The RCTS: then and now
THE London and South Western Railway main line from Waterloo reached Exeter in stages from Salisbury, opening first to Yeovil Junction on June 18, 1859. The last section to Exeter Queen Street (Central from 1933) was finally carrying passengers from June 18, 1860 – a great relief to the LSWR as it allowed it to link up with its long-held acquisition the Bodmin and Wadebridge Railway of 1847.
From the start, the route was in direct competition with the Great Western Railway from Paddington, in those days still running via Bristol but with the advantage of broad gauge and its suitability for higher speeds.
Relatively modern motive power started to appear once William
Adams succeeded W G Beattie as chief mechanical engineer in 1877, with a series of elegant 4-4-0s such as the T3 Class – which included No. 563, recently beautifully restored by the Swanage Railway. But in Dugald Drummond’s time as CME from 1892, services started to accelerate.
The LSWR route to Exeter was, on the whole, very direct, tackling the landscape head on without widespread deviation. This made for a number of serious ascents, such as the five miles uphill from Tisbury to Semley and the notorious Honiton bank, seven miles climbing eastwards from Seaton Junction at up to 1-in-80. Each climb is followed by an equally steep descent, so that more modern and powerful engines soon acquired a taste for exciting running. Enthusiasm was cooled early on, however, when a Drummond ‘L12’ 4-4-0 was involved in the catastrophic Salisbury derailment in 1906 while unofficially competing with the GWR for ocean liner traffic from Plymouth.
Robert Urie took over as the
LSWR’s CME in 1912, and it was in 1918 that the first of his ‘King Arthur’ 4-6-0s appeared. Richard Maunsell’s development and proliferation of the class from 1925 saw them in charge of all the important, and now much heavier, expresses west of Salisbury. It was during the Second World
War that Oliver Bulleid, in charge at Eastleigh from 1937, introduced his revolutionary air-smoothed 4-6-2 ‘Merchant Navy’ Pacific locomotives, followed in 1945 by the lighter and more numerous versions, the ‘West Country’ and ‘Battle of Britain’ classes.
In British Railways days Bulleid engines had a virtual monopoly, keeping time on this demanding route with even heavier trains. But the best was yet to come, with an elegant and more easily maintained rebuilt version from 1956, eventually covering all the larger machines and around half the smaller ones. This was arguably the golden age for Salisbury to Exeter trains, with many a rebuilt ‘Navy’ powering uphill with 12 or more coaches and tearing along the downgrades – stretches such as the approach to Axminster, which occasionally saw speeds of up to 100mph, with the ‘Atlantic Coast Express’ (11am ex-Waterloo) or the 7.00pm service.
It was appropriate that the last one to be rebuilt, No. 35028 Clan Line, should be privately preserved. First returning to main line operation in 1974, this loco has been active longer in preservation than under the SR and BR, many of its exploits being recorded in the Railway Observer.
For information on the Society visit www.rcts.org.uk