to right, Chris Osman, Alex Forbes, Chris Green and Dave East.

Chris Osman was the ‘NSE 30’ Project Manager, Alex Forbes was a central figure in establishing Finmere Station as the site for these operations back in 2002, Chris Green has been described as: “probably the best manager British Rail never had!” and Dave East is the NSE Railway Society Chairman, who as well as assisting Chris Osman in this unique event, has also put a lot of work into the Society Web Site, which provides a wealth of information about the history of Network South East. For further details click on:- http://www.nsers.org Page | 11

Chris Green and Dave East share a ‘friendly exchange’ as preparations are made NOT to cut the cake yet – as the buffet is about to be declared open.

THE CAKE !

‘Ode to a Cake’ by Bernie Holland

“Oh Great Cake of Enn Ess Eee

30 Years have passed and We

Stand together Side by Side

Spreading Friendship far and Wide”

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And then as the clock struck eleven, the ‘Buffet’ was declared open and everyone had the chance to share their interests with each other and have a bite to eat under the great red gazebo which stood on the island platform that, in days gone by, would serve the trains of the former which worked up and down between London Marylebone and Nottingham Victoria.

Now let us return to that freight-container we saw earlier - this served as the Museum and perhaps the most striking feature was the giant photographic print which opened out for all to see.

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Chris was marvelling at the mechanics of this piece, commenting on how ingenious the load-bearing structure functioned – and below, Dave stands proudly beside the massive print which had been specially produced by a company in Lancing.

“IZZY WIZZY LET’s GET BIZZY !”

I had the opportunity to speak for a while with a charming young lady by the name of Izzy who gave a fascinating account of how 4-CIG 1753 was moved back from a scrapyard in Caerwent, South Wales, and refurbished for use by the society. After we had finished talking, I walked away thinking: “this lady is a credit to the world of railway preservation.” Page | 14

And so, after all the excitement, some time to wander around the site at Finmere.

Some old upper-quadrant ‘home’ semaphore arms dumped unceremoniously. These items should really be kept safe from the ravages of the weather, as they are valuable components of a possible future signalling project.

Electro-Diesel No.73130 prepares to depart on another run to the buffers and back. The actual running line was not much more than a few hundred yards in length; however, it was enough to give the impression that you were actually going somewhere.

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For those of an ‘agricultural’ persuasion, the Bicester Vintage Tractor Club was very well represented with a substantial number of exhibits. Tractors

And a steam traction engine !

‘Wallace & Stevens’ built in 1916 – 100 years old and ‘not out’.

And so to say farewell – and make my way back home. Page | 16

APPENDIX of SUPPLEMENTARY IMAGES

On arriving home, I immediately checked my catalogue of 35mm transparencies, which runs to around 40,000 items covering nearly every class of steam, diesel and electric locomotive, spanning a period of some 180 years, from Brunel’s Broad Gauge right up to the present day. Sure enough I found two images showing 73130 in days gone by.

The first image shows 73130 in ‘Intercity’ livery bearing the name City of Portsmouth heading a train of tank wagons, forming the 08:28 Fawley Oil Refinery to Hollybourne emerging from Pirbright Tunnel on 30th July 1991. The ‘pilot’ locomotive is 73108 seen here in what was known as either the ‘Dutch’ or the ‘Civil Engineers’ livery.

Class 73 Electro-Diesels at Kensington Olympia

The second image of 73130 was taken at what used to be a ‘photographic hotspot’ this being the northbound platform at Kensington Olympia. I used to meet many railway photographers here, and we were never troubled by over-zealous station staff!

The pair of EPS Class 73s is seen working light en route to the Eurostar Depot at North Pole Junction. 73130 leads 73118 at 11:56 on 2nd November 1999. At this time it was not uncommon to see these locomotives working empty stock movements of Eurostar Class 373 fixed formation electric multiple units. Capable of working either by drawing power from the third rail, or by using diesel traction on unelectrified routes (such as Finmere !) these were versatile and reliable locomotives. Their hey-day of passenger working was on the trains from Victoria to Gatwick Airport.

