Riding Yorkshire's Final Steam Trains

by Keith Widdowson

  Upon returning home after each escapade, or within a few days if very late back, all the necessary details collected were transferred into legibility within large A4-sized desk diaries. Separate small books kept individual locomotive mileages, shed visits and timed trains. I lost the pre-June-1965 notebooks from which I extracted the information but have retained all the rest. There was much to do. Each ‘capture’ was redlined in the Ian Allan Locoshed book – more often than not being surrounded by blacked-out entries indicating sister locomotives having been withdrawn! These books were reissued quite regularly and, with the continuous transferring around of locomotives (information updated courtesy of Railway World magazine) resulting from line/depot closures, much midnight oil was burnt in just attempting to keep it all current. Luckily the detailing of such minutiae came easy to me through my work as a BR train planner where precise and accurate documentation was a requirement. Then there was a surprising educational side benefit as regards the named locomotives. Reference to library books or encyclopedias were often made as to who was Sir Harry Hinchcliffe or Clive of India, where is Bihar and Orissa, what was Bellerophon. It was much more difficult back then, not having the ability to type in the search box on your handheld iPhone! So off we go …

  Front cover of the Autumn ’64 Ian Allan Combined Volume. (Ian Allan)

  Front cover of Part 2 of an Ian Allan ABC. (Ian Allan)

  The Locoshed books issued by Ian Allan were an essential tool in keeping up to date with the whereabouts and numbers of steam locomotives. Here are the front covers of two issues: Autumn 1966 (left) and Autumn 1967 (right). (Ian Allan)

  The twelve issues of the 1967 LCGB Bulletin. These small monthly publications provided both the information to alter the Locoshed Book entries plus reports from all the regions by members in respect of which trains were steam operated, shed closures and their own rail tours. (The Locomotive Club of Great Britain)

  The twelve issues of the 1966 Railway World magazines. It was the reading of ‘the office copy’ in those early years of railway employment, with photographs and articles of railway routes about to be axed by the good doctor, that inspired me to travel over them before it was too late. (Ian Allan)

  2

  A SOUTHERNER VENTURES ‘ABROAD’

  NORTH EAST ENGLAND was the cradle of the railways. The world’s first public railway to use steam locomotives was the 25-mile-long Stockton & Darlington Railway over which, in September 1825, George Stephenson’s Locomotion No. 1 worked the inaugural train. Primarily concerned with the faster movement of coal, the need for an alternative mode of transportation other than the horse-drawn method available until then had led to a myriad of railway lines being constructed throughout the coalfields of Durham and Northumberland. Always on the lookout for profiteering on behalf of their shareholders, passenger traffic, until then of secondary importance, became a valuable source of income to the railway companies of which the North Eastern Railway (NER) (1854–1922), resulting from numerous amalgamations over the preceding years, became the main player. Few railways achieved such regional domination and, given the level of rivalry that existed in much less fertile regions for railway operation, the NER was fortunate in not facing greater competition.

  In the sixty-eight years of the NER’s existence the railway expanded from a route mileage of 700 to 4,900. It bequeathed to the London & North Eastern Railway (LNER) (1923–1947) a significant portion of the East Coast Main Line (ECML), some of the finest stations in the country, e.g. York, Darlington, Hull and Newcastle, an electrified suburban system at Newcastle and massive freight traffic. Little changed upon the 1923 grouping or indeed after the 1948 nationalisation. The railways carried on as always, moving both freight and passenger traffic in abundance. They, together with their British Road Services arm, had the monopoly. There were no motorways and car ownership was only for the well off. Change, however, was on the horizon. Post-war affluence, allowing family car ownership to become the norm, together with continual increases in permitted weight limits for lorries, was to challenge the railways’ monopoly on all fronts. With the loss of many of the traditional heavy industries over the years, coupled with the 1955 British Railways (BR) Modernisation plan envisaging the elimination of steam traction by 1968, the steam locomotive, the main thrust of my hobby, was heading for oblivion. My interests therefore morphed from that of a line basher into the chasing of the Iron Horse itself. There was little time left!

