Railway Forum - Christmas 1959

Hi all,

I have asked this question in Heritage Railway magazine some time ago but got no responses at all. So I figured that, maybe, someone here might be able to help.

I think it was on Thursday, December 24th 1959 that I caught the 5:30 PM train from Waterloo to Bournemouth when I was working for Ian Allan at Hampton Court and commuting at weekends home to Christchurch. As this was Christma Eve, an extra train had been sheduled for 5;25 PM but I elected not to catch that one as it was already very full when I arrived at Waterloo. The 'special' was hauled (i believe) by a King Arthur or a Lord Nelson and was 12 carriages fully loaded whilst the 'regular' train that I was on was hauled by a rebuilt West Country (I believe, 34045 Ottery St Mary) with 13. Usually, I would ride on the footplate but, being busy and with inspectors all over the palce, I elected not to ask the driver for a cab-ride on this occasion to save him the embarrassment of telling me to get lost! (I knew most of the Nine Elms men and so I didn't want to spoil my future chances).

Following the sheduled stop at Brockenhurst, we set off past Lymington Junction but were stopped in the dark at the signal half way up Sway Bank. As I was in the front carriage, I went to enquire what was up to be told that the 'special' had failed and was, of course, occupying the line ahead.

After some discussion with the inspector who was on the footplate, the decision was made (much to my surprise, I might add) hat we should slowly move forward (past the signal at danger!!) and push the 'special' to New Milton where a standby locomotive dispatched from Bournemouth would be waiting to take it on.

And that is exactly what happened. A single rebuilt West Country started 25 (over)loaded cariges plus a dead 4-6-0 locomotive on the sway bank and propelled the whole lot to new Milton where the 'special' was shunted into the yard whilst we were allowed to pass it and continue on our journey.

So, if anyone here can remeber this epic feat and add some more details (such as the locomotives involved and the exact weight of the two trains), I would be delighted to read them.

One thing's for sure, this episode certainly confirmed (for me) that the Jarvis rebuilds of the Bullied light pacifics were the best engines (along with the Merchant Navies) to ever run in Britain!

I do know that, on many occasions, I have been on the footplate of a Merchant Navy down the "racetrack" between Fleet and Basingstoke at well over 100 MPH (but, at the time, we didn't talk about that too loudly!).