Great Western Coffee Shop

On August 11th 1968 main line steam passenger services came to an end on British Rail.*

The final train was a railtour named The Fifteen Guineas Special (fares were £15 15s - around £270 today) which started at Liverpool Lime St at 0910, running to Carlisle via Manchester Victoria. This first leg was hauled by a LMS Class 5 locomotive 45110.

At Manchester Victoria the LMS loco was replaced by BR Standard Class 7 locomotive 70013 Oliver Cromwell and the service continued to Carlisle.

For the first part of the return leg, two LMS Stanier Class 5 locomotives, 44781 and 44871, double-headed the train back to Manchester Victoria. Re-joining the train at Victoria station, 45110 then worked the remainder of the journey back to Liverpool Lime Street, arriving only at 1959.




*Whilst this was the last main line steam passenger service operated by British Rail, scheduled BR steam rail passenger services continued until 1989.

AND David Shepherd's 9f 'Black Prince' went through Derby some months later. I was working at the BR Technical Centre at the time.

And didn't Flying Scotsman do some trips later.

Then there was the Post Office's specials out of Marylebone.

All those were, by then, run with privately owned locomotives, given permission by BR to run. Whilst their runs may have had fare paying passengers they were not BR services.

Reference to continued steam on BR off the main line being to locomotives no. 7, 8 and 9??

The V of R for those who don't know where those locos operated.

V of R is of course the narrow gauge Vale of Rheidol line from Aberystwyth to Devils Bridge.

11 August was coincidently my last day of service with BR.

I started with the National Data Prepossessing  Service (part of the Post Office) on the 12th.

In 1968, Oxonhutch was 8 and mad on trains - I'd riden my bike down to Brownedge Road Level Crossing from the age of 5 to watch the Black 5s come through.  The 15 Gn special was totally outside my dad's affordability, being a week's wages in his job - but there were - in the days leading up to the end - some more reasonably priced excursions, using the same stock as the final outing. Young Oxonhutch was on one of these - and despite his father's instructions not to put my head out of the window had done so and collected an eyeful of ash and thus was quite miserable to boot.  The photo [below] from the footplate of Oliver Cromwell back then captures the mood quite rightly.

Now in 2013, and a 15 Gn re-enactment has been organised it is my turn to buy the tickets. At Manchester Victoria, my father shows the 70013 loco crew my photo from all those years back and I am invited back to the window for a reshoot.  Magic moment and wonderful day all round.

Wheres the re-enacted piccy then showing either a silver surfer or a bald headed Oxonhutch. 10 years earlier in 1958 my school chums grandfather was a footplate inspector at SPM and during the school summer holiday arranged a footplate pass for me and my schoolmate to ride the footplate of City of Truro from Filton Junction to Swindon and back. Oh for a piccy of me at the controls of that engine which I held from Badminton to near Wotton Bassett and on the return whilst my school chum was at the controls I hand my handle on the shovel, the trainee fireman who was being tested for real on that duty passed and went on to be one of Bath Roads top drivers handling services such as The Bristolian, The Merchant Venturer, The Cornishman and The Devonian and became one of the first drivers to take the controls of the Blue Pullman between Bristol and Paddington, up in the morning and back midday or up in the early afternoon and back in the evening.  8)