LEIGH’S LOCOS

EACH MONTH, veteran model railway expert CHRIS LEIGH presents a model locomotive with an interesting back story.

WE KNEW it as ‘Thomas’, but it wasn’t the famous blue tank engine. It passed my home every morning at 8.35am, after shunting at Egham. On Thursdays in winter, it would stop at Egham Causeway crossing, visible from my bedroom window, and drop off coal for the signalman. As it trundled past the house, it usually had the driver’s bicycle lying on the tender top. My brother and I timed our departure for school by the passing of that train.

‘Thomas’ was a Drummond ‘700’ class. These ungainly 0-6-0s made a real impression upon me.

On August 9 1957, my dad collected me from school and, as we drove past Staines Central station, there was a loud bang and a cloud of steam and smoke. An EMU had departed against a stop signal, struck a steam locomotive on the crossover and turned it onto its side. Some 17 people were injured, including the fireman of the steam locomotive, ‘700’ No. 30688, the first ‘700’ to be withdrawn. Including the EMU driver, there were five railway staff who could, or should, have checked that signal before the guard hit the ‘ding-ding’ button for departure. The curve of the platform restricted his view of the starting signal. Subsequently a banner repeater was installed in a cut-out in the station canopy; it is still part of the signalling system – a curious sort of memorial to 30688.

I built a Westward kit ‘700’ class many years ago and it even has a bike on the tender. More recently, the Hornby ‘700’ has arrived on the scene, but I’ve yet to add crew and bicycle.