Steam Days 2015-06

Make-up PK (JUNE15):Make-up (July 05) 6/5/15 15:46 Page 1
Steam in and around Reading in Colour
St. Pancras
Station
Kipps Engine Shed and the

Locomotives of Monklands
York’s Foss Islands Branch
Britain’s Branch Lines June 2015 £4.30
No 310
June 2015
31 Southcote Junction is just south of Reading (West) station on the GWR’s Basingstoke
branch, where the Berks & Hants main line for Newbury diverges west. Approaching this
junction on 21 December 1964 is ex-GWR ‘Hall’ No 6933 Birtles Hall on a parcels train. Officially
withdrawn from Wolverhampton’s Oxley depot in November, this duty could well have been its
last, No 6933’s reprieve coming thanks to the pre-Christmas rush on parcels traffic. Roy Hobbs
Managing Editor: Rex Kennedy 3 Trains of Thought

Editorial Team:
Andrew Kennedy and Andrew Wilson
Design: Ian Kennedy 5 Britain’s Branch Lines
Editorial
PO Box 2471, Bournemouth BH7 7WF
Neil Sprinks shares his thoughts on lost
Telephone/Fax: 01202 304849 infrastructure, the creation of branch lines
e-mail: red.gauntlett@btconnect.com
Advertising Sales: Michelle Long from 1839 through to 1998, closures since
Tel: 01780 755131
E-mail: michelle.long@keypublishing.com 1852, and other notable curiosities or routes
Advertising Production: Cheryl Thornburn that became personal favourites.
email: cheryl.thornburn@keypublishing.com
Tel: 01780 755131 Fax: 01780 757261
Publishing
Managing Director: Adrian Cox 41 In April 1960 Stanier ‘Jubilee’ No 45579 Punjab awaits departure from St. Pancras with
‘The Waverley’. The 4-6-0 will work the train as far as Leeds. Colour-Rail.Com/BRM2289
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by any information storage and retrieval system, 19 Kipps Engine Shed and the
without prior permission in writing from the
copyright owners. Multiple copying of the contents of Locomotives of Monklands
this magazine without prior written approval is not
permitted. The evolution of the steam locomotive aided
Published by: Key Publishing Ltd, the growth of Coatbridge into the ‘Iron Burgh’.
PO Box 100, Stamford, Lincs. PE91XP
Repro: pkmediaworks@mac.com The locomotive facilities at Kipps enabled the
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2 www.steamdaysmag.co.uk
TRAINS of thought
T
his month in STEAM DAYS magazine Neil Sprinks recalls the
many branch lines that graced the railway system throughout
Great Britain. Being a resident of Worcester during my spotting
days from 1942 to the end of steam there, I was truly a Great
Western enthusiast through and through, but not solely of course.
Family holidays invariably took us to the West Country, quite often by
train, and the branch lines west of Plymouth, and the junctions from
which they started on the West of England main line were always
imprinted on my memory, with the likes of ‘Liskeard for Looe’,
‘Lostwithiel for Fowey’, ‘Par for Newquay’, ‘Truro for Falmouth’,
‘Chasewater for Perranporth and Newquay’, ‘Gwinear Road for
Helston’, and ‘St. Erth for St. Ives’.
Sadly I did not travel over all of these Cornish branch lines, but
have great memories of the sight of Great Western ‘4500’ and ‘4575’
class 2-6-2Ts working the passenger trains over most. These particular
locomotives remain a favourite of mine, and of happy family holidays in
Cornwall. Of the Cornish branch lines over which I did travel, these
included, in 1956 with a ‘Runabout Ticket’, the Looe branch, the
Newquay branch from Par, and the line from Chasewater to
Perranporth, and also the branch from Lostwithiel to Fowey, and in
1957 the St. Ives branch whilst on honeymoon in Carbis Bay, where
our hotel garden overlooked the line and the bay – never miss an
opportunity I say!
Many earlier family holidays were taken at Newquay, travelling by
train from Worcester to Bristol and then catching an express to Par
for the Newquay branch train, although on certain occasions we could
catch a through train from Bristol to Newquay, and watching the
comings and goings of holiday express at Newquay was a sight to
behold, with an array of ‘Castles’, ‘Halls’, and ‘County’ class 4-6-0s
constantly arriving and departing with their trains.
A 600 mile cycling holiday around the West Country in 1951
31 Steam Days in Colour provided us with the sight of trains running over the Helston branch,
126: Steam in and around Reading the former Southern Railway lines around Wadebridge, the Falmouth
branch, the Ashburton branch at Totnes, and even the Minehead
Railway enthusiasts have always gravitated to this branch in Somerset, and we watched the Looe branch trains reversing
Thames Valley town, these scenes recall the latter at Coombe Junction as the local passenger service plied between
Looe and Liskeard.
years of British Railways steam in the vicinity. There was always something very special and peacefully romantic
about seeing a short branch line passenger train with no noise of the
city to drown out that special sound as it approached, no matter
38 Steam Days Subscriptions where in Great Britain it was, and those visits to the West Country
always provided that wonderful atmosphere for me. Happy days, with
many sights of one of my favourite locomotives – those Great
41 St. Pancras Station Western Churchward small 2-6-2Ts. Enjoy your read and your own
favourite memories.
The Gothic splendour of St. Pancras was the jewel
in the Midland Railway’s crown. Andrew Wilson
explains. Steam in and around
Reading in Colour
55 York’s Foss Islands Branch Cover: An engineering train

occupies the up main at
Branching from the York to Scarborough main line Lower Basildon as the
driver of a Western
St. Pancras
and linking to the Derwent Valley Light Railway, Region ‘Hall’ class 4-6-0 Station
has eased off to take
James Johnson details this rail link to important water at Goring troughs in
August 1958. Its train is a
industrial establishments. local passenger working
that includes three
Gresley coaches. Situated
just under nine miles from
64 Tail Lamp – Readers’ Letters Reading on the line to
Didcot, the 620 yard
watering facility here
embraced all the running
Next Month... lines. The water tower Kipps Engine Shed and
that fed the location was the
on the Didcot side of the Locomotives of Monklan
Steam Days at Tunbridge Wells photographer’s overbridge York’s Foss Islands Branc
ds
vantage point, beside the h
The GWR’s ‘ROD’ 2-8-0s up relief line.
Britain’s Branch Lines
June 2015 £4.30
Memories of the North-East in 1966 K.W. Wightman
LMS ‘Royal Scot’ No 46115 Scots Guardsman Steam Days

Steam Days in Colour: In G&SWR territory
Magazine
On sale Thursday 18th June
JUNE 2015 www.steamdaysmag.co.uk 3
Hattons F_P.indd 1 28/11/2014 09:40
Britain’s Branch Lines
Neil Sprinks shares some Some branch lines had very short lives, such as the Southern Railway’s Allhallows-on-Sea branch –
it opened on 16 May 1932 and closed from 4 December 1961. It was inspired by hopes of
thoughts on lost infrastructure, the establishing a seaside resort on the south bank of the River Thames but this failed to materialise.
Ex-SE&CR ‘R1’ class 0-4-4T No 31697, still lettered ‘SOUTHERN’, leaves Allhallows-on-Sea with
creation of branch lines from 1839 the 5.08pm train to Gravesend (Central) on Whit Monday, 2 June 1952. Two coach sets form the
train, one ex-LB&SCR and the other ex-L&SWR. This 1¾ mile double-track branch ran to Stoke
through to modern times, closures Junction on the single-track Gravesend to Port Victoria ‘Hundred of Hoo’ line. Author
since 1852, and other notable
later. Then, the Windsor branch diverges at The characteristics of a branch line
curiosities or routes that have Slough, Maidenhead is the junction for the I think I can safely say that many of the
become personal favourites. Marlow branch, while the Henley-on-Thames features of a typical branch line were to be
branch curves away at Twyford, and we are a found in what is said to be Britain’s first such
hen one travels on the increasingly mere 31 miles out of London. line, namely that built by the London &
W busy 21st century British railway

network, and casts one’s mind back
to what things were like in the days of steam,
Beyond Taunton, the Minehead line
reminds us of branch lines now in heritage
status. Soon comes the new Tiverton Parkway
Birmingham Railway from its main line at
Cheddington, 36 miles north of London
(Euston), to Aylesbury – a distance of seven
many changes spring to mind upon gazing out station, which I suppose replaces the former miles, and opened on 10 June 1839. The line
of the carriage windows. Primarily, of course, Tiverton Junction with its branch lines now was single-track, and at the junction station,
there was the infrastructure that supported gone. Just after Newton Abbot is the line to Cheddington, where, by the way, the junction
steam traction itself – locomotive sheds of all Torquay and Paignton, with another ‘heritage’ faced Birmingham, not London, branch trains
shapes and sizes with their coaling plants, line beyond – that from Paignton to had their own slightly curving platform.
et al, locomotive works, water cranes, and Kingswear. However, in my view the line to There was an intermediate station on the
water troughs, and even run-round loops at Paignton is more of main line status than a branch, Marston Gate, literally in the middle
termini or station bays. Also gone is another branch, carrying to this day many long- of nowhere, and the destination, Aylesbury,
item of infrastructure – that of the wagon- distance trains to popular resorts, and which was an important town where the station was
load freight business with the coming of the at one time spawned its own branch line, that substantial, and it even sported an overall roof
lorry, the juggernaut and the motorways. from Churston to Brixham. Beyond Plymouth to its one platform, while here too was a
Stations used to have goods and coal yards, are five branch lines, from St. Budeaux to goods yard and locomotive shed, and later a
with cranes and perhaps warehouses, and Gunnislake, and those in Cornwall, to Looe, gasworks was served.
there were private sidings galore, not Newquay, Falmouth and St. Ives. It is significant that this branch line was
forgetting of course those vast marshalling Returning to the Marlow and Gunnislake necessary because powerful land-owning
yards. Parcels and newspaper traffic has gone branches, there are problems here as in each interests prevented the proprietors of the
too, together with their dedicated trains. case the initial sections of the present branch London & Birmingham from building their
General thinking is that branch lines have lines used to be long-distance lines in their main line on a more westerly course than
gone too, especially in the wake of the media own right, with the branch lines themselves, that eventually adopted. The original
coverage in 2013 marking the 50th in each case involving a reversal, bearing off at intention had been to route the London &
anniversary of the so-called ‘Beeching Report’, Bourne End and Bere Alston respectively. I Birmingham Railway’s line on a more direct
and of course this is largely so. However, all is think we must be realistic, and not live in a alignment through Aylesbury itself, and on
not lost, as a journey today from London to time warp, by recognizing that these lines are through Buckingham. Nevertheless, this first
Penzance will reveal. Firstly, just beyond now branches all the way from Maidenhead branch line eventually met some competition
Hayes & Harlington we meet a post-Beeching and St. Budeaux. In addition, one of the after 24 years, with the opening, to a separate
branch. This is the line to Heathrow Airport, Cornish branch lines involves a reversal, at station in the town, of a branch line from
opened in 1998 and even extended ten years Coombe Junction en route to Looe. Princes Risborough, and so, albeit by a

On Britain’s oldest branch line, dating from

1839, the 4.30pm train from Cheddington
approaches its destination at Aylesbury (High
Street) on 6 September 1952. Ex-LMS Ivatt
‘4MT’ 2-6-0 No 43002 of Bletchley shed, still
carrying its original double chimney, is in
charge of a two-coach ex-LMS non-corridor set.
Passenger services on this line would cease five
months after this photograph was taken. A
cameo of the times is the car-free road,
allowing a child to ride a tricycle under
maternal supervision. Author
Railway Clearing House junction diagrams for

Aylesbury, High Wycombe, Princes Risborough,
Quainton Road & Verney Junction, 1911.
Oakwood Press Collection
circuitous route, providing access from

London (Paddington) via Maidenhead. Both
these branch lines were then seriously
undermined by the opening of the
Metropolitan Railway’s direct route from
London (Baker Street) in 1892, this line
using the same station as the branch from
Princes Risborough. In 1899 came the
London Extension of the Great Central
Railway, its trains also used this station, of
course. Aylesbury was at long last on a trunk
route from London to the Midlands and the
north. Rounding off the story of this first
branch line, passenger trains were withdrawn
in early 1953, with the line closing to all
traffic just over ten years later.
Reverting to the London & Birmingham
Railway being thwarted from building its
main line through Aylesbury, a similar
situation arose on another trunk route
northwards from London, the Great Northern
Railway’s direct line from Peterborough to
Doncaster in the early 1850s. The company’s
wish was to run through the important town
of Stamford, 12 miles north of Peterborough.
Stamford is an historic town on the Great
North Road, endowed then with many
coaching inns, and conservative interests did
not want a new form of transport disturbing
things. As a result, from 1856 generations of
Stamford folk had to make do with a four-
mile branch line from the main line at
Essendine where, incidentally, as at
Cheddington with the Aylesbury branch, the
junction faced north. At least this branch line
terminated in a handsome overall-roofed
station at Stamford, the frontage of which was
very dignified, and said to try to blend in with
the nearly Burghley House.
Incidentally a second GNR branch was to
reach Stamford, running north from
Wansford on the London & North Western
Railway’s routes into Peterborough from
Northampton and Rugby (now on the heritage
Nene Valley Railway), while Stamford was to
An afternoon train is seen shortly after leaving Stamford on 8 September 1956 for the four-mile run
along the ex-GNR branch line to the East Coast main line at Essendine, calling en route at the
intermediate station at Ryhall. Ivatt ‘C12’ (GNR ‘C2’) class 4-4-2T No 67379 is hauling a pair of
ex-LNER coaches. The track on the right is a siding, while wagons stored on the stub of the ex-GNR
branch to Wansford, closed in 1929, are just discernable in front of the electricity pylon on the right
of the picture. The Essendine to Stamford branch would close on 15 June 1959. Author
RCH junction diagram for the Stamford area, 1903. Oakwood Press Collection
have a separate and still extant station on the what we now call the West Coast main line, to
Midland Railway’s Peterborough to Manton Kendal and Windermere. Opened by the
and Oakham line, with which there were Lancaster & Carlisle Railway in 1847, this
physical connections from the GNR just branch also met heavy opposition from
outside the latter’s station. powerful interests resisting change, led by the
While discussing these fairly early branch then Poet Laureate, William Wordsworth, but industrialists from Manchester and the north-
lines it is worth mentioning another from this the line did succeed in opening up the Lake west to set up their palatial homes, still to be
era, the ten-mile branch from Oxenholme, on District to tourists, and enabling rich seen today, on the shores of Lake Windermere.
Windermere, or more correctly the old village of Birthwaite, is served by a ten-mile branch from Oxenholme on the West Coast main line. On 6 July
1963, Carnforth-allocated Fowler ‘4MT’ 2-6-4T No 42378 leaves Kendal with the 7.10pm Oxenholme to Windermere service, consisting of three
ex-LMS non-corridor coaches. The branch would survive the cuts of the 1960s, albeit diesel-multiple-unit operated after the removal of the run-round
facilities at Windermere. By 2016 it is scheduled to be electrified. Gerald T. Robinson

A significant number of ex-branch lines have

seen subsequent use as ‘heritage’ lines, both
standard and narrow gauge. One of the latter is
the 13½ mile Haltwhistle to Alston branch,
part of which is used for the 2ft gauge
operations of the South Tynedale Railway. In
August 1951, Alston-allocated Worsdell ‘G5’
(North Eastern Railway ‘O’) class 0-4-4T
No 67315 waits at Haltwhistle with a branch
train to Alston. Dr Beeching would earmark
this line for closure in 1963, but difficulties in
sorting out a replacement bus service saw it
remain open until 3 May 1976.
Those opposed to the line, however, did

prevent it from continuing beyond
Windermere, although the alignment of
Windermere station was designed with an
intended extension in the Ambleside direction
in mind. At the point where the line was held Some special branch lines the still-open former L&NWR branch line
back was the community of Birthwaite, but From the myriad of one-time, or still-existing south from Llandudno Junction into
the station was named Windermere to branch lines, some stand out as ‘special’. In the Snowdonia – up the Vale of Conway and
emphasize its proximity, 1½ miles, to the lake far north of Scotland, for example, the still through Bettws-y-Coed to Blaenau Festiniog.
of this name. Furthermore, the village, now extant former Highland Railway branch from As for England, may I nominate the now-gone
town, that grew up around the station took Georgemas Junction takes one to the most former Great Western Railway branch from
this same name – Windermere. So whereas a northerly railway station in Great Britain, that Yelverton up on to the exposed heights of
station normally takes its name from the place at Thurso, while the nearby branch running Dartmoor, terminating at Princetown? Here
it serves, here the town took its name from south from Wick, which closed in 1944, took the nearby Dartmoor prison added some
the station, and that station, happily, passengers to the furthest, if not ‘atmosphere’, as did the rare GWR ‘4400’ class
continues to bring in the tourists today, northernmost, station from London, namely 2-6-2Ts often found working this line;
although the original buildings, with a Lybster, 742 miles from Euston by the shortest No 4403 on my visit in 1951.
dignified porte-cochère, now house a route. Mention of the GWR ‘4400’ 2-6-2Ts
supermarket, with a modern and busy station In the north of England, the branch line brings us to the fact that some branch lines
immediately adjacent. from Haltwhistle, on the former North necessitated special locomotives, and led to
After 23 years, in 1860 the nearby Furness Eastern Railway’s Newcastle to Carlisle line, the perpetuation of locomotive classes that
Railway got ahead of the L&NWR (as the led to what is claimed to be the highest town might otherwise have disappeared earlier. In
Lancaster & Carlisle had become) by opening in England – Alston. Part of this branch line this category I can think of the former
a branch line from Ulverston to the very survives too, as the heritage South Tynedale Highland Railway branch from The Mound to
shores of Lake Windermere itself, at a point Railway. Dornoch in Scotland, on which weight
known as Lakeside, and soon owned the ships For scenery, there were many contending restrictions, I believe, led to the keeping in
sailing on the lake as well, but whereas the and contrasting branch lines to explore, but I service of some former Highland 0-4-4Ts,
1847 line to Windermere continues to would perhaps highlight in Scotland the now- only to be replaced, by all things, by Western
prosper, the Ulverston to Lakeside line went closed former Caledonian Railway branch line Region ‘1600’ 0-6-0PTs, Nos 1646 and 1649,
in 1965, but part of it survives as another from Connel Ferry, near Oban, to for a few years before the line closed in 1960.
heritage line, as the Lakeside & Haverthwaite Ballachulish, alongside the shores of Loch Similarly, the suitability of the former London
Railway. Linnhe, while a contender in Wales must be & South Western Railway Adams ‘0415’ class
One of the more surprising branch line developments in the 1950s was the allocation of
two Western Region Hawksworth ‘1600’ class 0-6-0PTs to the Scottish Region to work
the ex-Highland Railway branch to Dornoch. On 31 May 1957 the 1.00pm departure to
The Mound is seen at Dornoch in the charge of No 1646. As can be seen, traffic was
light – a single coach sufficed for most trains, but here the load has been increased by
the addition of two vans. The line would close to passengers on 13 June 1960. Author
The nature of the Lyme Regis branch, a light railway abounding in tight curves and steep gradients, was the reason for British Railways keeping three
1885 vintage ex-L&SWR Adams ‘0415’ class 4-4-2Ts in service. On Bank Holiday Monday, 6 August 1956, No 30582 hauls a Bulleid three-car corridor set
as it climbs out of Axminster, towards Combpyne and the branch terminus at Lyme Regis. In 1958 a Western Region ‘1400’ 0-4-2T was tested as a
replacement, but it was found to be unsuitable, a 1960 trial with Ivatt ‘2MT’ 2-6-2T No 41297 was more successful, but only after the easing of the
tightest curves. The last of the Adams ‘Radials’ would be withdrawn in July 1961, and the branch would close on 29 November 1965. Author
4-4-2Ts for working the Axminster to Lyme handy too, of course, for attaching and former GWR line from Bala Junction and
Regis branch is well known, and this led to detaching the little branch line locomotives. Bala. It also hosted, of course, the narrow
the Southern Railway retaining two engines of Another classic case of a branch line gauge Festiniog Railway, happily very active in
the class, and even to buying, from the East leading to distinctive locomotives remaining the 21st century.
Kent Railway, a third survivor, in 1946. in service was that from Havant to Hayling Other places in this category include the
Likewise, weight restrictions and fearsome Island, a former London, Brighton & South city of St. Albans, which could be reached by
gradients (up to 1 in 30) on the Folkestone Coast Railway creation. Here again, as is well two branch lines, the former L&NWR and
Harbour branch were largely responsible for known, weight restrictions on the timber still busy branch line from Watford Junction,
the Southern Railway retaining many of the viaduct linking the island with the mainland and the now-closed ex-GNR line from
rebuilt Stirling former South Eastern Railway led largely to the retention of many of the Hatfield, both of which terminated at
‘R1’ class 0-6-0Ts for working the boat trains, Stroudley ex-LB&SCR ‘A1X Terrier’ 0-6-0Ts St. Albans (Abbey) station. St. Alban’s also
either in multiple or as bankers. Like on the well into living memory. benefits, of course, from the former Midland
Dornoch branch in Scotland, it was Western Railway main line route, and a little further
Region pannier tanks that finally came on the Twin branch-line towns north is the town of Dunstable. Here again,
scene for a while before eventual In referring earlier to Aylesbury, I mentioned interestingly, were former L&NWR and GNR
electrification. Reverting to this line itself, the that it was served by two branch lines – the branch lines, from Leighton Buzzard and
main line junction with it, at the appropriately original L&NWR one, then a Great Western Hatfield respectively, terminating at the same
named Folkestone Junction, was so laid out Railway branch. Likewise, Stamford received station, but in this case head-on as a
that trains from London had to reverse in two GNR branch lines. There were other continuous line, rather than converging into a
specially provided reversing sidings. This was towns similarly served, and one of these, also terminal station, as at St. Alban’s (Abbey)
said to be to prevent any runaway trains mentioned earlier, was the LN&WR branch station.
dashing down the main line and on to the line up to Blaenau Festiniog. The town was Nearer London is Stanmore; this also had
branch, and into the sea! The sidings were also served by another long branch – the a former L&NWR branch, from the main line
A train from Havant traverses the branch line to Hayling Island in the summer of 1956 – it is seen on the timber Langstone viaduct, which linked the
mainland with the island. Of note is the signal box by the opening span of the bridge, while the road bridge to the island is seen to the right.
Ex-LB&SCR Stroudley ‘A1X’ class 0-6-0T No 32661 is in charge of two ex-L&SWR non-corridor coaches and a British Railways Mark I. On summer
Saturdays a half-hour frequency service operated. The line would close on 4 November 1963. Author

A single-line branch that traversed wild and

desolate mountains was that from Bala
Junction to Blaenau Festiniog. On 15 May 1953
Croes Newydd-allocated ‘7400’ class 0-6-0PT
No 7409 is seen at Blaenau Festiniog (Central)
with a working to Bala Junction made up of
ex-GWR corridor stock. This branch would
close on 4 January 1960 when work began on
the Llyn Celyn reservoir which would supply
drinking water to Liverpool. In the background,
the footbridge spans the Festiniog Railway’s
then derelict narrow gauge tracks.
T.G. Edgington
RCH junction diagram for the Portmadoc and

