All locos were double-chimney ‘Castles’ except 5015 and 5076, two of the best performers. However, these runs were inferior to three I had a couple of months later, the second and third of which I experienced on the footplate during my training at Old Oak Common:
My other journeys, variously from Reading to Oxford and back and between Paddington and Reading, mainly behind Worcester and Old Oak ‘Castles’, passed efficiently enough without any particular fireworks apart from 7032 Denbigh Castle on the 12.5pm Hereford and 5067 St Fagan’s Castle on the 10.5am Hereford, which both sustained 77-79mph between Maidenhead and Acton with nine-coach trains. During this period I travelled behind the following ‘Castles’ (most from 81A and 85A): 4081, 4082, 4096, 4099, 5002, 5008, 5011 (twice), 5014, 5015, 5016, 5017, 5032 (twice), 5042, 5067, 5084, 5087, 5097, 7005 (twice), 7009 (twice), 7011 (twice), 7016, 7018, 7021 (twice), 7028, 7031 (twice), 7033 and 7036.
Ever optimistic, I continued my evening and ‘days off’ excursions far and wide. On 15 March I explored the Kingham–Cheltenham line through the Cotswolds with 2-6-2T 4163 (85B), then took the ‘Cornishman’ again, this time with 5019 Treago Castle, to Birmingham — arriving three minutes early — before returning to London on the 4.30pm Birkenhead with 6021 King Richard II (81A) on nine coaches (335 tons), which ran from Banbury to Paddington in 73 minutes (69 net), arriving four minutes early after top speeds of 92mph at Blackthorn, 56 at Saunderton Summit, a full 96 at Denham and still 94 at Greenford! (See Appendix Table 16.) Things were looking up.
On 27 March I tried the 4.10pm Paddington as far as Banbury with 4089 Donnington Castle (81A) piloted by 6997 Bryn-Ivor Hall (82A). I’ve no idea as to the reason for the pilot; my notes state that all the work was done by the ‘Castle’ and suggest that the ‘Modified Hall’ — off its beaten track — was there solely for decoration! I got out at Banbury (where we arrived three minutes early), for I’d seen ‘King’ 6014 waiting for the 5.10 as we passed Old Oak, and this was one of the last remaining ‘Kings’ behind which I needed a run (the others being 6007, 6020 and 6026). 6014 King Henry VII (84A) ran in on time with eleven coaches (410 tons), touched 83mph at Fosse Road and climbed Hatton Bank with a minimum of 42, arriving at Snow Hill a satisfactory half-minute early. 6019 King Henry V (81A), with nine coaches on the 4.30pm Birkenhead, was punctual, running hard uphill (58mph at Ardley, 57 Saunderton), with 85 at Blackthorn and 83 at Denham.
At around this time I had a few final flings on the West Coast main line. Back in September 1961 I’d been tempted to go down to Rugby on the 1.40pm Euston–Blackpool with ‘Jubilee’ 45703 Thunderer, then at Carlisle Upperby but an engine I’d noted several times in my early train-spotting days at Euston. It had a heavy, twelve-coach train (415 tons gross), which was banked up to Camden by ‘8F’ 48623, but frankly the load was too much for the ‘Jubilee’, and we expended an awful lot of energy (the sounds, living up to the engine’s name, were worth the trip alone) taking 102 minutes to Rugby with just two p-way slacks, managing just 44mph at Tring Summit, scrambling to 70 at Castlethorpe but then falling to 54 at Roade. I had a ticket to Crewe but alighted at Rugby to see if I could do better, but I was forced in the end to take one of a succession of English Electric Type 4 diesels to Crewe, whence I returned, thankfully, with a well-turned-out Willesden-based ‘Scot’, 46144 The Honourable Artillery Company, with ten coaches on the 3.30pm relief train from Holyhead. There was now much electrification activity south of Crewe, and we observed eight severe p-way slacks en route but still managed to arrive in Euston two minutes early on an absurdly easy 190-minute schedule. No 46144 went vigorously enough between the slacks, without exceeding 75mph.
Early in April 1962 I went out and back to Rugby on consecutive days with 46225 Duchess of Gloucester, both times on 450-ton trains — the 10.25am Euston–Windermere and the 1.5pm Euston–Perth. The second run was the more enterprising, clearing Tring at 58mph minimum and sustaining the mid-70s thereafter until a series of severe signal checks into Rugby extended our non-stop time to 100 minutes (83 net). On 2 April I returned with 46170 British Legion on the 9.5am Llandudno; this was only a seven-coach train, so timekeeping was easy, but on the 3rd 45527 Southport did quite well with an enormous fifteen-coach 560-ton load, regaining six minutes (after a fourteen min-late start) on a pretty easy schedule but managing nothing in excess of the 72mph reached through Wembley Central on the last leg.
