Southern Way Special Issues – serie

The 2022 Southern Way Special Edition is the story of author Keith Dawe's railway career which began in 1964 in the last years of Southern Region steam. Unlike many who joined the ranks of footplate crew, there was no railway tradition in his family. Keith was an academically bright student who gave up his schooling to follow the interest he always had in railways and the steam locomotive in particular. He joined the railway as a cleaner at Eastleigh shed when he was only 15, too young even to become a fireman.This memoir of those final years of steam at Eastleigh shed is packed with interesting and informative insights on those last years of SR steam, it is also an affectionate and well written recollection of a long gone era. Chapters deal with diverse topics, such as working both pick up goods trains and longer distance freight diagrams including the nightly services destined for Feltham yard in London. On the passenger side, among the topics covered are the workings through to Bournemouth and the boat trains which served Southampton Docks. The author also provides his personal assessment of the capabilities of many of the different steam classes on which he worked.Keith's railway career was short lived as the steam railway he loved disappeared in 1967. He felt there was no future for him on the railway so in 1970 he left and returned to his studies. However, this memoir of his time at Eastleigh in those last years of steam is vivid and fascinating to read. All who are interested in SR steam and in that era of transition from steam to diesel and electric traction will thoroughly enjoy this latest Southern Way Special.

October 2015 sees the centenary of the start of third-rail electric services from Waterloo, an electric system that would develop over the years so much so that with the obvious exception of the 1940's there would continue to be expansion of the third-rail in every decade through to the 1960's - and even afterwards there would continue to be some additions later. Electrification was a new venture for the London & South Western Railway, a necessary change in order to combat the growing competition from some of the already established London lines and its neighbour the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway. What is so remarkable is that notwithstanding the difficulties of war, the new electrified lines were ready to start operation in the midst of conflict and would prove to be an immediate success. Here is the story of those early days, the stock of the time and even contemporary recollections of the reliability (or otherwise) of some of the first trains

Think of Brighton as a rail centre and the natural and understandable perception will be that of a terminus served by electric trains including of course the famous Pullman 'Brighton Belle'. The Southern Railway electrified the Brighton main line as far back as 1933. Electrification was subsequently extended to include the line along the coast west to Chichester and eventually Portsmouth. However, this did not mean the end of steam, for Brighton remained an important steam centre operating local and long distance steam services such as those to Bournemouth and Plymouth, right up to the early 1960s. In addition, Brighton works was active in building and maintaining steam locomotives and steam was also dominant on the branch and cross country lines north and east to places like Steyning or east towards Lewes and Eastbourne. Near the works was a large steam shed and just a few miles out of town were the works of the Pullman Car Company at Preston Park. Arguably the most unusual of the steam trains in the Brighton area were the through goods workings running west to the east and vice versa. Because there was no direct link between the east and west coast lines, these goods train were thus compelled to turn north upon reaching Brighton and then be pulled back into the station after which they could then retrace their steps and head off in the required direction. This strange ritual, which continued for decades, led to unusual and regular sight of steam powered goods trains in the platforms of the terminus. All these aspects and more are illustrated in this new Southern Way Special which focuses on the fascinating railway scene at Brighton, primarily in the 1950s, but also in the 40s and 60s. As with the other Specials, the book is heavily illustrated has a comprehensive introduction, maps and informative extended captions.

At 17.46 on Sunday 9 July 1967, Merchant Navy Class 35030, Elder Dempster Line, eased the 14.07 service from Weymouth into London's Waterloo Station. This was the last steam-hauled passenger service, on the last steam-worked main line in Britain and so marked the end of an era. From the following day, electric trains took over services between London and Bournemouth, with diesel working onwards from Bournemouth to the end of the line at Weymouth. Much has been written about the end of steam, but what came after it has received rather less attention and yet, while the electrification scheme which ousted steam was carried out 'on the cheap', it was ground-breaking in many ways, not least in representing the first example of high speed push-pull operation of passenger trains in the UK. In a curious way it was also the end of another era, for while third-rail electrification continued to be used on various Southern 'infill' projects in later years and much more recently, on TfL's London Overground network, the Bournemouth scheme represented its last installation on a long-distance main line. Just over fifty years has passed since the start of electric working.  The original rolling stock has been replaced twice and many places on the route now have service frequencies undreamt of in 1967. This book looks in detail at the scheme from 1964 onwards, the implementation of electrification concurrent with maintaining the existing service, rebuilding and modernising infrastructure and, of course, the original electric and trailer sets as well as the pull-push operation beyond Bournemouth. In addition, changes subsequent to the original 1967 electrification are covered in relation to liveries as well as replacements for the original rolling stock in the ensuing 50 years.