Blaneau Festiniog area, 1910.
Key to map
Purple - Cambrian Railways
Yellow - Great Western Railway
Red - London & North Western Railway
Green - Festiniog Railway
Blue - North Wales Narrow Gauge Railway
Orange - Portmadoc, Croesor & Beddgelert
Railway
at Harrow & Wealdstone, while later on in the There was also Yeovil Junction (for Yeovil
scene, in late 1932, came the Metropolitan Town), Seaton Junction (for Seaton), and
Railway branch from Wembley Park, which is Sidmouth Junction (for Sidmouth), but
still very much open as the outermost end of Exmouth Junction, where the Exmouth
the Jubilee Line. branch diverged near Exeter, was only a signal
Down in the West Country, branch lines box, a locomotive depot, and a concrete plant.
of the GWR and London & South Western I will conclude this aspect of branch lines
Railway met ‘head-on’ in one station, at by mentioning another interesting case close
Chard, in Somerset. The GWR’s line arrived to London – namely Uxbridge. Here again
from Taunton (Creech Junction) in 1866, there were two branch lines, and both were
whereas the shorter L&SWR branch from its GWR lines. From as far back as 1856 the town
main line at Chard Road (then re-named had been served by a short branch line
Chard Junction) had come three years earlier. northwards from the GWR main line at West
On these lines, however, even before the Drayton, 13 miles out of Paddington. The
unified management of nationalisation came branch ran through Cowley and terminated at
about in 1948, the GWR trains from Taunton what was later known as Uxbridge (Vine
continued over the former L&SWR line to Street) station, but in the early 20th century
Chard Junction, so relieving the Southern the new Great Western & Great Central Joint
Railway of the necessity of providing its own main line passed not very far north of
shuttle train on its section of line. Uxbridge, and in 1907 another shorter GWR
Digressing briefly from jointly-served branch was opened from this line to Uxbridge
towns, ‘Chard Junction – change for Chard’ (High Street) station from a point on the new
RCH junction diagram for Chard, 1912. was one of several similarly-named stations main line known as Denham Junction; the
Oakwood Press Collection on the L&SWR’s West of England main line. branch trains originating further west, at
In October 1933 the GWR introduced its first

diesel railcar, the streamlined No 1, in an
attempt to reduce costs on some of its less
well patronised branches. These railcars were
very successful and the last examples, mostly
the more angular razor-edged variants, would
serve British Railways until autumn 1962. On
26 September 1954, railcar No W13 is seen at
the closed Uxbridge (High Street) station while
working a London Railway Society special.
Gerrards Cross, or at Denham itself. In a way, London Bridge station, the need for 2½ years towards the end of World War II.
however, Uxbridge was a three-branch town, Bricklayer’s Arms evaporated, and the branch Incidentally, the junction station for this
as the Metropolitan Railway opened a branch closed to regular passenger traffic in January branch – Sandling Junction – dated only from
from Harrow-on-the-Hill in 1904, and it is 1852, although like many subsequent 1888, although the branch had been opened
this line alone of the three that survives, with passenger closures the line remained for 14 years earlier.
both Metropolitan and Piccadilly Line trains. occasional passenger specials and for freight Another line that closed in two stages, but
In another sense, a twin-branch location to what became a very important freight in contrasting circumstances, was the GWR’s
is Kemble on the ex-GWR Swindon to depot right into the nationalisation era (not 6½ mile branch from Dauntsey, on its main
Gloucester line. However, here the two forgetting the locomotive depot too). line between Swindon and Chippenham, to
branches did not converge, but rather Moving on a great while, I have analysed the ancient abbey town of Malmesbury; a
diverged. From a gracefully curving platform the contents of the book Passengers No More branch that had opened in 1877. In 1903 this
on the up side was the branch to Cirencester, by G. Daniels and L. Dench, published in line was bridged half-way along its length, just
which interestingly dated from 1841 when the 1963 by Ian Allan, which north of its Great Somerford
main line from Swindon opened, and indeed aimed to show all passenger station, by the new
before the main line’s continuation on to services withdrawn in Britain
‘…no single year Badminton line, the main line
Gloucester four years later. On the down side since World War I down to the from 1921 to 1963 cut-off towards the Severn
was the branch to Tetbury, dating from much year of publication. This was free of closures, Tunnel and South Wales that
later, in 1889. included individual station even though linked Wootton Bassett with
There were probably many other closures and through lines, in Patchway. Later it was
comparable locations, but I will mention one addition to what can literally in some years just one decided to shorten the length
other, Seaton in Rutland on the ex-L&NWR be called branch lines. branch line saw its of the Malmesbury branch by
Rugby to Peterborough line. Here two branch Selecting branch lines only, passenger services go. laying a link between the
lines diverged, but both on the same side of i.e. single-ended passenger Badminton line and the
the main line; one ran to Uppingham, the routes as far as an individual
The first peak branch – laid from a point
other to Luffenham on the former Midland company is concerned, no years were west of Little Somerford
Railway’s Leicester to Peterborough route, single year from 1921 to 1963 1930 and 1931’ station, on the main line, to
over which the L&NWR, later LMS and BR, was free of closures, even Kingsmead crossing on the
trains continued to Stamford. though in some years just one branch – closing the root of
branch line saw its passenger services go. The the branch between Dauntsey and Kingsmead
Closures first peak years were 1930 and 1931 (at least crossing; this happened in 1933. Little
I have no access to any absolute record of 18 or 20 closures respectively) – perhaps buses Somerford to Malmesbury passenger trains
branch line closures down through British were beginning to bite? The years 1951 and ran for 18 years, until 1951, freight trains
railway history, even if one exists, but the 1952 also saw many closures above the ceasing to operate over the line soon
earliest passenger branch closure on the 1930/31 levels, and the ensuing years were afterwards.
network that eventually became the Southern peppered with last days until another peak of Another branch line that lost its root, but
Railway certainly demolishes the ‘blame it all 26 or more closures arose in 1962; the year in this case still retains its outer end, and in
on Beeching in 1963’ myth – this closure took before the ‘Beeching Report’ – The Reshaping differing circumstances, was that on the
place in 1852. of British Railways. former L&SWR line from Ringwood on the
Disagreements between the London & Some branch lines did not close in one go. original London to Dorchester main line,
Croydon and South Eastern railways, on the Mentioned previously was the former southwards through Hurn to Christchurch.
one hand, and the London & Greenwich L&NWR Stanmore branch from Harrow & Opened in 1862, eight years later it was
Railway on the other, over the tolls payable to Wealdstone. This was cut-back to the extended along the coast to Bournemouth, at
the ‘Greenwich’ for access to London Bridge intermediate station of Belmont in 1952 the time an emerging coastal resort. The
terminus led to the first-named two before closing completely in 1964. Down on popularity of Bournemouth led, in 1888, to
companies building a branch line to an the south coast was the ex-South Eastern the opening of the present-day main line
alternative terminus, Bricklayer’s Arms, and Railway branch to Hythe and Sandgate, which approach to the town and beyond, from
this opened in May 1844. The consequent also closed in two stages; the service beyond Brockenhurst through New Milton to
abstraction of toll revenue to the London & Hythe, to Sandgate, ceased in 1931, with the Christchurch, then following the 1870 course
Greenwich Railway led to the latter leasing its rest of the branch, to Hythe from Sandling of the branch into Bournemouth itself. This
line to the South Eastern Railway within no Junction on the main line to Folkestone and severely reduced the need for the 1862 line
less than eight months. With the South Dover, going in late 1951, although branch from Ringwood to Christchurch, which
Eastern Railway thus having toll-free access to trains had earlier been withdrawn for finally closed in 1935.
Hythe station, Kent, on the final day of services on the by now 1½ mile branch line from Sandling Junction, showing ex-SE&CR Wainwright ‘C’ class
0-6-0 No 31721 with two ex-L&SWR coaches having arrived as the 1.50pm Ashford to Hythe working on Saturday, 1 December 1951. The milepost
shows the distance from Charing Cross. The through station design of Hythe reveals that until 1931 the branch line continued for a further 1½ miles
to Sandgate. Author
Undoubtedly one could continue on this Cowbridge in 1865, and then, at the additional Some recollections
theme much longer, but now let me just expense of a re-positioned passenger station at In my childhood days of the late 1930s, the
mention a branch line that lost neither its root Cowbridge, continued to the Bristol Channel branch line that I suppose I knew best was the
nor its end, but its original middle. The shore at Aberthaw in 1892. This was done former South Eastern Railway route from
branch line in question was the former SER because of the threat, soon fulfilled, of the Barry Grove Park to Bromley (North) in Kent, by
line from Appledore, on the Ashford to Railway sponsoring a line through Aberthaw, then electrified but still extant, which, close to
Hastings line, to Lydd, and diverging there to en route from Bridgend to Barry. The thus little- the intermediate station of Sundridge Park,
both Dungeness and New Romney. In the used Cowbridge to Aberthaw section of the Taff passed the bottom of my grandparents’ back
early 1930s Captain Howey’s narrow gauge Vale’s branch line closed to passengers as early as garden; while family holidays took my elder
Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway led to 1930, with freight following two years later, while brother and I on late-August journeys down
the development of the coastal area between the original Llantrisant to Cowbridge passenger to the seaside on the branch lines to
New Romney and Dungeness, and in 1937 the service ceased in 1951, with freight over the line Minehead and Sidmouth. We were at
Southern Railway diverted part of the New ending in 1965. Minehead in 1939, and an abiding memory is
Romney branch beyond Lydd to a more Finally, at the present time, many years seeing an unusually long train on the
easterly course to run closer to the shore, with forward from the days of steam, a branch line approaching, while the station forecourt was
new stations at Lydd-on-Sea (for Dungeness) is about to grow itself out of that full of motor coaches waiting to take the
and Greatstone-on-Sea, the passenger service nomenclature. This is the branch from Moor evacuee school children on that train to their
to Dungeness itself ceasing at the same time. Park and Rickmansworth to Watford, opened new schools and billets.
A branch line that grew in two sections, and by the Metropolitan and London & North Branch line experiences of later years, but
then closed similarly, was the Taff Vale Railway’s Eastern railways late in 1925, which is to be still in the days of steam, are probably best
line southwards from the GWR’s South Wales diverted the join the formation of the one- described by grouping the lines into their
main line at Llantrisant (where, incidentally, the time ex-L&NWR Croxley Green branch, and ownership during the 1923-47 era. I shall start
present-day station is more appropriately named so provide access to Watford (High Street) with those of the ex-LNER, beginning with
Pontyclun), west of Cardiff. This branch reached and Watford Junction stations, thus becoming one on the former Great North of Scotland
the Vale of Glamorgan market town of a link line rather than a pure branch. Railway system. Operated on my visit by an
Without disturbing the Romney Marsh sheep, BR Standard ‘2MT’ 2-6-2T No 84022, running bunker-first, approaches Brookland with the 4.55pm
branch train from New Romney to Ashford on 17 August 1957. The train will join the Hastings to Ashford line at Appledore. The New Romney
branch would close to passengers on 6 March 1967, after which freight use would only justify its retention as far as Lydd Town. New to Ashford shed in
March 1957, No 84022 would be withdrawn in September 1964, after a spell as a Crewe Works shunter. Author
ex-GNSR ‘D40’ 4-4-0 with two pre-Grouping being the former Wood Green station down 0-4-4T No 58065 was working a pull-and-
bogie coaches, this ran for six miles from below the Palace on the former GNR main line push train of three non-corridor coaches.
Tillynaught, on the coastal line from Keith to from King’s Cross. The next branch I shall mention was, I am
Elgin, to the seaside town of Banff. The Also in ex-LNER territory was a afraid, an electrified one, that from Watford
approach to Banff was very memorable, memorable journey in September 1952 during (High Street) – the trains ran through, of
alongside Boyndie Bay and the expanse of the the last week of the ex-Great Eastern Railway course, from and to Watford Junction – to
Moray Firth, and concluding at a compact branch line from Elsenham, on the Liverpool Rickmansworth, which was my home for a
terminus, also by the shore. Street to Cambridge line, to the Essex town of while. After nationalisation the single-
Coming well south into Great Northern Thaxted, a run of just over five miles. A two- platform terminus at Rickmansworth was
Railway territory, I have already mentioned coach train was hauled by ‘J69’ 0-6-0T graced with the ‘Church Street’ suffix. The
for historical purposes the branch line from No 68579 and, if I remember correctly, some line was single-track, and in places was rural,
Essendine to Stamford. I visited the line in of the intermediate halts were at rail level, and the trains were worked by the
1956, and found it still full of Great Northern without a normal-height platform. ex-L&NWR ‘Oerlikon’ three-car multiple-unit
character, in addition to the dignified exterior Finally in LNER Joint line territory is the sets – yes, full of character, but the line closed
to its small overall-roofed terminus. The two- branch from Chalfont & Latimer to Chesham, in March 1952. Also from Watford Junction is
coach branch train was worked by Ivatt ‘C12’ which latterly in its steam days was worked by the ex-L&NWR branch to St. Albans,
4-4-2T No 67369, and a somersault signal, former Great Central Railway ‘C13’ 4-4-2Ts mentioned earlier. I recall seeing a former
albeit a fixed distant, was to be seen. with three-car pull-and-push sets formed of L&NWR 2-4-2T on a branch train towards
As a reminder that branch lines can also be ex-Metropolitan Railway short-wheelbase the end of the LMS era, but later I travelled
seen well within the London conurbation, bogie coaches that had been built for steam over the line in pull-and-push trains worked
another memorable ex-GNR branch was that traction, but had been converted for electric by Fowler 2-6-2Ts, No 40043 for example.
from Finsbury Park up to Alexandra Palace – traction, and then back again for steam! Further north on the main ex-L&NWR
the ‘Ally Pally’ – through Highgate and Muswell Happily some of these survive on the Bluebell line is Cheddington with that first branch to
Hill, the last survivor of the ex-GNR Northern Railway as the ‘Chesham Set’. Aylesbury, on which I saw ex-LMS 2-6-0
Heights suburban system that used to reach A London area branch line, but one No 43002 hauling a two-coach pull-and-push
High Barnet and Edgware, these other routes happily still open, introduces lines from the set on 6 September 1952, while four days later
having been taken over by London Transport’s former London, Midland & Scottish Railway I rode in a similar set worked by the more
Northern Line at the start of World War II. The system, the one in question being the former appropriate two-year-old LMS-style 2-6-2T,
branch terminus was right alongside the Palace, London, Tilbury & Southend/Midland No 41275, but at the tail of the train were also
which had at one time housed an art gallery, Railway branch from its main line at four cattle wagons, four oil tanks, and a brake
concert hall, museum, theatre, and so on. The Upminster to the ex-GER main line at van! Just over two years later, after the branch
line closed in July 1954, and shortly beforehand Romford. Although well within the London had been closed to passengers, a Railway
I sampled a journey over the line, hauled by suburbs, this short line breathed a rural Correspondence & Travel Society rail tour
‘N2’ 0-6-2T No 69583. Another station character. I sampled it one Saturday afternoon took me over the branch again, and this time
perpetuates the Alexandra Palace name, this in October 1952 when ex-Midland Railway hauled, very appropriately, by ex-L&NWR
After arriving at Banff on 17 May 1952, ‘D40’ class 4-4-0 No 62270 has run-round its two coach train – an ex-GNSR corridor vehicle and a clerestory-
roofed coach of North Eastern Railway origin – and after some shunting has attached an ex-LNER six-wheel van to its train. Seen departing on its
return journey to Tillynaught, the van will be detached there to be worked forward by a connecting service. Beyond the station is the local gasworks,
which generated significant coal traffic on the branch, as did the fishing port. The railway handled much of the outgoing fresh fish traffic, hence the
number of ventilated box vans in the goods yard. Author

In the shadow of the Alexandra Palace, the

7.05pm train to Finsbury Park awaits departure
from Alexandra Palace station behind Gresley
‘N2’ 0-6-2T No 69583 on 15 June 1954. By now
simply a branch from Finsbury Park, originally the
Alexandra Palace branch started at Highgate,
where it diverged from the GNR’s Northern
Heights lines to High Barnet and Edgware. The
Alexandra Palace passenger trains would be
withdrawn a few weeks after this view was taken.
Author
On Christmas Day 1953 the 12.14pm branch train

from Chesham to Chalfont & Latimer prepares for
departure behind ex-GCR ‘C13’ class 4-4-2T
No 67418. The three-coach ex-Metropolitan
Railway pull-and-push set was built for steam
haulage and then converted for electric traction,
before returning to steam working. The London
Transport station nameboard emphasises the joint
nature of this Metropolitan and GCR location.
When opened in 1889, Chesham was the furthest
outpost of the Metropolitan Railway. Author
0-6-2T No 58887. This tour incidentally also visit in October 1953 an ex-L&NWR 2-4-2T famous for its public school, which was the
covered the Newport Pagnell branch, from was working the train, No 46666 to be precise, one such establishment that objected to its
Wolverton. while just over six months later, classmate name being placed on one of the Southern
Finally on the ex-L&NWR system I will No 46604 was there, although one working Railway’s ‘Schools’ class 4-4-0s. No 923 was
mention, again, the branch from Seaton to was in the hands of former GNR ‘C12’ 4-4-2T named Uppingham when new in 1933, but
Uppingham, in Rutland, one of those short No 67368, this class having infiltrated into the later was renamed Bradfield.
branches with no intermediate station. On a ex-LMS Peterborough shed. Uppingham is On former Great Western Railway branch
lines, the image was often of either a
‘4500/4575’ class 2-6-2T with a two-coach ‘B’
compartment set, or a motor-train formed of
a Collett 0-4-2T with an open auto-coach. In
the former category I recall a ride on the
Liskeard to Looe branch in 1951, with
No 4529 in charge, while a rather special
journey in early March 1952 took me in an
On Friday, 10 October 1952 ex-Midland Railway

Johnson ‘1P’ 0-4-4T No 58065 makes a fine sight
on the 2.16pm Romford to Upminster train,
made up of a three-car ex-LMS pull-and-push set,
near the intermediate station of Emerson Park
Halt on the ex-LT&SR/Midland branch line; a
branch still open and fulfilling the ambitions of its
promoters. This 0-4-4T emerged from Derby
Works in May 1892 and it would eventually be
withdrawn in November 1959. Author
The station sign tells us the location of this tranquil scene – Uppingham in the county of Rutland. The train is the 1.55pm to Seaton – 3½ miles
distant on the ex-L&NWR Rugby to Peterborough line – and it is seen on 1 May 1954 made up of Ivatt ‘C12’ (GNR ‘C2’) class 4-4-2T No 67368 and a
single ex-LMS compartment bogie coach. Some ex-LNER locomotives, such as these Atlantic tanks, had by this date infiltrated the ex-LMS engine
shed at Peterborough. Author
auto-train down the tranquil branch from it served. Furthermore, some of the ‘M7’ 0-4-4T No 30048. The line was also
Upwey Junction, just north of Weymouth intermediate halts were at ground level, popular as a destination for Sunday ramblers’
(and where the station is now known simply requiring the use of steps lowered from the excursions out of London, one in October 1951
as Upwey), to Abbotsbury, home of the carriage side. Locomotives I observed on this being taken from Victoria to Cranleigh, via
centuries-old swannery. I have no note of the branch included 0-6-0PTs Nos 3740 and 4691. Guildford, by two ex-South Eastern &
locomotive number on this occasion, but the Finally we come to the former Southern Chatham Railway ‘C’ class 0-6-0s, Nos 31583
line was to close towards the end of that year. Railway system. A memorable branch on the and 31576. Just over a year later a similar train
Another line worked with auto-coaches, former LB&SCR system was that from Christ’s was taken as far as Guildford by a former
but in this instance in the charge of 0-6-0PTs, Hospital, west of Horsham, northwards to Southern Railway ‘U1’ class Mogul, where
was the nine-mile branch from Princes Guildford, the final run into Guildford, from ex-L&SWR ‘700’ class 0-6-0s Nos 30693 and
Risborough to Watlington, part of which Peasmarsh Junction, being reached over the 30308 took over the 11-coach load. I also saw a
survives in heritage status, today’s Chinnor & former L&SWR Portsmouth Direct line. On ramblers’ train arrive at Baynards, but from the
Princes Risborough Railway being based at the route were stations with names such as Horsham direction, in May 1957, again with
Chinnor. This line left Princes Risborough Slinfold, and Baynards, to list but two. two 0-6-0s in charge, but in this case ex-SR ‘Q’
alongside another single-track line, that to Locomotives that I saw on trains over this class No 30545 double-headed former LB&SCR
Thame and Oxford, so providing a double branch included ex-LB&SCR ‘D3’ class 0-4-4T ‘C2X’ No 32526.
single-line, while its terminus at Watlington No 32368 (propelling), ex-LB&SCR ‘E4’ class On my daily journeys from Kent into
was a considerable distance outside the town 0-6-2Ts Nos 32487 and 32562, and ex-L&SWR London I observed, on the up side at Dunton
Green (where I also lived for a while), the
five-mile branch line to Chevening Halt,
Brasted and Westerham. At Westerham there
was a neat single-platform station, not too far
from the town centre, while at Dunton Green
the normal London connections were, from
1935, with the all-stations electric trains
running from Sevenoaks, the next station
On 2 November 1953 ex-GWR ‘8750’ class

0-6-0PT No 3740 is seen at Watlington station
reversing its single auto-coach along the
platform, to enable the locomotive to run-
round. The train is the 1.54pm from Princes
Risborough, which will return at 3.05pm. A
wagon of coal stands on the shed road, while
beyond the platform are a small signal box and
water tower. Auto-fitted ‘1400’ class 0-4-2Ts
were the preferred motive power on the
branch, as their use meant running round was
not necessary. Passenger services would cease
here from 1 July 1957. Author

