The Wisbech & Upwell Tramway had six 4-wheel 'tram' carriages which comprised Composites Nos. 1, 2 and 5 and three Thirds Nos. 3, 4 and 6 plus two bogie vehicles Nos. 7 and 8. All were to the same general design with end doors accessed from verandahs. With longitudinal seating and squat dimensions they had gas lighting, air brakes and were designed for conductor-guard operation. Access between vehicles was via drop plates but only for use by the guard. Passengers were also forbidden to travel on the verandahs.
The Wisbech & Upwell passenger service eventually fell victim to omnibus competition and was withdrawn on and from 31 December 1927. Good trains continued to trundle until the tramway officially closed permanently on 23 May 1966 with the final trundle occurring on 20 May with Drewry diesel No. D2201, three coal trucks and a brake van.
For its opening in 1904 the Great Eastern Railway provided the Kelvedon & Tollesbury with eight 4-wheel carriages of what began life as ordinary main line stock. They were heavily modified at Stratford Works to facilitate conductor-guard working and to be more suitable for the Kelvedon & Tollesbury's low, 15" above rail level, platforms. Quite why the Great Eastern did not provide standard height platforms is open to question as to do so would have eliminated the need to fit the carriages with steps as well as eliminating the need to remove the steps whenever the carriages needed to travel over the main line. The low platforms were to have an effect on all subsequent passenger stock on the line. It should be pointed out, though, that low platforms were once quite common across the country and typically they were provided for steam railmotor halts and even as late as the 1950s for the British Railways diesel railbuses when additional, hopefully revenue-boosting, wayside halts were provided.
The end of the Wisbech & Upwell passenger service meant its 'tram' carriages were redundant. It was a good opportunity to replace some of the original stock on the Kelvedon & Tollesbury so to that end a number of the Wisbech vehicles were transferred. The two bogie cars nos. 7 and 8 were transferred along with some of the 4-wheelers, thought to be Nos. 2, 3, 4 and 6 although it is possible all were transferred but confirmed details are somewhat elusive and much dependent upon source. Perhaps significantly the two 'missing' 4-wheelers, Nos. 1 and 5, were composites (the Kelvedon & Tollesbury only ever offered Third Class travel) but then No. 2 was also a Composite as was bogie car No. 7. It is known that bogie car No. 7 had its partition between First and Third removed when it was transferred to Kelvedon, so presumably the same modification was done with the 4-wheelers. The First Class seating was probably left in situ after arrival at Kelvedon, catering then on for Third Class bums on seats. When the accommodation of passenger stock was downgraded it was quite common to leave First Class seating in situ for use by passengers travelling with lower class tickets..
GER Class G15 0-4-0 tram locomotive No. 127 stands at Upwell on an unknown date prior to 1913. These locomotives were not very successful on the Wisbech & Upwell and in due course were replaced by the 0-6-0 version, GER Class C53 later LNER/BR Class J70. Note the lightweight flat bottom rails originally used on the tramway. More relevant in this instance is the train, formed of one of two bogie cars, one four-wheeler and a brake van. The Wisbech & Upwell had six four-wheel passenger cars of which four ended up on the Kelvedon & Tollesbury with one just lasting into British Railways days. None were used in The Titfield Thunderbolt as all had been scrapped by the time the film was made. The bogie cars are a different matter and need no further explanation here, one of them of course appearing in The Titfield Thunderbolt. Locomotive No. 127, built in 1892, was one of two class members withdrawn in 1913. Two lasted into British Railways days being GER Nos. 133/4 becoming BR Nos. 68082/3 respectively. They had found work on various quayside lines on the former GER system and the last survivor, No. 68083 withdrawn in 1952, was the example set aside for preservation along with one ex Wisbech bogie car but unfortunately both were scrapped in 1953. The 0-6-0 Class J70 was one of the classes permitted to operate on the Kelvedon & Tollesbury but as far as is known none ever did. This was merely an 'on paper' stipulation based upon Route Availability which itself was based largely upon axle weight.
Photo from Jim Lake collection
While the two ex Wisbech bogie cars remained at Kelvedon until the passenger service ceased, some of the 4-wheelers had already been withdrawn along with the remainder of the original stock when vehicles, already converted for conductor-guard operation, arrived from the Stoke Ferry branch which had closed to passengers in September 1930. The Stoke Ferry branch had normal height platforms and modifications to its stock for use at Kelvedon were the fitting of steps and smaller diameter wheels. The remainder of the original stock at Kelvedon and some of the ex Wisbech 4-wheelers were withdrawn in 1931.