  The date was August 1964 and within a few weeks the Daily Herald would cease publication and be superseded by what has become Britain’s largest-circulation paper, The Sun. Musically it was a great period to live through with Top of the Pops and Radio Luxembourg belting out hits from groups such as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Animals – Manfred Mann’s Do Wah Diddy Diddy sitting at the number-one spot during the last two weeks of that August.

  Although having travelled on overnight services to the West of England during the previous month, the familiarity of destinations already known both from having holidayed there over the years with my parents and my Southern Region (SR) telephone enquiry job, voyaging north that August night it seemed I was venturing into the unknown. Sure I had studied maps, viewed photographs and read timetables as regards the cities and towns I was to visit, but nothing broadens the mind like actually travelling there in person. Strange dialects, unusual-sounding destinations – it all caused an adolescent 17-year-old some consternation determining if I was on the correct train/platform to ensure my plans were adhered to. The overnight service down the ECML, specifically advertised for Geordies working away during the week to visit home with cheap tickets, was chock-a-block. This service called at all main stations, and the consequential passage through the open-plan carriages of people looking for non-existent seats resulted in very little shut-eye being obtained en route.

  Newcastle station was, and remains, an impressive testimonial to the Victorian engineer John Dobson. Opened in 1850 by Queen Victoria, it was a joint enterprise between the York, Newcastle and Berwick and the Newcastle and Carlisle railways. The station’s train shed has a distinctive barrel-vaulted roof with three curved arched spans – the first example of its kind – which set the ‘house style’ for the NER’s subsequent main-line stations. If approached from the south you cross over a high-level Robert Stephenson-designed bridge straddling the River Tyne while at the north end was once a complex diamond-crossing-equipped rail junction, which the succeeding NER claimed to be the largest in the world. As is so common these days, the operational part of the station has been significantly reduced and much of the superfluous space converted to provide additional car parking. Back in 1964, glad of the opportunity to stretch my legs, I positioned myself at the north end of the station viewing the aforementioned diamond crossing being much utilised by a plethora of steam locomotive classes only previously read about in The Observer’s Book of Railway Locomotives of Britain.

  Front cover of The Observer’s Book of Railway Locomotives of Britain given to me as a Christmas present in 1963.

  The next seven photographs were all taken from Newcastle station platforms between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. on Saturday 22 August 1964. I had never witnessed any of these classes before – having only seen photographs of them in magazines and books such as The Observer’s Book of Railway Locomotives of Britain. Entering the station at the north end is one of the 206 Stanier-designed LMS 4MT 2-6-4Ts, 42548, this 28-year-old example having been built by North British (Glasgow). She was a long way from her Newton Heath (Manchester) home and was withdrawn from Birkenhead in February 1967.

  Easing her way past on the goods lines is one of the seventy-eight Gresley-designed 4-6-2 A3s – LNER 60080 Dick Turpin. Built in 1924 by North British, she had been displaced from the crack ECML expresses by diesels and was to be withdrawn from her Gateshead home two months later.

  Sister A3, 60112 St Simon, is seen being watered having taken over the 01 00 Kings Cross to Edinburgh at Newcastle. This 41-year-old New England (Pet
erborough) allocated 7P Pacific was withdrawn at the end of that year. With more self-confidence I would have changed plans and taken the opportunity to ride with her the 114 miles to Edinburgh.

  One of Gresley’s 184 powerful LNER 6MT 2-6-2 V2s storms through on the goods lines with a northbound freight. Built at Darlington in 1943, Gateshead allocated 60976 became one of the fortunate few surviving into 1966 – being withdrawn in the October of that year at St Margarets (Edinburgh).

  Blyth allocated 44-year-old LNER Q6 0-8-0 63413 works a southbound freight tender first. A total of 120 of these Raven-designed locomotives were built, this one at Armstrong Whitworth (Newcastle), between 1913 and 1921 – 63413 ending her days at Tyne Dock in January 1967.