A Guildford to Horsham train enters Christ’s

Hospital station on Saturday, 1 September
1956, with ex-LB&SCR Billinton ‘E4’ 0-6-2T
No 32562 hauling a two-car pull-and-push set of
ex-L&SWR stock. The train is coming off the
single-track line, the track on the left, beneath
the bridge, being a siding. This former
‘Brighton’ branch line would close on 14 June
1965, by which time the Southern Region’s
more modern Ivatt ‘2MT’ 2-6-2Ts would be the
principal motive power. Author
south of Dunton Green, to Charing Cross or Railways days some Wainwright ex-SE&CR do a double-reverse shunt to gain the
Cannon Street, and vice versa. In the 1950s, ‘H’ class 0-4-4Ts fitted for pull-and-push Westerham branch track, and its load of eight
however, one or two steam-hauled trains from working became supreme. Western Region corridor coaches was being
and to the coast deigned to call at Dunton The two-coach sets used were either hauled manfully down the branch by ex-SER
Green in the rush hours to provide the good conventional motor-trains, or sometimes one rebuilt Stirling ‘O1’ 0-6-0 No 31064, its
folk of Westerham with at least a seemingly of the two-car saloon sets converted from exhaust really blackening the autumn sky.
fast main line run. SE&CR steam railmotors and placed on Sadly, the branch did not survive into the era
The normal Westerham branch motive conventional bogies. To conclude, another of diesel and electric traction in Kent, closing
power, from my observations, was initially the abiding image is that of a ramblers excursion in late 1961, and now much of the route lays
motor-fitted Kirtley ‘R’ and ‘R1’ class 0-4-4Ts on this branch. It ran on a Sunday in beneath the concrete of the M25 motorway –
of London, Chatham & Dover Railway origin, November 1957 and had originated on the what an iniquitous end for a piece of steam
but as these were withdrawn in early British Western Region. At Dunton Green it had to days history.
A ramblers’ excursion at the picturesque and

isolated Baynards station on the ex-LB&SCR
branch from Horsham and Christ’s Hospital to
Guildford on Sunday, 5 May 1957. The train ran
from London and was worked from Horsham
by two 0-6-0s – Maunsell ‘Q’ No 30545 and
ex-LB&SCR ‘C2X’ No 32526. The coaches on
the right had been used some months earlier
for the BBC filming of Edith Nesbit’s classic
children’s book The Railway Children. Author
The 10.55am branch train to Westerham

awaits departure from Dunton Green on
Sunday, 15 November 1953 – ex-SE&CR
Wainwright ‘H’ No 31530 will propel
ex-L&SWR two-car pull-and-push set No 653.
The signal to the left of the 0-4-4T controls
access to the up main line; there was no direct
access to the branch from the down main line.
No 31530 would be withdrawn in March 1962,
by which time the branch had closed
completely, on 30 October 1961. Author
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The Guild Street branch was one of the core

routes of the Bass network. The 0-4-0ST is
facing east on the approach to Guild Street
level crossing. A 1901 product of Neilson, Reid,
this is the last survivor of the steam fleet and
it is preserved at the National Brewery
Centre, which is only about 100 yards north of
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Remembering 1965 –
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fleet of locomotives in the 1950s
were five Neilson, Reid & Co Ltd
0-4-0STs purchased between 1898
and 1901. No 2 (Works No 5760 of
1900) is seen working the Burton-
upon-Trent brewery network on
12 April 1958. The Bass Brewery was
Fifty Years On
founded in 1777, the partnership
with John Ratcliff and John Gretton
coming after 1829, and this grew to
become the largest of all the Burton
breweries. The Bass private railway
began use in 1862, linking to the
Midland Railway, which operated it
until 1875, and rail services
continued through to May 1967.
Steam Days at Rhyl

On 26 May 1959 Worthington No 5 (W.G. Bagnall No 2108 of 1923) has passed beneath Hawkins Lane overbridge and it nears the mass of British
Railways exchange sidings to the north of Burton-upon-Trent station - the Midland Railway signal box is Hawkins Lane Junction. The only Bagnall in
the fleet, No 5 was purchased new, and ten years on it was back at the Stafford Works for a rebuild, and again in 1955. On 27 May 1960 it would
become one of 11 Worthington locomotives to pass to Bass, Ratcliff & Gretton Ltd, and soon the merged railway operation saw Bass and
Worthington locomotives indiscriminately used across the two systems, No 2’s August 1964 demise coming ahead of the 1965 closure of the original
Worthington brewery.
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The Worthington & Co Ltd brewery had a
large fleet of locomotives for its five-mile
network, and these maintained their identity
beyond a merger with Bass in 1927. Like on the
Bass engines, the brewery name took pride of
place on cab-sides. Hudswell, Clarke Works
No 690, Worthington No 2, emerges from a
Worthington premises on to the Hay branch
on 28 September 1957. Delivered in January
1904, No 2 enjoyed two rebuilds at its
manufacturer’s premises in Leeds, in 1934 and
1954, but by June 1961 it was in a pool of
Bass/Worthington locomotives and was
considered to be ‘scrap’.
34 www.steamdaysmag.co.uk MAY 2015 www.steamdaysmag.co.uk 35
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Kipps Engine Shed

and the Locomotives of Monklands
The birth and evolution of the steam With the first railway linking Glasgow and Edinburgh seen passing on the nearside, this 1950s view
of Kipps engine shed shows its industrial location, with Coatbridge Gasworks behind the shed on
locomotive aided the industrial the north side, and to the east on the same side are the Waverley Iron & Steel Works (est. 1881),
and the Northburn Steel Works (est. 1920), the latter being the distant chimneys to the far right.
growth of Coatbridge into the ‘Iron The shed’s World War I memorial can be seen on the far left, on the wall of the offices, and a trio
of nearby engines are typical of the shed’s allocation – ‘Y9’ 0-4-0ST No 68116, ‘J36’ 0-6-0
Burgh’, the locomotive facilities at No 65260, and ‘V1’ No 67618. Although undated, the view pre-dates the withdrawal of the ‘Y9’ in
February 1958. The 2-6-2T represents the passenger activity from here, which post-nationalisation
Kipps being pivotal to the NBR’s was just locomotives for the Airdrie (South) to Glasgow (Low Level) services. The Airdrie line is a
ability to deliver the raw materials, few yards behind the photographer, the junction for this, Greenside Junction, being about ¼ mile
west of Kipps shed. Roy Crombie/SRPS Collection
and take away finished product.
David Anderson and Andrew Gartsherrie, in the ‘V’ of the rival lines from A close relationship existed between the
Coatbridge, the Garnkirk & Glasgow Railway M&KR and its eastern neighbour, the
Kennedy offer an insight into and, on its eastern flank the M&KR route. Ballochney Railway, indeed the two concerns
130 years of steam haulage. This two-road shed was established by the shared some of the same officials, M&KR
former and was again built in the 4ft 6in locomotives worked Ballochney Railway
gauge era. Opened on 27 September 1831, the trains, and until late 1838 the M&KR used the
G&GR was re-gauged circa 1840, and then the Ballochney Railway Works at Greenside in
aving covered the rise and fall of the railway found itself on just the right path to Kipps. It should be mentioned however, that
H lines related to the Monkland

Railways Co and its pioneering
predecessors in the December 2014 issue of
assist the Caledonian Railway in its quest to
reach Glasgow. Although not part of our NBR
story, it is worth mentioning that the ‘Caley’
the Ballochney concern is believed to have
built at least one locomotive, Ballochney in
1836, but its details have been lost in time.
Steam Days, we now embark on an overview closed this shed in March 1866. Eventually, the M&KR fleet list grew to
of the locomotives, and give an insight into The first successful use of steam seventeen locomotives, knowledge of the
the Monkland & Kirkintilloch Railway, North locomotives in Scotland was by the M&KR in Ballochney Railway’s locomotive ownership is
British Railway, London & North Eastern 1831. The railway was incorporated on sketchy – perhaps just one short-lived
Railway and British Railways engine shed at 17 May 1824, and on that day the company example? – While the Slamannan Railway,
Kipps, on the western fringe of this upland became the first railway authorized to use from the Arbuckle branch of the Ballochney
area, and, equally importantly, within the locomotives in its original Act of Parliament, Railway through to Causewayend, had a pair
industrial heartland of Coatbridge. but, in the event, horse-power sufficed for the of 2-2-2s, Boanerges and Borealis, and 0-4-0
Few places in Britain can boast a railway first seven years. The first locomotives were Glenellrigg. The Singles were sold to the
history that harks back to when 4ft 6in gauge designed by Isaac Dodds, the M&KR’s Wishaw & Coltness Railway in 1842, once the
might be considered to be a ‘standard’, but Locomotive Superintendent (who had a M&KR locomotive fleet started working
that is the case in Monklands. It seems that similar role with the Ballochney Railway), Slamannan Railway trains. The disposal of
the Monkland & Kirkintilloch Railway opened these being two ‘Killingworth’ type 4ft 6in Glenellrigg is unknown, but what clear is that
a single-track 4ft 6in gauge engine shed gauge 0-4-0s that were built by Murdoch & the M&KR was becoming the leading railway
facility near Kirkintilloch Basin in May 1831. Aitken of Glasgow and suitably named serving this mineral-rich area.
Information on this is sketchy, but the entire Monkland and Kirkintilloch, later receiving the In addition to the M&KR locomotive
railway was re-gauged to 4ft 8½in on 26 July numbers 1 and 2. Significantly, these were the facility at Kirkintilloch Basin, the company
1847, and an alternative site in the works at first locomotives to be built in Scotland. Each established a single-road shed on the north side
Kirkintilloch Basin was in use in NBR days, had two vertical cylinders of 10½in x 24in, of the line at Kipps. Locomotives required for
the LNER closing this in 1947. Another early 3ft 9in driving wheels, and ball and socket the haulage of the Monklands area mineral
locomotive shed in the area was at joints on the coupling rods. traffic would thereafter be centered at Kipps,

Table One
Monkland & Kirkintilloch Railway locomotives built at Kipps
No. Name Date Type Driving wheel dia. Cylinders Works Details
3 – c.5/1834 0-4-0 4ft 103⁄8in x 24in (vertical) Greenside Replaced 1857
4 Victoria c.1837/38 0-4-0 4ft 1
10 ⁄2in x 24in (vertical) Greenside/Moss-side* Replaced 1843
– Atlas 1840 0-4-0 4ft 13in x 20in Moss-side Disposal unknown
– Zephyr 1841/42 0-4-0 4ft 6in 14in x 20in Moss-side Disposal unknown
– Sirocco 1841/42 0-4-0 4ft 6in 14in x 20in Moss-side Disposal unknown
It seems likely that parts from any/all of these locomotives were reused to build further locomotives. The date when numbers were adopted has not been recorded.
* Victoria was started at the Ballochney Railway’s Greenside Works, but it is believed to have been completed in the neighbouring Moss-side Works of the M&KR.
between Coatbridge and Airdrie. The name coal stage. It is thought that the turntable was railways merged to create Monkland Railways
Kipps was derived from the local name for a later increased to 50ft diameter, but not by and the infrastructure at Kipps would prove
sunken railway or ‘Kip’, although another 1937, judging by details in the LNER Sectional pivotal to the operation of this larger concern.
school of thought claims that Kipps took its Appendix. Located at the Coatbridge end of the By the 1860s, the growth of railways across
name from the adjacent farm of Kipps. site, many of the duties from Kipps would be Scotland was huge, with certain concerns
Cistercian monks from Newbattle Abbey were short trips that would often necessitate tender- harbouring expansionist plans. Monkland
granted the lands in this area and established a first operation, so perhaps a turntable might Railways was absorbed by the Edinburgh &
chapel at Kipps in the 15th century; the monks seem excessive, but tender-first operation of Glasgow Railway on 31 July 1865, and then
farmed the lands granted to them. longer-distance jobs, such as one to Niddrie the combined company amalgamated with the
This first engine shed at Kipps, a straight, Yard in British Railways days, would have been North British Railway on the following day!
single-road building, had opened in 1837 and it frowned up. Under NBR ownership, the era of locomotive
existed until destroyed by fire in 1890. Its The railway presence at Kipps grew construction at Kipps was over, the former
replacement, a straight, three-road shed, with a rapidly, the M&KR’s use of the Ballochney locomotive works thereafter only handling
slate roof and wooden gables, was just to the erecting shop at Greenside being abandoned wagon repairs.
west of its predecessor, and it opened on in favour of a new facility at Kipps, Moss-side, On the amalgamation of Monkland
18 March 1890. This is the shed that served this being opened on the opposite side of the Railways with the E&GR, a number of
into the 1960s, and the timing of the fire could running line to the first engine shed. In-house Neilson- and Hawthorn-built engines were still
have been much worse as the new building that locomotive construction had been embarked in use, the remainder of the Monkland stock
was adopted had previously been used as a upon as early as 1834, while this new M&KR mainly comprising mineral engines and ‘pugs’.
contractors’ shed for the construction of the Works was erecting locomotives by 1840, Engines acquired by the North British Railway
Forth Bridge. That massive structure had these being 4ft 6in gauge. Table One covers from Monkland Railways were various types,
opened on 4 March 1890, so perhaps the M&KR locomotives built in the two works in including eight 0-4-0s (NBR Nos 268-275),
potential take-over of the building was already the Kipps vicinity. five 0-4-0STs (Nos 281, 282 and 313-315),
in mind? Soon the second shed boasted a 45ft On 14 August 1848, the Ballochney, eleven 0-4-2s (Nos 295-305), 0-4-2ST No 316,
turntable, along with watering facilities and a Slamannan, and Monkland & Kirkintilloch and five 0-6-0s (Nos 276-280).
The two works buildings of Kipps are seen in the 1950s, the nearest one on the right, with a ‘J83’, a collection of wagons and a crane outside, is the
Greenside Works established by the Ballochney Railway, while the stone building immediately beyond this on the same side of the main line is the
Moss-side Works set up by the M&KR. On the north side of the line is the three-road Kipps engine shed. Of note is the presence of coaching stock, as
the line through here closed to passengers on 1 May 1930. NBR lattice post signals date the view to pre-December 1959. The view is taken from the
footbridge over the Airdrie line – from the Red Bridge, just east of Greenside Junction, a footpath led along the south side of the railway, behind the
houses of Alexander Street, then crossed the Airdrie line. Both works became wagon works once the NBR took over. Roy Crombie/SRPS Collection
R. & W. Hawthorn & Co Works No 908 started life in 1854 as Monkland Railways No 30, becoming North British Railway No 272 in 1865. Rebuilt in 1867
at Cowlairs Works, this double-framed 0-4-0 had 4ft 6in driving wheels powered by 15in x 20in cylinders. It is seen between 1880 and 1895 while running
as NBR No 272A, it became No 875 in 1895, No 1075 in 1901 and was withdrawn in 1902. James F. McEwan Collection, East Dunbartonshire Archives
Considering these by their NBR running wheeled, wooden-framed tender, while 4ft 9in wheels and 16in x 24in cylinders. NBR
numbers, Nos 268 and 269 were a pair of No 274 had its brass safety valve mounted No 279 ended its days in 1882, but No 280
0-4-0s supplied by Hawthorn of Leith in 1864. directly on the firebox casing. The quartet was on the books into 1899.
They boasted 5ft diameter coupled wheels, were withdrawn as follows, No 274 in 1887, A Sharp, Stewart & Co 0-4-0ST (Works
had a wheelbase of 8ft, and were initially No 273 in 1888, No 271 in 1896 (as NBR No 695), entered service as Monkland
powered by 15in x 20in cylinders. These were No 874), and No 272 in 1902, by which time it Railways No 28 in 1852. It had 15in x 22in
the last additions to Monkland Railways’ was running as NBR No 1075. cylinders, 3ft 9in wheels and became NBR
stock. No 268 was rebuilt in 1875, and in A Neilson & Co-built 0-4-0 gained the No 281. Ordered ‘for mineral traffic on a line
Reid’s time it had 16in x 20in cylinders and NBR No 275, it was erected in 1849, had with sharp curves and a gradient of 1 in 60 at
4ft wheels. No 269 at one time had four 4ft 6in coupled wheels, and cylinders of just a speed not exceeding 8mph’, in service the
buffers for dealing with narrow gauge colliery 14in x 20in. It was rebuilt at Cowlairs in 1867 engine was found to be too heavy, and the
lines. Un-numbered during their brief and was sold on withdrawal, in 1875, to R. & rails took severe punishment from it. The
Monkland Railways career, the NBR I. Easton. Monkland directors authorized its conversion
progressively renumbered them three times by No 276 was a ‘Hawthorn’ product of circa to a tender engine, and a tender was ordered
1901, their withdrawal coming as NBR 1850-52, with 5ft diameter wheels and 16in x from Neilson & Co. At an unknown date it
Nos 1020 and 1021 in 1921. 24in cylinders. A double-framed 0-6-0 goods was rebuilt as a 0-4-2 tender engine and is so
NBR No 270 is another 0-4-0 – a popular engine, similar to NBR No 137, it came from shown in the Cowlairs 1867 list, it was
wheel arrangement when it was built by the Edinburgh, Perth & Dundee Railway; it withdrawn in 1876.
R. & W. Hawthorn in 1851. With 5ft wheels appears that the EP&DR management ordered Another four-wheel saddle tank was
and 15in x 18in cylinders, little is known several of these ‘heavy luggage’ engines, then supplied to MR in 1855, and it became NBR
about this engine, which was probably the decided it did not require them all and so No 282. With 3ft 6in driving wheels and 12in
same as Nos 271-274, except for the wheel asked the makers to dispose of them to other x 18in cylinders, it was seemingly not
diameter. One source suggests that it might companies. In its early days it was known as successful as it only had a working life of just
originally have been Boreas, built for the Achilles but it became No 22 when the 11 years.
Glasgow, Dumfries & Carlisle Railway. It was Monkland Railways policy changed from Monkland Railways No 35 (NBR No 295)
rebuilt at Cowlairs in 1867 and would end its names to numbers. It was heavily repaired and was the first of a class of eleven 0-4-2s that
days as NBR No 270A (a number it gained in given a new firebox and tubes in 1863, this became the standard Monkland goods engine.
1876) in 1894. Nos 271-274 were outshopped resulted in its use through to 1880. Supplied from stock by Neilson & Co on
by the same manufacturer between 1852 and A batch of four Hawthorn-built 0-6-0s 26 November 1856, only 15 days after the
1855, with 4ft 6in diameter wheels and 15in x became NBR Nos 277-280. They dated from order had been given, it had inside frames and
20in cylinders. the 1851-55 period but were not all alike. The outside cylinders. Its tall mushroom-shaped
On 11 May 1852 the directors of the first three were previously Monkland Railways dome (to which the maker’s plate was fixed)
Monkland Railways Company decided that Nos 31, 33 and 34, with 16in x 24in cylinders over the firebox gave the engine an ungainly
henceforth their engines would carry and 4ft 6in wheels. These were all double- appearance. The coupled wheels were 5ft,
numbers instead of names, and word was sent framed, with inside cylinders. The first three trailing wheels 3ft 6in, and cylinders 16in x
to R. & W. Hawthorn & Co to number an were heavily repaired in 1866, and the 22in.
engine then under construction, becoming Cowlairs 1867 list shows them as having 5ft Two more of the class (MR Nos 3 and 4,
No 27 instead of Hermes, it eventually became wheels, with a wheelbase of 7ft 3in + 6ft 9in. later NBR Nos 304 and 305) were then
NBR No 271. It was a double-framed, inside No 280 was an ex-Edinburgh & Glasgow supplied by R. & W. Hawthorn in 1857, and
cylinder 0-4-0 with a wheelbase of 7ft 9in. engine built in 1851, and there is some these were exactly the same, as were a batch of
Another engine of the same class was added evidence that it began life with the Stirling & five (Nos 296-300) from Neilson between
in 1854, and two more (for working the Dunfermline Railway, becoming E&G in 1859 and 1862, but the three from Neilson in
Bathgate branch) in 1855. All four were 1858, and that it was handed over to the 1863/64 had 15in x 22in cylinders and
rebuilt at the Cowlairs Works of the NBR in Monkland Railways to replace another engine became NBR Nos 301-303. Subsequently,
1867. No 272 had a very tall polished brass destroyed in an accident caused by E&G Nos 296-298, 301, 304 and 305 were all rebuilt
safety valve (the only feature of the domeless default. Confusingly, the 1867 list shows it as a at Cowlairs Works in 1867/68 as 0-6-0s.
boiler), a stovepipe chimney and a four- new engine built at Cowlairs in 1865, with Withdrawals for the eight converted

An official Neilson & Co photograph of

Monkland Railways No 38 (Works No 556)
shows the locomotive in 0-4-2 form. It was
completed in 1860 and was one of eight in its
class, these being the first standard Monkland
goods engines – all would be rebuilt as 0-6-0s by
the NBR. MR No 38 would become NBR
No 298 in 1865, with its rebuild as a six-coupled
engine undertaken in 1867/68. Its withdrawal
would come about in 1875, as the first casualty
of its class, with No 300A (MR No 30) proving
to be the longest-lived as it remained on the
books into 1890.
James F. McEwan Collection,
East Dunbartonshire Archives
locomotives came between 1875 and 1891, Seemingly, only two war memorials were Highland Light Infantry – Missing in Action,
with the trio of 0-4-2s going between 1882 unveiled to recall the efforts and losses of the 21 March 1918 – Locomotive Fireman.
and 1890. NBR staff between 1914 and 1918. The Charles J. Coyle – Private –11 Battalion The
The NBR stock Nos 313 to 315 were massive one at Edinburgh (Waverley) Highland Light Infantry – Killed in Action,
allocated to three Neilson-built 3ft 6in representing all the staff, and another at Kipps 22 March 1918 – Locomotive Department Clerk.
0-4-0STs of 1862 to 1864; they had inside engine shed. Affixed to the outside wall of the George Dunn – Sapper – 49th Broad Gauge
frames and outside cylinders, with the first shed’s offices, this was unveiled on Monday, Company, Railway Operations Division, Royal
two boasting a wheelbase of 5ft 9in and 12in x 20 March 1922, as reported in The Scotsman Engineers – Died of Pneumonia, 7 February 1919.
18in cylinders, while No 315 had a 4ft 10in newspaper on the following day; ‘Mr William Thomas Gardner – Private – 7 Battalion The Black
wheelbase and 10in x 18in cylinders. The Whitelaw, chairman of the North British Watch – Killed in Action, 31 July 1917.
latter was acquired second-hand from Shaw, Railway Company, yesterday visited James Irons – Sergeant, 11 Battalion The Highland
Thompson & Moore in 1864. It is believed to Coatbridge, and in the presence of a large Light Infantry – Killed in Action, 14 August 1916
have been built by Neilson in 1862, for James gathering, unveiled a large grey granite tablet – Employed at Kipps Loco Works.
Gowan’s of Dunkeld, and named Dunkeld. containing the names of the men employed at Dennis Leonard – Sergeant – 6 Battalion Royal
No 315 served until 1884, while No 314 was Kipps who served during the war. The Enniskillen Fusiliers – Died of Wounds, 23 August
longest lived, working until 1892. memorial, which was dedicated by the Rev. 1915 at Gallipoli, Turkey – Locomotive Fireman.
An 0-4-2ST, No 316, was outshopped new Adam Maxwell, has been placed on the wall of Duncan Storrie
by Neilson in 1857 as Monkland Railways the office facing the Company’s main line David Walker – Private – 9 Battalion The Black
No 5, with 15½in x 22in cylinders powering between Glasgow and Edinburgh, and between Watch – Killed in action, 28 September 1915 –
5ft driving wheels, while the trailing wheels Kipps and Sunnyside Station.’ Locomotive Fireman.
were 3ft 6in. It was rebuilt by the NBR at Table Two is arranged in three columns, James Walker – Private – 9 Battalion The Black
Cowlairs in 1868 as an 0-6-0ST, with 16in x just like the memorial, the names in the centre Watch – Died of Wounds as a Prisoner of War in
22in cylinders, 4ft 2in coupled wheels and a column being the railwaymen of Kipps shed Germany, 4 December 1915.
new boiler, the wheelbase remaining that were killed in the war. More detail on
unchanged at 7ft 5½in + 6ft 5½in. In this these men is revealed in Coatbridge and The Rev. Lindsay’s book makes no reference to
form it would serve until 1894. Great War by Rev. Samuel Lindsay, and in the Messrs Gardner and Storrie, so perhaps they
The last 0-4-0 tender engine to run in Register of Honour of the Commonwealth War did not live in Coatbridge. In recent times
Britain was the 1868-built Thomas Wheatley- Graves Commission. Grant Cullen has carried out a great deal of
designed No 1011 (LNER Class ‘Y10’), which research into this, published by the North
was assembled from parts of scrapped William Anderson – Signaller – Royal Regiment of British Railway Study Group. Details on
locomotives. The 0-4-0 was withdrawn from Artillery – Died of Wounds, 18 August 1916 – Thomas Gardner come from the CWGC
Kipps shed in 1925 after many years of service Locomotive Fireman. website, but there is no reference there to
on the Clarkston branch at Moffat Mills. George Arnott – Private – 9 Battalion The Black Duncan Storrie. However, it also seems that
In time, the main locomotive sheds for Watch – Died of Wounds, 28 June 1916 – three Kipps employees killed in the conflict
Monklands operations proved to be Kipps to Locomotive Driver at Kipps. do not appear on the Memorial, perhaps they
the west, and Bathgate to the east, with Andrew Clunie – Sergeant – 11 Battalion The resigned from the NBR to go and fight, and
Polmont shed covering some of the work in
the Bo’ness area. These depots handled the
servicing and maintenance of engines Table Two
required for mineral and other goods Kipps Memorial
working, as well as local passenger work, the
In Commemoration of the Men from Kipps L. R. Dept., N.B.R.
motive power being mostly of NBR origin Who Served in the Great War 1914-1919
through to British Railways days. The number Those in the Centre Column made The Supreme Sacrifice
of railway workers employed at Kipps in 1865
was 137, but in 1890 this had increased to 537 James Bryson William Anderson David Irons
John Bulloch George Amott John Kellock
– in the early years of the 20th century Kipps William Campbell Andrew Clunie George Miller
had a locomotive allocation of almost James Collins Charles Coyle David Murray
80 engines, and a workforce to match. Arthur Dignon George Dunn Hugh Murray
During the Great War over 20 per cent of George Ferguson Thomas Gardner Joseph McCaldon
the North British Railway’s staff volunteered David Fleming James Irons Allan McCormick
David Fletcher Dennis Leonard Hugh McFadyen
for action, and such was the willingness of the Findlay Gartshore Duncan Storrie William McCraw
men to fight for their country that measures William Gray David Walker John McPherson
had to be taken to curtail this as the smooth Stephen Gray James Walker William Nimmo
running of the railways at home, particularly John Macgaily Thomas Wilson
Paul Hennon
in industrial areas, was vital to the war effort.
were thus no longer considered to be

