End of London steam

[Harvester]

I have browsed old copies of the Railway Observer looking for reports of the final steam workings into St Pancras, but didn’t find much information.

In 1964 some holiday reliefs were steam hauled at Easter, a troop train arrived behind Jubilee 45564 on 11 July, and Royal Scot 46155 was recorded there at the head of a special on 19 September.

After that the only reports I found were of railtours.

 

[billio]

Slightly off-topic, but when did the last steam hauled freight service take place ?

 

[JackWhite]

Interesting topic but nothing more to add. As far as I know, it was really the last one in 1965

 

[steamybrian]

Slightly off-topic, but when did the last steam hauled freight service take place ?

My guess would be in 1968 somewhere in the North West (Lancashire/Cumbria).

 

[Gloster]

Freight services were still worked by steam right up to the end: I think a few ran in the last week before the final steam passenger services. It is quite possible that they ran after the last regular steam-hauled regular passenger trains, when only the specials were still to run. I think there was an article, or maybe just some photos, in a recent edition of the journal of the Cumbrian Railways Association.

 

[Harvester]

Freight services were still worked by steam right up to the end: I think a few ran in the last week before the final steam passenger services. It is quite possible that they ran after the last regular steam-hauled regular passenger trains, when only the specials were still to run. I think there was an article, or maybe just some photos, in a recent edition of the journal of the Cumbrian Railways Association.

The last freights ran on Friday 2nd August 1968, and there were quite a few. The final steam passenger service trains were the 20:50 Preston-Blackpool South (Black Five 45212) and 21:25 Preston-Liverpool Exchange (Black Five 45318) on Saturday 3rd August. After that it was just the specials on Sunday 4th, and the Fifteen Guineas Special on Sunday 11th.

 

[Bevan Price]

The last freights ran on Friday 2nd August 1968, and there were quite a few. The final steam passenger service trains were the 20:50 Preston-Blackpool South (Black Five 45212) and 21:25 Preston-Liverpool Exchange (Black Five 45318) on Saturday 3rd August. After that it was just the specials on Sunday 4th, and the Fifteen Guineas Special on Sunday 11th.

There were a handful of freights on Saturday 3 August 1968, and there was an engineering train at Rose Grove on 4 August 1968 (see photo).

 

[Cowley]

There were a handful of freights on Saturday 3 August 1968, and there was an engineering train at Rose Grove on 4 August 1968 (see photo).

I think I have seen that photo before but it’s a wonderful juxtaposition of the old and the new.

 

[Harvester]

I think I have seen that photo before but it’s a wonderful juxtaposition of the old and the new.

I think I have too, but had forgotten about it. The loco is 8F 48519.

 

[JackWhite]

There were a handful of freights on Saturday 3 August 1968, and there was an engineering train at Rose Grove on 4 August 1968 (see photo).

Love these kinds of pictures when you can see a piece of the epoch. Reminds me that time flies.

 

[billio]

Sorry I was thinking of the end of steam hauled freight in London.

 

[Harvester]

Sorry I was thinking of the end of steam hauled freight in London.

In that case it would have been July 1967, when Nine Elms closed and Southern steam ended.

 

[Taunton]

Was the last steam hauled freight in London not actually on the Underground, where London Transport retained former WR pannier tanks until mid-1971 for various freight services, including haulage of spent ballast after weekend works to Croxley tip.

 

[Bevan Price]

Was the last steam hauled freight in London not actually on the Underground, where London Transport retained former WR pannier tanks until mid-1971 for various freight services, including haulage of spent ballast after weekend works to Croxley tip.

Yes - all were basically infrastructure trains. I once saw a Pannier tank go through Kings Cross (Met. line), but was in the wrong place to try a photograph.

And in case anyone gets the wrong idea, Pannier tanks would not fit in the "tube" lines.

 

[billio]

In that case it would have been July 1967, when Nine Elms closed and Southern steam ended.

I just have this memory in 1966/7 of a steam engine shunting in Kingston-upon-Thames goods yard and once when passing Feltham Yard some steam engines in the yard. I can definitely remember the express trains powering through Berrylands but I wondered if the rest was just my imagination.

 

[Spamcan81]

Not forgetting industrial steam, Acton Lane power station used steam shunters until at least the mid 1970s.

 

[stuu]

Yes - all were basically infrastructur trains. I once saw a Pannier tank go through Kings Cross (Met. line), but was in the wrong place to try a photograph.

And in case anyone gets the wrong idea, Pannier tanks would not fit in the "tube" lines.

Your comment has just made me wonder if there was such a thing as a tube-sized steam engine, and slightly astonishingly there were a few (image of Central London Railway steam loco)

 

[Harvester]

I just have this memory in 1966/7 of a steam engine shunting in Kingston-upon-Thames goods yard and once when passing Feltham Yard some steam engines in the yard. I can definitely remember the express trains powering through Berrylands but I wondered if the rest was just my imagination.

Feltham shed lost its steam allocation in October 1966 when it’s last few locos were transferred away or withdrawn. However steam from other 70 Division sheds worked into Feltham Yard on occasions after that date, then travelled to Nine Elms for servicing.

 

[Cowley]

Your comment has just made me wonder if there was such a thing as a tube-sized steam engine, and slightly astonishingly there were a few (image of Central London Railway steam loco)

I love the little mutant buffers on the front.

 

[341o2]

I just have this memory in 1966/7 of a steam engine shunting in Kingston-upon-Thames goods yard and once when passing Feltham Yard some steam engines in the yard. I can definitely remember the express trains powering through Berrylands but I wondered if the rest was just my imagination.

Guildford had a roundhouse and there is a photograph taken within the last few days of Southern steam which could have been taken 20 years earlier

 

[Gloster]

A quick look at Tony Walmsley’s Shed to Shed books suggests that, unless a loco strayed in from somewhere like Crewe South (or even further afield), the last steam locos in London other than on
specials would have come from one of the five Southern Region (South Western Division) depots.

 

[Harvester]

A quick look at Tony Walmsley’s Shed to Shed books suggests that, unless a loco strayed in from somewhere like Crewe South (or even further afield), the last steam locos in London other than on
specials would have come from one of the five Southern Region (South Western Division) depots.

Nothing strayed in, so after the final day 9th July 1967, excluding specials, there were no BR steam workings in or into London. There were no reprieves or transfer of locos to the LMR either, all of the surviving Southern Region steam fleet was withdrawn en masse.