King Arthur class 4-6-0 30451 Sir Lamorak stands at Woking with the 8.46 am Salisbury to Waterloo semi-fast train.
“I have lost track of how many of these tickets I bought but a dozen survive in my ticket collection”
King Arthur class 4-6-0 30451 Sir Lamorak arrives at Woking with the 8.46 am Salisbury to Waterloo semi-fast train.
Area 2 Rail Rover ticket.
In the 1960s the Southern Region offered three local Area Rail Rovers each valid for a day within a defined area at a cost of ten shillings (50p today). To us hard up youngsters these tickets were too good to miss. The Area 2 Rover in particular was a big attraction as it covered the South Western main line from Waterloo to Woking as well as the Guildford to Redhill line, the latter being 100 per cent steam worked until the end of 1964. The line from Waterloo of course carried the steam hauled trains from Waterloo to Basingstoke, Salisbury and Southampton and beyond, many of which stopped at Woking and so were ideal for us ardent train bashers.
I have lost track of how many of these tickets I bought but a dozen survive in my ticket collection spanning the years from 1960 to 1964. Sometimes we would go out en famille, including my brothers and my father, and these trips tended to be track and unit bashes rather than chasing after steam as my father’s interest tended more towards such things rather than the dying steam breed. However I realised in early 1962 that the days of the more interesting Southern steam classes were numbered and so I got together with a friend from my schooldays and we planned a day out which hopefully would give us runs behind at least one member of the King Arthur, Lord Nelson and Schools classes using information gleaned from our lineside sessions. No Internet or much else to help us in those days of course.
The day chosen was Saturday, 28 April 1962 and we met outside East Croydon station after I had arrived by RT bus on the dreaded Route 54. Our aim was to kick off the day with steam which we duly did by catching the 9.11 am to London Bridge, a 3-coach train with super power in the form of unrebuilt Battle of Britain class 4-6-2 34057 Biggin Hill. This train had originated from Brighton at 7.17 am and ran easily on time with such a light load as to enable us to change to an EPB unit at London Bridge and arrive at Waterloo in good time for our first train on the South Western main line, the 9.54 am Basingstoke local which as expected was a BR class 5 4-6-0 on five coaches. It was a bright and sunny morning and 73111 coped without fuss with the standard 31 minute schedule for the Basingstoke locals as far as Woking. At Woking we had time to ponder our positioning to photograph our first up train of the day, and one of the highlights, as the train concerned, the 8.46 am from Salisbury to Waterloo (and 2.54 pm return), was a regular King Arthur turn, and what’s more had been 30451 Sir Lamorak for many weeks prior to our day out. Indeed my first record of it appearing on that train in 1962 was 27 February and I had photographed it on the same turn many times in the intervening weeks. This means that it had probably worked the same Mondays to Saturdays duty for at least ten weeks though it had been displaced by late May and in the summer 1962 timetable the train had become a Bulleid unrebuilt light pacific duty.
73111 King Uther leaves Woking on the 09.54 Waterloo to Basingstoke while the driver of an S15 in the bay watches as his engine takes water.
30451 Sir Lamorak stands at Woking with the 8.46 am Salisbury to Waterloo semi-fast train.
We were not disappointed and Sir Lamorak duly ran into Woking a few minutes early in the up slow line, looking absolutely splendid in the morning sunshine and giving us plenty of time to take the master shot and get over the footbridge for a couple more photos before boarding the train for the run to Waterloo. Off we went on time, crossing over to the fast line and accelerating well with a modest load of 225 tons. It proved to be the best run of the day and there was great excitement when my friend and I agreed that his stopwatch gave 11.8 seconds for the best quarter mile near Hersham; a very fine 76mph. As we were running early the engine was eased and then caught adverse signals from a train in front calling at Wimbledon. Even so the actual time up from Woking was just over 28 minutes or 26 minutes net for the 24.3 miles. As we ran into Waterloo four minutes early, a Pannier Tank was waiting to back into the stock of the up Royal Wessex and take it empty to Clapham Junction, and a rebuilt Bulleid light Pacific was waiting on the 11.30 to Bournemouth. Our elderly and friendly driver told us his name, Bert Cambray, from Salisbury shed, and he would be having a break before working back home on the 1 pm down, which we hadn’t planned to catch.
King Arthur class 4-6-0 30451 Sir Lamorak arrives at Waterloo with the 8.46 am Salisbury to Waterloo semi-fast train. The Pannier tank is waiting to remove the ECS of the up Royal Wessex and the Bulleid Pacific is on the 11.30 am to Bournemouth.