Table Three
employees? The three unlisted men are –
Named ‘J36’ class 0-6-0s allocated to Kipps
William Baxter – Private – Cameron Highlanders NBR No Name No while at Kipps Time at Kipps
– Killed in Action, 16 July 1916 – Labourer at 176 French* 5217/65217 Kipps 11/1/48 until transfer to Grangemouth on 6/2/60
Kipps Locomotive Depot. 621 Monro 9621 Kipps until withdrawn on 27/4/37
627 Petain 9627 Kipps by 16/10/26, condemned 16/4/36
David Hall – Private –The Royal Scots – Killed in 628 Byng‡ 9628 Kipps circa 4/38, but at Borough Gardens on 9/1/42
Action, 16 May 1915 – Employed at Kipps Depot. 65216 Back at Kipps from 22/2/60 until withdrawn 30/4/62
Robert G. Findlay – Private – Machine Gun Corps 647 Albert 9647/5223 Kipps until condemned on 5/9/47
– Killed in Action, 7 October 1918 – Employed at 648 Mons 9648 At Kipps by 16/10/26, but at St. Margarets by 15/3/28
650 Haig# 9650/5226/65226 Kipps 4/5/38, then to Blaydon (Hexham) for 22/4/51
NBR Kipps.
660 Horne 9660/5236/65236 Kipps from 14/4/26 until condemned on 6/4/56
During the Great War, many British * Locomotive arrived un-named, but seems to have had it restored upon completion of a general
railways were also called upon to provide motive overhaul at Inverurie Works on 27/11/48.
power for the supply railways to the front line in ‡ Name not carried between 27/9/39 and May 1949.
# Name ‘lost’ during an Inverurie Works overhaul of January/February 1945, but restored after a heavy
Belgium and France. The NBR sent 25 0-6-0 overhaul at Cowlairs Works in January 1948.
mineral locomotives of Series ‘247’, ‘604’, ‘663’
and ‘678’. These would be brought together as
one class post-Grouping, LNER ‘J36’. approximate location of Gartverrie Siding (see same duty. The latter again proved a short-
These Matthew Holmes-designed engines page 24). The LNER lines are in blue, with term solution, lasting only until August 1927,
were subsequently named after battlefields, LMS routes in red. Kipps shed is seen on the but No 10206 steamed on until April 1937.
military leaders and a cartoon character that east-west line through Coatbridge (Sunnyside) The London & North Eastern Railway had
was popular with the troops, Ole Bill, and as station, the shed being about ½ mile to the come into existence on 1 January 1923, and
the perfect motive power of the Monklands east of it, and just nineteen chains from Kipps shed would be part of its network until
region, these were regularly used from Kipps Greenside Junction. The signal box at Kipps 31 December 1947. During this time, circa
through to BR days. The shed’s post-Grouping Junction controlled the points and signals in 1930, the busy shed saw major investment in
allocation of these former Western Front the shed area. At this time the number of coaling facilities when a huge mechanised
engines is seen on Table Three. The eight private and public sidings that needed to be coaling plant was erected. While the stud of
allocated to Kipps in this period were all of the served is incredible, Kipps being the major locomotives remained primarily of North
‘604’ series. In addition, the same period saw LNER shed in the area to provide all the British origin, the shed did receive some new
nine of the other named ‘J36s’ based at either motive power and staff, while itself being in classes, primarily the ‘N2’ class 0-6-2Ts and
Polmont or Bathgate, so Allenby, Ypres, Verdun, the shadow of Coatbridge Gasworks, and the ‘V1’ class 2-6-2Ts, both Gresley designs. At
Aisne, Somme, Plumer, Gough, Marne, and Waverley Ironworks. least one of the ‘N2/2s’ (the sub-class with
Maude will have all seen service on NBR Wheatley ‘115’ series No 1164 was low-height chimneys, nominally to fit the
Monklands. For a time, particularly during provided with a cut-down chimney and dome Metropolitan line loading gauge) was at Kipps
World War II, some of these 0-6-0s lost their to clear a low bridge at Gartverrie Siding in as early as May 1928, while a flurry of new
names, but most had them restored in 1921, its new height being around 11ft 1in. It arrivals of the same class, and including some
subsequent works visits. was the first of four of its class to be so ‘N2/3s’ (with taller chimneys) appeared in
In later North British days a need for low- treated, but none lasted particularly long, the November 1932.
height engines to work Gartverrie Siding, first had been in service since 1870, so The ‘V1s’ meanwhile, arrived with
north of Gartsherrie, saw the first of no less withdrawal in August 1925 was to be No 2913 (Doncaster Works No 1758) – into
than eight NBR-designed 0-6-0s being expected. Wheatley ‘115’ No 1208 was traffic at Darlington on 12 May 1931, and
shortened. The M&KR main line had likewise treated by 1923, but that engine’s cut- from 18 July it was serving from Kipps shed.
provided part of the Caledonian Railway’s down career was cut short in September 1924. It was then joined by the brand new Nos 2921
Gartsherrie-Gartcosh-Glenboig triangle of ‘J31’ No 1164 (nominally LNER No 10164) (21 October 1931), 2923 (28 November 1931)
lines, and it then entered the triangle to head was then helped out by the conversion of two and 2926 (31 December 1931). Probably
north for Kirkintilloch – the accompanying more of its classmates, No 10206 in January causing quite a stir, these three-cylinder
Railway Clearing House map dates from 1932 1925, when it also received a steam brake, and 2-6-2Ts were not destined to stay, as all four
and shows the triangle of lines and the then No 10180 in November 1925 for the were reallocated away to Parkhead shed in
November 1932 – Parkhead and Kipps both
provided motive power for the passenger
services that branch off at Greenside Junction,
just to the west of Kipps shed. However, it
would be July 1940 before another ‘V1’ made
a home on Kipps shed, and in the event LNER
Holmes ‘J36’ class 0-6-0 No 9647 Albert on shed

at Kipps on 19 September 1935. An NBR
Standard Goods 0-6-0 dating from February
1891, its life of coal train activity was punctuated
by service with the Railway Operating
Department of the Royal Engineers between
October 1917 and June 1919, hauling supplies to
the troops on the front line, with temporary
narrow gauge lines usually covering the ground
nearest to the trenches. Later used in the start
of post-war rebuilding, upon returning home its
name recalled the Battle of Albert of July 1916.
The locomotive would lose its name in February
1941, with thoughts at that time focused on the
ongoing Second World War, and it would not see
use after 25 May 1946, when first stored ‘awaiting
a decision’. W.A. Camwell/SLS Collection

The railways that served the industrial heart of Coatbridge by 1932, with the original M&KR (by now LNER) line heading north for Kirkintilloch, and
forming part of the primarily LMS Carlisle-Glasgow (Buchanan Street)-Stirling routes triangle of lines around Gartcosh. Kipps shed is seen to the east
of Greenside Junction, the route past the shed by then freight-only, while the Airdrie line to the south of it, through Coatdyke, would lose its
passenger service to the east of Airdrie ‘South pass’, to Bathgate and Edinburgh, from 8 January 1956. W.S. Sellar Collection
No 2927 would stay for more than 20 years, certainly benefitted from the specific need for chimney, dome and cab. Larger than the ‘J31’
becoming LNER No 7627 from 30 June 1946, a shorter engine as 34 of the once 36-strong and ‘J33’ they replaced, the modification to
and then British Railways No 67627 from class were taken out of service between 1924 the pair of ‘J36s’ seemed more radical to the
15 January 1949. As a general rule, after and the end of 1932, leaving No 9169 in naked eye, the chimney being a mere stub,
February 1949 there were usually three of service at St. Margarets (for the Gifford branch which would surely have affected the
these engines on the books at Kipps. pick-up goods), and No 9249 at Kipps. The draughting. Cut-down boiler mountings also
With the ‘J31s’ long in the tooth, the next latter shared the Gartverrie Siding duty with helped them fit under the low road bridges
engines to be modified for Gartverrie use ‘J31’ No 10206, until that engine’s withdrawal that spanned the tracks of the Gartverrie
would be two Holmes-designed ‘J33s’; the first, in April 1937 (four years after the penultimate branch as it led into the local brickworks.
No 9021 of August 1885, was a Kipps engine ‘J31’ had gone). An overview of the allocation in 1947,
from January 1926, although it is not clear The last two ‘J33s’ were taken out of use in through nationalisation in 1948 (when the
when it underwent the conversion. However, December 1938, and in Kipps terms this was shed was coded 65E), to 1950 and 1959 is
what is clear is that it was condemned on only possible as ‘J36s’ Nos 9714 and 9716 were covered in Table Four, and study of the data
23 October 1931 and thus No 9249 was rapidly lowered in February and April 1937. The shows how Kipps retained a North British
‘lowered’ to maintain the service. This ‘J33’ modification involved the cutting down of the image even 35 years after the company ceased
A 17 September 1938 scene finds LNER ‘N2/2’

class No 4731 beside the coaling plant at Kipps.
This Gresley-designed 0-6-2T was built in
Glasgow by the North British Locomotive Co
(Works No 22587) as Great Northern Railway
No 1731. New on 31 October 1921, it would
complete its working life as British Railways
No 69510 on 30 November 1959, from Hawick
shed. Also in view is Reid ‘N15/1’ 0 6 2T
No 9023. One of the post-Grouping batch of
this NBR-design, its career eventually spanned
from 30 November 1923 until 29 February
1960, its Kipps-era having ended in December
1959. Of note is the ongoing watering of a low-
sided tender on the right, but there were also
watering facilities at the other (west) end of
the shed, as seen in the opening photograph of
this section.
L.W. Perkins/Kidderminster Railway Museum
Taken on 17 September 1938, LNER No 9249 is

seen at the east end of Kipps shed. This
Matthew Holmes era 0-6-0 was completed at
Cowlairs Works as NBR Series ‘566’ No 249 in
June 1887. At the Grouping it became LNER
‘J33’ No 249B, and then No 9249 in March
1926, but it was the height reduction of this
engine, and classmate No 9021, that made it
particularly notable, as seen here. The latter
was withdrawn in October 1931, while No 9249
saw conversion as its replacement. Kipps had a
need for low-height locomotives on its
Gartverrie Siding duty, and this would ensure
the survival of this locomotive until December
1938, when it was withdrawn with full-height
classmate No 9169 as the last ‘J33s’. By that
time the Kipps low-height need was covered by
two recently converted ‘J36s’.
L.W. Perkins/Kidderminster Railway Museum
to exist. There were incursions of course, as Trip No N211, to Gunnie, required a ‘2F’ on
Table Four the Scottish Region was the merged assets of Mondays-only. With the locomotive prepared,
Kipps engine shed allocations the LNER and LMS, but the use of ex-NBR the start from Kipps shed was booked for
1947, 1950 and 1959 0-6-0s for mineral work was key. The number 12.45am, the turn was ‘conditional’ after
11 January 1947 of tightly-curved sidings also meant the ‘Y9’ 1.15am, and it was booked to conclude at
‘J35’ 0-6-0 4460/70/72/73/98, 4507 0-4-0STs with their 7ft wheelbase were also a 8.45am; the hours for the Gunnie guard on this
‘J36’ 0-6-0 5210/23, 5226 Haig, 5236 Horne, huge asset, and the ‘J88s’, with their wheelbase job were from 12.55am through to 8.55am.
5238/47/49/55/56/60/66/85* of just 5ft 3in + 5ft 9in, were also a great asset Twenty-three of the booked workings are
5287*/89/94, 5325
‘C15’ 4-4-2T 7475 as a six-coupled more powerful engine. specifically booked for a ‘2F’ or a ‘3F’, with
‘V1’ 2-6-2T 7627/60 Stronger still were the ‘J83s’, ‘N2s’ and ‘N15s’. four booked for a ‘5F’. The ‘5F’-rated ‘J37s’
‘Y9’ 0-4-0ST 8103/06/12/16/17/20/21 Gresley ‘N2’ numbers were reduced after were never particularly numerous in the home
‘J88’ 0-6-0T 8329/43/44 September 1951, with only two locomotives fleet at Kipps, despite their NBR heritage, and
‘J83’ 0-6-0T 8442 45/61
‘N15’ 0-6-2T 9141/96, 9206/07 still on hand after 1957. when this trip notice was issued the shed only
‘N2’ 0-6-2T 9503/08/09/11/18/53/63/96 Perusal of the British Railways Train, Trip had two of the class on its books – Nos 64579
Total: 52 engines and Shunting Notice: Glasgow North District and 64628 – but three of these workings were
for 6th January 1958 until further notice gives on a Sunday morning. This left ‘5F’ working
17 June 1950
‘J35’ 0-6-0 64460/70/72/73/98, a greater insight into the regular locomotive No N227, which is interesting in as much as it
64507/31/34 diagramming and crew rostering. At the time is vague – some of the lesser mineral
‘J36’ 0-6-0 65210/14/17, 65226 Haig, F.C. Margetts was the Chief Operating installations would not require a specific train
65236 Horne, 65238/45/49/55 Superintendent for the area. Each crew had to every day, so the footplate crew and guard
65260, 65264/66/85*/87*,
65325 ensure that their engine carried a numbered would book on and await further instructions.
‘C15’ 4-4-2T 67475 target corresponding to the working number A Saturdays-excluded duty, the notice states
‘V1’ 2-6-2T 67627/60/65/74 shown in the 9in x 6in pocket size book. What that the engine is already prepared ready for a
‘Y9’ 0-4-0ST 68094, 68106/12/16/17/20/21 is of particular note is that locomotives are 10.00am start, with the day concluding at
‘J88’ 0-6-0T 68329/31/43/44
‘J83’ 0-6-0T 68442 45/61 booked by power-rating, for example, on the 6.00pm; the hours for the Kipps guard booked
‘N15’ 0-6-2T 69145/96, 69206/07 ex-LNER side, ‘0FT’ – ‘Y9’ or ‘J88’, ‘2FT’ – for the job were 10.05am to 6.05pm. Only
‘N2’ 0-6-2T 69503/08/09/18/63/96 ‘J83’, ‘2F’ – ‘J36’, ‘3F’ – ‘J35’, ‘5F’ – ‘J37’, and duties Nos N241 to 245 are booked for a
Total: 54 engines ‘3MTT’ – ‘N15’. ‘3MTT’, while the only ‘0F’ working at this
14 February 1959 The book details 33 regular Kipps duties at time was No N246, which covered shunting at
Ivatt 4MT 43132-34 the time, N211-219, N221-229, N231, N232 the neighbouring Waverley Works, from
CR ‘2F’ 0-6-0T 56172 and N236-248, but many of these only 7.30am to 4.15pm (Saturdays excepted), and
‘J35’ 0-6-0 64460/70/72/73/98, operated on specific days, for example Kipps 6.30am to 3.15pm (Saturdays only).
64507/31/34
‘J37’ 0-6-0 64574/79, 64628
‘J36’ 0-6-0 65210/14, 65217 French,
65249/60/66/85*/87*, 65325/43
‘V1/V3’ 2-6-2T 67605/09/18/27/60,
67665 (V1), 67674
‘Y9’ 0-4-0ST 68100/08/10/17/23
‘J88’ 0-6-0T 68336/43
‘J83’ 0-6-0T 68442-45
‘J72’ 0-6-0T 68709/33
‘N15’ 0-6-2T 69145/96, 69206/07
‘N2’ 0-6-0T 69518/96
350hp 0-6-0DE D3394/95, D3409/16,
D3530/31/33
Total: 54 steam engines, 7 diesels
* Locomotives cut-down in height.
Robert Stephenson & Co Ltd-built, and Reid-

designed ‘519’ series (LNER ‘N15/1’) 0-6-2T
No 69196 on 11 July 1953 during shunting
duties to the east of Kipps yards, with the
Northburn Iron & Steel Works providing the
backdrop. This locomotive served at Kipps
depot until December 1959, and remained in
service until October 1962. David Anderson

The birth of the Scottish Region of British

Railways did, inevitably, lead to the shed
receiving some ‘foreign’ motive power in the A sample of the internal paperwork issued to
form of a handful of ex-Caledonian Railway footplatemen and guards as the Train, Trip and
interlopers. The ‘498’ class ‘2F’ 0-6-0T, Shunting Notice for workings from Kipps shed in
No 56172, was on hand by January 1957, and the period from 6 January 1958.
Robin Nelson Collection
it would stay until July 1959; completed in
1921 under Pickersgill, it was really a The ‘0F’-rated fleet at Kipps was made up of
McIntosh design. The trickle continued with the Reid ‘J88s’ and the Neilson-designed ‘Y9s’,
‘2F’ 0-6-0T No 56161, another ‘498’, albeit this this 10 June 1956 view of No 68336 at the east
end of Kipps shed representing the former. One
locomotive was only on hand for November
of a fleet of 35 NBR Series ‘836’ short-
and December 1958, which was when a third wheelbase tank engines, these were designed
‘498’ appeared – No 56170. It would serve for use in yards with sharp curves, such as at
from Kipps shed between December 1958 and docksides, and as such they had dumb-buffers,
February 1959. were steam-brake only (except two examples
in BR days), and were right-hand, rather than
It seems likely that the only other left-hand drive. With 3ft 9in driving wheels, a
ex-Caledonian Railway locomotive to serve wheelbase of 5ft 3in + 5ft 9in, and cylinders of
from Kipps was ‘0F’ 0-4-0ST No 56029, which 15in x 22in fed by a boiler of 3ft 10in diameter
arrived in November 1959 and was withdrawn and 8ft 8½in length, one of its larger cousins,
‘J83’ No 68445, stands to its left. Built at
from service at the shed in December 1962,
Cowlairs, No 68336 entered service as NBR No
although there is some suggestion that sister 238 in April 1909 and it would serve at Kipps
engine No 56030 was also earmarked for the until September 1960, with its withdrawal from
shed and withdrawn from it, at least on paper. Dawsholm coming in May 1962. David Anderson
These diminutive ‘264’ class engines were
built in the McIntosh era, but the class was in
truth a Neilson & Co design of 1875 that the
North British Railway used as its ‘546’ and ‘32’
series locomotives, and it was these long-term
residents at Kipps that the 1895-built
No 56029 was brought in to assist/replace.
Two more modern LMS types also rattled
the local NBR image. Firstly a trio of Ivatt
‘4MT’ 2-6-0s, Nos 43132-34, began to serve
Kipps shed. No 43134 proved to be the longest
serving from Kipps, arriving from Eastfield on
3 March 1956, with Nos 43132 and 43133
following the same path, on 3 May 1956 and
2 November 1956 respectively. All three of
these Moguls were transferred away on
5 March 1962, No 43133 to nearby
Motherwell, and the others to Greenock. 1961
also saw the appearance of two Stanier
The ‘J83s’ were another Reid design for the NBR, these being larger than the ‘J88s’ in every dimension, and thus they were designated ‘2F’ by British
Railways. The class of 40 locomotives were made up of a Neilson-built batch of 20 under the ‘795’ series, and the ‘815’ series from Sharp, Stewart &
Co Ltd, all were completed in 1900/01. This view finds ‘795’ series No 68443, a long-term Kipps-based engine, with a tube wagon on the Sheepford
branch in Coatbridge, the backdrop being provided by the James N. Connell scrap yard that was sited beside the branch as other heavy industry
faltered. In the debris to the right of the locomotive are roofs of Edinburgh Corporation tramcars, while steam locomotives known to meet their end
here would be ‘J36’ No 65277, ‘J37’ No 64546 and ‘Princess Royal’ No 46200 The Princess Royal, all in 1963/64. Roy Crombie/SRPS Collection
The Kipps shed foreman has diagrammed ‘Y9’

