Remembering the end of Southern Steam – a personal view 50 years later

1967 saw the end of steam operation on the Southern Region. In the months leading up to July 1967, Des Shepherd made many visits to experience the final rites of steam operation in the south of England.

Fifty years on, he decided to revisit many of the places he discovered then as well as to try to recreate certain trips and rail tours as close as the exact anniversary as possible. The objective was to replicate original photographs with present day ones. This shows how in many instances things have changed over half a century, but how surprisingly, how some things are just the same.