46170 British Legion backs out of Euston with coaches from an incoming Scottish sleeper service, 20 April 1957.
On 23 April I had another go. Crewe ‘Scot’ 46136 The Border Regiment was motive power for the 11.45am Euston–Crewe semi-fast. Our nine-coach train was banked swiftly to Camden No 1 by D5134, and we then had a plod to Rugby, calling at Watford, Bletchley and Northampton, exceeding 60mph only once in the whole journey — 68 at Cheddington. I’d had enough by Rugby, so I baled out and let 46225 (on the next service north) go, in view of my two runs behind it earlier in the month. Foolish decision — another succession of diesels was my fate, but at least I got a ‘new’ ‘Duchess’ for my return to London from Crewe — 46228 Duchess of Rutland (5A), with a heavy, fourteen coach load (515 tons gross) on a relief Liverpool–Euston express. We left two minutes late, suffered an immediate p-way slowing to 20mph at Betley Road and cleared Whitmore at 55 before the Stafford stop. Then, in addition to the electrification slacks, we got sheep on the line at Colwich and eventually dragged ourselves into Euston twenty minutes late, in 113 minutes from Rugby, the last stop. In between slacks we got our load up to 74mph at Weedon, 76 at Wolverton (after sustaining a minimum of 63 at Roade), 61 at Tring and 78 at Hemel Hempstead.
At the end of April I started my six weeks at Old Oak Common, which I’ll describe in Chapter 15. For most of the three weeks allotted for footplate experience I stayed with my trainee predecessor, Bob Poynter, who was by now Stationmaster at Twyford but also covered the Henley branch. Some days I travelled by DMU straight to Reading to pick up my workings from there; other days I caught a steam commuter train from Twyford to Paddington. Three times I travelled up on the footplate and then out to Old Oak when the engine trailed its empty coaches back to shed. Once this was with Reading ‘Hall’ 5982 Harrington Hall, but one of the suitable trains was a Stafford Road ‘Castle’ turn, and on the other two occasions I went up with 5019 Treago Castle and 5063 Earl Baldwin.
Then, after the excitement of my footplate training on ‘Kings’, ‘Castles’, ‘Halls’, a ‘47xx’, a ‘97xx’ condensing tank and even a few ‘Warships’ and ‘Hymeks’, on Monday 4 June I caught the 7.55am Paddington–Swansea behind 5067 St Fagan’s Castle, to start training in Margam Yard and the Swansea District Office, with daily journeys from Swansea to Port Talbot and back and off-duty commuting to Llanelli and Carmarthen leading me to pastures new …
Tableau 8
5.30pm Oxford–Paddington, April/May 1962
During four weeks of training at Oxford I’d discovered the 5.30pm to Paddington, an odd train whose purpose I’d not really fathomed — and nor had many others, for its six coaches were never more than half full. During the winter days, when I’d used it to sashay back to my digs in Reading, I’d always been able to obtain a compartment to myself in the first coach, right behind the engine, where I could fling the window wide, despite the cold, and listen to the magnificent roar of a ‘Castle’ at speed — the nearest thing to the genuine prewar ‘Cheltenham Flyer’ that I was ever likely to experience. I suppose it was intended to bring the Oxford intelligentsia up to the city for evening cultural events — plays, the opera, concerts etc — but frankly it was a bit early for that. I don’t remember ever seeing swathes of bow-tied gents or women in long gowns awaiting this train.
After my winter jaunts I’d become a bit addicted to this train — if you can be ‘a bit’ addicted to anything. Whilst still residing in the London Division I was tempted to go out of my way to experience it again, so during my last week of training at Reading station itself, on 18 April 1962 (when I’d been working
on a suitable early shift), I made my way to Oxford and waited in anticipation as a resplendent Old Oak double-chimney ‘Castle’, 5001 Llandovery Castle, eased into the platform with its customary rake of six maroon corridor coaches. This 1926-built engine had since had the front half of its frames renewed and at its last works visit in the early summer of 1961 had received a four-row superheat boiler with double chimney. From 1939 to 1958 it had been a Canton resident, but it had come then to Old Oak and since July 1961 had been one of the depot’s top-link locomotives. Although nine months had elapsed since its ‘Heavy General’ repair, and despite having a probable 45,000-50,000 miles already under its belt, it still looked superb as it gleamed in the evening sunshine of this fair April day, appearing sleek and well groomed with its flat-sided Hawksworth tender. I entered the 1946-built Hawksworth SK next to the engine and sat on the window side, facing the engine, on the plump cushions sported by that these coaches. Outline statistics of the ensuing run were given in the previous chapter, and the full log appears in the Appendix (Table 14), but I want to share with you now the emotions I felt on the journey.