No 68104 to the Waverley Iron & Steel Works
‘0F’ turn on 13 March 1962, the 0-4-0ST leaving
the site in this view, its destination being the
marshalling yards to the east of Kipps shed,
alongside Northburn Steel Works. A Neilson
design, under Dugald Drummond the NBR
purchased two engines from that company in
1882, Nos 546 and 547, then built 36 engines to a
similar design at Cowlairs under Matthew
Holmes, the in-house variants being Series ‘32’;
these were erected between 1887 and 1899. No
68104 was one of the Cowlairs batch, with the
LNER going on to consider all 38 to be ‘Y9s’.
Completed in 1890, its hand-brake only years
were over from March 1920, while cab-sides
were added in April 1932. Close inspection
reveals the first wagon to be a permanently
attached wooden tender, as the original 18 cwt
coal capacity was not enough for many of the
duties performed by these engines. W.S. Sellar
2-cylinder ‘4MT’ 2-6-4Ts at Kipps, Nos 42426 eroded away, and many of the mineral locomotives and trains around the village of
and 42664, but only between March and installations were now worked out, with their Twechar, 3½ miles to the north-east of
November. lines cut-back, while the industry of Coatbridge Kirkintilloch, as the last example of private
The last ‘new’ design of LNER origin to suffered rapid decline in the late 1950s. In BR owner steam locomotives to run on British
appear seems to be the North Eastern terms, these circumstances gave rise to a retreat Railways’ tracks. Author David Anderson
Railway-designed ‘J72’ – Nos 68709 and west, with signalling progressively removed recalls seeing a green-liveried ‘J15’ 0-6-0 with
68733 arrived together in January 1958 and from Rawyards East, Commonhead, Incline the owner’s name on the tender under repair
left together in March 1961. Eventually, 14 of Foot and Kipps Junction between August 1958 at Haymarket shed in that year.
the ‘V1/V3’ 2-6-2Ts served from Kipps, their and December 1959, leaving the line through The shed at Bathgate had an allocation of
activities being concentrated on the services Kipps classified as ‘yard working from 31 engines during 1959, all of which were of
from Airdrie through to Glasgow (Low Level), Greenside Junction’. Greenside itself would NBR origin apart from one Ivatt ‘4MT’ 2-6-0,
but investment in this line saw 25Kv AC come under the control of Coatbridge No 43138, which was always kept in good
‘AM3’ electric-multiple-units take over this Sunnyside power box in July 1960. external condition for longer distance freight
service, so a clutch of the 2-6-2Ts – By early 1959 some of the shunting work turns. The original shed structure had six
Nos 67605, 67609, 67618, 67627, 67660, and many of the trips were in the hands of roads but due to subsidence, a new four-road
67665, 67669 and 67674 – headed off in English Electric 350hp 0-6-0DE locomotives, shed was built in 1954. Before its closure to
search of new work in the autumn of 1960. As despite their low speed. Worthy of mention is steam in August 1966, the shed sidings were
it happens, the new ‘Glasgow Blue Train’ units the continued use of the former Monkland & used for the storage of Scottish Region-based
suffered a hic-cup and many of the ‘V3s’, as Kirkintilloch Railway’s Moss-side Works, on locomotives awaiting disposal to scrap yards.
they were by this time, had to return as cover. the south side of the Airdrie line opposite Also at the eastern end of the Monklands
Inevitably, modernisation prevailed on these Kipps engine shed, through to the 1960s, its area, the shed at Polmont, which replaced one
services and the last of the ‘V3s’ were soon no use since NBR ownership in 1865 being as at Manuel (Bo’ness Junction) in 1916/17,
longer required. No 67618 was the last at Kipps wagon-shop. provided former North British engines for the
Kipps, being withdrawn in December 1962. Elsewhere in the area, by 1958 the iron Bo’ness branch trains, and a variety of small
Modernisation also meant a shrinking and steel-making firm of W. Baird & Co of shunting and freight types for local and
system, the passenger network long since Gartsherrie continued to run its own dockyard work.
Dugald Drummond favoured the Neilson 0-4-0ST design, although in truth its progenitor was the Connor-era CR ‘502’ class. The St. Rollox versions
were CR Class ‘264’, twenty engines built between 1885 and 1890, and 14 McIntosh versions built between 1895 and 1908. The ex-CR intruder is this
view at Kipps, No 56029, was completed in November 1895 as CR No 614, while its neighbouring former NBR cousin dates from December 1897. Both
of these engines are known to have operated with a permanently attached ‘tender’, but No 68117 has had its trailing driving wheel set removed, the
fact that this is being carried out in the open air suggesting that the engineering facilities here were overstretched. Roy Crombie/SRPS Collection

Kipps-allocated Gresley ‘V3’ 2-6-2T No 67660

approaches journey’s end at Airdrie (South)
with a service from Glasgow (Low Level). Close
inspection reveals some preparatory work for
‘Blue Train’ electrification, resignalling coming
as part of the package to up-grade the route.
Converted from ‘V1’ to ‘V3’ in 1956, this
locomotive was new to traffic from Doncaster
Works on 11 July 1936 and it would have two
spells at Kipps shed, between 6 February 1940
and a move to St. Margarets on 28 November
1960, and again between 27 February 1961 and
another move to St. Margarets on 6 October
1961. It was condemned on 5 February 1962.
W.S. Sellar
The entry for Kipps in the British Locomotive

Shed Directory for 1962, a handy book for
railway enthusiasts that listed the best way to
reach engine sheds using public transport.
Steve Bartlett Collection
A glimpse at the British Railways

Locomotive Shed Directory for 1962 instructs
would be trainspotters on how to reach Kipps
shed by public transport, although with no
glamour locomotives to seek out it was
probably not the shed at the top of everyone’s
list to visit, especially once the unusual ‘Y9’
fleet was withdrawn. No 68117 was
condemned in July 1962, leaving No 68104 to
gasp on until the October. Ironically, it would
be the Caledonian 0-4-0ST that would be the
last of the four-wheeled saddle tanks in use at
this former NBR stronghold. The other great
attraction, for photographers in particular, and for a short while the building became a
was the cut-down ‘J36s’, but the Gartverrie public house. It is now the Shimla Cottage
Siding job ended in September 1962, and Indian restaurant.
almost immediately Nos 65285 and 65287 With the 100th anniversary of the World SOURCES:
went off to find work elsewhere. War I Armistice getting ever closer, and the Locomotives of the North British Railway
The 1963 edition of the Shed Directory growth in interest in family history, such 1846-1882 – The Stephenson
Locomotive Society
stated that Kipps was a ‘diesel depot’ – it memorials are part of the local fabric that Coatbridge and The Great War - By Rev. Samuel
closed to steam on 31 January 1963, the last should be treasured, but this one is also Lindsay (Minister, Coatbridge Baptist
engines based there being ‘J37’ No 64593 and important as the last remnant of a locomotive Church). Published by the author in 1919.
‘J36’ No 65325, which were sent to shed that was at the heart of the Monkland North British Railway Study Group Journal No 93
Grangemouth and St. Rollox respectively, railways for over 130 years. – An NBR War Memorial – Last Relic of
Kipps – Grant Cullen
prior to scrapping. For a while Kipps shed was Register of Honour - Commonwealth War
used to store dead engines, and even its use as Steam Days would like to join the authors in Graves Commission Web Site -
a diesel stabling point only continued until thanking Robin Nelson for his assistance with www.cwgc.org.uk
about 1966. Demolition of the building came this article.
in 1975, but thankfully the World War I
memorial was taken down and then
re-mounted on the relatively youthful BR Staff
Association Social Club building near
Coatbridge (Sunnyside) station. However,
such was the down-turn in BR activity locally
that the BR social club closed in the 1970s,
The Gartverrie Siding low bridge problem is

illustrated by this view of Holmes ‘J36’
No 65287 nearing the brickworks on 6 April
1962, not long before the contract to serve the
site ended. Completed as NBR No 716 in
December 1896, the lowering of this
locomotive, chimney, dome, cab and boiler
mountings, was undertaken in Gresley’s time as
LNER CME, during April 1937. From
September 1962 this 0-6-0, along with its cut-
down sister, No 65285, would be free to seek
out work elsewhere, its withdrawal coming as a
Grangemouth-allocated engine in June 1963.
Robin Nelson
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In Colour
126: Steam in and around Reading
With the former Great Western main line through Reading presently undergoing massive change with electrification
through to Swansea, complete with resignalling and even the provision of a flying junction, we hark back to the final
years of British Railways steam on the main lines into this Berkshire rail-hub. At the meeting point of five major
railway routes, and as a ‘Western’ and ‘Southern’ boundary, railway enthusiasts have always gravitated here.
With the River Thames to the left, an unidentified ‘Castle’ class 4-6-0 is seen on the approach to Tilehurst, three miles north-west of Reading and
the first station out from Reading (General) on the line towards Didcot. The train is the down ‘Cathedrals Express’, with a rake of chocolate and
cream-liveried BR Mark I stock in September 1960. This impressive titled train, ran between London (Paddington), Oxford, Worcester and
Hereford, four cathedral cities. It started life in 1957, but the name would only be carried until 1965. The ‘Cathedrals Express’ headboard carried a
representation of a bishop’s mitre above the titled train’s name. K.W. Wightman

Heading towards Twyford, five miles to the Paddington side of Reading, this August 1958 view records an up freight running along the relief
lines to the east of Sonning Cutting behind former Great Western Railway ‘2800’ class No 2841. Stourbridge Junction-based at this time, this
Churchward 2-8-0 would be moved to Wolverhampton (Oxley) in the September, but its last four years of service would be spent at London
Division sheds until its withdrawal in December 1963. K.W. Wightman
An up local freight is pictured in the tree-lined cutting at Sonning in August

1958, hauled by 0-6-0PT No 5755, this pannier tank being a long-time resident
of Slough shed until its withdrawal from service in July 1960. K.W. Wightman
On 10 September 1960 a five-coach Down local train approaches Sonning cutting hauled by Great Western ‘Hall’ class 4-6-0 No 4987 Brockley Hall, a
locomotive based at Reading since August 1958, its second spell at that depot. Sonning is situated just two miles from Reading on the Paddington
side, and its cutting was a favourite photographic spot for steam enthusiasts. K.W. Wightman
Pangbourne, just 4½ miles north-west of Reading on the line to Didcot, is the location of this 11 May 1963 view
of BR-built ‘Modified Hall’ No 7928 Wolf Hall heading a passenger train for Worcester along the down main.
Worcester-allocated for many years, No 7928’s service life would end there in March 1965.
David Christie/southern-images.co.uk

Southbury Lane overbridge at Ruscombe, about a mile to the London side of Twyford, is where, on 10 September 1960, we see BR-built ‘Castle’
No 7017 G.J. Churchward on a ‘C’ class parcels train, a lowly-rated duty for such a fine locomotive. Completed at Swindon Works in September 1948,
this 4-6-0 would prove to be a long-term resident of Old Oak Common shed until its withdrawal in February 1963. K.W. Wightman
Inter-regional trains from Bournemouth and

Portsmouth passed through Reading (West) station on
their journeys to and from the north, bringing increased
motive power variety to the Reading area. On
12 September 1964, rebuilt Southern ‘West Country’
Pacific No 34047 Callington passes through the station,
no doubt having come up from its Bournemouth home.
Just beyond the platform is Oxford Road Junction, where
these trains branched left for the Reading West curve,
and thus avoided ‘reversal’ in Reading (General).
Traditionally Southern motive power on Inter-Regional
trains would work as far as Oxford, or sometimes
Banbury. David Christie/southern-images.co.uk
Reading (Southern) station and locomotive depot was situated just below the Great Western main line at the London end of Reading
(General) station, and on 17 October 1964 we see Southern ‘U’ class Maunsell Mogul No 31799 arriving at the station with a passenger
working of Southern stock from Farnborough, over former South Eastern & Chatham Railway metals. On the left, the rear of Reading
Main Line East box can be seen beside the former GWR line to Paddington. Colour-Rail.com/340101
Just beyond Reading (West), on its way to Basingstoke, Eastleigh-allocated Southern ‘N15’ or ‘King Arthur’ class 4-6-0 No 30784
Sir Nerovens heads for home with a freight on 2 May 1959. The line from Reading (General) station through Reading (West) to
Basingstoke was opened as a Great Western branch line (originally broad gauge), so former L&SWR metals will not be reached until
Basingstoke, where the route from Waterloo is met and both Salisbury and Southampton can be reached.
T.B. Owen/Colour-Rail.com/BRS1975

Goring cutting, just north of Goring & Streatley station, is around nine
miles from Reading on the Didcot line, and on 13 February 1965 – the
final year of Western Region steam – Didcot-based ‘Modified Hall’
No 6983 Otterington Hall, with just six months of active service remaining,
heads north through the cutting with a goods train. Of note is the use of
three five-plank open wagons to carry standard ‘B-Type’ containers at the
head of the train, as ordinarily these would be transported on flat wagons.
Most likely heading for Reading Central goods depot, Hawksworth

0-6-0PT No 9404 has just passed through Reading (West) station on
12 September 1964. Although most engines of this class were built in BR
days, predominantly by Robert Stephenson & Hawthorn Ltd, Reading-
allocated No 9404 was one of ten constructed at Swindon Works prior to
the nationalisation of the railways. The line to Reading Central goods
depot diverged from the Basingstoke branch at Coley Branch Junction,
between Reading (West) and Southcote Junction.
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LLANGOLLEN RAILWAY
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St. Pancras Station
LMS ‘4P’ Compound 4-4-0 No 1059 departs St. Pancras with the 4.15pm Manchester (Central)
express in June 1926. To the right is Kirtley 0-4-4WT No 1218 on station pilot duties, while
One of the most distinctive of British
railway stations, the Gothic another pilot, a Johnson ‘1F’ 0-6-0T, is on the centre stock road within the trainshed. The
Compound is fitted for oil burning, the coal strike and General Strike of 1926 leading to the
splendour of St. Pancras was the conversion of some LMS locomotives to oil firing, but few were modified and so the process
was little more than a gesture, doing little to ease the national coal shortage.
jewel in the Midland Railway’s F.R. Hebron/Rail Archive Stephenson
crown, but its steam days lasted for
The Midland Railway came into being on 1858 Midland Railway passenger trains ran
just 94 years, as Andrew Wilson 10 May 1844 with the amalgamation of the into King’s Cross, and from 1 August through
explains. Midland Counties, the Birmingham & Derby booking from King’s Cross to Midland
Junction, and the North Midland railway stations came into operation. Relations
lace-names have always fascinated me, companies, with Derby as its hub. All London between the two companies, however, were
P none more so that St. Pancras, a saint

remembered more for a building named
after him than for his life. Pancras was
traffic was worked from Derby to Rugby via
Trent and Leicester, where it was handed over
to the London & Birmingham Railway. The
not altogether harmonious as the GNR was
always going to put its trains and interests
first.
apparently a Roman citizen who converted to merger of the L&BR into the London & North Under the terms of the running powers,
Christianity and was beheaded in 304AD, Western Railway on 6 July 1846, however, the Midland was to be charged not less than
during the Diocletian repressions. The first dramatically changed the balance of railway £20,000 a year to run over GNR tracks and
church dedicated to him close to where the politics and the Midland felt obliged to look the agreement could be terminated by either
Midland Railway’s great London terminus for another route to London, which offered party at seven years’ notice. The lucrative
would be built is claimed to date from the 7th the company better facilities and greater London coal trade was a good example of the
century – so when the Midland was looking autonomy. A break away from the ‘Euston GNR’s protection of its traffic, as it imposed a
to name its London station, it looked no Square Confederacy’ was offered by the Great toll of 1s 9d a ton on coal carried over its
further than the parish in which it was Northern Railway’s London extension from metals, while only charging 2d a ton for other
located. Peterborough and Retford. The GNR was minerals. As a result, as much Midland coal as
I only travelled out of St. Pancras behind keen to benefit from the expected traffic that possible was routed to London over the
steam once, and that was on a Home Counties the Great Exhibition of 1851 would generate L&NWR. Also, at Hitchin, GNR passenger
Railway Society special to Derby and Burton- and the company’s first London terminal was and goods trains were always given priority
upon-Trent on 1 March 1964, when the a temporary station at Maiden Lane, while a over those of the Midland.
motive power was modified ‘Merchant Navy’ tunnel was excavated under the Regent’s This somewhat uneasy working
Pacific No 35003 Royal Mail. I had been, Canal to a permanent site at King’s Cross. The relationship was strained to breaking point in
however, a frequent visitor but never stayed Thomas Cubitt-designed station opened on 1862 when the Great London Exposition or
long as the attraction of next-door King’s 14 October 1852. World Fair was held at South Kensington, on
Cross was always a greater draw, the Gresley, In the meantime the Midland Railway had the site of what is now the Science Museum
Thompson and Peppercorn Pacifics being pressed ahead with a 65 mile line from and Natural History Museum. Like the Great
preferred to the Stanier ‘Jubilees’ and Fowler Leicester to Hitchin and the GNR, which, Exhibition of 1851, it generated considerable
‘3P’ class 2-6-2Ts. Also in the late 1950s and thanks to running powers, gave the Midland a interest and huge crowds flocked to the
early 1960s there was something old- route into London that was independent of pavilions. Both the Midland and GNR ran
fashioned and dated about the Gothic the L&NWR. Goods trains began running special exhibition trains, which had to use the
architecture of the station and hotel, which into London from 22 April 1857 and GNR goods yard at King’s Cross, where
did little to add to its appeal. passenger trains on 8 May. From 1 February passenger facilities were basic or non-existent.

An RCH junction diagram of the St. Pancras

area as evolved by 1903, including the
Midland Railway goods facilities to the west of
the main line, at St. Pancras Goods and
Somers Town Depot. The North London
Railway makes an east to west crossing of the
Midland route, with a spur linking the two
systems, while just north of that is St. Paul’s
Road Junction, where the subterranean link
from the Metropolitan lines from Moorgate and
Farringdon Street joins the MR. Beyond this
immediate vicinity, just 1½ miles north of
St. Pancras, was Kentish Town station and
then the spurs to and from the Tottenham &
Hampstead Joint line, the MR/Great Eastern
route that enabled GER and London, Tilbury &
Southend line trains access to St. Pancras.
thoughts were to use an embankment, but it

was eventually decided to build cellars at
ground level, where there was direct access to
the surrounding streets to unload the
extensive beer traffic from Burton-upon-
Trent. To support the station floor, 720
13ft 6in cast-iron columns, each capable of
bearing up to 55 tons, were erected at 14ft 8in
intervals.
This and the usual delays to ordinary traffic Camden Square. South of here the line was The trainshed roof was a single-span of
saw the Midland claim that 3,400 trains (1,000 engineered on the level, passing under the 240ft, which was formed of compound curves
passenger and 2,400 goods) were delayed that North London Railway, through the slums of of two segments of 57ft and 160ft radii
year alone on the GNR between Hitchin and Agar Town and over the Regent’s Canal and meeting at an apex that was 150ft above rail
King’s Cross. This was frustrating enough, but the Fleet River on a slightly falling gradient. level. The 25 ribs, set at intervals of 29ft 4in,
when the GNR management informed the This meant that the platforms at sprung from brick piers at
Midland that it should immediately start the terminus would be some 18ft ‘The station and hotel platform level, had three
using its almost complete, nearby coal yard above the Euston Road. The were designed by two intermediate ribs
for its coal traffic the company was somewhat Midland had bought various strengthened by trussed
men with very purlins above the brickwork
slow in complying. plots of land within the ancient
To chivvy the Midland along, the GNR parish of St. Pancras from the different philosophies, of the side walls. Each main
removed a number of MR wagons from its Church Trustees, and part of the William Henry Barlow, rib weighed almost 55 tons.
yard. This action angered the Midland eastern estate of Lord Somers. the pragmatic engineer, The horizontal thrust was
Railway management and forced its hand into Included in these was the old resisted by wrought iron
pushing forward plans to build its own main churchyard and burial ground,
and George Gilbert cross-girders below the
line and terminus in London. Plans were which would bring about a Scott, the acolyte of level of the rails and
completed for a 49¾ mile line south from scandal as the railway was driven Gothic revivalism. ’ platforms. When finished,
Bedford, and these were presented to through and human remains the roof was 690ft long and
Parliament. Despite opposition from both the were scattered with little reverence. The covered 165,000sq ft. As at King’s Cross, the
GNR and L&NWR, the scheme duly received disturbance to the burial ground was partly roof was built using a travelling scaffold,
the Royal Assent on 22 June 1863. The Act due to the decision to provide a new double- which itself contained 80 tons of ironwork
committed the company to an estimated track branch to the Metropolitan Railway just and 25,000cu ft of timber.
expenditure of £1,750,000, plus £583,330 in west of King’s Cross, Parliamentary authority Beneath the station, the vaults were served
shares. However, as the Midland could not being granted by an Act of 25 July 1864. by a series of tracks and wagon turntables,
just abandon its running powers agreement, it Work was later slowed by the financial over which the individual wagons were moved
also had to continue to pay the GNR £20,000 failure of bankers Overend & Gurney & Co by capstans and rope. The wagons reached the
a year until February 1870. on 10 May 1866, just a few months after cellars on a hydraulic lift that was sited
Although the coal traffic into London construction of the terminus was started. The centrally at the north end of the platforms.
provided the Midland with the greater part of station and hotel were designed by two men On Saturday, 7 September 1867, when the
its revenues, the prestige of having a London with very different philosophies, William rails were largely still unballasted, a special
terminus was undeniable. Ideally, to compete Henry Barlow, the pragmatic engineer, and goods train made an inspection run over the
with the L&NWR and GNR it should be as George Gilbert Scott, the acolyte of Gothic line, carrying directors, officials and
close to the Euston Road as possible, despite revivalism. Barlow’s trainshed reflected the contractors – goods workings (but not coal
the barrier of the Regent’s Canal. Contracts technology and budget available to him, but trains), then began running through to Agar
were let to two firms, Messrs Brassey & also benefited from the input of another Street two days later. Local passenger trains
Ballard for the 35 miles between Bedford and engineer in the specification of the roof, began to serve Moorgate on 13 July 1868, and
Radlett, and to Joseph Firbank for the Rowland Mawson Ordish, with whom Barlow St. Pancras finally opened for passenger traffic
15 miles from Radlett into London. Sufficient had collaborated on aspects of the Crystal on 1 October 1868. Five platform faces were
land was acquired to allow four tracks, but Palace in 1851. provided, two for departures – one of which
only the section between St. Pancras goods Barlow’s brief was to erect a trainshed was a short, local platform on the west side –
station and Welsh Harp Junction initially had some 18ft above the surrounding streets, and three on the east side for arrivals. Six
four lines. leaving enough room for a hotel at the south carriage sidings separated the departure and
The approach to London was through end. A tunnel to the Metropolitan lines also arrival sides, and between Platforms 2 and 3
Borehamwood, Hendon, and Hampstead to had to be accommodated beneath. First was a wide roadway for hackney cabs. During
the night of 30 September/1 October all the the Midland’s Grand Hotel was one of the Victorian days that the District Locomotive
Midland Railway staff, tickets, cash, carriages finest and most elaborate examples of Superintendent ranked second only to the
and property were transferred from King’s Victorian secular Gothic architecture in Chief Mechanical Engineer.
Cross, despite the booking offices and other England, but was almost overwhelming in its When trains started running into and out
amenities at St. Pancras being unfinished. The dominance of the eastern end of the Euston of St. Pancras in October 1868, the principal
first train to use the station, the up mail from Road. Plans to build an additional storey for express locomotives were Kirtley 2-4-0s and
Leeds, arrived at 4.15am, and the first the company’s head office were abandoned, 2-4-0Ts in their dark green livery. His
departure was a newspaper train at 6.15am. and the hotel was eventually closed by the 0-4-4WTs did not start to appear until
Even before the London Extension was London, Midland & Scottish Railway in 1935. 1869/70, but the Midland Railway did own
complete, the Midland Railway management To work the London extension, the some Beyer, Peacock & Co Ltd ‘Metropolitan’
had decided on its own line north of Leeds, to Midland, in addition to the small locomotive 4-4-0Ts. When Kirtley died on 24 May 1873,
Carlisle, and when the Bill for the servicing yard and turntable located between he was replaced by S.W. Johnson, who went
construction of the Settle to Carlisle railway the gas-holders and canal bridges outside on to develop the 2-4-0 and design some of
received the Royal Assent, on 16 July 1866, St. Pancras station, had to build a locomotive the most beautiful 4-4-0s and 4-2-2s to run on
the status of St. Pancras changed to that of an depot, and so land was acquired at Kentish a British railway. He also developed the
important Anglo-Scottish terminus. The Town, 1½ miles north-west of St. Pancras. 0-4-4T, 0-6-0T and 0-6-0. It was only from
planned hotel next to the station had been put Two roundhouse sheds were built, each November 1883 that the livery most
on hold by the necessity of completing the having a 42ft turntable, with a coal stage in associated with the Midland Railway, crimson
new main line, but towards the end of 1865 a the yard and a four-road fitting shop. Within lake, was introduced, although the acme of
competition was launched for the design of a two years, a small shed was also opened at this livery was not reached until 1890-1905
150-bed hotel – surprisingly, Gilbert Scott’s Hendon, to service the locomotives handling when a fully decorated variant was used.
grand scheme was chosen, despite it being the coal traffic and the Moorgate trains. Johnson also introduced the first Compound
twice the size requested. However, burgeoning freight traffic led to a 4-4-0s, which were developed by his successor
Work on the hotel did not restart until roundhouse being opened in 1882, and this W. Deeley, along with the 4-4-0s and 0-6-0s.
1868, and it was not until 5 May 1873 that the depot became known as Cricklewood, Re-boilering older classes with bigger boilers
first part was opened, and another three years although its duties were predominantly also continued. After Deeley’s resignation,
before the complete seven-story edifice was freight, it did handle some passenger work, Fowler continued the Midland’s locomotive
complete. With its 565ft frontage, 270ft spire- whereas Kentish Town was to develop into the tradition of 4-4-0s and 0-6-0s and the
capped clock tower, and wide archway Midland’s principal passenger shed in the company eschewed the 4-6-0 to maintain its
spanning the access road to the booking hall, London area. Such was its importance in small locomotive policy.
The exterior of the Grand Hotel and St. Pancras station in the A close-up of the main entrance to the station is seen in 1933 as a taxi,
mid-1950s, showing the broad sweep of Scott’s neo-Gothic design. The registration No XP6524, emerges, watched by an interested policeman.
regularity and symmetry of the windows and arches is a striking The original drawings show statues mounted on the pillars and under
feature. St. Pancras dwarfs Cubitt’s King’s Cross station, just seen in the ornate canopies on either side of the arch, but on the whole the
the distance. The inclined driveway curving round enabled hackney archway bears close resemblance to Scott’s original architectural
carriages to serve the main station entrance, motor taxis making these drawings and illustrates the intricacy of his design. The manner in
redundant in the early 20th century. Colour-Rail.com/24375 2 which the taxi is dwarfed by the arch illustrates the scale.

