Trains to Southend

[pitdiver]

I hope someone can help. Many years ago when I was a nipper. My Mum and Dad would often take me to Southend by train from as it was Harringay Stadium.
We did this without changing. Can anybody tell me when this through service ceased to operate. Thanks.

Rob H

 

[colchesterken]

Those were the days, days out with my parents to southend. yes of course rose tinted glasses, trains ran fast ( about 50 mph ) from woodgrange park to benfleet
Think they ended with steam

 

[ChiefPlanner]

No - not the diesel days - there were DMU specials from places like Tring and Watford via Barking on summer weekends. Reason I know is when checking a soon to be retired old boy drivers personal file (for something to say at his presentation). He was a Watford man who had done over 40 years and he had an entry "no action taken" - with reference to a minor delay caused by teamaking enroute. Circa 1965 or so.

 

[colchesterken]

No I did not mean specials , in steam days the summer timetable had booked trains from Kentish Town to Soufend , It is 55 yrs ago and I was about 8 or 9 but I remember there were 2 trains at 10.10 and 11.10 from Wanstead Park. I do not know the return times cos that was not so exciting
I remember one trip we had an 0 6 0 tender loco it was a goods engine with little wheels
but it got us there, the usual loco was a 2 6 4 tank, always had a long stop at Woodgrange Park to take on water for the run to the seaside. need to go and dry my eyes now...

 

[30907]

The summer 1959 timetable shows the basic service M-F as 8.36am Kentish Town, 9.26am St Pancras, with additionals from K.Town, Cricklewood and Harringay Stadium during the school holidays. Return trains off Southend C between 5.45pm and 8pm. 8 trains on Sats and Suns. That was slightly thinned down from the previous year. There were of course also the St Pancras-Tilbury boat trains but those aren't in the public TT.

I don't know whether the LTS electrification put paid to them, or the general purge on seaside excursions around the same time, but they had definitely disappeared by 1967.

 

[jopsuk]

Electrification of the LTs overlaps with the rise of the jetliner and the dawn of the package holiday- which caused the near death of the British seaside holiday. Seaside excursion trains weren't "purged", they couldn't compete with the Costa del Sol.

 

[30907]

Yes and no. Yes, the traffic was declining (cars as well as Costas!) but the seasonal workings were also seen as very uneconomical - at least the Southend sets managed a minimum 30 or so return trips a year...

 

[Ivo]

As far as I know the service used to run through to Luton, but this was curtailed at roughly the same time as the Beeching Report; whether it was actually a result of the Report or not I don't know. Trains regularly used this route to Tilbury Riverside too.