LAST YEAR OF THE BIG FOUR
Exploring a Southern byway with a veteran ‘M7’ 70 years ago
This romantic view of a venerable LSWR ‘M7’ negotiating an ungated level crossing on a single-track branch line, with a short train made up of pre-Grouping stock, is a classic Southern Railway branch line idyll. However, it’s a scene that impending nationalisation and the Beeching era would shortly consign to the history books. Indeed, time is already running out for the Bordon branch’s passenger services, which were withdrawn ten years after this picture was taken on June 1 1947, long before the good doctor wielded his infamous axe. Goods traffic would last until 1966. The 4½-mile Bentley to Bordon branch line, which deviated from the GuildfordWinchester route west of Bentley, owed its existence to two army camps - Bordon and the more famous Longmoor - and opened in 1905. Indeed, at the branch’s terminus, the route connected with the Longmoor Military Railway. The location of this photograph, Kingsley Halt, was the only intermediate stop on the branch, and opened to passengers in March the following year. Coincidentally, the locomotive and station both share the same vintage, as Drummond ‘M7’ 0-4-4T No. 60 emerged from Nine Elms locomotive works in March 1906. By 1947, the class was already 50 years old, the first having entered traffic in 1897. The ‘M7s’ were one of the Southern Railway’s most enduring designs, with members of the class lasting until May 1964. No. 60 (or No. 30060 as it would be known under BR auspices) was not so lucky, being withdrawn in July 1961 and scrapped at Eastleigh only two months later. Happily, the sight of one of these Drummond 0-4-4Ts on a typical Southern branch has not been lost to history, as classmate No. 30053 has been preserved and can be seen in action on the Swanage Railway. Another ‘M7’, LSWR No. 245, has been preserved as part of the National Collection and is on display at the National Railway Museum in York.