Midland Railway Johnson ‘1667’ class slim-

boilered 4-4-0 No 1673 stands in the engine
yard at St. Pancras circa 1890. It was one of
ten locomotives – Nos 1667 to 1676 – that
were built in 1884/85 and withdrawn in
1897-1901. These were the only Johnson
4-4-0s to be withdrawn before the MR’s 1907
renumbering scheme. Beautifully
proportioned, fitted with Joy valve gear and
overhead slide valves, they were, however,
over-cylindered, as the small boiler struggled
to supply the two 19in x 26in cylinders when
working hard. Rail Archive Stephenson
When opened, the station was signalled

with three-position semaphores, fully
interlocked with the points. These were
controlled from two small bell boxes sited at
the end of the two outer platforms. The design
of both was unlike what became the typical
Midland style of signal box. The first signal
box (as opposed to bell box), was built at the
north end of the turntable siding to the east of
the station yard, and it was fully working by
the end of 1867. In 1873 it was replaced by an the former faced east and the latter west – two and St. Paul’s Road Junction. Opened in 1869,
80-lever box located just to the north of the signalmen were needed to work the passenger it was closed on 2 February 1958.
ends of platforms 3 and 4. This was a double frame and one the goods frame. Surprisingly this system of signalling
box, in effect two Midland ‘Type 2b’ boxes A gantry carrying 42 up home and lasted into British Railways days, when a
built back-to-back. It controlled all the signals advance starting semaphore arms on 21 dolls scheme was drawn up to provide two and
and points within the station, and those on the spanned the four lines leading out of the four-aspect colour light signals and electro-
gantry in the down direction. It boasted two platforms. In 1914 this was replaced by pneumatic point motors. Work began in the
frames – ‘A’ frame had 32 levers and controlled another, which had just 16 arms and eight 1950s and on 7 October 1957 a new power
platforms 5 to 7, and ‘B’ frame had 38 levers dolls, with illuminated route indicators at the signal box was commissioned on the west side
and handled platforms 1 to 4. base of the dolls. A new passenger tappet of the station.
In 1887, after the opening of Somers frame was also installed in the junction box at The early services to and from St. Pancras
Town goods depot to the west of the station, a the same time. There were six other signal were less than intensive, with expresses
larger 135-lever signal box, St. Pancras boxes in the area: Cambridge Street, Dock running to Leicester, Derby, Leeds and
Junction, was built between the lines to the Junction, Lomond Street, North London Bradford, often calling at intermediate stations
goods yard and carriage sidings. Measuring Incline, St Paul’s Road Junction and St Paul’s en route. By 1886 the timetable had become
80ft x 12ft, this was the largest box on the Road Junction Goods. The eighth signal box, settled and all expresses called at Kentish
Midland Railway. Housing an 84-lever St. Pancras Tunnel, was located deep below the Town, while the two fastest trains were the
passenger frame and a 48-lever goods frame, station, between King’s Cross (Metropolitan) 12.20pm and 3.00pm departures to Bradford.
The rail approach to St. Pancras station is seen before 1873, when an 80-lever signalling facility would be built just to the north of platforms 3 and
4. Looking across the over-bridges spanning Pancras Road, some of the three-position semaphores controlling the station are seen. The box to
the left of centre is adjacent to the wagon lift that provided access to the vaults for wagons of beer traffic from Burton-on-Trent. Out of view
immediately to the left of the photographer is the small engine yard and turntable. Somers Road goods yard is to the right. R.S. Carpenter Photos
Completed in 1873, the unique ‘double’ signal

box that thereafter worked all the signals and
points within the station, and those on the
gantry in the down direction, is seen in British
Railways days, circa 1953 as a ‘Black Five’
and another Stanier engine shunt stock. In
front of the signal box is a wooden shed
erected to hold the controls of the hydraulic
wagon hoist that accessed the vaults. The
rails leading to this, and the capstons for
wagon movement, are clearly visible, while the
platform of the lift is protected by a metal gate
and fence, which was deemed sufficient to
prevent unwary staff from falling down into
the cellars. Dominating the background are
the gas holders that were such a feature of the
station throat. Colour-Rail.com/24378
The fastest southbound duties were the early

morning train from Sheffield and the 12.55pm
ex-Bradford. One train that did omit the
Kentish Town stop was the afternoon working
from Liverpool, which called at Bedford. Slip
coaches served both St. Albans and Luton.
Before the development of the
underground, tramcars and later motor-buses, pilot, often a ‘T26’ class 2-4-0 kept at By 1905 the Midland Railway’s total route
the inner suburban services were well Tottenham, and a ‘C32’ class 2-4-2T for mileage of 1,848 was only exceeded by the
patronised. Places such as Mill Hill, Elstree shunting. Royal trains were usually in the Great Western Railway’s 3,025 and the
and Radlett were still country villages and charge of a ‘Claud Hamilton’ 4-4-0. London & North Western Railway’s 2,063, and
poorly served, as were Luton and Bedford, In 1892, alterations were made to increase its longest through-coach working of 573
although the latter did have a number of the number of platform faces as traffic miles was on the St. Pancras to Inverness
semi-fast trains and expresses calling, while increased – a wooden platform was built on train. The Anglo-Scottish expresses leaving
some expresses would stop at Luton on some of the carriage sidings, St. Pancras began with the 9.30am
request. All-stations local services ran from and this became platforms 3 departure, which called at Leicester,
Moorgate to Hendon, calling at all the and 4. This meant St. Pancras ‘…in 1900 Chesterfield, and Leeds, where
underground stations as well as the Midland’s now had six 800ft platforms London, Tilbury & reversal was necessary. The next
surface stations. In all, 13 Hendon trains each and a short bay, with two stop was at Hellifield, and Carlisle
way served Moorgate, and these were worked sidings between platforms 2
Southend Railway was reached at 3.45pm, with an on-
by condensing tank engines. and 3, plus the one that locomotives began to time arrival in Glasgow scheduled
Moorgate also saw departures for served the lift to the beer appear ’ for 6.25pm, and Edinburgh at
Tottenham and Hampstead, with up to vaults. Platforms 1 and 2 6.05pm. Then followed the 11.30am
30 trains a day timetabled, plus a dozen that were used for both arrivals service to Glasgow and Edinburgh,
terminated at Kentish Town. When the line and departures, 3 and 4 were kept for which called at Luton and Leicester before
from Tottenham was extended to East Ham it departures, and 5 to 7 for arrivals. running non-stop to Leeds. At Hellifield it
was possible to work trains through to Unfortunately, the track layout over Pancras divided into Glasgow and Edinburgh
Southend-on-Sea and in 1900 London, Road and the Regent’s Canal caused operating portions, before setting off for Carlisle. The
Tilbury & Southend Railway locomotives difficulties, with insufficient tracks to cope 1.30pm service called at Leicester, Sheffield,
began to appear at St. Pancras. The Great with the passenger trains, empty carriage Leeds, Hellifield, and Carlisle.
Eastern Railway also worked trains from workings, coal trains into the yards, and light A train also left St. Pancras at 8.30pm to
Cambridge, Yarmouth, Norwich and engine movements. In LMS days the connect with the Northern Ireland ferry for
Lowestoft over the Tottenham and Hampstead constraints of the site also prevented the Larne, calling at Leicester, Sheffield, Leeds and
line and into St. Pancras. The GER stationed extension of the platforms, and so trains had to Carlisle. One hour later, a train left for
two locomotives at St. Pancras, a passenger be restricted to 12 coaches or less in length. Glasgow and Edinburgh, and this called at
Bedford, Nottingham and Leeds, before
setting off for Carlisle. At midnight, a sleeping
car express departed for Glasgow, and this
called at Leicester, Trent, Leeds and Carlisle.
Remaining with Anglo-Scottish duties, the
first southbound train of the day left Glasgow
Whitelegg LT&SR ‘3P’ 4-4-2T No 38 Westcliff

leaves St. Pancras in charge of a Southend
train in the early 1900s, the reverse side of the
destination board interestingly reading
Fenchurch Street, not St. Pancras. Carrying
fully lined-out green livery, these Atlantic tank
engines made an eye-catching contrast to the
crimson lake liveried Midland classes.
Completed in April 1897 by Sharp, Stewart &
Co Ltd, No 38 would become Midland Railway
No 2147 in 1912, when its name would be
removed, and later LMS No 2136 and British
Railways No 41954. Known as ‘Tilbury Tanks’,
this example would be withdrawn in August
1951. Rail Archive Stephenson

In pre-Grouping days the engine yard at St. Pancras presented a colourful scene. In this circa 1900 view the locomotives stabled include LT&SR
4-4-2T No 5 Plaistow, a Kirtley double-framed Midland Railway 2-4-0, two elegant Johnson Singles, the first being No 174, and GER Holden ‘T26’
2-4-0 No 497. Behind the yard can be seen the signal gantry that controlled the comings and goings of the nearby station, while Barlow’s great
trainshed rises through the hazy London atmosphere. Rail Archive Stephenson
Holden GER 4-4-0 No 1900 Claud Hamilton is

seen in original condition and coupled to a
watercart tender at St. Pancras in the early
years of the 20th century. No 1900 was the
only member of the class to be named, after
the company’s Chairman, and the brass
nameplate followed Crewe styling. The GER
was able to work into St. Pancras via the
Tottenham & Hampstead Junction Railway,
and among the trains the ‘Claud Hamiltons’
worked were Royal trains to and from
Wolferton, and Newmarket race specials.
Rail Archive Stephenson
The interior of St. Pancras station is seen

looking towards the country or gasworks end
of the building after the 1892 addition of an
extra double-faced platform; it became Nos 3
and 4 and is in the middle of the photograph.
The apex of the roof is apparent from this
viewpoint, as is the fact that the roof is
unsupported by pillars. Although not as
extensive as Liverpool Street station, the
sense of space is palpable. To the right is a
wide road for cabs, while to the left are the
booking offices and other facilities.
Author’s Collection
Johnson Class ‘3’ Belpaire-boilered 4-4-0 No 839 is seen on arrival at platform No 5 circa 1905, before it was renumbered as MR No 749. The train
is a typical light-weight one of the period. Despite the relative gloom inside the St. Pancras trainshed, the ribs of Barlow’s design are clearly
defined. To the left is the cab road, while the platform is clearly surfaced in wood. No 839 features a flower-pot chimney, and was completed at
Derby Works in 1904. It was not one of the 73 engines of this class rebuilt by Fowler, being withdrawn in 1929. Rail Archive Stephenson
at 9.20am and arrived in London at 6.15pm, were the 9.45am from Bradford, followed by From its opening in 1868 until 1884, the
having called at Carlisle, Hawes Junction, the 10.35am, and 12.05pm. Both Manchester number of passengers using St. Pancras
Leeds, Sheffield and Trent. Next came the and Nottingham had some fast trains, with increased from 120,000 to in excess of 400,000,
10.30am ex-Edinburgh and the 11am the 10.30am, 12 noon, and 4.15pm from with income rising from £75,000 to £220,000.
ex-Glasgow, which combined at Leeds and Manchester (Central) being regarded as By 1895 half a million passengers were using
terminated at St. Pancras at 8.05pm, having ‘flyers’. Five trains a day in each direction the station and revenue rose to £250,000. By
stopped at Sheffield and Leicester. The conveyed through carriages to Blackburn and the end of the reign of King Edward VII,
afternoon expresses from Glasgow, at 1.30pm, Manchester (Victoria). 870,000 passengers were being handled, with
and Edinburgh, at 2.15pm, ran independently Night-time services from St. Pancras were income up at £420,000. The zenith of Moorgate
to London. Two sleeping car trains, the 9.30pm few and far between, but there was a 40- to was in 1895, when 225,000 passengers were
ex-Glasgow and the 9.50pm ex-Edinburgh, 60-minute passenger service to Woodgrange handled, but figures gradually dropped as the
completed the day’s Anglo-Scottish trains. Park or Wanstead from midnight to 5.00am, underground and tramways became more
The industrial cities of Leeds and and an express service to Derby and Leicester competitive. By the Grouping, over a million
Bradford were also provided with a good that departed at 3.00am. Apart from goods passengers were passing though St. Pancras
service, with four trains departing from trains leaving Somer Road, there was and although income rose proportionally, so
London at hourly intervals from 8.30am, in considerable traffic beneath the station from did operating costs.
addition to the Anglo-Scottish expresses the Metropolitan lines as empty coal wagons During World War I the Midland Railway
which all stopped at Leeds. The best-timed were worked back to Brent from south of the tried to maintain pre-war standards as far as
northbound trains left St. Pancras at 2.15pm, River Thames. was practicable, but as the conflict dragged on
3.00pm, 4.00pm, 5.00pm, and 5.45pm. Most
of the Leeds trains ran on to Bradford (Forster
Square) via the Aire Valley line, arriving 26 to
35 minutes later. The best trains into London
Another Belpaire Class ‘3’ 4-4-0 waits to leave

St. Pancras with an express for the north
circa 1906, ably assisted by pilot engine
No 16, an ‘1853’ class Johnson bogie-Single
that would soon become No 641. Boasting a
7ft 6in driving wheel, the advent of steam
sanding had allowed a reversion to the Single-
type, but they became less useful as train
loads increased. However, this particular 4-2-2
would survive the Grouping, eventually being
withdrawn by the LMS in August 1927.
Completed at Derby Works in 1891 and rebuilt
in 1903 as seen, with revised front framing
design and coil rather than leaf springs, the
lining on No 16 is the simplified Deeley style,
while the tender is a 3,250 gallon variant of the
type these Singles were built with.
Rail Archive Stephenson

The Zeppelin raid of 17 February 1918 cost 20

lives and destroyed the roof of the booking
office, which was rebuilt with a plainer ceiling.
The structure is seen after modernisation in
the post-steam era. The atmosphere and much
of the ambience of the original remains, with
wooden panelling and Gothic style
architecture – the Gothic church influence is
unmistakable. The circulating area is now
clear of free-standing destination boards and
courtesy screens. In pre-Grouping days this
was the Midland Railway’s office, the GER’s
being round to the right.
Colour-Rail.com/103596
and manpower haemorrhaged to the armed

forces, this became more and more difficult.
On the night of 17 February 1918 St. Pancras
came under attack from a Zeppelin raid – five
bombs were dropped on or near the station
and hotel, with one falling on Midland Road,
two on the forecourt, and one on the western Weekday services in 1936 saw some Another named express, the ‘Palatine’,
tower. None of these caused any casualties, but 13 departures between 10.00am and 1.30pm, began running on 4 July 1938, between
the fifth bomb fell on the glass-covered cab of which five were main line and eight were London and Manchester (Central), but the
road beside the booking office and killed 20 local services. None of the main line trains outbreak of World War II saw the titled trains
people who had taken shelter, and injured a were non-stop and so the schedules took this withdrawn and a gradual deterioration of
further 33. This was the greatest number of into account. At 10.25am a Manchester and passenger services began as traffic priorities
casualties suffered in any air raid on a London Liverpool service departed; it called at changed. The frequency of ordinary trains
station during the Great War. The train Leicester, Loughborough, Derby, Matlock, declined, along with a general deceleration,
services within the station were unaffected, Miller’s Dale and Chinley. The 11.00am to which brought in its wake overcrowding and
however the roof to the booking office was lost Sheffield stopped at Luton, Bedford, late running. The latter was often caused by
and replaced by a plainer ceiling. Wellingborough, Kettering, Melton Mowbray, air raids and subsequent bomb damage.
After the Grouping, the LMS did little to Nottingham and Chesterfield, while the St. Pancras was bombed during the blitz
improve St. Pancras. Some acceleration of 11.50am to Glasgow and Edinburgh stopped of 1940/41, and it also suffered in 1944 and
main line services occurred as more powerful at Leicester, Sheffield, Leeds, Hellifield, 1945 from the ‘V1’ and ‘V2’ raids. As the
locomotives, Stanier ‘Jubilee’ class 4-6-0s in Carlisle, Dumfries and Kilmarnock. A second Luftwaffe changed its tactics from eliminating
particular, entered traffic, along with modern Manchester and Liverpool express departed at the RAF’s fighters during the Battle of Britain
2-6-2Ts and 2-6-4Ts on the local services. 11.50am and stopped at Kettering, Melton to attacking London, the first serious damage
However, on 26 September 1927 the company Mowbray, Leicester, Derby and Matlock. Then done to St. Pancras station was by a spent
did introduce two titled expresses – the the 1.00pm service to Nottingham left, with anti-aircraft shell that fell on platforms 1 and
‘Thames-Clyde Express’ between St. Pancras booked calls at St. Albans, Luton, Bedford, 2 on the night of 11 September 1940, putting
and Glasgow (St. Enoch), via Leeds, and the Wellingborough, Kettering, Oakham and the platforms out of use as well as damaging
‘Thames-Forth Express’ to Edinburgh Melton Mowbray. Interspersed between these coaches and signals. A month later, on 10
(Waverley), via Leeds and Carlisle, where the were all-stations services: the 10.03am to October, a high explosive bomb destroyed the
LNER took over for the run to the Scottish Luton, the 10.45am and 11.55am services to departure lines outside the station, as well as
capital. Between 1930 and 1932 a boat train St. Albans, the 12.20pm to Southend-on-Sea, damaging two locomotives. Four nights later,
service ran between St. Pancras station and the 12.40pm to Luton, the 1.04pm to Barking, an incendiary bomb hit the St. Pancras to
Tilbury, to serve the Tilbury to Dunkirk the 1.07pm to Harpenden and the 1.12pm to Derby mail train as it passed Kentish Town.
ferries. Boat trains were also run ‘as required’ St. Albans. Saturdays brought an augmented On 16 October a land mine hit platform 1 and
for the Australian, New Zealand, and service of eight main line and 20 local effectively closed the station for five days and,
Scandinavian sailings. services. to compound the difficulties, on 19 October a
high explosive bomb damaged Cambridge
Street signal box. Four days on, a string of
three high explosive bombs badly damaged
St. Pancras Junction signal box on 23 October,
which affected all services into and out of the
terminus.
A Luftwaffe raid on the night of
7 November 1940 closed the station, with
trains then terminating at Kentish Town –
Deeley ‘2000’ or ‘Flatiron’ class No 2013 departs