The last surviving ex Wisbech 4-wheeler at Kelvedon was Wisbech & Upwell No. 3 which had become British Railways No. E60465. It was withdrawn in March 1948. Other withdrawals in March 1948 were ex Stroke Ferry 6-wheel Brake Third No. E62908 which had been Stoke Ferry No. 11 and 6-wheel Third No. 62909, later renumbered to E62261. Car E62908 had been replaced by another Brake Third which also took the number E62261 and was to survive until withdrawal of the Kelvedon & Tollesbury passenger service. It should be mentioned that the five-figure numbers quoted were LNER numbers and upon Nationalisation British Railways added the 'E' Prefix.
Passenger stock in service at the time the Kelvedon & Tollesbury was closed to passengers was as follows;
- Ex Wisbech bogie cars E60461/2
- The aforementioned replacement E62261
- Ex Stoke Ferry Brake third E62262 which had been Stoke Ferry No. 10 and then LNER 63255
The various Brake Thirds had been built to different Diagrams and this aids identification in photographs when numbers are not readable. Some sources give certain of these vehicles as having been given 'E' suffixes by British Railways. One source for example gives the two bogie cars as becoming E60461E and E60462E but no photographic evidence has been seen which confirms this. Had these vehicles survived in service for longer they would have gained the 'E' suffix, which British Railways began to apply from circa 1951/2 to denote vehicles it considered to be non standard. The system was also applied to Non Passenger Carrying Coaching Stock as such is termed when such vehicles were not to a British Railways design. With one exception all of these final passenger vehicles were withdrawn in October 1951, the exception being E60462 which for some reason was not withdrawn until December 1951.
Ex Wisbech & Upwell bogie car LNER No. 60462 seen here at Tollesbury coupled to an ex Stoke Ferry brake third. As mentioned in the text there is some confusion surrounding the renumbering of the two bogie cars by the LNER. Ignoring the fact one began life as a composite and the other an all-third, the two cars were not externally identical or at least they were not by the time they arrived at Kelvedon. The difference was with the bodyside beading and car 60462 is suspected of originally being GER No. 7 with sister 60461 originally being No. 8. Car 60462 as seen here seems to have been the vehicle used in the Titfield Thunderbolt as the style of beading is clear to see in the film. After filming the car returned to Stratford for preservation which never happened and it was repainted into GER livery but given the number '8'. If this was an error it would mean the now preserved car which carries the number '7' was in fact No. 8 and the bodyside beading of the preserved car matches that of No. 60461, the suspected former No. 8. Confusion indeed. Both the ex Wisbech bogie cars had been used briefly on the Stoke Ferry branch when that line's ill-fated passenger service went over to conductor-guard operation. This was unsuccessful due to the Stoke Ferry branch having standard height platforms. The two cars were returned to Wisbech before eventually being moved to Kelvedon. LNER No. 60462, BR number E60462, had been taken out of service shortly before the end of the Kelvedon & Tollesbury passenger service due to a damaged buffer. If this was the car used in The Titfield Thunderbolt it probably received a buffer from E60461 before the body of that car was sold off for a new life on a farm.
Photo by Dick Riley
As is well known among the railway enthusiast and historian fraternities one of the ex Wisbech bogie cars was used in the Ealing comedy The Titfield Thunderbolt, released in 1953 but the question is which one. This question arises from time to time, probably stemming from a comment made in the 1966 publication The Wisbech & Upwell Tramway by authors Gadsden, Whetmath and Stafford-Baker. The comment states "The two bogie coaches Nos. 7 and 8 survived on the Kelvedon & Tollesbury line to become E60462E and E60461E respectively in British Railways stock". Not especially relevant but the numbers 60461 and 60462 would have been applied by the LNER rather than by British Railways. It is possible the numbers became transposed as the cars passed through works, it was not unknown, because No. 7 was modified from its Composite form in readiness for its move to Kelvedon and would have spent longer in works. In other words the two allocated numbers, 60461/2, could have been applied in the order the cars left the workshops so No. 8 left works as No. 60461. The book goes on to say that No. E60461E was the car used in The Titfield Thunderbolt, in other words No. 8. In the film the car was fitted with a bar at one end and branded 'Buffet Car' just below the cantrail and the bar area was partitioned off. Logic may dictate that car No. 7 was the obvious choice for the film as its First Class area had been partitioned off but as we have seen the LNER removed the partition in readiness for the car's move to Kelvedon. In any event the scenes in the film which showed the interior of the car could have been filmed on a set.
