From memory, my family traveled Reading to Paignton on holiday in 1960. Certainly steam hauled, on this occasion by Castle 5049 Earl of Plymouth.
On the return, l was very impressed to see Warship D 800 Sir Brian Robertson at the head of our train, so l guess the writing was already on the wall, even then.
By the time l stopped trainspotting, around 1963, diesel haulage was virtually the norm on the Berks & Hants.
Nobody would question steam haulage in 1960 - that would have been expected. And even 61.
But an awful lot happened in the years 1960-62: BRB were out to eliminate 3 cyl and 4 cyl express steam locos and effectively waged war on them.
1962 was a vicious year in terms of withdrawals of Class 7 and 8s: on the WR, all the Kings went, many of the Castles (is there a sympathy emojee for
@Taunton ? I suppose this will do
); on the SR all the Schools
, Lord Nelsons
and King Arthurs
(I know they were only 2-cyl, but they were still part of the cull). The LM and ER were a bit slower to rid themselves totally of big engines, but there too all the Princess pacifics and many of the Gresley pacifics had gone by New Year's Day 1963.
Thanks very much for the replies and info
@70014IronDuke and
@Gloster - seems that if I had been lucky, it would have been when I was still too young to remember. Oh well, it was nice to at least entertain the idea for a while
Graham
One thing that worked against your hopes when it comes to the far south west is that it was extra expensive to ship coal to the region.
So BR(W) went out to dieselise west of Exeter as a priority. Hence the rapid disappearance of steam in Devon and, especially, Cornwall. You certainly had steam hanging around at places like Gloucester, Worcester and Oxley (Wolverhampton) - even Bristol - at ex-GWR sheds into 1965 - even if it was nothing like it was in, say 1961 - but there were still some remnants. However, in the far south west, by then it was all over, bar an unusual substitution for a diesel failure
There is a fascinating book by Richard Woodley titled “The Day of the Holiday Express” which recalls the events on one summer Saturday (9th July 1960) on the Western Region. Excluding DMUs, what is surprising is how few diesels were recorded that day on the hundreds of trains observed. Of the 24 Warships then in stock 21 were seen on passenger trains, plus 3 of the 5 NBL D600s. The D6300s seemed only to be trusted to work in pairs, with 6 pairs seen operating between Plymouth and Penzance! And that was about it regarding diesel observations, on what would have been a typical summer Saturday in 1960!
How few? I'd say 21 seen working out of 24 was a near-record availability metric!
But again, it to have so many of the class in the far south west (as opposed to more doing Paddington - Bristol only or Birmingham turns) shows how determined the traffic dept was to use what diesels they had in the south west.