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Silverlink Trains at Harrow & Wealdstone

Here is the picture of 321434 which I mentioned earlier, seen on a Euston to Rugby ‘Silverlink’ service calling at Harrow & Wealdstone at 14.22 on 3rd January 2002. Note the wooden cladding which was erected at this time when the old ‘mail chutes’ were being converted into lifts for wheelchair users and others with similar mobility problems.

When I took this photograph at my local station in 2002, little did I imagine that some 14 years later I would see the front end of it incorporated as a part of that ‘composite’ vehicle at Finmere Station.

Connex South Central Trains

Connex South Central liveried 421/3 (4-CIG) EMU 1734 passes Christchurch with a Gatwick to Bournemouth service on 8th August 1998. This picture was taken by my friend John Chalcraft who lives in the West Country. This 4-car unit is virtually identical to the example preserved at Finmere.

There were a number of reasons why these, and other EMU types were withdrawn and condemned during the modernisation of the early years of the millennium, one being that passengers could alight from these trains whilst they were still moving. Health and Safety decided to bring an end to the era of ‘slam-door’ stock by stipulating that new designs had to have doors controlled only by the driver. Page | 18

4 CIG at Hounslow - 2005

Here is an example of a Class 421/8 (4-CIG) EMU in Network South East Livery. 1398 is seen on a down train calling at Hounslow at 11:46 on 5th February 2005. However, the actual reason for visiting this station was to photograph a pair of 73s which were working a railtour from Crewe to Liverpool Street – this was just an ‘incidental’ shot, which as things turned out, has come in very handy in illustrating this article. Notice the cast-concrete footbridge, typical of Southern Region station furniture.

Even at this time (2005) the writing was on the wall for the ‘slam-door’ emus, as the railway privatisation brought about a programme of investment in more modern stock. During the following couple of years, there was the wholesale withdrawal of many types of ‘slam-door’ stock which were rapidly being supplanted by new designs. However, railway observers were generally less than enthusiastic about what was being described as the ‘new age of plastic’. The old stock rapidly disappeared to storage sites, one of the largest being near Shoeburyness, from where the condemned stock would be hauled to various scrapyards in South Wales.

6V91 Shoeburyness to Newport ‘Scrappex’

Here is a view I took at West Drayton at 13:45 on Monday 6th March 2006 showing EWS liveried 66019 heading a rake of withdrawn Connex and Southern EMU stock en route from Shoeburyness to Newport – presumably Cashmore’s yard.

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The stock forming this consist is as follows:

76085 (1745), 76031 (1745), 76049 (1709), 76888 (3568), 76066 (1724), 76072 (1740), 76103 (1709), 76878 (3585), 76051 (1735), 76121 (1737), 76129 (1738) and 76877 (3565)

And here is the ‘going-away’ shot of the same train taken from the other side of the bridge with the train approaching West Drayton Station on the down-slow line, where it runs parallel with the Grand Union Canal. Again the date is Monday 6th March 2006. Izzy informed me that 1753 ended up at Caerwent and it would probably have been towed west in a consist not unlike what we see here.

Quite apart from the main subject here, this view has now changed with the electrification of Paddington to Heathrow Airport – and subsequently the major electrification of the Western Main Line to Bath, Bristol and beyond.

I would like to thank Chris Green and all his colleagues on the NSE 30 Celebrations for organising and providing such an enjoyable day out at Finmere for all concerned.

Bernie Holland – Harrow – Monday 15th August 2016.

************************************************************* Many thanks to Rob and Bernie for those contributions, and I hope you all enjoyed them. Richard Dyett has just sent me an article to be added to the Newsletter and this is included below – thanks Richard and I hope you all enjoy that too! Thanks for the contributions so far and I look forward to receiving any further material from our members/readers during the coming weeks. Please feel free to send any comments on the articles and answers to Richard’s questions in the item below.

I hope that everyone remains healthy, sane and safe and that we all keep ‘bu99erring-on’…

Geoff Plumb, Chairman, RCTS Watford Branch.