Our next train was the 11.54 am Waterloo to Basingstoke; it turned out to be the same stock that Sir Lamorak had brought in. This time we were headed by an unrebuilt Bulleid light Pacific, our second of the day. It was 34091 Weymouth from Salisbury shed, which ran easily with this light train though putting in a little spurt after Byfleet Junction to equal the highest speed of the day, 76mph. The unrebuilt engines always seemed to me to be freer running than the rebuilds and sometimes would just run easily away with no change to the controls especially with light trains. So we gained over 3 minutes on the 31 minute schedule in a good time of 27 minutes 45 seconds. At Woking the driver was full of praise for his engine saying how good the Bulleids were if looked after, which of course this one would have been at that time as Salisbury shed had a reputation for good maintenance almost to the end of steam. When I worked at Waterloo in 1966 my job was to try to ensure that the steam sheds had enough running spares to keep their engines serviceable. It was always a pleasure to phone the stores clerk at Salisbury, one Fred Butcher by name if I remember correctly. He would answer the phone ‘Salisbury Shed – hub of the Universe!’ And he almost always had the spares I wanted for another shed. How different from Nine Elms who seemed to struggle all the time. The 159s now shedded at Salisbury diesel depot also have a reputation for being well looked after, so old traditions die hard.
Anyway back to 1962 and our Area 2 Rover. After alighting at Woking our next objective was the 1.24 pm from Waterloo which was booked a Schools class 4-4-0, but with no steam hauled train due back to London we opted for a ride on an up Portsmouth train with set of 4COR electric units which got us back in good time for the 1.24. This was five coaches headed by 30935 Sevenoaks which ran down to Woking nicely, just losing a few seconds on the schedule after being put onto the slow line at Hampton Court Junction for the 1.30 pm Waterloo to Bournemouth the pass. Acceleration from this check was good with speed reaching 72 at West Byfleet. Our final objective of the day was to get hauled by a Lord Nelson class 4-6-0 and as luck would have it one was booked to head the 12.20 pm Eastleigh to Waterloo due away from Woking at 1.56 pm. Fortunately this was late otherwise we probably wouldn’t have got across the footbridge at Woking in time after getting off the 1.24 pm down. Our engine was 30862 Lord Collingwood. We left 7 minutes late for a good start and then steady run to London, somewhat spoilt by signal checks, though with a reasonable net time of just 27 minutes. At Waterloo the 2.54 pm local to Basingstoke awaited us hauled by the King Arthur which had given us such a good run up from Woking that morning. Sir Lamorak didn’t need to exert himself to keep time to Woking, despite being turned onto the slow line at Esher to let the 3 pm West of England express go by, though this didn’t actually pass the 2.54 until it was leaving Woking, the two trains making a fine sight in a flurry of smoke and steam.
30862 Lord Collingwood stands at Woking on the 12.20 pm Eastleigh to Waterloo.
N15 class No 30451 Sir Lamorak leaves Woking with the 2.54 pm Waterloo to Basingstoke whilst a Merchant Navy rushes past on the 3 pm Waterloo to Exeter.
30451 Sir Lamorak leaving Woking with the 2.54 pm Waterloo to Basingstoke.
As we had achieved all our objectives but didn’t want to call it a day yet despite the deteriorating weather we decided on a trip to Redhill and back and so caught a train of 2Bill electric stock to Guildford to wait for the 4.33 pm to Redhill. Whilst waiting for our train at Guildford, LMS Class 2 2-6-2 tank 41261 from Brighton shed arrived with a train from Horsham at 4.05 pm and a class 700 Drummond 0-6-0 No 30698 dating from 1897 was moving about the station and yard. We were very lucky indeed to see this as it was withdrawn a few days later. Soon after, our train drew in, four coaches behind Maunsell N class 2-6-0 No 31852 which took us without fuss to Redhill keeping time throughout, calling at all stations and running up to a sedate 53mph maximum speed down the bank to Dorking. We soon returned to Guildford on the 5.34 pm behind another Maunsell Mogul 31401 and then back to Woking where we were in time to see S15 class 4-6-0 No 30837 plodding slowly past with a heavy freight for the west. The Redhill to Guildford line was one of my favourites in the early 1960s and is covered in Chapter Seven.
And so to our final steam run of the day, a sprightly affair behind BR Standard class 5 4-6-0 No 73117 on the 5.15 pm Salisbury to Waterloo which ran to the Surbiton stop in 14 minutes 15 seconds with a nice maximum speed of 73mph. My notebook doesn’t record how we returned home but suspect it was by a 2EPB unit to Elmers End and a walk from there. So ended an excellent day out with our cheap Rover ticket sampling a good variety of steam, including three classes which would all be gone by the year end.
Class 700 0-6-0 No 30698 at Guildford.