70014IronDuke
Established Member
- Joined
- 13 Jun 2015
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I've had to start a new thread because I can't find the post where DarloRich brought up the question of why so many people swooned at the mere mention of the S&D.
(this is a paraprhase of what he wrote, but you get the gist).
DarloRich opined (something like) that he brokered no emotional links to the line.
Well, I can only retort from personal experience. I never really travelled on the S&D. I only spent an hour or so one day (due to a Warship failure) at Templecombe in September 1965, and two hours a week later on the way back.
I was just 13 at the time. When you are that age, of course, a year seems much longer than it does when you are 30, or 40, or 50.
By 1965, I had not experienced steam traction on branch line workings for three-four years (I think the last previous such trains I'd been on would have been Wellingborough-Northampton trains with 84xxx tanks in 1962.)
Whatever, to me aged 13, the experience of Templecombe, with its bizarre operations - having to couple a second locomotive to the front or rear of S&D trains in order to work them up or down the link line to the S&D - was premature virtual nostalgia: it was like going back in time 25 years.
When I was there, the crews were both extremely friendly - I think I was on the footplate of an 80xxx or perhaps 412xx tank for an hour on my second visit. And it was emotional: when I was there, news of final notice of closure came through -or that's how it seemed. Some of the men were very disheartened.
Tea in the buffet on platform 2&3 was, IIRC, still an amazing bargain basement 6d a cup - a price that had long disappeared in more wealthier climes.
Away from my own experience, the S&D had fantastic kudos in the minds of many enthusiasts because it encompassed so much: rural branches, heavily loaded summer holiday workings, special locomotives, heavy gradients, and multiple railway operators (ie LMS and SR), plus, of course, Ivo Peters.
It's interesting to wonder what the emotional reaction would have been had the S&D been chosen for development, and the GWR Weymouth to Castle Cary to Bristol line been chosen for closure, and worked by steam until early 1966. GWR fans would no doubt have waxed lyrical about its demise, but something tells me it would not have captured the imagination of so many enthusiasts as the S&D did. The GWR route never had 9Fs piloted by ancient, inefficient 2P 4-4-0s on 11-carriage summer Saturday Manchester - Bournemouth trains, did it?
Whether the S&D should have been kept open is a difficult one - but for sure, had they introduced DMUs, it would have saved an awful lot of dosh, most especially at Templecombe, doing away with the extra locos needed for hauling up and down the link line.
Anyway, DarloRich, if you like the Bletchley-Bedford line and take an interest in its DMU history, I'm sure that you of all people would have been head-over-heels in love with the S&D, had you ever experienced it.
(this is a paraprhase of what he wrote, but you get the gist).
DarloRich opined (something like) that he brokered no emotional links to the line.
Well, I can only retort from personal experience. I never really travelled on the S&D. I only spent an hour or so one day (due to a Warship failure) at Templecombe in September 1965, and two hours a week later on the way back.
I was just 13 at the time. When you are that age, of course, a year seems much longer than it does when you are 30, or 40, or 50.
By 1965, I had not experienced steam traction on branch line workings for three-four years (I think the last previous such trains I'd been on would have been Wellingborough-Northampton trains with 84xxx tanks in 1962.)
Whatever, to me aged 13, the experience of Templecombe, with its bizarre operations - having to couple a second locomotive to the front or rear of S&D trains in order to work them up or down the link line to the S&D - was premature virtual nostalgia: it was like going back in time 25 years.
When I was there, the crews were both extremely friendly - I think I was on the footplate of an 80xxx or perhaps 412xx tank for an hour on my second visit. And it was emotional: when I was there, news of final notice of closure came through -or that's how it seemed. Some of the men were very disheartened.
Tea in the buffet on platform 2&3 was, IIRC, still an amazing bargain basement 6d a cup - a price that had long disappeared in more wealthier climes.
Away from my own experience, the S&D had fantastic kudos in the minds of many enthusiasts because it encompassed so much: rural branches, heavily loaded summer holiday workings, special locomotives, heavy gradients, and multiple railway operators (ie LMS and SR), plus, of course, Ivo Peters.
It's interesting to wonder what the emotional reaction would have been had the S&D been chosen for development, and the GWR Weymouth to Castle Cary to Bristol line been chosen for closure, and worked by steam until early 1966. GWR fans would no doubt have waxed lyrical about its demise, but something tells me it would not have captured the imagination of so many enthusiasts as the S&D did. The GWR route never had 9Fs piloted by ancient, inefficient 2P 4-4-0s on 11-carriage summer Saturday Manchester - Bournemouth trains, did it?
Whether the S&D should have been kept open is a difficult one - but for sure, had they introduced DMUs, it would have saved an awful lot of dosh, most especially at Templecombe, doing away with the extra locos needed for hauling up and down the link line.
Anyway, DarloRich, if you like the Bletchley-Bedford line and take an interest in its DMU history, I'm sure that you of all people would have been head-over-heels in love with the S&D, had you ever experienced it.
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