The Stationmaster Says Goodbye to Steam at Henley-On-Thames

[The Stationmaster]

Wonderful shots Mike... and look how tidy everything is! Any idea which crews worked the loco hauled Londons... Old Oak or Reading men...?

 

Would it be ok to link these over on the Old Oak facebook page, I'm sure there'll be some folk on there who will remember those jobs...?

 

The first one down in the evening - the 18.18 arrival was worked by Old Oak men and was in fact a tutoring turn for Hymeks.  The men on the loco used to leave in charge of local youngsters (guess who) and pop off to the pub down the road, they came back sometime later and then worked light to Slough to work a parcels train to Paddington, something like 19.35 or 45 off Slough I vaguely recall (hence my trip to Slough one evening).

 

I believe Wally Richards might have been one of the tutor Drivers and Geoff Morse very definitely was according to what he told me getting on for 20 years later.  However you would definitely be going way back into history for Old Oak men driving on this job as I think many (?most) of them who worked to Henley on locos had retired by the late 1970s.  I have a picture of a 1000 at Henley with an Old Oak man driving and the next time I met him was at Yeovil Pen Mill in 1975/76 when there were diversions due to a derailment at Taunton and we had a 'firm' discussion about setting a passenger train back into the section towards Castle Cary behind a train which had left for Cary a few minutes earlier - I even had to show him the pages of the Appendix before he would accept my handsignal to move!  So he was driving to Henley in 1963, was in No1 Link by 1975ish, and had definitely retired or gone under redundancy by 1978, as had many of his contemporaries.  

 

The second evening train was Reading men fairly certainly as was at least one of the morning trains, probably both.  So basically when the trains were dieselised Reading lost one of out 4 of them but they got both back when they went over to the Inter City dmus (if not before).  Ok to link but I very much doubt if there will be many around who remember them.

[Rugd1022]

Great reply - thanks Mike! Some of the 'younger' retired folk on FB may well remember those who did work such turns though!

[DavidLong]

These photos are a really valuable resource, Mike. In all the photos of Hymeks that I have looked at over the years I have never seen photos of them on these services. It does make me wonder whether there are records of them on other such services which haven't surfaced yet. It never ceases to amaze me the vast amount of material that seems to exist recording the railway over the last 60+ years and it is still appearing.

More is the pleasure for those of us who see it and thanks to those who make it available to us.

 

David

[The Stationmaster]

These photos are a really valuable resource, Mike. In all the photos of Hymeks that I have looked at over the years I have never seen photos of them on these services. It does make me wonder whether there are records of them on other such services which haven't surfaced yet. It never ceases to amaze me the vast amount of material that seems to exist recording the railway over the last 60+ years and it is still appearing.

More is the pleasure for those of us who see it and thanks to those who make it available to us.

 

David

I might have a few more somewhere but all on the Henley branch from what I can recall.  I suppose part of the problem with knowing what they worked is that their early years were a period when not many folk took an interest - after all they were displacing much loved steam engines.  Equally I suspect that details of diagrams were probably ditched for much the same reason - folk were only interested in 'saving' historical documents and not thinking forward for 50 years.  History is a very strange and rather transitory thing - those pics at Henley were taken almost 50 years ago, but that was only 40 years after the Grouping, rather odd sounding when you look at it like that.

[The Stationmaster]

And then you find some more ageing photos, and then you eat your own words because lo & behold steam appeared yet again on that ecs on Sunday 23 June.  EWhether this one really one the last I'm not entirely sure but I think it probably was as clearly no further engine whistling on a Sunday took me to my bike and a very quick charge to the station. And fortuitously this one completes the list of Western 4-6-0s allowed on the branch as it was a 'Grange', so to 6825 going about its business on Sunday 23 June 1963

 

 

 

 

 

 

This didn't mean the end of steam on the branch because while it had finished on passenger work it was still seen on the branch freight trip until it finished in 1965 - but I never took a photo of it (well 2251s were ten a penny weren't they).