  Seventy examples of the ninety-two-strong LNER V1 4MT 2-6-2T class were given higher-pressure boilers and reclassified V3 – one of which, 67646, reposes at Newcastle station awaiting her next call of duty. By this date a mere eight remained – 67646 being withdrawn from her home depot of Gateshead three months later.

  A poorly positioned photograph but included as my only shot of an active Worsdell/Raven LNER 5F 0-6-0 J27! A total of 115 of these 0-6-0s were built – Blyth-allocated 65882 becoming one of the final five being withdrawn at Sunderland in September 1967.

  On the goods lines, representatives of Q6 0-8-0, J27 0-6-0, V2 2-6-2 and V3 2-6-2T classes were noted while in the station A3 Pacific 60112 St Simon took the 01 00 ex-Kings Cross forward to Edinburgh. In years to come I would have changed plans and taken the opportunity to ride with her the 114 miles to Edinburgh, but lacking the self-confidence in my ability to vary from my planned itinerary, I let her go. It was an opportunity lost. I had been advised, by those more knowledgeable than I, that Preston was a mecca for steam activity and so, the two hours spent at Newcastle having passed by very quickly, I made my way there via Carlisle and, being a somewhat angst-ridden youth far away from home, located and stayed in B&B accommodation close by the station – my first ever night on my own. That was the only occasion I slept between clean sheets while chasing steam-hauled services in Britain. The lure of unusual workings over routes which in daytime used DMUs but at night had steam-operated services proved too invaluable to miss out on.

  3

  PLANNING THE ATTACK

  HAVING PRIMARILY HOMED in on my resident (Southern) region’s steam passenger services during 1964, during the following year I began to widen my coverage to services elsewhere in Britain. Several trips were made to Scotland – the first being in May and calculatingly scheduled to travel over the Port Road between Dumfries and Stranraer prior to its closure the following month. Continuing on to other steam services in Scotland that day I passed through the North Eastern Region en route home. The train concerned, the 20 20 Edinburgh Waverley to Kings Cross, had one of the diesel locomotives (DLs) that had replaced ECML steam three years earlier, English Electric Type 5 Deltic D9001 St Paddy, at the helm. All other Scottish visits that year, the Indian summer of the displaced LNER Gresley A4s on the Glasgow/Aberdeen services, were made via the then still steam-infested West Coast Main Line (WCML).

  Roger Price’s publications, which he produced himself with all proceeds going to the SR Orphanage at Woking, kickstarted my interest in the NER.

  The front cover of the North Eastern Region timetable for the summer of 1966 – often referred to throughout this book as the ‘tangerine bible’.

  Effectively unaware of the many, albeit short-haul, steam passenger services remaining in this hitherto unexplored part of Britain (Yorkshire), it was by purchasing, at the cost of 1s 6d (12½p), one of colleague Roger Price’s pamphlets that I unearthed what became a pleasing diversity of steam classes never witnessed before at work. Having recently met Roger, I asked him where he obtained the information to compile his publications. His reply was that he had written to all the regions who, upon learning that any profits were for the railway children’s orphanage, willingly listed the remaining steam-hauled passenger services for him.

  A new untapped area of steam locomotive catches was the indispensable nectar obligatory for a haulage basher such as myself. So what was there to discover? The crack express services over the ECML from Kings Cross to Leeds, Newcastle and Edinburgh had long gone Deltic, the Trans-Pennine trains had succumbed to either Peak or Brush DLs and although the majority of secondary passenger services had become DMUs there still remained, if details received to hand were accurate, a sufficient number of trains justifying investigation. The only two NER-allocated steam locomotives I’d had runs with prior to 1966 were both Holbeck (Leeds) allocated, they being Black 5 45211 and Jubilee 45593 Kolhapur. The former had been purloined by the Colwick foreman for the 17 15 Nottingham Victoria/Marylebone one day during February ’66 and Kolhapur was caught into Carlisle during August ’65 while returning from a Scottish bash. So there was plenty to go for.

