1985 AND THE END OF THE LONDON ‘BAN’
When London’s resistance to regular steam finally fell after 18 years, David Ward was ‘the man’.
It’s said that time really does move more quickly as you age. I accept that might be a pretty discouraging thought as another year ticks by… so why even bring it up? Well, it might be a (nasty?) surprise, but this month marks 35 years since one of the biggest shifts in main line steam’s story – the return of London as a regular playground.
For sure, there’d been exceptions, such as No. 6000 King George V out of Paddington on March 1 1979; but BR’s steam supremo David Ward had resolutely stuck by his view that there was no point running out of the capital itself. Didcot was 50-odd miles away… you could change engines there.
That position crumbled in January 1985, when “one of BR’s biggest customers” specifically called for steam in London. The Royal Mail wanted to launch a range of Terence Cuneo stamps for that year’s ‘GWR150’. (Although the press launch event would employ something as Great Western as… Sir Nigel Gresley… in Marylebone). Remember that, back then, Travelling Post Offices still rattled nightly round the network. “Obviously,” says David, “…we said yes.” Logistically, the Great Central terminus was perfect. Grumbling local DMUs were the only traffic following the severing of the GC as a through route nearly 20 years before. Things were so quiet there was even an idea to shut Marylebone entirely and divert the units to Paddington, turning the railway over to a busway. (Crazy? Hey – it was the 1980s.)
So. the ‘A4’ could potter about with its three Mk 1s and an outsize stamp on its ‘cod’s mouth’… plus lots of chime whistling for the press. And, as ITN informed TV viewers: “British Rail have relented and are to allow more steam specials in the near future.”
The announcement had been made on the airwaves: the door was open. That didn’t mean the practical problems had gone…
“There were no facilities for running locomotive-hauled trains,” recalls David, “there were no shunting facilities, there were no facilities for watering a train, or a shore supply. The staff had been run down in preparation for what was going to be closure.
“The staff suddenly came to life. And Steve Hawkes, who was the area manager at Marylebone, was full of enthusiasm for putting on some steam trains. He’d got the enginemen to do it, he’d got guards who were happy to do it, the 70-foot turntable was still available, if only we could get the stock over from Bounds Green.”
So steam returned to the ‘Smoke’. Regular ‘Shakespeare Limited’ trains were organised to Stratford-upon-Avon, later supplemented by ‘Santa Specials’ to High Wycombe as well. Despite BR’s earlier opposition, David accepts that the ‘Shakespeare’ operation “was extraordinarily successful”.
“Marylebone to Stratford was a very good day out. Trains were First Class only, didn’t leave until about 11 o’clock in the morning. We supplied a lunch on the outward journey, and tea on the return, you had four hours in
Stratford. It went down great guns.
“I’d given the job to the big engines: Sir Nigel Gresley, Duchess of Hamilton, Clan Line, and the footplate crews in particular entered into the spirit of it. We had some men there who were extraordinarily skilled. They didn’t necessarily come off the Great Central, they’d floated in there from other areas, the East Coast, the Western, and the Midland.”
Marylebone has now long faded into main line steam history – the depot is gone and only the occasional charter starts from its platforms – but with the capital now such an important market for steam-hauled starts, it seems extraordinary that for the first 14 years after 1971, London was all but no-go.
Also transformed from its former self is the southern end of the GC – with new signalling (it still had semaphores in 1985) and other refurbishment; thoughts of closure disappeared after it was decided Paddington couldn’t cope with the extra trains.
But would Marylebone’s steam have even started if it hadn’t been for the Post Office?
“It probably wouldn’t, no.”