2. UK Railways
  3. 1960's Archive

1963-1966 odds and ends

50+ years old images taken when I was still at school with a bunch of old time, point and shoot style cameras. All Kodak ranging from a folding 620 through a Brownie 127 to an Instamatic, none of which was of great quality, Black and white predominates as for a 14 year old schoolboy that was expensive enough! A few Instamatic colour shots which was a luxury, the film probably came with the camera as a present in 1965.
Everything has been scanned from an album of prints that I still have (negatives having been long lost) and is not of the highest quality - I didn't really know anything about the fundamentals of photography then and the images were just snapshots while trainspotting. Chasing the trains was expensive enough on limited pocket money and came first.

(Details and, if possible estimated dates, will follow shortly. I am undertaking the research at the moment - of course, all my notebooks are long gone. From 1966 my "Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll" years took over - I blame it on the ending of steam in the UK!)
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70020 " Mercury" Willesden shed 1964<br /> Willesden shed was always worth the effort of "bunking" as it was known - going round without asking permission. It probably explains the reason why I took few photos in the shed as we would be dashing around to get all the numbers before we got thrown out - usually with a semi-polite request to get out. I think the staff were used to people wandering about armed with a notebook and, sometimes, a camera.<br /> I first visited Willesden in 1963 when we had gone on a school trip to the Schoolboy Football international at Wembley. As a junior player in the school teams and fairly new to this trainspotting business when asked by an older boy (the goalkeeper for the Intermadiate team actually!) if we wanted to go to Willesden my friend and I both said "where's Willesden" not having been 'spotting in London before. The three of us travelled on the tube from Wembley Central and got a great surprise as sitting outside the depot at Willesden as we popped up entering Willesden Junction Low Level we could see 46245 "City of London" waiting to run down to Euston. No internet or such in those days so we weren't aware that Camden was closing to steam and all the locos would be transferred to Willesden. Another 7 "Coronations" on the depot made our day. The following year on the school football trip we also included Old Oak Common before the match!<br /> The only down side was that England Schoolboys lost to their West German counterparts 2-1 in 1964. The up side was that a few "Coronations" were still at Willesden (including 46245) although the "Kings" at Old Oak were withdrawn and waiting to be towed to Swindon.
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70020 " Mercury" Willesden shed 1964
Willesden shed was always worth the effort of "bunking" as it was known - going round without asking permission. It probably explains the reason why I took few photos in the shed as we would be dashing around to get all the numbers before we got thrown out - usually with a semi-polite request to get out. I think the staff were used to people wandering about armed with a notebook and, sometimes, a camera.
I first visited Willesden in 1963 when we had gone on a school trip to the Schoolboy Football international at Wembley. As a junior player in the school teams and fairly new to this trainspotting business when asked by an older boy (the goalkeeper for the Intermadiate team actually!) if we wanted to go to Willesden my friend and I both said "where's Willesden" not having been 'spotting in London before. The three of us travelled on the tube from Wembley Central and got a great surprise as sitting outside the depot at Willesden as we popped up entering Willesden Junction Low Level we could see 46245 "City of London" waiting to run down to Euston. No internet or such in those days so we weren't aware that Camden was closing to steam and all the locos would be transferred to Willesden. Another 7 "Coronations" on the depot made our day. The following year on the school football trip we also included Old Oak Common before the match!
The only down side was that England Schoolboys lost to their West German counterparts 2-1 in 1964. The up side was that a few "Coronations" were still at Willesden (including 46245) although the "Kings" at Old Oak were withdrawn and waiting to be towed to Swindon.

  • 35024 "East Asiatic Company" sits on Eastleigh shed, looking cold and not in steam. It is probable that it was at Eastleigh for exam pending its withdrawl in January 1965 as it looks to be on the far lines at the back of the shed where locos heading to the works for attention or scrapping were kept. This would make the date in the latter months of 1964.<br /> Eastleigh, and particularly the shed, was in reach by bike (about nineteen miles from Gosport) when the roads were much less hazardous and the M27 wasn't even a gleam in some planner's eye! Frequent visits were undertaken and it kept me fit for football and cricket - nearly as important to a 14 year old as steam engines.<br /> Overhauls of MN's had been stopped by this time, 35007 being the last to receive a "general" exam in August of that year. 35024 made its way to Wales and was cut up by I. C. Woodfield at Town Dock, Newport.
  • 30936 "Cranleigh" Eastleigh Shed 1963<br /> Languishing on the scrap line in the shed yard awaiting the call to the works to be cut up. I think this was one of the locos from the group of locos withdrawn and stored at Nine Elms after being taken out of service at the end of 1962/63 and that were dragged to Eastleigh for cutting up and sat at the rear of the depot for much of 1963. I have seen a date of 31 October quoted for 30936 being cut.<br /> I never got to see the Schools running (along with the King Arthurs and the Lord Nelsons) as they were being withdrawn as I was starting my trainspotting days. By the time I started to go to Eastleigh all the locos had passed through the scrap yard except for the locos from Hove yard and a few from Nine Elms. Next to the Schools can be seen the very front of a N1 or U1 Maunsell 2-6-0 that were cut up at Eastleigh at the same period. The likely date of the photo (gleaned from other sources) would be early May 1963.
