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50 Years since the end of BR Steam!


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As Trevor states, it is important to realise that steam did not operate in isolation to other forms of traction although you might be forgiven for thinking there were few diesels at Carnforth fifty years ago.  Here's three photos to show the variety there was all taken at Carnforth on 9th July.

 

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D8509

 

post-13986-0-85331300-1532021638.jpg

A brand-new D431

 

post-13986-0-28789900-1532021655.jpg

D5084

 

Chris Turnbull

 

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Before I relate my travels from 19th July, may I just backtrack to the 18th to tie in with John's post?

 

Here's a shot of 45212 alongside D7577 with a group of spotters. Are you there, John?

 

attachicon.gif(563b) 45212+D7577 Preston station 18-07-68 (Trevor Ermel) .jpg

Preston 18th July 1968

 

And here's my shot of 44758 which you also saw.

 

attachicon.gif(874a) 44758 Preston 18-7-68 (Trevor Ermel) (1).jpg

Preston 18th July

 

My notes tell me this train passed through at 12.20

 

Incidentally, just look at all the freight traffic in the background!

 

Now, back to uploading the 19th...

 

Cheers

Trevor

 

Hi Trevor,

 

Above the shot of 45212 with a group of spotters sitting beside a horrid diesel, you asked, "Are you there, John?" (which for a minute sounded almost like it could have been where Department S got the strap-line for their catchy tune, "Is Vic there?", in the charts in 1981).

 

But, unfortunately that's not us!  You're looking for two tall skinny youths, nearly always on the move and one of them with long, near shoulder-length, hair. I think I might have lost my favourite grease-top cap by then, but was probably still wearing that corduroy jacket - see my avatar taken at Speke Junction in April 1968.

 

I'm still wondering why we didn't go up to Carnforth on the Thursday rather than Rose Grove, as it wouldn't have cost a lot more, even though I was always short of cash.

 

More in a couple of weeks time.

 

All the very best,

John.

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As Trevor states, it is important to realise that steam did not operate in isolation to other forms of traction although you might be forgiven for thinking there were few diesels at Carnforth fifty years ago.

 

attachicon.gif680709 Carnforth D8509 6.5.jpg

D8509

 

 

With reference to the first pic, it's gratifying to know that the paraffin can didn't last half as long as the standard 4 4-6-0. :sungum:  

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Running out of film was always a problem when you were still at school and had to fund your hobby from pocket money and holiday jobs.  None of this photographing everything and deleting what you don't want.  With every shot I always had thoughts of how much more film could I afford, not forgetting the cost of developing the slides which had to be posted off in those days.  It was only when you got them back in the post that you knew what you had.  As I didn't have an exposure meter I had to guess the settings with the result that not all my efforts were successful.  Ah!  Those were the days...

 

Chris Turnbull   

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Too lazy to go thro' the 24 pages to check, but if this has been seen before please ignore :sungum:

 

 

In case anyone hasn't realised, despite the vague 'mid-1960s' description at the start, this must have been shot on 4th August 1968 when half-a-dozen or so 'specials' were running.

Super film!

 

Trevor

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In case anyone hasn't realised, despite the vague 'mid-1960s' description at the start, this must have been shot on 4th August 1968 when half-a-dozen or so 'specials' were running.

Super film!

 

Trevor

And I believe that most of them ran late and I saw them all at Hellifield.

 

Jamie

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Too young to remember steam, I found this thread and have spent the last few days reading from the beginning, a truly fascinating collection of writing and photos. Originally from Essex I moved to South Dorset in 2004, an area that had its own part to play in the end of steam.

 

Thanks to all who post on this thread.

 

Martyn

 

P.S. there is a link at the bottom of this post to a lottery project I am running about the railway line from Easton to Weymouth, collecting oral histories of those who knew and used the line. I have interviewed some interesting characters including Denis Turner who as a young man fired on the final special trains in 1965.

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Too young to remember steam, I found this thread and have spent the last few days reading from the beginning, a truly fascinating collection of writing and photos. Originally from Essex I moved to South Dorset in 2004, an area that had its own part to play in the end of steam.

 

Thanks to all who post on this thread.

 

Martyn

 

P.S. there is a link at the bottom of this post to a lottery project I am running about the railway line from Easton to Weymouth, collecting oral histories of those who knew and used the line. I have interviewed some interesting characters including Denis Turner who as a young man fired on the final special trains in 1965.