Undisturbed in my compartment, I sit pleased with the world as the guard’s whistle blows, and the locomotive gives one shrill whistle and a very satisfying series of emphatic exhaust beats. I feel the pull of the locomotive as we accelerate rapidly past the cemetery on the down side. By Kennington Junction we are already at nearly 60mph, and we fly through Radley, five miles out, in 6¾ minutes, already doing 72mph. We touch 80 between Culham and Appleford Halt, with a beautiful even purr from the engine, and my spirits are uplifted, for we’re clearly in for a fine run. We’ve made even time by Didcot — 10½ miles in 10 minutes 40 seconds — and after we have glided swifly around the East Curve and slowed to 48mph over the East Junction the throttle is opened wide. We accelerate up the fast line like a jet taking off from Heathrow; the surge in the front coach is thrilling. Normally I revel in the scenery as the Thames winds under us between Cholsey and Pangbourne, but I’ve no eyes for the scenery today — my eyes fixed on the second hand of my watch as we pile on the speed, exceeding 90mph at Tilehurst.
The record states that the 27 miles to Reading have been covered in 24 minutes 53 seconds, but the excitement as we tear through the middle road, whistle screaming, exhaust roaring, at a full 91mph, must be truly awe-inspiring to the massed throng of people on Reading station awaiting the next up express. We dash through Sonning Cutting while I’m still savouring the Reading experience, and I scarcely notice the slight easing as we take the reverse curves through Twyford station, whereupon the roar from 5001’s chimney erupts once more, and we gradually accelerate from 84 up to 92 as we cross the Thames on Maidenhead Bridge. We continue at this breakneck speed on the level; there’s no easing for Slough as we rock over the crossings from the Windsor line and hurl ourselves through the station at 91mph, the 18 miles from Reading having taken just 12 minutes 19 seconds. Surely we’re going to pay for this haste — we must catch signals from something soon. But still we charge on, 88 at West Drayton, back up to 90 again by Ealing Broadway, and only then does the driver close the regulator, yet we sweep past Old Oak still doing 70. A slight check to 20mph passing Subway Junction, then it’s clear into the station, and we pull up at the stop-blocks a full seven minutes early, having covered the 63½ miles from Oxford in 53 minutes 9 seconds. Why the haste? I don’t ask. A good engine, a clear road, an enthusiastic driver and a co-operative and competent fireman. And some very satisfied customers, including this one.
* * *
It’s 16 May, my 24th birthday, and I’m still fired up after the magnificent run I had yesterday to Wolverhampton and back on the track-testing train, which exceeded 100mph three times on the return journey behind 7030 Cranbrook Castle (see next chapter). When I get to Old Oak today I see 7030 is booked for a diagram which includes the 5.30pm ‘Oxford Flyer’, and after a day spent in Acton Yard on a 350hp diesel shunter (part of my ‘compulsory’ footplate experience) I get away early to Oxford and show my footplate pass to the driver of 7030 standing in Oxford station on the same six-coach set (188 tons tare, 200 gross) that I experienced last month behind 5001 and again nine days ago when I had Oxford’s 7911 on the Saturday equivalent.
Of course I’m still full of the trip yesterday, and I recount to the driver the speeds I timed on the test train. I’m not sure if he believes me, but at least it might encourage him to see what 7030 can do today. The fireman cedes his tip-up seat to me — ‘I’ll be working pretty hard [or words to that effect], so you might as well have it!’ I lean out, relay the ‘right away’ to the driver, and we’re off. Full regulator, no slip, and we’re away even faster than 5001 was last month. We’re a quarter of a minute up on 5001 at Radley, but then the driver eases back to first port, and I have to be satisfied with 75mph at Appleford Halt before the Didcot Junction slowings. Half regulator and 20% cut-off produces a steady acceleration to 75 by Goring, where we take water at speed, and the driver nudges the regulator on to the second port at Tilehurst, and we approach Reading at 83mph, with me leaning nonchalantly from my perch and feeling the breeze as we sweep through the station, putting on a fine show for the commuters.