St. Pancras with the 5.10pm St. Albans train on
4 September 1926. Although powerful and good
steamers, these ‘3P’ 0-6-4Ts were found to be
unstable at speed and were quickly relegated to
goods workings after a number of derailments,
so their use on the outer-suburban workings
from St. Pancras was relatively short. The story
of the class would have been different if one of
the early schemes for a 2-6-2T had been
developed. The 40-strong class were all
completed in 1907, with their withdrawal coming
between August 1935 and November 1938.
F.R. Hebron/Rail Archive Stephenson
The first Kirtley 0-4-4WTs began entering

traffic in 1869, the year after St. Pancras
opened to passenger traffic, and in the
summer of 1933 No 1219 is seen at the
terminus still carrying its condenser pipework
as it shunts horse boxes on the centre stock
road. Completed by Dübs & Co Ltd as MR
No 793 in 1870 (Works No 370), it was rebuilt
in 1890 and would serve until November 1935,
by then as the last of its class. To the left is
Fowler ‘3P’ 2-6-2T No 15525 on a local
passenger service; it was completed at Derby
Works in February 1931, would soon be
renumbered 26, and eventually be withdrawn
as British Railways No 40026 in November
1962. Colling Turner/Rail Archive Stephenson
three high explosive bombs had caused

extensive damage, with one falling on
platform 1, forcing the closure of platforms 1,
2 and 3, one damaged the booking hall, and line-working on 27 May, but it was not until green made a startling contrast to the drab,
one hit the approach road. An incendiary 28 December that the double-track was rundown surroundings.
bomb also set fire to three floors of the Grand reinstated. Although much of the bomb damage was
Hotel. Nine days later, a high explosive fell on On 14 March 1944 a high explosive and repaired quickly, permanent restoration after
platform 6, putting platforms 1, 2, 6 and 7 out incendiary, and two unexploded bombs forced the war was much slower as materials and
of use and again forcing most trains to run no trains to terminate at Kentish Town. A ‘V1’ skilled labour were at a premium.
further than Kentish Town. flying bomb narrowly missed the station on Consequently, the post-war arrears of
On 5 January 1941 an unexploded land 5 July, but put the hydraulics of the wagon maintenance was a significant problem that
mine was discovered near the main line at hoist out of action. The blast from another slowed the restoration of improved schedules.
Cricklewood, which forced trains to terminate flying bomb damaged St. Pancras Junction In 1947, however, the track and approaches
at Hendon. An incendiary damaged two signal box again on 14 August, and on were re-modelled. In 1957 the booking hall
coaches at St. Pancras on 9 March, and on 8 January 1945 a ‘V2’ rocket damaged the was re-ordered, and in 1958/59 the glazed
17 April St. Pancras Junction signal box was 10.08am Bradford to St. Pancras express as it area of the roof was altered to lighten the
again damaged by the blast from a near miss. passed West End Lane. concourse. New refreshment facilities were
However, by far the worst bomb damage came After the depravations of the war years, also provided in 1959.
of the night of 10/11 May, when a high the station emerged briefly into the limelight Even by the summer timetable of 1950
explosive bomb penetrated the station in June 1948 when the general purpose or there was only a slight improvement in timings
between platforms 3 and 4 and exploded in mixed traffic locomotives being tested during compared with 1939. St. Pancras saw a dozen
King’s Cross tunnel, and another landed the Locomotive Exchanges were put to work daily long-distance express departures, with one
between platforms 6 and 7, damaging the between St. Pancras and Manchester more on Fridays and seven more on Saturdays.
roof, coaches and girders that supported the (Central). Three locomotives were selected – There were 13 semi-fast services, seven between
floor. The damage effectively closed the ‘Black Five’ No 45252, ‘B1’ No 61251 Oliver St. Pancras to St. Albans, with two more on
station for eight days. To get trains running Bury, and ‘West Country’ Light Pacific Saturdays, five to Luton and nine to Bedford.
again, platforms 3 and 4 were shortened by No 34005 Barnstaple. The ‘B1’ in its apple British Railways only restored three titled trains
100ft, and the tunnel was opened for single- green livery and ‘West Country’ in malachite to the former Midland Railway main line, with
The Johnson 0-6-0Ts were the mainstay of the St. Pancras shunting, station and goods pilot turns until the arrival of the Fowler ‘3F’ 0-6-0Ts. This
1930s view records former Midland Railway ‘1F’ No 1668 shunting Express Dairy milk tanks while on station pilot duty. The conveyance of fresh
milk to the capital was a premium service, and milk trains ran under express headcodes. The Express Dairy tank carries the legend ‘MILK FOR
LONDON’. Completed at Derby Works in July 1878, No 1668 would remain in traffic until February 1948. O.S. Nock/Rail Archive Stephenson

The damage caused by the high explosive bomb that fell on St. Pancras on the night of 10/11 May 1941 was extensive. Although this raid was the
last major attack on London in 1940/41, the station was closed and the lines running through the tunnel to the Metropolitan were put out of action.
Casualties, however, were relatively light, with only one fatality and two serious injuries. By the time this photograph was taken on 26 August
1942, the damaged platforms had been reinstated, albeit shortened, and the station was working as normally as wartime conditions would allow.
Except for the loss of glass, the single-span roof remains almost undamaged.
‘The Thames-Clyde’ reappearing on summer 1961 timetable they had gone as the working left London at 6.10pm and arrived in
26 September 1949, ‘The Waverley’ on 17 June diesels took over. Manchester at 9.21pm. This meant there was
1957, and ‘The Palatine’ on 16 September 1957, The biggest re-casting of the timetable time for a fill-in turn to Leicester, which left
while a new train, ‘The Robin Hood’, appeared came on 28 September 1959, when diesel- St. Pancras at 12.45pm, arriving at 2.10pm,
on 2 February 1959 and ran to and from multiple-units began to take over the before retuning south at 2.33pm and reaching
Nottingham. suburban services from steam-hauled trains. London at 4.00pm. The service was
In 1950 Kentish Town shed had 117 steam By 11 January 1960 steam had been ousted withdrawn on 18 April 1966 as the electrified
locomotives on its books: there were completely on these trains and a result of the West Coast main line offered better timings
11 Fowler ‘3P’ 2-6-2Ts, of which ten were hourly interval service now offered to Luton between London (Euston) and Manchester.
condenser-fitted to work through the tunnels and St. Albans was that patronage rose by Main line services were turned over to
to Moorgate, 16 Stanier ‘3P’ 2-6-2Ts, two ‘2P’ 20%. The Moorgate trains were turned over to ‘Peak’ 1Co-Co1 ‘Type 4’ haulage and by
4-4-0s, ten ‘Compounds’, two Ivatt ‘2MT’ haulage by diesel locomotives during January September 1961 it was very rare to find steam
2-6-2Ts, seven ‘1F’ 0-6-0Ts, seven ‘4MT’ 1960 and these were not in turn replaced by on these workings, except to cover for diesel
2-6-4Ts, a dozen ‘4F’ 0-6-0s, 14 ‘Black Fives’, diesel-multiple-units until 6 May 1968. failures. The rapid dieselisation of the services
15 ‘Jubilees’, 16 ‘3F’ 0-6-0Ts, and five ‘2F’ On 4 July 1960 the ‘Midland Pullman’ was was reflected in Kentish Town’s allocation of
0-6-0s. With the principal expresses in the introduced between St. Pancras and steam locomotives – in mid-1959 it stood at
hands of the ‘6P’ 4-6-0s, there was little scope Manchester (Central), with the inaugural run 100, but by August 1962 it had fallen to 37. As
to accelerate the passenger trains without into London arriving six minutes early. a result, by November 1962 the shed’s
reducing the loads. It was not until the Scheduled to leave Manchester at 8.50am and remaining steam locomotives were either in
summer timetable of 1958 that rebuilt ‘Royal pick-up at Cheadle Heath at 9.04pm, an on- store, withdrawn or transferred away,
Scots’ were allocated, but by the end of the time arrival was at 12.03pm. The return although the shed was not closed until early in
1963. Cricklewood shed, however, remained
open to steam until 14 December 1964.
The last scheduled steam working to leave
St. Pancras came on 11 July 1962 when
Fairburn ‘4MT’ 2-6-4T No 42071 departed on
a Tilbury boat train; on 1 April 1963 these
Bulleid ‘West Country’ Light Pacific No 34005

Barnstaple arrives at St. Pancras three
minutes early on 23 June 1948, while in
charge of the 1.50pm Manchester (Central) to
London (St. Pancras) test train during the
Locomotive Exchanges. Coupled to a Stanier
tender and with the ex-Lancashire & Yorkshire
Railway dynamometer car at the head of the
train, No 34005 had turned in a bravado
performance, albeit at the expense of high
coal, water and oil consumption. The unusual
appearance of the malachite green Pacific with
its plain black tender has attracted the
attention of the railwaymen on the adjacent
platform. Colour-Rail.com/17498
On Saturday, 26 April 1947 Fowler ‘4P’ 2-6-4T

No 2383 runs into St. Pancras with a local
working. One of four members of the class at
Kentish Town shed at the time (the others
were Nos 2325, 2329 and 2331), the class were
employed on St. Pancras outer suburban
work. Completed in April 1929 at Derby Works,
No 2383 would remain in service until January
1964, by which time diesel-multiple-units had
taken over the class’ passenger work.
H.C. Casserley
At 6.25pm on the evening of 30 June 1955,

Kentish Town-allocated Fowler ‘3P’
condensing 2-6-2T No 40031 is on station pilot
duties at St. Pancras. The front of Barlow’s
trainshed has been freshly painted as part of
British Railways’ renovation of the station, but
the glass blown out in the war has not been
replaced. The taxi and delivery road can be
seen disappearing under the tracks in the
foreground to emerge into Pancras Road.
H.F. Wheeller/R.S. Carpenter Photos
boat train workings were transferred away to

Fenchurch Street station. Three months later,
the vaults were closed as the beer traffic from
Burton-upon-Trent had changed as a
consequence of road transport.
With the benefit of hindsight, the steam
days of St. Pancras came to an end on
Saturday, 24 April 1965 when British Railways
Standard ‘Britannia’ class Pacific No 70052
Firth of Tay, then allocated to Crewe North,
worked the out and back legs of the
Double-heading was not uncommon at

St. Pancras, but triple-heading was very rare.
In 1957 we find Stanier ‘Jubilee’ class 4-6-0
No 45616 Malta G.C. of Kentish Town shed
being piloted by a Stanier ‘Black Five’ and a
BR Standard ‘4MT’ 4-6-0. The ‘Black Five’ is
almost certainly going to assist the ‘Jubilee’,
but the ‘4MT’ may just be hitching a ride to
Kentish Town shed, to avoid a light engine
movement, or perhaps it has been shunted on
to the front to temporarily free up another
train movement.
M. Beckett/Colour-Rail.com/92728

Locomotive Club of Great Britain ‘Notts &

Lincs Rail Tour’ between St. Pancras and
Nottingham (Midland). Having arrived
unheralded at 20.40, few of those present
realised the significance of the scene as
No 70052 backed out of Barlow’s great
trainshed and over the Regent’s Canal.
After the publication of the ‘Beeching
Report’, the finances of British Railways came
under ever-greater scrutiny and economies
were being sought. One suggestion was the
closure of St. Pancras and transfer of its main
line workings to Euston, and its suburban
services to King’s Cross and Fenchurch Street –
the hotel could be demolished and the land sold
off for development. After the outcry caused by
the rebuilding of Euston station and the loss of
its iconic archway, British Railways was loathe
to take such a step. Nevertheless, this did not
stop a scheme being aired in 1967 to turn the
trainshed into an exhibition centre.
Few people, however, would have imagined
in 1967 that in 40 years time the station would
be transformed into the London terminus of
Eurostar, with high-speed electric trains
running to and from Paris and Brussels via the
Channel Tunnel. Even fewer would have seen in
their crystal ball the hotel’s renaissance and
reopening on 5 May 2011, exactly 138 years
after its original opening in 1873.
REFERENCES: Rated ‘6P/5F’, the Stanier ‘Jubilee’ class 4-6-0s were dominant on the best passenger duties at
The Midland Railway – Hamilton Ellis – Ian St. Pancras into BR days – No 45608 Gibraltar of Leeds (Holbeck) gets away with the 8.10pm St. Pancras
Allan (1966) to Derby service on 11 June 1956. Prominent in the foreground is the shaft of the wagon lift for beer
The Midland Railways London Extension 1868- traffic into the St. Pancras vaults. The soon to be swept away vantage point of the double signal box
1968 – Rounthwaite – Stanford Printing allows a view of the transverse weight bearing girders supporting the station floor. However, by this date
Co (1968) road transport was taking over more and more of this once lucrative traffic. R.C. Riley/Transport Treasury
London’s Termini – Jackson – David & Charles
(1969) With dieselisation gaining ground, the semaphore signals and double-box swept away after its closure
St. Pancras Station – Bradley – Profile Books on 6 October 1957 (the new box is out of view to the left), a March 1960 visit to St. Pancras captures a
(2007) working for Kentish Town-allocated Fairburn ‘4MT’ No 42685. The grubby 2-6-4T enters St. Pancras with
London Main Line War Damage – Brooksbank – a train of empty stock for a northbound express. Such workings were an important part of the day-to-day
Capital Transport (2007) scene that had to be slotted into the departure and arrival timetable, and yet not use up valuable line
The Railway Magazine Vol. 114 Nos 809/810 capacity at busy periods. The 2-6-4Ts superseded the LMS and Midland 2-6-2Ts, 0-6-0Ts and 0-4-4Ts on
Railway World Vol. 26 No 302 these duties until the complete dieselisation of St. Pancras. This engine would serve from Kentish Town
Midland Record Preview Issue until a July 1962 move to Rowsley, with its withdrawal coming in the October. Colour-Rail.com/12996
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Great Rail Discoveries F_P.indd 1 05/05/2015 09:19
York’s Foss Island s

Branch
Branching from the York to chocolate products and, from 1893, On 8 March 1962 the last ‘J27’ to be built, the
now-preserved No 65894, heads pallet vans for
Rowntree’s Fruit Gums. The site is now
Scarborough main line and linking to Nestlé’s main United Kingdom production
Rowntree & Co Ltd, the confectioner being the
most famous user of the Foss Islands branch.
the Derwent Valley Light Railway, facility, a hostile takeover coming in 1988. Although an NER ‘P3’ design, this 0-6-0 was not
The Rowntree’s sweet factory had several completed at Darlington Works until
James Johnson details this rail dedicated sidings from the Foss Islands 30 September 1923, and it would serve British
Railways until the end of September 1967. The
link to Rowntree’s sweet factory, York branch, making up a total of 1½ miles of track
train is facing Foss Islands, and as part of the
in its first year, but increasing to seven miles
Gasworks and other important shunt it has run beyond the connection into the
by 1955 – almost five times the total length of Rowntree factory. By this date a trio of Ruston
industrial establishments. the entire Foss Islands branch! & Hornsby diesels worked the internal
The entrance to the Rowntree site was network, and these were responsible for
delivering trains to the BR connection or taking
he Foss Islands branch was opened in located only a few hundred yards off Burton
T December 1879 by the North Eastern

Railway to connect the former York &
North Midland Railway line to Scarborough
Lane Junction on the York to Scarborough
main line, behind Hambleton Terrace.
Rowntree’s quickly developed its rail-based
them into the site. The view is taken from
Haxey Road overbridge, and Hambleton
Terrace is on the left.
P.J. Lynch/Kidderminster Railway Museum
with the heavy industrial quarter of eastern internal transport network, and on
The 1956 edition of the Official Hand-book of
York. In 1913, York (Layerthorpe) station 20 December 1890 an 0-4-0 pannier tank was Stations, published by the British Transport
opened to connect the Foss Islands branch to bought from Hudswell, Clarke & Co Ltd of Commission (Railway Clearing House), reveals
the Derwent Valley Light Railway, a rural line Leeds. Named Marshall, it had two inside the importance of the Foss Islands line, with
that served villages south and east of York, cylinders, an open cab, and was domeless. It 15 references to the route or the northern end
of the Derwent Valley line, which linked to it at
running to Cliffe Common, a junction just was used until its sale on 24 September 1895, Layerthorpe, recorded under the York
east of Selby on the route to Market Weighton. when a replacement Hunslet Engine Co Ltd reference. Oakwood Visuals Collection
The Foss Islands line was originally used
to service the mills and industrial complexes
around Layerthorpe and Walmgate (the road
exiting York from Walmgate Bar and heading
south-east from the city) as well as the large
cattle market outside Walmgate Bar. Relocated
in 1971, the cattle market is no longer served
by rail. The area was a lake in the medieval
period, but it silted up to become marshland
until 1854, when it was drained, and a road
was built to link Layerthorpe Bridge, which
crosses the River Foss, and Walmgate Bar. The
impassable terrain around Layerthorpe was
the reason there was never a defensive wall
built around this part of the city.
The Foss Islands branch was quickly
patronised by Rowntree’s, the confectionery
company, when it acquired a 20 acre site on
Haxby Road, on the northern outskirts of
York itself, in 1891. Well known for its Fruit
Pastilles, these were in production from 1881,
their success leading to the manufacture of

A pre-Grouping era scene of crates of

chocolate being loaded into Great Northern
Railway open wagons within the Rowntree
factory site. Fruit Pastilles were amongst the
first successes for the company but it was wise
investment in the wake of this that took
H.I. Rowntree & Co from a struggling family
business into Rowntree & Co Ltd in 1897. The
money was invested in a Van Houten press,
which produced chocolate with the cocoa
butter removed. Soon Rowntree was one of
Britain’s top three confectionary concerns, and
by 1939 the outgoing goods would also include
Kit-Kats, Smarties and Aeros.
Rowntree & Co Ltd
Known as the ‘Landing stages’ by the staff, one

of the two undercover loading platforms within
the factory is the location of this view of 0-4-0T
Marshall – it was purchased second-hand in
December 1890 from Hudswell, Clarke &
Co Ltd, initially for building work at this new
premises, and it is seen in 1895, shortly before
it was sold on 24 September. At the time the
standard gauge internal railway system was
about 1½ miles long. Rowntree & Co Ltd
0-4-0 saddle tank, named Newton, was

purchased from the Manchester Ship Canal.
Newton was completed in 1888 and was also
cab-less, but a square cab was quickly fitted in
the factory’s works. The works were quite
considerable, having locomotive lifting
capabilities as well as facilities for overhaul.
The first new locomotive bought by the
Rowntree company was No 2, an Andrew
Barclay, Sons & Co Ltd 14-inch outside-
cylinder 0-4-0ST, which was purchased in
1909. A third locomotive, another 0-4-0
saddle tank, was bought in 1915 and it shared
general shunting duties with No 2. A final
steam locomotive, a Hunslet 0-4-0ST of the
same type as Newton, was bought in 1943 and
named Swansea. The four steam locomotives
were scrapped on site in 1959, three Ruston &
Hornsby Ltd diesel shunters being bought to
replace them, one of which is now preserved
locally on the Derwent Valley Light Railway.
Rowntree Halt was opened in 1927 for the
use of factory employees that commuted in, as
well as for occasional factory visits and
excursions for workers. The halt itself was
located just within the Foss Islands branch Works diesel-multiple-unit. More recently The branch then headed due south
and comprised a short brick-built platform, a some services had been operated by towards its Foss Islands terminus, but three
starter signal, later moved to York, and a short ‘Sprinters’, second generation diesel-multiple- more freight only links diverged west before
length of triple-track, allowing a loop that units. the buffer stops were reached. The first
acted as a platform road and from which a The section of line from Burton Lane headed off just prior to the line reaching
trailing connection gave access to the Junction to just east of Rowntree Halt was Layerthorpe road bridge. This gave access to
extensive internal factory system to the north double-track, but beyond there the branch gasworks established on both sides of the
side of the line. The entrance from the was single-track, the line curving south to River Foss. The York Gas Light Company
LNER/BR-operated route into the factory site cross the River Foss at Huntington Road, just operation began here in 1824, while the York
was at a gradient of 1 in 50. The platform had before Heworth Green. Before the bridge, a Union Gas Light Company started up some
stairs leading to the Haxby Road factory, and siding was laid to allow coal to be dropped at 13 years later on another riverside site to the
painted wooden name-boards and privet the workhouse, known as the ‘Poor Law south. Amalgamation of the two competing
hedges made the halt a little more presentable. Institute’, which is now part of an NHS gas companies saw the younger site sold off in
The pattern of service was an incoming hospital. After the river crossing, the London 1850, while the former York Gas Light
morning train, arriving at 07.20 in 1982 for & North Eastern Railway laundry, just off Company premises was expanded and used
example, and an afternoon departure, the Heworth Green, was served by a siding until into the mid-1950s. As well as a link to the
16.35 for Selby in 1982. The last regular 1980, when the facility was shut. The laundry Foss Islands branch, built in 1880, the western
service train departed on 7 July 1988, the duty handled linens from Rowntree’s many hotels (earlier) side of the gasworks complex had an
being worked by a veteran Class ‘110’ and refreshment rooms, processing over three internal tramway of approximately 2ft 3in
Birmingham Railway Carriage & Wagon million items in 1929 alone. gauge. It was electrically-powered using
Newton – Hunslet Engine Co Works No 459 of

1888 – initially worked on construction of the
Manchester Ship Canal. This 0-4-0ST was
purchased from the executors of T.A. Walker by
Rowntree & Co in January 1905, and it was soon
fitted with a large square cab. Primarily used for
shunting coal in its earliest days in York, it
remained here until cut up in 1959.
Rowntree & Co Ltd
In the Rowntree railway workshops, 0-4-0ST No 2

undergoes an overhaul, its wheelsets removed and
the locomotive temporarily elevated. Andrew
Barclay, Sons & Co of Kilmarnock completed
Rowntree & Co Ltd No 2 in 1909, this engine
remaining on site until late 1959, although the end
of the steam era was looming as early as May
1958 when a new Ruston & Hornsby 88hp diesel
shunter arrived. This ‘88DS’ became No 1, while a
larger ‘165DE’ four-coupled diesel arrived in the
November and became No 2. Confusingly, the
steam and diesel No 2s were seen together for a
while, the diesel being capable of moving 900 ton
loads on the level. Further confusion came as a
second 88DS arrived in January 1959 and the
largest of the diesels was then renumbered from
No 2 to No 1. Rowntree & Co Ltd
500v dc overhead wires, and between 1915

and 1959 it had a small, Dick, Kerr & Co-built
locomotive as its main motive power.
Standard gauge shunting at York
Gasworks was originally carried out by an
1881-built Robert Stephenson & Co Ltd
0-4-0ST, Old Tom, before 1895-built Peckett &
Sons Ltd 0-4-0ST Kenneth arrived in 1919.
The last locomotive used at the gasworks was
W.G. Bagnall & Co Ltd 0-4-0ST Centenary,
which was employed between 1924 and 1957.
By 1959, gas was no longer produced from
coal and the link to the Foss Islands line was
no longer required. The horribly dusty coal
drops were, however, already defunct by 1931,
when a coal suction plant was installed, which
was able to unload fuel at an impressive rate
of 18 tons per hour.
South of the gasworks was the York
Corporation Works, the line to this
establishment diverging from the Foss Islands
branch just south of Hallfield Road
overbridge, at the throat of the Layerthorpe
terminus, while the Derwent Valley Light
Railway diverged east at the same point. The
Corporation site included a refuse destructor
that provided heat for a neighbouring power at a cost, then, of over £400. The first railway from 1902. Early shunting was achieved by
station. The brick chimney of the former is lines here were laid in the 1890s, with the electric capstans but a 70hp Kerr, Stuart &
still in situ, having been Grade II-listed in refuse destructor and power station Co Ltd electric locomotive was purchased in
1983, complete with faded disruptive completed around 1900, while a line crossed 1912 and the system later included a loop that
camouflage paint applied during World War II Foss Islands Road to reach the River Foss encircled the refuse destructor and ran
alongside the west side of the power station.
Expansion of the network saw a Metropolitan-
Vickers built electric engine supplement the
Kerr, Stuart from 1941. Nationalisation of the
0-4-0ST No 3 arrived new from Hudswell,

Clarke & Co Ltd in 1915 – it is seen at the
Rowntree reception sidings in the winter of
1947. These were just a few yards from the
rear of Rowntree Halt, and the view seems to
capture the coupling up of an incoming train
off the Foss Islands branch. Freezing
temperatures brought challenges for railway
staff, including wagon brakes freezing-on and
frozen points. On the footplate there is little
protection as there is no cab back-sheet on the
locomotive. Rowntree & Co Ltd