 

Likewise, I moved to Dorset from Essex in 1986, and here I intend to stay, apart from an occasional visit I have no yearning to return. I sympathize for you, fortunately I remember steam well, and feel the richer for it  :sungum:

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 I know this is at variance with other sources which cite 44735 as doing the honours that evening but I can only quote what I saw (or think I saw?). I did photograph the train passing Arnside but probably due to the poor lighting at sunset the picture was not a success and annoyingly I must have ditched the negative, although the loco would probably been just a silhouette and unidentifiable. (In any case my shot of 45055 earlier that day shows it had no front numberplate,)

 

More tomorrow

Trevor

 

  Given the variation in boiler/dome silhouette on both, probably one could've been discounted. Look forward to tomorrow

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I was only 9 in 1968 so I missed the end of steam but your photos and recollections Trev52A (and those of the other posters here) are truly evocative of what was a sad time for rail enthusiasts, many thanks for posting. BTW Interesting to note that bus substitution, and problems on the Windermere branch, existed in 1968 as well as 50 years later !

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Day two of my final week:

 

Tuesday 30th July

 

The 09.20 from Arnside, headed by D417, got me to Carnforth. Here I found a new spot for observation, on what must have been a public road alongside the line to Barrow adjacent to the loco shed. (Well, nobody chased me off, anyway!) This gave a good view of the shed across the tracks, although the only working locos I entered in my notebook were 44894 (but no mention of the train), 45025 tender-first with some sort of engineers train bound for the Barrow direction (as per this photo) and 45231 with a freight coming the other way.

 

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45025 passing Carnforth shed with an engineers train for the Barrow line on 30th July 1968

 

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A general view of Carnforth shed from the same spot, with 92118 included in the dead engines dumped out of use.

 

I then returned to the station where my next sighting was 45342 with a northbound freight. Shortly afterwards I boarded the 12.45 dmu for Morecambe! I have no idea why I opted for this run, but it was my one and only train ride to the seaside town. I have no photographs to record my visit but this must have been to the original terminus on the seafront, not the modern 'bus shelter'-type construction now in use a few hundred yards short of the promenade. No locos noted, but I stayed until the 16.48 dmu brought me back to Carnforth. What on earth happened there, then? A donkey-ride, perhaps? Very strange!

 

My notes tell me my next sighting was '16.55 44894 southbound oil train'. As I would still have been en route to Carnforth at this time perhaps I saw this as we approached the main line at Hest Bank, or maybe it was itself bound for Morecambe (or Heysham). 

(I must add here that when I made these 'notes' I had no idea I would be writing them up in a 50th anniversary tribute to steam, or I would have taken care to be more specific with what I recorded!)

 

Back at Carnforth more observations showed the following locos in steam: 48393, 45231, 45017, 45268, 44877 and 45025. Presumably they were on shed, as opposed to the following which I noted as 'working': 45206, 44897 and 44709

 

After returning to Arnside by dmu I noted 45017 on the Barrow parcels.

 

A wasted day perhaps? - Especially as I later discovered that a 'Black Five' had come to the rescue of a failed dmu on the Windermere branch which I missed!

 

Never mind, it gets better tomorrow, when my observations included a loco bearing the headboard 'Britain's Finest Locomotive'!

 

Trevor

Edited by Trev52A
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This photo (previously posted in post #225) was taken from the same spot.  

 

post-13986-0-09968600-1532974741.jpg

 

IIRC I clambered up the railway embankment to get to this spot which was just by a railway overbridge.  As you say, no one chased me off.  If you used a bit of commonsense and respected railway property you could get to all sorts of places.  Many of my photos were taken from "the wrong side of the fence" but no one was bothered.  The railway was a much friendlier place in those days.

 

The location was at the north end of the shed where a road or track runs alongside alongside the River Keer and which led to the public footpath that ran down the west side of the shed.  See:

 

https://www.old-maps.co.uk/#/Map/349500/470500/12/100954

 

Chris Turnbull

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Thanks Trevor and Chris for yesterday's pictures of 50 years ago.

 

No time for those Summertime Blues . . .

 

All of a sudden, here we are again, fast approaching the first week of August.  Back in 1968, Trevor was on his travels once again, which have given us so many super photographs in this topic and (for those of us old enough) brought so many happy memories from 50 years ago back into sharp focus.