  More hard-earned wages were spent purchasing at 2s 0d (10p) a copy of the North Eastern Region public timetable which became my Tangerine Bible, in which I proceeded to mark the train services depicted as steam powered with a red line through the centre of the timings column. It was a more problematic task than encountered when locating similar services within the corresponding green Southern Region timetable. The reason was twofold: firstly there were no internal ‘working’ publications available to me as there had been (for SR services) in the offices where I worked at Waterloo, and secondly my lack of in-depth knowledge with regard to sheds, train services and geography. Nevertheless, over a period of weeks during the dark winter evenings of early February ’66 (when not chasing Bulleids), I took up the challenge.

  Proceeding alphabetically, the first entry I came across was the Barnsley departure at 06 10 for Wakefield Kirkgate. Initially perplexed about how to access this train, when reaching the letter ‘W’ I realised it was the return working of an 05 15 ex-Wakefield and, as was often the case, the only non-DMU working over the line. Next we come to Bradford Exchange – which showed four departures per day for Leeds Central and three for Wakefield Westgate. Two other once-daily oddities were the 15 20 for Stockport and 22 00 for Huddersfield. The other Bradford station, Forster Square, was shown to have ten departures for Leeds City. This was more like it. I surmised that by positioning myself at a location such as Bradford I could come and go as choices dictated – although, taking into account the short distances involved, the likelihood of catching the same locomotive on several occasions throughout the day was always going to be a possibility.

  Moving on alphabetically we come to Halifax and an 04 38 for Manchester, which was shown as a 5MT provided by 12A MO and 9D MX locomotive (all shed codes are listed in Appendix IV). This train, I was to discover, turned out to be the 02 10 York to Manchester Victoria Calder Valley mail train – a service, which as the reader will come to appreciate, I was to become a frequent user of. The other departure from Halifax each day was the 08 48 for Wakefield Westgate – a somewhat circuitously routed portion (via Huddersfield and Wakefield Kirkgate) eventually destined for Kings Cross.

  Harrogate had an isolated 11 40 for Leeds Central each day, but now we come to the two Leeds stations. Leeds City had nine departures for Bradford Forster Square and six for Carnforth/Morecambe Promenade. As if that wasn’t enough, the nearby Leeds Central had four departures for Bradford Exchange, one for Halifax and what had become the final steam penetration into the diesel desert of Eastern Region, the 16 45 for Doncaster. Normanton had an 04 25 departure for Rochdale and an 07 06 for York (04 20 ex-Manchester).

  Sheffield Midland had two Leeds City departures at 02 00 and 07 06 and a York at 08 10. The depicted power for all of these services was either a 4MTT or 5MT. Not known at the time but revealed in research for this book was that although there were eighteen LNER B1s shared between Wakefield and Low Moor depots, if Roger’s publication was to prove accurate, none were booked to perform passenger work – any 5MT duties shown being booked for Holbeck’s Black 5s. Similarly, with nothing indicating 6P operated then, the ten Jubilees were a
lso seemingly inaccessible to haulage enthusiasts. So with all that information to hand I then spent more hours pouring over the Tangerine Bible planning a comprehensive itinerary for my visit at the end of March in an attempt to travel on the maximum number of those workings. One thing was certain: the ability to make any visit to this area of Britain worthwhile was of course to travel there overnight. This not only eliminated any costs associated with B&Bs but also enabled travel on (very) early morning services, which, I was to find out, were most beneficial to a steam chaser.

  4

  HERE WE GO

  PERHAPS IT IS opportune, prior to embarking, to briefly summarise the geographical scene at the time of my travels. West Riding was one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire. Unlike most English counties that were divided into hundreds, Yorkshire, being so large, was divided first into thrithjungar (an old Norse word meaning ‘third parts’) that were called the three Ridings (East, West and North) and later the City of York, which lay within the city walls and was not part of any Riding. The majority of my travels in this book were within the administrative county, County of York – West Riding (1889–1974) – the larger conurbations of Bradford, Leeds, Huddersfield, Halifax and Sheffield having their own municipal boroughs. Local government reorganisation in 1974 saw the abolition of the Ridings and Yorkshire was devolved between a number of metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties.