Tail Lamp – readers’ letters

Brian Jackson (1943-2020) Obituary

It’s with sadness that we report the passing of Steam Days contributor, author and transport historian Brian Jackson. Brian’s interest in transport, developed from an early age. From school he went to work for Cozens as an apprentice engineer on the paddle steamers out of Weymouth, initially on the PS Monarch. During the 1960s steamer excursion traffic was in decline, so Brian took up a position with British Railways working out of the goods yard in Weymouth. His duties would see him travelling around the town making deliveries in a ‘mechanical-horse’, a Scammell ‘Scarab’. Brian’s work experience then turned to another form of transport when he joined Southern National Omnibus Co, first as a driver and later as inspector. Cost-cutting and deregulation in the bus industry saw him take redundancy, before working for the Prison Service on Portland.

In 1975 the branch from Maiden Newton to Bridport was finally closed, Brian was inspired to write the history of the line (in collaboration with Mike Tattershall), and The Bridport Branch was published by the Oxford Publishing Co in 1976 (an enlarged edition from the Oakwood Press followed later). This was the first of many books authored by Brian on transport matters in and around Dorset, which over time also took in his interests in steamers and buses as well as railways. Brian’s approach to his research was meticulous, with perhaps his most ambitious work being the three-volume history Castleman’s Corkscrew including the Railways of Bournemouth and Associated Lines published by the Oakwood Press in the early 2000s.

Brian was a long-standing member of the Dorset Transport Circle. He was a regular speaker at club and society meetings, clocking up many miles over the years to deliver his talks. His enthusiasm for, and in-depth knowledge of, his subject, plus his distinctive humour and rich Dorset accent made him a very popular and entertaining speaker. He will be missed. Brian is survived by his wife Jean.

Memories of Tuxford and LD&ECR

Sir: The item on Tuxford shed in Steam Days, June 2020 brought back my own memories. I lived at New Ollerton from 1954-59 and Tuxford was the main base for most of my loco-spotting career. Naturally it was the GN main line that was the objective and the number of ‘namer cops’ determined the quality of the expedition. Perhaps inevitably, each visit brought fewer as sightings of the same locos were repeated, so the first visit produced 21, and one of the last, not a single one. A measure of the ‘North Westernisation’ (rather than nationalisation) of the ‘Big Four’ and the former LNER lines being always in the second division, my only visit to Tamworth produced no less the 63. No ‘Royal Scots’, and Stanier Pacifics had been seen before that trip, and not many were added afterwards.

Tuxford (North) station had already lost its up platform and the level crossing immediately adjacent to where the then A611 crossed the line was one location. The other was the overbridge just north of the junction with the west-north curve from the Great Central line. The Dukeries Junction High Level station was still extant at the start of my visits, a typical GC island platform, but there was no evidence of the low level platforms on the main line. As an interchange location, it was not very useful. The reprint of the 1922 Bradshaw’s Guide offers two down trains on the GN route and three up plus a request stop each way. Four trains on the High Level was not much more generous. Apart from the 09.31 arrival at Low Level from King’s Cross (depart 05.05) and departure to Chesterfield at 10.08, there would have been long waits for interchanging passengers.

I did see the last few Lincoln-Shirebrook services; on one occasion, the 18.57 arrival at Ollerton merely unloaded a single box of fish, which was collected by the local fishmonger, but no passengers alighted or boarded. Perhaps closing the service was understandable. On the subject of low patronage, it was not until a visit to Loughborough (Central) station in the mid-1990s that I saw a replica of the departures poster from Nottingham (Victoria), for I think 1956, when I was still living in New Ollerton. Half a dozen trains daily were listed going to Ollerton on the direct line via Mansfield (Central), but I had no knowledge of them at the time. One might have expected a timetable leaflet to have been delivered to every house in the village, but none had arrived. As we did not enjoy the 70-minute bus journey to Nottingham often on smoky single-deckers, we had longed for a train service that we had totally missed. A cynical view is, was it put on unwillingly, unpromoted to ‘prove’ it was not really wanted, so low patronage ensured a short life?

On at least one occasion I biked the couple of miles to Edwinstowe station, much better located for the centre of the village than was the case at Ollerton. I was surprised to see a refreshment room, albeit not in operation. An ‘Austerity’ ‘8F’, No 90055, with only a brake van behind, stopped at the west end of the platform. I said ‘Hello’ to the crew, and was invited into the cab. Some minutes later, time to go, and I had a cab ride to the other end of the platform. I wondered later, had I asked, would they have put my bike in the brake van for the ride back to Ollerton? Perhaps I did well to have got what I had received.

In 1957, our family did use the seaside service for a week’s stay at Mablethorpe, using the line from Woodhall Junction via Midville and Willoughby, the only bit of which survives is Lincoln (Central) and the section approaching Firsby, which it shares with the route to Skegness. Fast forward nearly half a century, the CPRE ran a charter train from Nottingham that eventually joined the LD&EC route at Shirebrook, and went via Tuxford to the then ‘head of steel’ at High Marnham power station, which was still working. The train must have been ‘top and tailed’, as we reversed back, terminating at Nottingham, using the then not very long re-opened Robin Hood Line via Mansfield.

Since then, there have been rumours of suggestions to restore the line from Shirebrook to Ollerton as the ‘Maid Marian Line’, with trains from Nottingham. Whether they would split and join from the Worksop service is not clear, and one wonders if the longer route would be sufficiently attractive to compete with either driving down the A614 or taking the bus is a question. If so, one hopes they will have rather better publicity than in the 1950s. With the total demise of the coal industry locally, essentially the raison d’être for the line’s existence, one wonders what the future may hold. In the meantime, memories remain.

Wesley Paxton BA (Econ), Annan, Dumfries and Galloway

‘Director’ feature

Sir: Just one correction, if I may, to the excellent colour photo feature of the GCR ‘Directors’ in the October issue. The picture on page 29 of No 62669 Ypres was not taken at Manchester (London Road), but Manchester (Central). The locomotive is stood alongside Platform 9 and its train will almost certainly be bound for Chester (Northgate).

Eddie Johnson (by email)

Polmadie ‘Royal Scot’ over freight-only metals

Sir: The caption to the picture on page 43 (lower) states that the train was routed via Stepps and Coatbridge (Central). In fact the route was probably via the freight-only ‘switchback’ route via Blackhill Junction, joining the West Coast main line at Rutherglen. Diversions were made as rationalisation and resignalling of the layout at Glasgow (Central) was taking place.

Stuart Sellar (by email)

HLI at Longsight

Sir: Thank you for another interesting issue of Steam Days (October 2020). With reference to the comments in ‘Trains of thought’ about ‘Royal Scot’ HLI, the Glasgow expresses went into Manchester (Victoria), not London Road, so I would expect that the locomotives would normally go on to Newton Heath shed, not Longsight, for servicing. Maybe occasionally there may have been a reason to send one to 9A, whose fitters would have more experience of the class. I always hoped to see a Polmadie ‘Clan’ Pacific when I visited Victoria but it never happened. I remember going round Longsight with a friend who had a new bike in about 1960. I put mine on top of his before we went over the footbridge and it was my old bike that was stolen! I got it back, rather battered, a few days later.

Richard Ardern,

Inverness, Highland

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