Inter-regional trains via the Somerset & Dorset and Midland routes

Sir: As someone who lived (and still lives) by the Mangotsfield to Bath Green Park line, I was extremely interested in the ‘InterRegional’ services via the Somerset & Dorset line as presented in the August 2021 issue of Steam Days. Photos of S&D summer Saturday trains off the S&D elsewhere in the country are not particularly plentiful, and I cannot remember seeing a photo of Sutton Park at all. I would like to add a few comments if I may. Cover photo: in the R C Riley Archive 19551965 Vol 2 the train locomotive is quoted as No 53804; as no reversing lever can be seen this makes the loco right-hand-drive and a member of the first (1914) series. Page 31: Train W196 10.28 ex-Manchester was not the southbound Pines; that train was allocated the number M220. Page 32: The date of the top photograph can be narrowed down to 21 July 1962; the photo has appeared before in Volume One of Mr Ballantyne’s Somerset & Dorset books. (Mr Ballantyne’s name is usually rendered with a ‘y’ rather than ‘i’). Train 1E58 is the 11.12am Bournemouth to Sheffield (as described on the top of page 38). Page 33: 1 August 1962 was not a Saturday. Might this be Saturday, 1 September? No 45739 is on record as being at Bath on the latter date. Page 38: In the upper photograph, as you suggest, No 75027 was assisted from Evercreech Junction by No 75023. Page 39: This photo was included in the Somerset & Dorset Trust’s Pines Express recently. After some debate and reference to other published photos, it was concluded that this was Saturday, 1 September. However, the same train the following Saturday was hauled by the same locomotive. On 1 September, the leading carriage was of LMS design, while on the eighth the first coach was LNE design. Alan Hireson Bristol Sir: Many thanks for the fascinating set of colour photos in the August issue showing S&D holiday trains, not just between Bath and Bournemouth but in other parts of the country too. Thank you too for being brave enough to include ‘modern traction’. For the record: the captioning given for the photo at the top of page 32, showing the magnificent line-up at Bath Green Park, differs slightly from the details given by the photographer, Hugh Ballantyne, when he used the picture in his book London Midland Steam in Colour, published by Janes in 1984. There he gives the date as 21 July 1962 and notes that No 75072 is double-heading another loco out of platform 2 on 1O90, while the loco in the centre road is No 43012. In support of Hugh Ballantyne, I would suggest that the loco in the centre road looks a lot like a ‘Flying Pig’ from the front, with no fall plate between the running board and the bufferbeam. No 43012 was a Saltley engine at the time and looks as though it is being used by a hard-pressed Green Park foreman for a bit of local work before returning north, on a summer Saturday when resources were scarce. Further support for Hugh’s identification of locomotives comes from an article in BackTrack for November 2012. This lists all the locomotives used on the S&D holiday trains during summer 1962 and notes that, on 21 July 1962, No 75072 double-headed with No 73049 out of Bath on 1O90. One other slight correction: 1E58 left Bournemouth at 11.12 and not 12.12. Leonard Rogers Bonnyrigg, Midlothian

We very much appreciate the corrections, and here are some further thoughts from the caption writer of the article. We always strive to provide informative and accurate captions for the images that appear within the pages of Steam Days. Despite our best efforts, it is perhaps inevitable that when our attention turned to a more detailed look at a very complicated aspect of S&D operation things could go awry, such is the interest and level of research that this much-loved railway has garnered over the years. Errors creep in a number of ways the misinterpretation of hand written notes on transparency mounts, poorly annotated accompanying paperwork, or just plain typographical errors. Our S&D feature in August 2021, despite extensive research, unfortunately contained a mix of these so in the interests of correcting the errors and with the grateful assistance of two of our readers, we will take a waltz through the feature: Several Dick Riley images were included and two captions can now be altered from the detail first gleaned on the slide mount. The cover image is in fact S&D ‘7F’ 2-8-0 No 53804, not No 53809. The train working itself was in fact amended from the erroneous note on the mount but the engine number is not clear. Elsewhere on page 33 the shot of Nos 53809 and 45739 leaving Bath shed light engine can now be amended to 1 September 1962 after looking at the dates on slides either side of it in the photographer’s original number series. The opening shot on page 31 is a bit of a clanger. It came wrongly labelled as No 34043 and as ‘the Pines’ but, as is patently obvious, it is in fact W196, the ‘Relief Pines’. The same train also taken at Midford appeared as image 50 of Ivo Peters’ 1974 OPC publication The Somerset and Dorset Railway, An English Cross Country Railway and, although the photographer of the colour image is unknown, he can be seen standing adjacent to the groundframe hut in Ivo Peters’ shot. So to clarify, ‘The Pines Express’ left ahead of this working and ran as M220, the 10.15am from Manchester (London Road) to Bournemouth (West); 10.20am on summer Saturdays. The corresponding northbound service, running as train W236, was 9.45am from Bournemouth (West) to Manchester (London Road). These former LMS derived reporting numbers were constant until the end of the summer 1960 timetable, when the new BR 4-digit system incorporating the class of train and regional destination was introduced, and M220 became 1O95, and W236 became 1M04. The ‘Relief Pines’ depicted on page 31, changed from W196 to 1O97, and the northbound service which had been train 234, the 9.25am from Bournemouth (West) to Liverpool (Lime Street)/Manchester (London Road), became 1M02. The departure time for 1E58 on page 32 is a simple typo as my notes say 11.12am, and the caption 12.12am.