  • Another of the stored locos at Gloucester Horton Road in 1965 was this Standard 3 2-6-2T 82039. This loco had been withdrawn at the beginning of July but didn't depart from the depot for its inevtable last journey to South wales until the middle of November that year.
  • Pannier tank 3675 is obviously still in steam as it potters about the yard at Gloucester Horton Road in July 1965. Unlike the stored locos on the depot this engine survived until the beginning of December before being withdrawn and made its way to South Wales for the final rites in February 1966.
  • Standard Class 5 73091 is dead in the yard at Gloucester Horton Road in 1965. This loco is shown as being withdrawn 0n 21 May and then making its way to South Wales for scrap by the end of June, which suggests that the visit was in late May, which also ties in with the other stored locos on site.
  • Collet 0-6-0 2242 stands out of use in the yard at Gloucester Horton Road in 1965. The engine had been withdrawn on 21 May and dissapeared to South Wales for scrap at the end of July.
  • A series of photos, all in square format that tell me that they were taken on my Instamatic, from a visit to Gloucester Horton Road depot. Mostly full of stored steam engines, including this unidentified 9F, the date is middle 1965. Likely during the early part of May as my meagre, schoolboy's finances were being saved for the trip to the North East at the end of August. D2196 is seen pottering about in the background.
  • 34008 "Padstow" Eastleigh 1963<br /> Waiting for the road at the down end of Platform 3 (Platform 2 as it is today), whether on a train or running light engine to the depot I can't tell.<br /> Whereas trips to Eastleigh by bike would have seen me in the shed or on Campbell Road bridge (visible in the background) as this shot was taken on the station it must have been on one of my Rover ticket days during the summer of 1963 when we discovered Rover tickets that took us from Portsmouth or Fareham as far as Bournemouth, Salisbury, Basingstoke and Reading (but not from Andover to Salisbury or Basingstoke by the West of England line although we could, and did, go from Romsey before the line was closed). All for the princely sum of 8/6d for the week if memory serves!
  • 7013 "Bristol Castle" Reading General 1963<br /> One of my earliest (if not the first) forays to Reading and only just in time to see the Castles at work ("Banbury Castle" was the down stand-by engine on the same day). A very wet day and remarkable luck that the photo is mostly in focus and minimal camera shake considering my total lack of any photographic skills at the time (some accuse me of having none today - I get away with using vastly improved equipment that makes me look a lot better!).<br /> I think 7013 would have still been allocated to Worcester (although it did have a short spell at Old Oak Common) at this time before its latter exploits as one of the Castles transferred to Oxley for a final flourish.
  • 34063 "229 Squadron" Fareham<br /> 34063 was transferred to Brighton shed on 27 May 1963 as part of the pool to work passenger services which included the daily Brighton to Plymouth and the following day's return working. The Plymouth to Brighton working detached a Portsmouth portion at Fareham and I suspect that was taking place when I took this photo (note that the signal is still "on" at this point).<br /> 34063 entered Eastligh Works for a Light Intermediate service and re-paint on 18 June 1963 and was re-allocated to Salisbury on its release.<br /> I think it is reasonably safe to say that the photo was taken between the short period between May and June 1963 before it went into Eastleigh.
  • Platform 1 at Salisbury and 76017 has just backed on to its coaches for the run to Portsmouth having replaced a Western Region diesel, probably a Hymek. The date is sometime in 1964 at which point most (all in my case!) of the through services to Bristol or Cardiff had been worked by the Hymeks frustrating my young self who had seen all these pictures of Castles and Halls taking over the trains. The Standards were common fare to replace the Western engine with Light Pacifics usually only reserved for the through trains to Brighton. 76017 was withdrawn in July 1965 and returned to Salisbury to join one of the scrap convoys that made their way to South Wales, fortunately for this engine to Woodham's yard at Barry. It was recovered and is still plying its trade "just up the road" from me at the Watercress Line!
  • (l to r) 5943 "Elmedon Hall", 1014 "County of Glamorgan" and 1012 "County of Denbeigh" Swindon Shed scrap line, 1964<br /> The two Counties were withdrawn in April 1964 and were eventually sent to Cashmores at Newport to be cut up. 5943 had been withdrawn the previous year and was sent to Coopers Metals at Sharpness (purchased in July 1964) to be cut up. These dates suggest that this was one of my Wednesday afternoon tours of Swindon Works in early August 1964. When I was intending to go to the public tours of the Works on the Wednesday afternoons I always applied for a permit for the shed for the same date as these were available to a single person on the Western Region from the age of 12 or 14, I forget which.<br /> On coming back along the tunnel from the works on one of these visits, while passing the branch tunnel that led to the shed, requests to the guide to go and look at the shed from the throng was met by "you have to have a permit" from the guide. I piped up "I've got a permit, Mister" and the next thing we knew about 50 of us were going round the shed and I was the local hero for that afternoon. To his credit the guide never asked to see the permit or ask for how many people it was for!<br /> A replica of 1014 is under consruction at the moment as none of the class survived the cutters torch.
