No.3 March 2010 - Intercity Railway Society

Avonside 0-4-0ST ’Trojan’ Alders Paper Mills
Tamworth, 20 March 1963
Barclay 0-6-0ST Alders Paper Mills
Tamworth, 20 March 1963
Both Gloucester sheds were also seen and on Barnwood was S&D 2-8-0 53807, a pleasant surprise.
Then came horror of horrors, Wednesday 27 th March. I have written “Beeching Report came out today,
2300 stations and 5000 route miles to close”. The rest as they say is history and whilst I deplore the
wholesale carnage, I cannot blame Beeching personally as he was given a job to do and he did it
ruthlessly, it was the politicians or Ernest Marples I hold responsible. On the Saturday I went to Southam
Road and Harbury, not a lot of people did that !, it was impossible to go there on any other day due to
the very sparse service.
Johnson 3F 0-6-0 43645 (wd 10/62)
Gloucester Barnwood, 24 March 1963
Fowler 7F 2-8-0 53807 (wd 10/64)
Gloucester Barnwood, 24 March 1963
Sunday we did another first, preservation was in
its infancy and for the first time a steam hauled
special was booked from Victoria through to
Sheffield Park on the Bluebell Line. Haulage to
and from London was not recorded but we did
have time to do Old Oak Common where I got a
rare GW cop 8436. Standard tank 80084 took us
to Haywards Heath on the ‘Blue Belle’ and 473
and 488 down the branch and along the Bluebell
itself. Sadly it was not an enjoyable day so we
went for a walk along the closed section to
Newick and Chailey station to kill time.
Preserved Adams 0415 4-4-2T 488 (07/61)
+ Billington E4 0-6-2T 473 ‘Birch Grove’ (11/62)
with BR Std 4MT 2-6-4T 80084 (wd 06/65)
Haywards Heath, 31 March 1963
to be continued
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