The pressure is rock steady at 225lb, and the driver is adjusting the cut-off between 17 and 20%, which induces an acceleration to 84mph by Twyford, 88 at Ruscombe and a full 90 by Maidenhead. I’m looking forward to even more, but the driver then eases the regulator back. ‘Enough’, he murmurs and later expresses concern at what 100mph+ might have felt like on the footplate, as the engine is rolling too much for his liking. I haven’t really noticed this, the movement being slight and even, nothing like some engines I’ve been on, and the fireman has been having no trouble firing steadily at this speed, although I note that his job seems fairly light and that he spends a lot of time hosing to keep the dust down, sweeping the footplate and generally keeping things neat and tidy, despite our 90mph progress. We’re up to 90 again by Burnham, take Slough at 88, shut off steam momentarily at West Drayton, then open out again, back up to 85 by Southall, but we catch sight of double-yellows at Ealing and brake to 70 and then harder, as the Old Oak signals clear only when we’re down to 15mph. We run into Paddington still three and a half minutes early, in 56 minutes 19 seconds (53½ minutes net), and I’m pleased, but in my view it would have been so easy to have sustained 95mph on the level from Maidenhead to Southall without significantly more effort. But it was unnecessary, and the driver was a little uneasy. I’m not sure how hard he would have driven 7030 without my encouragement.
Chapter 15
Old Oak Common management training
In the spring of 1962 I was allocated to Old Oak Common for my depot and footplate training — the highlight of most Traffic Apprentices’ three-year stint. One objective was to ensure that management trainees had an understanding of operations from a driver’s perspective, and the normal arrangement was the provision of a Divisional footplate pass for three weeks of the depot training. As I had been at Old Oak during my college years, and as Ray Sims, the Shedmaster, knew of my interest in locomotive matters, he handed me a driver’s Regional route-learning footplate pass (covering Paddington–Penzance, Paddington–Fishguard, Paddington–Chester and all stations between) on my first day, to be returned only on my last. My official pass had got ‘lost’ somewhere between the Superintendent’s Office in Paddington and Old Oak Common in the railway’s internal postal system!
I had been surprised to be sent to Old Oak for this part of my training, for two reasons. Normally the HQ Personnel staff in charge of trainee allocations avoided locations where one had previously worked, and also Old Oak had been known to ask Head Office not to send trainees there, as there was a certain degree of hostility towards future bosses at that somewhat militant location. Traffic Apprentices had to be sensitive to the feelings of many ordinary railwaymen and women who sometimes resented the ‘fast track’ promotion that would follow our training, and Traffic Apprentices were not always the most tactfu
l of individuals. In this case, apparently, because I had worked at Old Oak previously and had got on well with most staff (apart from the guy whose overtime I had usurped in 1958!), I was warmly accepted as ‘one of them’ and received full co-operation.
In fact I was later censured by the senior management — whose job it was to evaluate the reports I had to write after each period of training — for being too uncritical of my time at Old Oak. I was, as a ‘bright young thing’, expected to produce reports full of criticism of the way things were done and to come up with lots of new ideas and suggestions which the local management would be expected to implement (or justify rejecting) — a practice which did nothing to endear Traffic Apprentices to many of the local managers. By this time the Traffic Apprentices’ mentor at Paddington, Assistant General Manager George Bowles (an avuncular figure, reputed to be a scoutmaster, who actually encouraged trainees to be interested in railways), had been replaced by Lance Ibbotson (assistant to Stanley Raymond), the aim being to to ‘de-Great Westernise’ the Region and introduce a more appropriate management culture.
Although my training at Old Oak involved experience of rostering, trade-union negotiations, maintenance planning, route learning and training practices etc I made sure to take advantage of the privileges afforded by my footplate pass. On the first Saturday lunchtime (in those days one still worked until noon on most Saturdays) I made my way to Paddington and showed my pass to the crew of 7031 Cromwell’s Castle, newly transferred from Laira to Worcester and working the 1.15pm Paddington–Hereford. We had a very comfortable and punctual trip to Oxford, where I alighted, the gleaming locomotive and Worcester crew well on top of the job. After I’d had a quick sandwich a Worcester double-chimney ‘Castle’, 7013 (the real 4082) Bristol Castle, rolled into Oxford on time, and I joined the crew. 7013 was one of five ‘Castles’ with a Davies & Metcalfe experimental mechanical lubricator reservoir sited halfway up the side of the smokebox (the others being Nos 4087, 4088, 5084 and 7014), and because these engines had a good reputation I was keen to see 7013 in action. We had a very straightforward run, economical on coal and water, with sustained running in the mid-70s and an early arrival. 7013 was not quite as smooth-running as 7031, but it was twenty-six years older!
A Privileged Journey Page 22