  • D6754 London Kings Cross 1964<br /> Taken from the vantage point on the end of Platform 9 at Kings Cross - crowded with spotters as usual. The ability to get to the end of the platform with ease meant more visits to Kings Cross rather than the adjacent St Pancras or the nearby Euston. Inevitably this is regretted in later years but the hastle (not to mention expense, albeit only a couple of pence!) of getting platform tickets meant Kings Cross was the preferred spotting site.
  • D9012 "Crepello" London Kings Cross 1964<br /> By the time I had started visiting London as a trainspotter steam had long gone on the Eastern Region in the city. However, Kings Cross was always worth a visit for the Deltics if nothing else. I saw 21 of the 22 production machines at Kings Cross during these visits - finally got the last one in Gateshead shed on a North Eastern tour in August 1965.<br /> D9012 makes the usual dramatic departure from Platform 9.
  • D342 London Euston 1964<br /> The Euston rebuilding works were in full flow and the whole place was a bit of a shambles to be honest. As I commented elsewhere Euston was a pain to get to the end of the platforms at times and wasn't at all attractive during the rebuilding works. I didn't visit again until leaving on an electric service to Wigan on January 7 1966 for a shed bash/tour around the North West. The consolation of full electric service south of Crewe was the replacement at Crewe by a Brittania as far as Wigan North Western!
  • 70020 " Mercury" Willesden shed 1964<br /> Willesden shed was always worth the effort of "bunking" as it was known - going round without asking permission. It probably explains the reason why I took few photos in the shed as we would be dashing around to get all the numbers before we got thrown out - usually with a semi-polite request to get out. I think the staff were used to people wandering about armed with a notebook and, sometimes, a camera.<br /> I first visited Willesden in 1963 when we had gone on a school trip to the Schoolboy Football international at Wembley. As a junior player in the school teams and fairly new to this trainspotting business when asked by an older boy (the goalkeeper for the Intermadiate team actually!) if we wanted to go to Willesden my friend and I both said "where's Willesden" not having been 'spotting in London before. The three of us travelled on the tube from Wembley Central and got a great surprise as sitting outside the depot at Willesden as we popped up entering Willesden Junction Low Level we could see 46245 "City of London" waiting to run down to Euston. No internet or such in those days so we weren't aware that Camden was closing to steam and all the locos would be transferred to Willesden. Another 7 "Coronations" on the depot made our day. The following year on the school football trip we also included Old Oak Common before the match!<br /> The only down side was that England Schoolboys lost to their West German counterparts 2-1 in 1964. The up side was that a few "Coronations" were still at Willesden (including 46245) although the "Kings" at Old Oak were withdrawn and waiting to be towed to Swindon.
  • 46165 "The Ranger (12th London Regiment)" Cricklewood shed 1964<br /> Taken on the same day as the picture at Willesden this photo isn't particularly brilliant but shows the steam shed at Cricklewood (which I only visited this once) and also records the only time I saw a "Royal Scot" in London. Even with several visits to Willesden, where I would have expected them to be, I had never seen a "Scot" before up to this point. This was about the time that they were being used on services into Marylebone so it is possible that explains the sighting at Criclewood or was it just an odd-ball working?<br /> We had visited Willesden earlier and followed the London itinerary laid out in the "Locomotive Shed Directory" which gave directions and bus routes to get from one to the other. My reprint copy of the 1962 version gives directions to Neasden between Willesden and Cricklewood but also talks about taking a trolleybus! None of that by 1964 I'm afraid.
  • 45006 Bristol Barrow Road <br /> This shot probably dates from early 1965 and the print has suffered a little more damage than some. I have another picture that I took at the same visit showing the view from Dr. Days Road bridge of the back of the shed with a Southern Class Z on its way to South Wales for disposal which would help the dating. It apparently arrived at Barrow Road late '64 and was cut up the following year.<br /> 45006 carried on until 1967 before it met its own fate with the scrappers. The bridge behind carries Barrow Road which gave the former Midland Railway shed its name.
  • 34040 "Crewkerne" London Waterloo 1964<br /> Probably not taken standing on the platform but more likely hanging out of the window of a 4COR on the return journey to Portsmouth Harbour from a day out 'spotting in London. It looks to be the same day as the pictures of the rebuilding of Euston.
  • USA Class DS235 at Eastleigh shed. Formerly 30066 the loco was repainted, along with 30074 (DS236), to replace the A1X tanks at Lancing Carriage Works. Because of the sparkling condition it must have just come out of Eastleigh Works which is listed as March 1963. It did not go directly to Lancing apparently as it is said to have gone on hire to Betteshanger Colliery in Kent before arriving at Lancing on 13 June 1963.<br /> The use of both Works shunters was discontinued when Lancing closed on 25 June 1965 and DS236 hauled DS235 back to Eastleigh where both locos were scrapped between 17 and 20 August 1965.
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