 

Now to some real excitement on the 'through Londons' when this appeared on 26 June, only the second week of dieselisation and we got one of these (and I nearly missed it so the first pic is after it had put away its own stock off the 18.18 arrival while the second of it is ready to shunt the 19.17 arrival - tail lamps in both directions!)

 

 

 

Finally back to the Hymeks, starting with yet another poorly framed running-in shot - yes it's D7057 on the 19.17 arrival yet again, this time of 26 June.  Worth showing the full expanse of the picture to suitably horrify anyone who knows this scene today - a background now of near forest and undergrowth.

 

 

Finally - and I'm pretty sure this is finally for loco views at Henley although there is a much older one hiding somewhere and it might eventually come to light - we see D7065 at rest after shunting its stock off the 18.18 arrival on 040763.  Again some interesting background for those who care to enlarge and look carefully.

 

 

 

 

[Rugd1022]

Like, like and like again...!

[keefer]

late to this topic, but agree cropping the images means losing some interesting details

 

for example

 

early example of a B4 bogie on a choc/cream mk1 BCK

 

 

excellent record of a point in time

[Neal Ball]

Seeing all these photos of Henley, makes me want t re-start my model of the station...

 

Need to extend the railway room again!

 

Great 'photos as ever Mike, you were clearly very lucky to ave a decent camera and the time back then! Thanks again for sharing.

[Wildhenley]

Keith

The Stationmaster

 

I am involved in the preparation of a report on the village of Shiplake. It is a Village Community Plan

I would like to use the pic of Loco 6924, as the loco to pull the last steam train through Shiplake. I assume you took the pic.

May I have your permission to use it please? We will of course provide an acknowledgement

(I will need a name to do so)

 

With thanks

Prof Ray Wild

[The Stationmaster]

Keith

The Stationmaster

 

I am involved in the preparation of a report on the village of Shiplake. It is a Village Community Plan

I would like to use the pic of Loco 6924, as the loco to pull the last steam train through Shiplake. I assume you took the pic.

May I have your permission to use it please? We will of course provide an acknowledgement

(I will need a name to do so)

 

With thanks

Prof Ray Wild

 

Ray, 

I have sent you a PM about this but judging by your PM this morning you might not have seen it - you need to click on the little envelope icon in the top right corner next to your screenname and you will find two PMs there for you (I hope)

 

regards,

[Mijbil54]

Hi Mike I know I am a year late looking at this post but as an ex Henley-on Thames resident found your pictures fascinating, I have a vague recollection of rushing down to the station one evening to see the last steam-hauled passenger trains and I would have been about 10yrs old!

I also have a copy of Paul Karau's book and agree with other posters these pictures capture the branch terminus well, I used to stand on Mill Lane bridge and watch the Hymeks shunting the stock then returning to Reading many evenings. I thought I had seen other Diesel Hydraulics at work and living in the Reading Road area of town usually on my paper round would see them at work first thing every morning. As a Duke of Edingburgh Award project I did railway affairs and collected a few photos of various loco's and stock for my project. There was a visit by the GWS owned 6106 on 24th June 1967 with Ocean Saloon 9118 and a BR Parcels van they were then based at Taplow, I enclose a couple of pictures.

Brian.

[jjb1970]

Terrific photographs! And thanks for not cropping as I find that the little details of what at the time was probably considered boring and of no interest in regards stations, siding arrangements, line-side structures etc etc can now be of equal or ever greater interest than the rolling stock.

[The Stationmaster]

Terrific photographs! And thanks for not cropping as I find that the little details of what at the time was probably considered boring and of no interest in regards stations, siding arrangements, line-side structures etc etc can now be of equal or ever greater interest than the rolling stock.

Agreed, but regrettably by then the goods shed had gone along with quite a few sidings etc - the former being all too obvious in the top picture.  Alas a sad story of change as at so many places.