Rowntree Halt opened in November 1927 to

offer a commuter link for the predominately
female workforce of the neighbouring
Rowntree factory. This 1934 view finds
T.W. Worsdell-designed LNER ‘N8’ No 864
facing the Wigginton Road overbridge, and
beyond that the main line connection at
Burton Lane Junction. This 0-6-2T emerged
new from the Gateshead Works of the North
Eastern Railway in December 1888 as a Class
‘B’, a Von Borries Compound version of the
‘B1’, although it was rebuilt as a Simple under
Wilson Worsdell in November 1904, with Joy
valve gear replaced by Stephenson link motion
and piston valves at the same time. Ending its
days as BR No 69381, it would serve until June
1955. Rowntree & Co Ltd
This 6 May 1988 view taken looking west

towards Foss Islands shows the close proximity
of Rowntree Halt to the Rowntree factory,
which is seen through the trees on the north
side of the cutting. Now a single lengthy
concrete platform is in use, this being
positioned on a loop that allowed a locomotive
to run-round, or it led to a headshunt that
served the trailing connection into the factory,
this link being barely visible beyond the signal
as it heads behind the grassy knoll. The
photographer is standing between the up and
down lines of this short stretch of double-track
from here to Burton Lane Junction, the branch
beyond this point being single-track.
R.F. Roberts/SLS Collection
On Monday, 11 September 1961 a lengthy train from Nottingham (Midland) has terminated at Rowntree Halt, this view being taken from Wigginton
Road overbridge. At this end of the excursion train is ex-LNER Thompson ‘B1’ No 61031 Reedbuck, the York-allocated 4-6-0 being provided to assist with
the empty stock move to Clifton Sidings, across from York North shed on the up side of the Newcastle to York main line. At the other end of the train is
BR-built, LMS-designed ‘Black Five’ No 44749, fitted with Timken roller bearings and Caprotti valve gear. The ‘top and tail’ formation will speed-up the
reversal at York station. P.J. Lynch/Kidderminster Railway Museum
A 1931 Ordnance Survey illustrates the entire

Foss Islands branch. York station is to the
bottom left, with the main line to Scarborough
parting company with that to Newcastle-upon-
Tyne just north of the station, with the
Scarborough line crossing the River Ouse to
reach Burton Lane Junction just 1 mile 4 chains
from York station. From the junction, the
unseen Rowntree Halt is just short of the link
into the ‘Rowntree’s Cocoa Works’, the line
then turning south-east and then south to
reach the yard at Foss Islands, bottom right.
Sidings along the route, and spurs to other
installations beside the River Foss, plus the link
to the Derwent Valley Light Railway, made this
an important freight artery beyond the limits
of the city walls. Crown Copyright
power industry saw the power station and its

locomotives become Central Electricity
Generating Board property, but also on site
was an overhead York Corporation rail-
mounted crane – initially a steam crane was
used here, but this was replaced in 1920 by a
two-ton J. Booth & Bros electric crane made
in Leeds, which was painted cream in its latter
years.
One of the main reasons the Foss Islands
line was built was to link the main line to the
flour and saw mills on the banks of the River
Foss at Hungate, and off Navigation Road, on
either side of the river. On the site of the
former York Union Gas Light Company
premises, Leetham’s steam-driven flour mill
opened in 1850. Located on the north bank of
the River Foss, a bridge across the river linked
to Navigation Warehouse, which enjoyed a
connection to the Foss Islands branch from
1894. Housing multiple sidings, some within
the imposing red brick castellated building
that formed its main storehouse, with others
on its south side near Wormald’s Cut, flour
operations here ceased in 1931, and it was
then bought for storage by Rowntree’s. The
Navigation Warehouse site is still known as
Rowntree Wharf.
Initially horses carried out the shunting A sawmill was located just south of general goods needs of eastern York, with the
for the Leetham family, but this method was Leetham’s store house, and this had a river-front former coal drops latterly seeing use for sand
superseded by a Manning, Wardle & Co Ltd entrance as well as railway sidings. The mill is traffic for Redfearn National Glass, but that
0-6-0 saddle tank dating from 1863. Named now private offices and accommodation, and concern’s factory alongside the Foss was closed
Neptune, it was sold to a quarry in Hope, the cobblestones of the old sawmill yard are also in 1984, so the business was lost.
Derbyshire, prior to Rowntree’s taking still in situ. Nearby, the large marshalling yards Mention should also be made to the nearby
possession of the building. at the end of the Foss Islands branch served the Derwent Valley Light Railway, which from
‘J27’ class 0-6-0 No 65885, the first of the post-Grouping batch of ten locomotives (LNER Nos 2383-92), has just crossed the River Foss en route to
Foss Islands with a coal train on 12 May 1961. This location, a rare section of embankment on the branch, is between the site of the Poor Law
Institute siding and that for the LNER laundry. No 65885 was withdrawn on 30 June 1967, this 0-6-0 workhorse was one of the 149 BR steam
locomotives sold to and cut up by Hughes, Bolckow & Co Ltd at its Battleship Wharf, North Blyth. P.J. Lynch/Kidderminster Railway Museum

With York Minster dominating the skyline, this

view looks west across one of the industrial
installations that inspired the Foss Islands
branch, this gasworks pre-dating the branch by
56 years. Established as the York Gas Light Co,
this view is circa 1924, during the subsequent
York Gas Company era. The standard gauge
line to the bottom left, seen crossing Foss Bank
having just bridged the River Foss (glimpsed to
the bottom right), is from the branch. This line
brought in trains of coal hoppers, its course
hugging the distant gasometer to terminate at
coal drops enclosed within a two-road building,
with the engine shed at the end of this. The
chimney in the right foreground is part of the
New Works, established once the Foss Islands
branch was built, and it obscures a view of the
road access to the Old Works site. Long since
closed, a Go Outdoors store is now on the land
once occupied by the Old Works. British Gas
The elevated route of the 500v DC railway was

plain to see as visitors turned in off Foss Bank
road to enter the Old (western) part of York
Gasworks. Believed to be 2ft 3in gauge – a rare
gauge for Britain, with perhaps a few as nine
railways built, this Dick, Kerr & Co-built
locomotive brought coal from the coal drops to
the point where it needed to be processed, the
engine being at the coal drops end of its short
train. British Gas
Entry to the Foss Islands branch was

originally controlled by Burton Lane signal box,
which was located on the up (Scarborough-
bound) side of the main line. This box was a
standard North Eastern Railway example in red
brick, with a string course of dark stone in the
middle, and two relatively small windows
between the brick pillars on the trackside,
resulting in poor visibility up and down the
main line. The box was originally fitted with a
22-lever frame, expanded in 1908 to a 32-lever
frame, which was in use until the closure of the
branch. The box controlled the double-track
entrance to the line, as well as a crossover from
the up main line to the down branch. It did not,
19 July 1913 linked to the Foss Islands branch 1972, and Dunnington to York (Layerthorpe) according to the track circuit diagram in the
at the north end of the branch terminus. The on 1 October 1981. In 1993 a small section of box upon closure, control entrance to, or exit
connection between the two lines was just west the route at Murton re-opened as part of the from, the Rowntree’s internal network. Under
of the DVLR’s York (Layerthorpe) station. Yorkshire Museum of Farming, and this BR control the line was operated beyond
Privately-owned throughout its life, trains ran continues to operate in isolation. Rowntree’s factory on a Staff and Ticket system,
between the two systems, latterly a DVLR
0-6-0DM shunter (purchased from British
Railways) interacted with a current BR
locomotive near the Hallfield Road overbridge,
just north of the DVLR junction. The
independent and largely rural line would close
in sections from its south end – Cliffe
Common to Wheldrake on 31 December 1964,
Wheldrake to Elvington on 20 May 1968,
Elvington to Dunnington on 30 September
Four standard gauge steam locomotives are

known to have operated for the York Gas
Company, this Hudswell, Clarke & Co Ltd
0-4-0ST of 1895 being purchased in 1919 as the
third locomotive to serve. Named Kenneth, it is
seen on the New Works site, which was on the
opposite (east) side of the River Foss to the
original premises and had road access off
Heworth Green. Nationalisation of the gas
industry came in 1949, and dieselisation of this
site in 1956, although only for a brief period as
coal ceased to be used for gas production three
years later. B.D. Stoyel
The coal suction plant was installed on the Old

Works side of the river, its reach long enough
to empty the holds of 95-ton barges on the
River Foss. Most of the coal reached the gas
works on barges, the suction plant was capable
of emptying these at a speed of 18 tons per
hour. British Gas
Looking south from Hallfield Road overbridge in

1961. Foss Islands Junction is directly beneath
the bridge, providing the link to the left for York
(Layerthorpe) station and the Derwent Valley
Light Railway. The corrugated building on the
left is the DVLR engine shed, Layerthorpe
station being immediately beyond this. The line
straight ahead leads to the Foss Islands goods
terminus of the North Eastern Region, while the
link to York Corporation’s power station is the
first of the spurs to the right, with the next spur
leading to the former flour mill premises of
Navigation Warehouse, which by this stage was
in Rowntree hands. R.S. Carpenter
implemented by a chargeman at Foss Islands

goods station. The chargeman was on duty
between 7.30am and 4.30pm, and in off-duty
hours only the Staff was used.
The line declined after the aforementioned
move from coal in gas production in 1959, and
when the coal-fired power station at Foss
Islands Road was demolished in 1980. The
cattle market had been re-located in 1971, and
the refuse destructor and Corporation yard
were shut in the 1980s and redeveloped into
York still boasts this impressive building where

Wormald’s Cut, in the foreground, branched off
the River Foss. Originally one of the largest flour
mills in Europe, it was founded by Henry
Leetham in 1860, the Walter Penty-design then
towering over the slums of Hungate, in 1989 it
was converted into apartments. Initially the mill
received grain via barges, as seen here, although
from 1894 a spur from the Foss Islands branch
was installed. The rails are beneath the canopies
on this, the south side of the premises. The nine-
storey castellated part of the building houses a
water tower. The mill closed in 1930 and the
railway fell into disuse, but in 1935 the building
would become a warehouse for Rowntree & Co.
Then known as Navigation Warehouse on
Rowntree Wharf, cocoa beans were brought to
the wharf until the 1960s. Rowntree & Co Ltd

shops. The route from Burton Lane Junction to In the faded mid-blue livery of the CEGB, No 1,
Foss Islands was officially abandoned on the Foss Islands power station’s oldest
locomotive, was seeing less and less activity by
31 December 1988. However, there are several the time this view was recorded in March 1967.
clues to the area’s past still visible to the eagle- Information about the operations noted by the
eyed, and the route of the branch up to photographer on his subsequent visit in May
Layerthorpe station and along the Derwent 1969, reveals that the staff tended to use the
similar-looking ‘Metrovick’ locomotive in
Valley Light Railway section as far as
preference, but even this could only haul three
Osbaldwick has now been converted to a cycle 16 ton or two 20 ton wagons in fine weather, and
path, part of Sustrans route 66. in the wet only one 16 ton wagon would be
attempted. The northern arc of the circular
LNER classes in action track layout seemed to be out of use, the empty
wagons running under gravity after unloading,
Motive power on the Foss Islands branch was unless No 1 was used for the empties.
restricted by the limited clearance, severe S.A. Leleux
curves and undulations of the line, cutting as it
does through urban and suburban York.
Former LNER ‘J27’ 0-6-0s appear to have been
used for shunting and heavier duties, such as
the delivery of coal to the power station and
gasworks under British Railways, while ‘J72’
0-6-0Ts appear to have made up the majority of
the locomotive power used on the line, as well
as ex-North Eastern Railway ‘B’ (LNER ‘N8’)
class 0-6-2Ts, which were used on the Selby
passenger services. Being only 1½ miles long,
and having a comparatively lightweight roster,
the route only required lighter engines.
Although not strictly Foss Islands line
history, after the end of steam, 1977 saw the
Derwent Valley Light Railway management
revive steam activity in the area with the
introduction of steam specials using, in the
main, former LNER ‘J72’ 0-6-0T No 69023
Joem. Running between Layerthorpe and
Dunnington, the entire length of the DVLR line
at that time. By 1979 there were not enough
passengers to justify the service.
Steam Days would like to thank Middleton

Press for their help with this article.
FURTHER READING:
Branch Line to the Derwent Valley, including the
Foss Islands Branch – Vic Mitchell & Keith
Smith – Middleton Press (2003)
Industrial Railways of York – R.R. Darsley –
The Industrial Railway Record issue 139
(Volume 12) – Industrial Railway Society
Burton Lane Junction, looking towards Scarborough on 6 May 1988, with the Foss Islands branch diverging to the right and Rowntree factory buildings
dominating the skyline. The signal box is a standard NER Southern Division design, its McKenzie & Holland lever frame being a typical one. The box
opened in 1878 and would serve until 30 April 1989. Initially there was a level crossing here, but road improvements saw the distant road overbridge
created and the crossing closed. Incredibly, the signal on the branch is still a North Eastern Railway slotted post variant, although long since converted
to act as a conventional semaphore rather than disappear from view within its post when ‘off ’. R.F. Roberts/SLS Collection
063_SD_June15_ad.indd 63 08/05/2015 09:48
Tail Lamp by coach to various minor and major sheds in

and around Glasgow. At one point, our coach
became stuck under a low bridge, the situation
being recued by a deflation of the tyres,
fascinating little LNER tank engines were out of
place in North Wales, in the middle of GWR
and LMS (along the North Wales coast)
territory! I recently went on a train from the
although the plastic sun roof had, doubtless, fairly new Wrexham (Central) station to
subsequently to be replaced! Bidston and noticed many of the old LNER
Monday saw us back on the train, travelling characteristics were still in place along the line,
via Stirling (where I almost left my treasured for example the old hut like waiting rooms on
camera on the train) as far north as Perth, the platforms of some of the intermediate
before turning back south via Dunfermline to stations.
Edinburgh for the night. The Tuesday was our I used to do a lot of trainspotting on the
departure day, and that is where your other Ruabon Road bridge, waiting for the express
magazine article comes in, for we were trains on the Paddington to Birkenhead line,
scheduled on ‘The Heart of Midlothian’ for our hoping to see a ‘King!’
trip back to Grantham, for our Nottingham Another memory is of going on summer
connection. Sadly, my notebook, with the holidays from Wrexham (General) station to
details of the whole five days, is long lost, but I Barmouth via Llangollen, Corwen, and Dolgelly
do wonder if any reader has a note of the (as it was then called) – A truly beautiful line!
loco(s) that hauled us back south that day – it I notice in the heading to the article there
would just be nice to know. My only is a reference to Wrexham having four stations.
recollections of the actual journey back are the Should this not be three stations, as I cannot
scrumptious afternoon ‘high tea’, demolished remember four?
en route by we hungry teenagers, and my I would like to congratulate Stanley Jenkins
Readers’ Letters mother’s look of astonishment at my blackened on a most comprehensive and interesting
face on emerging from the train at Nottingham article.
Victoria! Heady days indeed! David Davies (by email)
Fond memories of 1960: Newton Abbot, Philip Camm,
and trips of the High Pavement Grammar Uppingham, Rutland The four stations referred to in the header to the
School Railway Society article were – Wrexham (Central), Wrexham
Sir: Just a few lines to say how much I enjoyed Steam Days at Wrexham (General), with Wrexham (Exchange) alongside, and
the November issue of Steam Days. Two of the Sir: Thank you for the especially interesting Rhosddu Halt, to the north of the station, near
features transported me vividly back in my mind December 2014 Steam Days, and in particular Rhosddu shed – The Editor
to 1960. That summer, I had the good fortune the article on Wrexham, a railway centre which
to spend a few days of our holiday trainspotting has received little attention in the railway press Bescot Shed and Yards
alongside Newton Abbot station, just before – the remarkable convolutions of the Sir: Many thanks for Bob Lane’s kind comments
diesels really started to make a serious impact. I Wrexham, Mold & Connah’s Quay and the (December 2014 issue) on the ‘Bescot Shed &
still have just three black and white photos, Great Western railways in serving the Brymbo Yards in BR Days’ article ( June 2014 issue). I
taken with 120 film in my fairly unreliable area make fascinating reading. can’t answer him about whether the train I saw
folding Kershaw camera, of the action in the I must however point out an error in the following the morning Birmingham-
station, featuring mainly the marvellous green caption of the line up of locomotives outside Glasgow/Edinburgh was definitely a train for
and brass ‘Castles’ and ‘Kings’, that were so the original Rhosddu shed. Nos 403 and 404 Liverpool/Manchester or Edinburgh, as I do not
unfamiliar to a 14-year-old boy from are not among the Sacré-designed 0-6-0 tender have any BR timetables from the 1950s. I can
Nottingham, with its largely LMS and Great engines rebuilt by Robinson as 0-6-0STs, which, only go from memory and surviving spotting
Central heritage. The constant flow of traffic in incidentally, became LNER class ‘J58’ and not books.
that station, together with its shed and works ‘J59’. They were two of a class of 0-6-2STs with Bob questioned whether ‘Black Five’
activities, was very much unexpected, a real full length tanks built for the WM&CQR by No 44904 was actually shunting (bottom
eye-opener! Beyer, Peacock – No 403 (WM&CQR No 12) picture on Page 353 June issue). Two points:
However, 1960 was notable for me in in 1885 and No 406 (WM&CQR No 16) in one, I don’t think a down freight would be
another way, namely, the revival of the 1888. Both were later placed on the Great leaving the up yard to run ‘wrong line’ to
previously moribund High Pavement Grammar Central Railway’s duplicate list as Nos 403B and Walsall, and two, if you look at No 44904’s
School Railway Society, brought about by ‘Doc’ 406B respectively: No 403B was sold to the valve gear setting, the engine is in reverse, so it
Daniels, our new chemistry master. He was a Admiralty in 1918 and No 406B only just failed is in the action of backing the wagons into the
keen railway fan, and wasted no time in to become LNER property, being withdrawn in up yard. My notes only show No 44904 as
arranging a number of trips around the country. July 1922. Incidentally, another print of this ‘shunting’.
Courtesy of Makemsons Coaches, of fond photograph does show a part view of a further Mike Page,
memory, we departed very early on Sunday member of the class, WM&CQR No 13, which Cambridge, Cambridgeshire
mornings in those early sixties days when the differed in having a saddle tank covering the
railways were literally running out of steam, for boiler only. A Fairford Branch Survivor
trips to depots in East Anglia, the north-west One further point regarding the Sir: In Colin Maggs’ interesting article on the
and the south-west. Memories remain in the photograph of LNER No 6408, the classification Fairford branch, on Page 48 he mentions the
form of my few tiny square photos that survive ‘B’ was allocated in fact by the Lancashire, sugar beet factory at Eynsham. The locomotive
still. Derbyshire & East Coast Railway and was mentioned, Brush 0-4-0ST No 314,
However, the society’s zenith was an Easter retained when they were taken over by the ex-Powlesland & Mason, is still in existence. It is
trip to Scotland. Without going into too much Great Central. at the Snibston Museum in Coalville,
detail, as memory forbids, we left Nottingham John Bennett, Leicestershire. Unfortunately, the Leicestershire
in the morning of Good Friday, and changed at Guildford, Surrey County Council announced on 14 January their
Crewe. After a very late departure from there, intention to close this museum.
and an equally late arrival in Carlisle, behind a Sir: I so much enjoyed the article on ‘Steam Brian Gillespie (by email)
‘Duchess’ Pacific, we visited Upperby shed in Days at Wrexham’ in the December Issue. It
the dark, before retiring to the Station Hotel brought back happy memories of my boyhood Opinions expressed in letters are not those of
for the night. My room offered a partial view of in Wrexham, during the war years just prior to Redgauntlet Publications Ltd or Key Publishing Ltd
the running lines. The Saturday morning saw us 1945 and up until 1948, when I went, with my (or any Group Company).
early in the sheds at both Canal and Kingmoor parents, to live in Stockport.
(where my trusty Kershaw failed to produce a I well remember going on the trains from Please send any letters to Tail Lamp,
photo of No 46210 Lady Patricia, in glorious ex- Wrexham (Central) to Seacombe, with LNER Steam Days Magazine,
works condition!) before leaving to detour on the side of the tank engines. We then used Redgauntlet Publications,
through Ayrshire to Glasgow, where we spent to get a ferry boat across the Mersey to P.O. Box 2471,
Saturday and Sunday nights. I forget now our Liverpool for a shopping trip to Liverpool, and Bournemouth, BH7 7WF
precise itinerary but the Sunday saw us traipsing return the same way. I used to think the Email: taillamp@keypublishing.com
Books
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PRE-OWNED AND HARD
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Free UK Postage
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or email michelle.long@keypublishing.com michelle.long@keypublishing.com
01332 519161
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Make-up PK (JUNE15):Make-up (July 05) 6/5/15 15:46 Page 1

Steam in and around Reading in Colour

Kipps Engine Shed and the

Managing Editor: Rex Kennedy 3 Trains of Thought

© KEY PUBLISHING 2015

55 York’s Foss Islands Branch Cover: An engineering train

Memories of the North-East in 1966 K.W. Wightman

LMS ‘Royal Scot’ No 46115 Scots Guardsman Steam Days

Britain’s Branch Lines

W busy 21st century British railway

JUNE 2015 www.steamdaysmag.co.uk 5

On Britain’s oldest branch line, dating from

Railway Clearing House junction diagrams for

circuitous route, providing access from

JUNE 2015 www.steamdaysmag.co.uk 7

A significant number of ex-branch lines have

Those opposed to the line, however, did

JUNE 2015 www.steamdaysmag.co.uk 9

A single-line branch that traversed wild and

RCH junction diagram for the Portmadoc and

In October 1933 the GWR introduced its first

JUNE 2015 www.steamdaysmag.co.uk 13

In the shadow of the Alexandra Palace, the

On Christmas Day 1953 the 12.14pm branch train

On Friday, 10 October 1952 ex-Midland Railway

On 2 November 1953 ex-GWR ‘8750’ class

JUNE 2015 www.steamdaysmag.co.uk 15

A Guildford to Horsham train enters Christ’s

A ramblers’ excursion at the picturesque and

The 10.55am branch train to Westerham

Make-up (MAY15) pkagain:Make-up (July 05) 01/04/2015 10:18 Page 1

English Industrial Steam in the 1950s in Colour

The Guild Street branch was one of the core

Steam Days at Rhyl

May 2015 £4.30

SEARCH: Steam Days

34 www.steamdaysmag.co.uk MAY 2015 www.steamdaysmag.co.uk 35

ALSO AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD Read on your

iPhone & iPad Android

WRITING AT ITS BEST DIGITAL www.hornbymagazine.com

DRS BITES BACK!

Issue 95 May 2015

USA $12.50 . CAD$11.99 .

with sample issue PC & Mac kindle fire

Kipps Engine Shed

H lines related to the Monkland

JUNE 2015 www.steamdaysmag.co.uk 19

JUNE 2015 www.steamdaysmag.co.uk 21

An official Neilson & Co photograph of

were thus no longer considered to be

Holmes ‘J36’ class 0-6-0 No 9647 Albert on shed

JUNE 2015 www.steamdaysmag.co.uk 23

A 17 September 1938 scene finds LNER ‘N2/2’

Taken on 17 September 1938, LNER No 9249 is

* Locomotives cut-down in height.

Robert Stephenson & Co Ltd-built, and Reid-

JUNE 2015 www.steamdaysmag.co.uk 25

The birth of the Scottish Region of British

The Kipps shed foreman has diagrammed ‘Y9’

JUNE 2015 www.steamdaysmag.co.uk 27