In another scene the train, which included the ex Wisbech car, was wrecked but this scene used models. The 'wrecked' train was replaced by the ex Liverpool & Manchester locomotive Lion, renamed Thunderbolt for the film. The carriage was replaced by what had been a grounded body mounted on a well wagon, the grounded body was actually a prop based upon typical 4-wheel, 3-compartment stock of the first half of the 19th century. As one train supposedly replaced the other, it was important for the film not to show the two trains at the same time. The photograph below is therefore of some interest.
Photographed at Monkton Combe on 23 June 1952 here is the ex-Liverpool & Manchester locomotive Lion with the makeshift carriage and Toad brake van. Hiding in a siding at right background is one of the ex-GWR 14xx tanks with the ex-Kelvedon & Tollesbury, originally Wisbech & Upwell Tramway bogie carriage. These trains were crewed by men from Westbury shed and they were given speaking parts in the film due to their flair for acting which became apparent to Ealing Studios. Lion was in full working order and during filming was stabled overnight at Limpley Stoke.
Photo by R. E. Toop and from Bath in Time, reproduced in accordance with their Terms & Conditions.
The return for a moment to the alleged transposing of the numbers of the two bogie cars, author Hugh Longworth in his book British Railways Pre-Nationalisation Coaching Stoek Volume 1 GWR & LNER notes that the two bogie cars were renumbered in correct order. One might therefore not unreasonably ask where the information in the Gadsden, Whetmath and Stafford-Baker book came from. The short answer is "who knows" but upon checking its sources the most likely source would be the then Archivist to the British Railways Board, one L. V. Athron Esq. The lner.info website makes the fair comment "The Thunderbolt's coach was a Wisbech & Upwell bogie coach, either the surviving No. 7 or (more likely) No. 8". The car used in The Titfield Thunderbolt was still owned by British Railways, as opposed to being sold to Ealing Studios, so there will be no record of a sale. This and the alleged transposing of the car numbers probably means we will never be one hundred percent sure which one has survived into preservation although the North Norfolk Railway, where the preserved car currently (2024) resides, seem quite sure it was No. 7.
The preserved car simply disappeared in the 1950s until its grounded body was discovered on a farm. The Hunts Post published an article on 7 March 1974 and this is reproduced below. It requires no further explanation.
The Hunts Post article is however not entirely accurate as it states the two carriages survived on the Kelvedon & Tollesbury until 1950 when they were replaced by more modern stock. This claim is completely untrue.
The article mentions the car used in The Titfield Thunderbolt went on to be restored by British Railways and this does appear to be true. Whether the car was fully restored but merely repainted in GER livery is not known. It was stored in the paint shop at Stratford along with ex London, Tilbury & Southend car No. 283 which had been restored for that railway's centenary in March 1956. Also set aside for preservation was Class Y6 0-4-0 tram engine No. 68083. All three were eventually scrapped and various reasons why have done the rounds including lack of storage space at Stratford, no suitable museum with the required capacity to send them to and the most popular reason seems to be the scrapping was done in error. It is hard to see how all three vehicles could have been scrapped in error and the lack of storage space is perhaps the most likely reason. It should be remembered that in the mid 1950s Britain was only just emerging from lingering postwar austerity and people were keen to look ahead, not back into a bygone era. In addition the standard gauge heritage railway movement was still in the future, the first being the Bluebell and Middleton Railways in 1960 (which of these two was first is a rather contentious issue)..
The surviving bogie car at the North Norfolk Railway on 3 August 2015.
Photo by David Dixon, reproduced from Geograph under creative commons licence
The recovered body did the rounds of various museum sites before coming into the ownership of the M&GN Society in 2002. Restored as Composite No. 7 it is currently, 2024, in service on the North Norfolk Railway. It has been fitted with a replica bar to mimic the car in The Titfield Thunderbolt. But was it really originally No. 7? The answer to that is "probably". An awful lot of time has gone by since the 1966 book The Wisbech & Upwell Tramway by authors Gadsden, Whetmath and Stafford-Baker, with its claim the numbers of the two bogie cars became transposed, was published and no doubt much research was undertaken subsequently.
Following recovery from the field the car body did return to the Wisbech & Upwell one more time - in a manner of speaking. For the centenary of the opening of the tramway the body was placed on a lorry which at a suitably sedate pace followed the course of the tramway as far as was possible. Among those onboard were former drivers Charlie Rand and Albert Smith, Mr Smith being the driver of Drewry D2201 when it worked the final goods train on 20 May 1966.
The surviving bogie car is, as far as is known, the only survivor of stock used on the Kelvedon & Tollesbury Light Railway. One Class J69 0-6-0T has survived into preservation, originally GER No. 87 and finally BR No. 68633, which may have worked over the Kelvedon & Tollesbury but no evidence has been found.
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