 

Often we are faced at this time of the year with hot, damp and humid weather and even the music can sometimes take a turn for the worse!  And so it was in 1968, as from July 24th, 'I Pretend' by the genial comedian and crooner, Des O'Connor was at Number One in the Hit Parade [1].  Plus, more bad news on the way, because during this first week of August, Fifty Years ago, the time had finally arrived when there would be no more regular steam-powered services on British railways after August 4th [2].  Although, this had been publicised for quite some time and in May had even become a reality for those of us living in leafy Cheshire, we just didn't imagine that the Absolute End would arrive so very soon afterwards.  What were we going to do, after all our 'iron dinosaurs' had been so rapidly exterminated by the march of technological and economic progress?

 

I had already begun waking up to several other pursuits (like pop music, girls, . . . motor-bikes and fizzy pop), but a final send-off was required for my life-long passionate affair with the steam-powered railway!  Almost one year before, in the summertime of 1967, the Kinks had released the melancholy, yet superbly appropriate record, 'Terry meets Julie', which had rapidly climbed up to Number 2 in the Charts around late June.  This record became the anthem for the end of steam on the Southern Region.  Who does not bring to mind a filthy Bulleid Pacific at the head of Bournemouth-bound express, every time that they hear those 16 perfect notes at the start of 'Waterloo Sunset'? [3]

 

. . . but, Days I'll Remember  . . all my life: Part one.

 

Just over twelve months later, the Kinks released 'Days'; a song which has the line, "I'm thinking of the days; . . . those endless days . . . you gave me" [4].  Mmm, remember or imagine those days? Endless days (that I had) spent sitting by the lineside, or sometimes upon those four-wheeled barrows that were on every station platform; endless hours waiting for a semaphore signal arm to suddenly jerk up, or drop into position, signifying that something was 'pegged' [5]. Next, there was the impatient, nervous wait until you either heard just a muffled rumble, or were alerted to an escalating, deep-throated, roaring attack, as a steam engine in full cry announced its impending arrival into your landscape.

 

Many times you would listen to the approach of a locomotive, before catching even a glimpse of its plume of exhaust.  If it was a regular duty, like the Manchester to Birmingham evening express parcels, you could often tell whether it was on time, or a couple of minutes late, by the urgency of the 'stack-talk'.  However, if it was a goods train you might begin to consider how heavily it was loaded as it plodded steadily and inexorably towards you.  Some enthusiasts could recognise the patterns of those exhaust sounds and be able to identify the type of engine, even before it burst into view - disturbing any birds along the lineside that had been enjoying the evening sunshine.  But from that moment, it was a test of your eyesight and your identification skills, before that all important number was discernable and could be noted down for posterity.  Occasionally you would be treated to a shrill blast on a high-pitched whistle, or perhaps a wailing wooo-hooo, or maybe a deep-toned 'Stanier' hooter!

 

Soon there would be the moment when the ground shook, whilst your ears rang to the cacophony of high pressure steam and thrusting side-rods, as the living fire-eating monster passed close by, breathing searing heat laced with hot oil with each pulsating blast of power.  Was that a smile and a wave as the 'royalty of the rail' sped by on their magic steel footplate? Several hundred tons of heavy metal either raced past, or clattered slowly by before you were engulfed in that most exquisite, comforting, swirling blanket of warm, damp and spicy, steam and smoke.

 

As the train receded into the distance, the steam gently melted away, leaving just a gritty haze and the taste of sulphur on the breeze, followed by the birds twittering again as quiet was restored now that the fire-eating dragon had passed.  With a satisfying zing and clatter, the signal arm would return to danger and then silence again - until the next time, during those endless days. 

 

That's how my fascination with the steam railway had begun all those years ago, fuelled with writings by the inimitable Cuthbert Hamilton Ellis [6] and Canon Roger Lloyd, Norman McKillop and Oswald Nock; So often captured in many of the photographs of Henry Casserley and Eric Treacy, Pat Whitehouse and Colin Gifford.  As my enthusiasm for the transport system based upon the steel wheel on the steel rail had grown, successive British Governments from 1958 onwards had branded the railways as an 'old-fashioned' technology, using the steam engine as one of their key indices to thrash against the out-dated (Victorian-inspired) transport brand. Of course, having apparently 'never had it so good' [7] the general public believed this glossy clap-trap.  And one of the results was that there would be no more regular steam operations after August 3rd 1968 [2].

 

On the way home from Preston on July 18th (post 570), we had discussed what we'd try to do on week commencing the 30th July.  A plan was hatched to visit those last three operational sheds and I'll be joining Trevor on Thursday and Friday as we began watching the last gasps of the steam railway, before following the August 4th Specials.

 

Happy Days,

All the very best,

John.

 

PS: For those interested there will be a celebration of the 'End of Steam' / 4th August taking place on the Severn Valley Railway - see links in posts 544 and 569.