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GREATEST COPS (Richard Dyett)

Tell us about your greatest cops, steam or modern traction. I will start things off with two memories:

Lady of Lynn 28th February 1952. My brother was born the previous day, so I assume that my father wanted to entertain me, aged 4, while my mother was in hospital. He took me on a trip from Paddington, probably to Reading. As we passed the coal truck sidings at Old Oak Common ( where Heathrow Express trains now stable) he shouted out “Good heavens, there’s Lady of Lynn”, No. 2906, one of the few remaining ‘Saints’ and a Cardiff loco. I can just recall the black loco as we passed by. It was withdrawn in the August.

K2 61749 3rd May 1958, FA Cup Final day. I am in the fields at South Kenton, where the GCR crosses the North Western, waiting for FA Cup Final specials. There is a clanking from above and LNER K2 2-6-0 No. 61749, a very exotic beast for the London area, passes by on a passenger train. It was a Colwick engine, probably borrowed by Woodford Halse, and the RO reported it as working the 12.32 Marylebone to Brackley. It was the only K2 that I ever saw. Can you remember who the 1958 Cup Final was between?

RAMBLINGS OF A LONDON SPOTTER IN THE 1950s AND 60s (Richard Dyett)

The following are random memories from the steam age. There is no particular theme, but I hope that it revives some memories of your own and leads you to put ‘pen to paper’ for the next Newsletter.

I was brought up in Kensal Rise, Willesden, and my father, Ted Dyett, was an early member of the RCTS (No. 705). My earliest railway recollection is being taken in my pushchair to Old Oak Common, into the small area of waste ground, where the WLR crossed the Great Western. The most vivid memories are of the ‘Sunny South Express’ on Saturday afternoons, usually hauled by one of the beautiful Marsh Atlantics (I am looking forward to seeing the new Beachy Head), which took over the train at Mitre Bridge Junction. The West London at this point had a steep gradient up from Addison Road. When transfer freights were in the hands of LNWR 7Fs, they occasionally stalled on the bank, followed by much whistling and a long wait until a rescue loco was sent down from Willesden.

Below are two photos of the connecting line between the WLR and the Great Western, taken in the Summer of 1962: SR Class W 2-6-4T No. 31919 on a freight, presumably for Acton Yard and GWR ‘Hall’ Class 4-6-0 No. 4941, Llangedwyn Hall, backing down to Addison Road to take over an excursion.

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My abiding memory of Cricklewood is that 3F 0-6-0 No. 43261 seemed to be permanently stored next to the side entrance off Edgware Road. However, a quick bit of research today shows it must have gone back into service at some point, as it was withdrawn from Gorton, in December 1962.

A question for you. By the mid-50s London was bereft of loco’s with 50000 numbers. But No. 58131 lingered on at Kentish Town for several years. There must have been a working for which a 2F was particularly suitable. Does anyone know what it was?

My only real brush with authority was in Willesden shed in 1956. A friend and I were being threatened with dire things in the Foreman’s office, but my main memory of the occasion is the very low numbered WD 2-8-0, No. 90001, sliding past the office window while we took our ‘beating’.

I associate Kings Cross not so much with the Pacifics, but with B1 No. 61251 Oliver Bury. I guess that I generally arrived at the Cross at a similar time on each visit, as Oliver Bury always seemed to be at the buffers on Platform 5 or 6 having worked in from Immingham.

Most of you will remember the big freeze of 1963. The RCTS had a Stratford visit on 13th January and among the locos dumped in the icy wastes out the back was N1 Class 0-6-2T, No. 69461, which had been used for carriage heating at Shoeburyness.

For me, the most depressing visit of the 60s was to Old Oak Common in Autumn 1962, to find several ‘Kings’ and a couple of ‘Castles’ dumped in a line near to the canal and already looking very tatty. It was only a few weeks before that they looked in prime condition hauling the Birmingham expresses. Below is a photo of No. 6010 King Charles I, at the head of the line, taken in March 1963.

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