50 Years since the end of BR Steam!

[Trev52A]

2018 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the end of normal BR steam workings.

 

Congratulations to all of us who remember those sad/happy days of half a century ago (I was 17 at the time) and who have made it this far! 

 

Here's a chance to share some memories and photos of 1968, with a couple of mine to start, both taken at Carnforth on 17th March 1968... 

 

Black Fives 44897 and 45342 pose at the shed between turns

 

70013 Oliver Cromwell leaves the station with a Williams Deacon's Bank Club special bound for Stockport

 

Over to you

Cheers

Trevor

 

 

[jonny777]

I may have posted this before on another thread, but here is 44663 at Chinley South Junction on February 1st 1968. 

 

 

[LMS2968]

I was 16 then and, I have to admit, my photographic skills somewhat lacking; I don't say they're much better now, but anyway...

 

This is 11th August 1968 and at the very end. 5110 has returned the Fifteen Guinea Special to Lime Street and is on her way back to Lostock Hall for disposal and withdrawal. She was stopped for a while by signals in Edge Hill stations No. 1 (Up Slow) platform.

 

Edited January 6, 2018 by LMS2968

[jonny777]

I purchased this transparency, which is not in good condition; a bit like the subject matter. 

 

 

Here is 48327 on shed (slide mount suggests early in 1968, but now thought to be early 1966). It has a 9L shed plate, so I am assuming it is at Buxton, until told something different. 

 

 

Edited January 7, 2018 by jonny777

[LMS2968]

I hate to query this, but the last 4F was withdrawn in 1966 so unlikely to be 1968. Good photo, anyway.

[LNER4479]

The 4F's could be dumped awaiting disposal? Although the late survival of one with an older Midland coal-rail tender is a little unusual. I think Buxton is a good shout for the location, noting the snow on the ground(!)

 

I was only 4 when it all ended so no camera to wield at that tender age. I do have the vaguest memories of the winter snows of Feb 1968 though and there were some memorable photographic conditions for the last workings in the Peak District at that time

[jonny777]

Do you mean like this?

 

 

[Ian Smeeton]

^

 

I pressed like for the above, but 'Like' just doesn't do it justice.

 

Regards

 

Ian

 

(4 in '68 too, so no pics from me, just memories)

[Bon Accord]

The snowy pictures stir a memory - quite a few years ago I saw a photograph which stuck in the memory and I've been trying to trace it ever since, it being published in a "Glorious Years" segment of Steam Railway. As I recall it showed the rear of (I think) an 8F hauled freight topping one of the Northern English summits - perhaps Shap or Ais Gill - and pictured the guard on the rear verandah of his van raising his enamel mug at the photographer. I'm sure it was in wintery/snowy conditions and that it was taken in either '67 or early '68.

Any guesses?

[brianusa]

I was spared the last days of steam in the UK having left in 1963.  Steam engines were not a pretty sight having got progressively worse over the years, in dire mechanical condition with a lot of steam leaking from unnatural places and mostly filthy; but nobody cared then.  I prefer to remember them when I first was interested, at least there was some TLC in those days.

 

Brian.

[APOLLO]

My last week of steam at Carnforth, Rose Grove & Lostock Hall photos here. Scroll down to 5 albums.

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/136789710@N03/albums

 

We bought a North west rover that week. happy yet sad time, I was aged 16.

 

Brit15

[LMS2968]

I can't totally agree, Brian: some of us cared but could do nothing about it; the Master Neverers Association cared and did plenty!

 

I recall Black Five 5149 at Liverpool Exchange about April 1968. I happened to be watching the crosshead when steam was applied, and was amazed when it lifted at least a quarter inch.

[Steamport Southport]

48327 was a Buxton locomotive from 20/11/1965 to 09/03/1968 so that fits the date. Then went to Patricroft until 08/06/1968.

 

Could the 4Fs just be waiting to be towed away for scrap? Apparently there were quite a few withdrawn locomotives lingering on sheds well into 1969.

 

It doesn't help that the scrapping records are quite often wrong.

 

 

 

Jason

[Trev52A]

My last week of steam at Carnforth, Rose Grove & Lostock Hall photos here. Scroll down to 5 albums.

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/136789710@N03/albums

 

We bought a North west rover that week. happy yet sad time, I was aged 16.

 

Brit15

 

Great stuff!  some of your Carnforth shots from August 1968 look very similar to mine - I wonder if our paths crossed at the shed all those years ago?

 

Here are a couple from a rainy Stockport Edgeley shed on 16th March that year. The two Pacifics were waiting to haul specials to Carnforth the next day - see my earlier post of 70013 at Carnforth station.

 

8F inside the shed

 

 

Trevor

Edited January 6, 2018 by Trev52A

[Phil Bullock]

I hate to query this, but the last 4F was withdrawn in 1966 so unlikely to be 1968. Good photo, anyway.

 

Buxton's 4fs went at the end of 1965 - http://www.manlocosoc.co.uk/buxton-shed.pdf - and the Rail UK database suggests the last of them were cut up by March/April 1966 - including 44110 on shed at Worcester - presumably it ran a hot box en route to its final destination

 

Phil

[jonny777]

It's a cold morning here, and I thought I would warm things up with a scan of a print (hence the bendy telegraph poles). 

