Steam in 1950’s & 60’s

A Presentation by Chris Wright.

“Steam in 1950’s & 60’s” turned out to be a quite different evening to our usual presentations. Instead of the speaker talking around his photographs Chris used his photographs to enhance his memories.
Starting with childhood in Norfolk on the line from Gorleston to Yarmouth which ran close to his home. As he grew up, he discovered many of the stations and sheds in this rural area, fairly quiet on weekdays the whole system came alive at weekends with holiday traffic, with trains arriving from London, Leicester, Derby and York on summer Saturdays. The usual classes to found here were B1, B16, B17 & L1’s. “The Easterling” was the only named train that visited Yarmouth. We were told about the three stations that were once in Yarmouth, namely Yarmouth Beach, Vauxhall and South Town. In the early 60’s, on one Saturday, Chris recalled 19 steam & 11 diesel locos.
As he became a little older, he came to spend school holiday periods with family members in Hitchin, where he joined other spotters on the station & on Benslow bridge, amazed at the size and speed of the A1’s, A3’s and A4.s. He had a couple of pictures showing Hitchin shed crammed with steam engines as diesels were gradually taking over.
Following the closure of steam in East Anglia on 9th September 1961, Norwich depot retained 17 steam engines for freight workings, this lasted only until January 1962, when diesels ran everything. One steam working remained, he recalled, that was a car parts train from Halewood to Dagenham which lasted until 1965.
A fascinating evening all based around Chris’ youth and experiences in his early years. We look forward to Part Two in May 2024.

Dave Elsdon
Branch Secretary