 

Apologies for the Excessive Notes accompanying this over melodramatic post!

 

Summertime Blues by Eddie Cochran (first released in 1959) was re-released on 24th April 1968.

[1] Luckily 'I Pretend' was soon replaced by the throbbing repetitive ditty, 'Mony, Mony', by Tommy James and the Shondells, released 5th June 1968 and No.1 for the first two weeks of August, before being burned away by the mesmerizing 'Fire' from the craziest of them all, Arthur Brown!

[2] Excepting the Specials (4th & 11th) and the Vale of Rheidol services.

[3] July 9th 1967, when the last steam-hauled express left Waterloo behind a filthy Bulleid Pacific.

[4] released on 17th July 1968 and without doubt, although Arthur B's 'Fi-re'  and Tommy's 'Mony' were noisier and made the top of the charts, 'Days' was my anthem for The End.

[5] Signals were also known by spotters as pegs.  As the lever was pulled in the signal cabin they would move from the danger position to the clear or off position, usually with a clatter.  Therefore, a train was 'pegged' and eyes would be fixed on the spot where you might first glimpse the approaching train.

[6] "Surely it was always summer when . . ." are the opening words from C.H.E's 'The Trains We Loved', 1947, reprinted many times and which ends with the words, "Those were the days . . . when the steam locomotive, unchallenged, bestrode the world  . . . like a friendly giant".  IMO, every railway enthusiast should have a copy for those days when the world is turned upside down!

[7] A comment referring to the working classes made by P.M. Harold MacMillan in November 1957.

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Well that was a tour de force John. What an evocative piece of prose. We ought to send this thread to a creative writing class as an example of superb work. Mind you it helps that the subject is so emotive and most of us were at that age when the wider world was opening up to us.

 

I may have mentioned it before but a book that I have read and re read several times is "Steam Railways in Retrospect by O S Nock. In particular the last chapter when he describes two runs over Shap on the footplate of Stanier Pacifics. He abandons his usually precise semi technical writing and describes his feelings and the sheer emotional impact of being on the footplate of such magnificent machines as he went over Shap, knowing that it would probably be his last such journey.

 

 

The only other book that's very good is "The Mohawk that Refused to Abdicate and other tales of Steam" by David P Morgan with photos by Phillip Hastings. In this they document several safari's round the US and Canada in the 50's to see the last working steam.

 

 

Note. A Mohawk was a Ney York Central class of 4-8-2's.

 

 

Jamie

Edited by jamie92208
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Yes excellent stuff John. But at the time I was on such a downer I couldn't face it, both the end of steam on the Southern the year before, and the absolute final in '68, I avoided the last few weeks as I had such enjoyment out of chasing steam over the years I just didn't want it to end, and have had a passion for steam ( and ONLY steam) ever since. :sungum:

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Yes excellent stuff John. But at the time I was on such a downer I couldn't face it, both the end of steam on the Southern the year before, and the absolute final in '68, I avoided the last few weeks as I had such enjoyment out of chasing steam over the years I just didn't want it to end, and have had a passion for steam ( and ONLY steam) ever since. :sungum:

 

There must have been many like you.

I had only just got into spotting around the back end of 1967, so wasn't as indoctrinated into steam as many others were.

It was very surreal going trainspotting in the months after August, everywhere, especially the North West, was deserted, just as many services ran, it was that none were steam hauled.

 

Mike.

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I also deliberately missed the final rites; my last trip to the Northwest was in early July.  On August the 8th, I was volunteering on the Ffestiniog, at the newly opened Dduallt station, watching a brand new steam railway being built to cheer myself up!  Steam was not really dead, of course, as there were still industrials and the nascent preservation movement, and I am glad that I missed the BR finale, as it meant I was able to maintain the concept that steam lived on, and it still does, though my definition of working steam, locos in business for purely commercial reasons that are nothing to do with tourism, heritage, or enthusiasts, no longer exists.

 

I gave up visiting Woodham's yard for some years as well; too depressing.  Often described as a graveyard, it seemed to me more of a charnel house.

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it is fascinating reading the recollections of what was obviously a sad and depressing time for most, if not all enthusiasts, the sense of loss really comes over. My serious railway interest only began in September 71 when I started secondary school, where there was a thriving Railway Society, so, despite the fact that one of my earliest trips was to see 6000 KGV at Oxford in October 71, I never really caught the steam bug, and I find the details of diesel workings in 1968 just as interesting as the steamers (heresy here I know !). Thanks to all for their contributions.

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