 

This is 48532 trudging past Peak Forest with a coal train on February 15th 1968. At least the low winter sun adds to the atmospheric lighting. 

 

 

[ikks]

I always thought that the last couple of years of steam rather melancholy, thank goodness though. for the photographers who recorded that period, To me, my time was 1958-1961  when us innocents thought that steam would be around for years to come. Yes. 10000/1. D1-D10 with their beautiful names, DELTIC, the Western hydraulics were grand machines............But were only additional to the Stanier/Bullied/Gresley/Collet engines that we loved and were reasonably cared for in that period. Wish I could re-live that time again.

Mike

[Fat Controller]

It's a cold morning here, and I thought I would warm things up with a scan of a print (hence the bendy telegraph poles). 

 

This is 48532 trudging past Peak Forest with a coal train on February 15th 1968. At least the low winter sun adds to the atmospheric lighting. 

 

 

s48532 peak forest 15:2:68.jpg

Couple of HUOs in the background; I wonder if they worked in with coal for the kilns, or were working out with stone?

[jonny777]

I always thought that the last couple of years of steam rather melancholy, thank goodness though. for the photographers who recorded that period, To me, my time was 1958-1961  when us innocents thought that steam would be around for years to come. Yes. 10000/1. D1-D10 with their beautiful names, DELTIC, the Western hydraulics were grand machines............But were only additional to the Stanier/Bullied/Gresley/Collet engines that we loved and were reasonably cared for in that period. Wish I could re-live that time again.

Mike

 

 

 

It is very true that even though the signs might have been there - for those in the know, we spotters had no idea of the holocaust (and I did consider the implications before I used the word. I hope that is not deemed inappropriate) which was about to begin. If someone had walked up to me in September 1958 and had told me that in 10 years time every single standard gauge steam loco (BR owned) would have been withdrawn, even those which were brand new then, I would have suggested they get themselves sectioned asap. And yet, that is precisely what happened. 

[Reorte]

I always thought that the last couple of years of steam rather melancholy, thank goodness though. for the photographers who recorded that period, To me, my time was 1958-1961  when us innocents thought that steam would be around for years to come. Yes. 10000/1. D1-D10 with their beautiful names, DELTIC, the Western hydraulics were grand machines............But were only additional to the Stanier/Bullied/Gresley/Collet engines that we loved and were reasonably cared for in that period. Wish I could re-live that time again.

Mike

I'm rather jealous that you got to experience any of it, although when I see photos from the last few years it's easy to overlook the "this is about to end" feeling that must've been around. Being in my early 40s it's hard to imagine that steam ended really not that long before I was born, it seems like a different world (but then again so does the railway of my childhood now).

[bike2steam]

The 4F's could be dumped awaiting disposal? 

They'd most probably would've had their coupling rods removed.

[The Stationmaster]

It's a cold morning here, and I thought I would warm things up with a scan of a print (hence the bendy telegraph poles). 

 

This is 48532 trudging past Peak Forest with a coal train on February 15th 1968. At least the low winter sun adds to the atmospheric lighting. 

 

 

s48532 peak forest 15:2:68.jpg

 

I'm not so sure if it is doing much in the way of 'trudging past' as it's on the wrong road with the disc off for it to crossover - possibly Single Line Working going on?

[bike2steam]

A 'Box-Brownie' moment on a typical Manchester dull day, Patricroft shed 29th June 1968.

 

Same day at Lostock Hall

 

Edited January 7, 2018 by bike2steam

[jonny777]

I'm rather jealous that you got to experience any of it, although when I see photos from the last few years it's easy to overlook the "this is about to end" feeling that must've been around. Being in my early 40s it's hard to imagine that steam ended really not that long before I was born, it seems like a different world (but then again so does the railway of my childhood now).

 

 

I think, with hindsight mind you, that it was probably best to be born well before the slaughter or after it. Living through it as an impressionable teenager seemed like a nightmare at that time; especially when some of the diesels which had ousted a lot of the steam locos were withdrawn soon after the end of steam. 

 

Mine was not a wealthy family and railway periodicals could not be afforded, although my Dad occasionally bought Meccano Magazine; which was of little use to a trainspotter. Therefore my horrors came when looking in the latest ABC any of my pals had acquired. I saw quite a few K3s in my early years, but in 1963 I had seen none for the first few months and thought it was a bit strange. I soon found out why I hadn't seen any, when I looked at an ER section - there were none there. 

 

121 locos withdrawn in a single year, and that number was from just one class. To say that I was plunged into a deep depression was an understatement. Have I ever recovered? Probably not, if I am honest. It wasn't so much that I was denying to myself the idea that steam had to go. It was just the speed at which it was done that shocked me. 

[GeoffAlan]

I was camping with the Scouts at Tebay during the last few years of steam One of our Scouters was a BR locomotive engineer. We took a lot of the Mickey out of him after watching diesel hauled trains being banked up the incline by steam locos. 'Not up to the job' being a common refrain. Of course his staunch defence of the diesel revolution was correct, but we were sad to see the steam go.