Schools Class Photos from 1961/62

Having been nudged into action by Neil, (many thanks), on his Lord Nelson thread, I've followed my short web page of Lord Nelsons in 1962 with one for my few Schools Class photos.

Schools Class in 1961/1962

I am still building the page as I can mostly only do one photo a day. I'm scanning very old enprints and then trying to make them a bit more presentable for public display.

There is no text yet, but run your cursor over the photos to see some detail. That is still subject to change as I am, for instance trying to find out what the correct workings were for the Schools that worked on part of the Brighton line on the "09.10 up" and the 17.25 from London Bridge" in 1961/62. I think the 17.25 London Bridge may have been to Reading? via Redhill. The 09.10 up beats me at present.

 

The "Birkenhead" was a great train, provided you weren't in a rush. It left Margate at 09:18am, picked up sections from Hastings and Brighton, and finally rolled into Birkenhead Woodside at 6:57pm, a journey of 9 hours and 39 minutes. For those of us watching events around Guildford it provided some excitement as it was sometimes hauled by a Hall. I don't think that GW locos took the train further south/east; it was generally a Schools, until they too went the way of the flesh. (On thinking about it, Redhill would be the obvious place to change GW/SR locos. Did the GW loco run through to Redhill?)

 

Another name for these trains was "The Continental". If I remember correctly from seeing them around 1960/61 they changed engines at Reading from a Schools or a "U or N" to a Reading Castle. They used to run daily but changed to Sats only. Unfortunately from around mid 1961 the "Southern half" was changed to a BRCW Type 3 (class33). I think this co-incided with the 2nd phase of the Kent Coast electrification. When this happened, the same diesel loco was used for both the up & down trains.

 

You're probably right, though I think there was a daily working to Guildford by a GW loco. It was normally a 43XX, though I remember Halls too. I took a photo of a 43XX climbing out of Guildford towards Wanborough, probably in 1963.

http://nick301.photos.us.com/p39323985.html

 

I do remember seeing GW locos working through to Redhill. I have a photo that tells me it is 6379 working an Inter Regional train near to Redhill on 25th April 1962. I need to scan it to check the number.

I guess neither of you guys recall what the "09.10 up" train was in 1961/62. Schools hauled through East Croydon? Could that have been an up Brighton train coming via a long since closed section in Sussex? Via Sheffield Park and East Grinstead? I have photos of a Bulleid pacific on the up 13.55 from Brighton and the 18.10 back to Brighton, (both from London), at the top end of the Oxted line.

 

There was a daily working from Reading to Guildford/Redhill by a GW loco, Originally a GW mogul, latterly a Manor. I think it left Reading (Southern) around 6.50am & returned around lunchtime.

 

The Brighton to London through steam trains ran via Lewes, Eridge and Oxted, not over the Bluebell line. (The Bluebell was served by trains between Brighton and East Grinstead.) My Winter 1957 Bradshaw shows a 13:55 ex-Brighton, as you describe. The 6:10pm from Victoria went to Tunbridge Wells West, and there was a 6:38 to Brighton via Eridge. Not sure what the "9:10 up" would be, though the 7:35 from Brighton was 9:11 from Oxted. Maybe it was 9:10 in 1962.

 

Thanks Nick. the 07.35 Brighton, the 09.10 from Oxted could well have been the train!

And the other info plus the route information helps. I'd forgotten about the line via Lewes and Eridge.

 

Just to add about the Margate-Birkenhead. There was a picture on the front cover of a 1961 or 62 Ian Allen ABC Western Region of the changeover at Reading. It showed Schools 30917 arriving at Platform 8 with Castle 5076 waiting to take over.

 

Here's a scan from a print my Dad took of U1 no.31892 passing Hampden Park, Eastbourne on the Birkenhead Flyer in 1962. http://david422.fotopic.net/p65899419.html If you look through the rest of his collection you'll also see a few shots of Schools class locos aswell.

Cheers

 

What wonderful collection of photos, many thanks for posting the link. I never realised there was so much steam activity at Eastbourne into the 1960s.

 

Thanks for the comments, all the photos taken were from a Brownie 127 camera which meant the moving images of trains came out quite blurred like the shot of the U1. I've managed to scan the images to the best quality as possible but some of the scans were from the original prints he developed himself back in the 1950's/60's as unfortunately he can't find the negatives and have varying quality.

 

If you mean this one, I think it is a Vauxhall Victor.

http://david422.fotopic.net/p65471761.html

 

Thanks for sharing the photo's Bryan. As a point of interest the Loco' in charge of the milk train is wearing a non-existant headcode! Very interesting and I have just spent a fair amount of time trying to find out if there were some late additions to disc codes on the Southern Region but it seems there were no 'official' changes since the amalgamation of the three Southern groups into the Southern Railway in 1923. Of course; it could have been a simple mistake by the crew but one always wonders about such oddities occuring. Can anyone throw any light on this particular working?

 

This brings back fond memories on Pinks Hill bank out of Guildford, we used to see the 8.40 each morning

usually a Guildford Schools ( Charterhouse or Haileybury) then lunchtimes around 12.40 "The Conti "as

it was known this being a Brighton Schools ( Bradfield, Dover , Whitgift ) to name a few.

This was then followed about 5 mins later with a GWR mogul (later months changed to be a Manor)

usually Frilsham, Cockington , Erlestoke later on Cookham. There was also a Brighton standard tank

used to go up at 11am and back at 3pm we could only see the chimney from the classroom window.

Great days.

Mike M. (70c)