Westerham Station Gallery 9: Last Day - August 1962 old90.jpg) Another last day of service view of Westerham but from a refreshingly different angle. The camera is looking south-west from the points giving access to the goods yard. The station is beyond the signal box in the distance. The rear of the ringed shunt signal arm was white. In the centre of the image the water crane can be seen with the water tower to its left. Adjacent to the water tower the Southern brakevan seen in the view above is visible in other. Goods wagons would have been removed from the branch soon after the final passenger train had ran. This view was taken after the departure of the 3.23pm service to Dunton Green.
Photo by Ian Nolan from his Flickr photostream old91.jpg) A view north-west towards Westerham station from the goods yard on the final day of service, 28 October 1961, and with the obligatory piles of sleepers on view. Among the enthusiasts are some young children; even with no train present railway tracks are dangerous places for children and indeed adults who have had no formal railway training. The starting signal is 'off', suggesting the 3.23 pm service to Dunton Green has recently departed. In the background the Westerham Primary School can be seen, left of centre, and the Crown Hotel, left of the signal box.
Photo
by Ian Nolan from his Flickr photostream
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The rather scruffy Stevens signal box, with Southern starting signal, on 28 October 1961. The small hut to the right was for ablution purposes. Had the branch seen the proposed electrification and survived, the scene here today would comprise just a single track and a colour-light signal, while the photographer would be standing in the fruit and veg section of a supermarket!
Photo by Ian Nolan from his Flickr photostream old95.jpg) Westerham goods shed seen from the platform on 28 October 1961. Various Hillman, Ford and Standard cars are present and perhaps belong to the enthusiasts there for the last day. The crane was of 5-ton capacity. Its base and pivot-post survive today as a sort of memorial to the railway at Westerham.
Photo by Ian Nolan from his Flickr photostream old92.jpg) Bulleid Q1 No.33029 has just arrived at Westerham with set 277 with the 4.01pm arrival from Dunton Green on 28 October 1961 and will shortly run round her train. Elsewhere the slightly German look of these locomotives was mentioned and this is apparent from this angle as is the Bulleid profile. The young boy on the left, albeit no doubt well-meaning, is attempting to push the locomotive in the wrong direction! The tolerance of people, including children, on the track on occasions such as this was no doubt all good fun for the public but staff had, of course, to be super vigilant. The two young boys, for example, were probably totally unaware of the potential danger which also included moving point blades, rodding etc. The RIP on the buffers would not last for long as the locomotive had to run round and buffer-up to the other end of the train. It was probably the work of the two boys. Given that the Southern is electrified on the third rail system and the Q1s seldom, if ever, escaped their home territory, the overhead warning flash on the tender may seem strange. The reason was the Southern having a number of goods yards which were electrified with overhead wires, it being impractical and dangerous to have third rail electrification in these yards. A number of electric locomotives were fitted with a pantograph as well as shoe gear for use in these yards. This image is appropriate to mention a degree of uncertainty surrounding the use of set 277 on the branch. As described elsewhere, set 277 along with set 278 were ten-car sets ('10-sets' in BR parlance) and had a brake-end vehicle at each end. From photographic evidence we know set 277 was reduced to seven cars for use on the Westerham branch. Further last day pictures of the Westerham branch including the D1 and Q1 can be seen here across
a number of pages. Photo by Ian Nolan from his Flickr photostream old114.jpg) Saturday 26 October 1961 and the inscription on the smokebox door of Bulleid Q1 No.33029 speaks for itself although this was actually the penultimate run rather than the last run. The location may not be immediately obvious; it is the east end of Westerham station and the locomotive has run round ready for the return journey to Dunton Green. The Bulleid Q1 was an austerity locomotive built solely for use on the Southern Railway during the Second World War. The Southern, it must be remembered played a crucial role in wartime transport serving as it did the Kent ports. Introduced in 1942, a total of 40 were built with construction split equally between Brighton and Ashford Works. Said to have been the most powerful 0-6-0 type ever to have run in Britain, the type was devoid of many embellishments such as running plates and splashers. Wheels were of the Bulleid Firth Brown type. Boiler casing was in three sections of differing dimensions as can be seen above and in cross-section resembled the cross-sectional profile of Bulleid's coaching stock. Be that as it may, the design of the Q1 boiler casing came about partly because of the type of lagging used (lagging is located between outer casing and boiler proper) which in this case is believed to have been fibreglass. Behind the bufferbeam the two inside cylinders can just be made out and the two smaller cylinders above them are the valve gear. Not immediately obvious in the above view is the steep slant at which the valve gear was set. When new, the class was originally given Bulleid's peculiar numbering system and 33029 began life numbered C29, with the C representing three driving axles. This was simple enough but the larger the locomotive the more odd the system became. The Bulleid Pacifics (4-6-2) for example had a 21C XXX system with the 'XXX' being the actual number. 21C represented 2 leading bogie axles, 1 trailing pony axle and three driving axles. The final members of the class bowed out in 1966 with No.33029 herself going in January 1964. One, the first of the class No.33001 (C1 when new), survived into preservation. One irony, given that the class was of wartime origin, is that they had a slightly German look about them. This was most noticeable when viewed from the front and rear. Click here for a close-up of the front of No.33029.
Copyright photo from Colour Rail 97095 old96.jpg) A close-up of the tender of Bulleid Q1 No.33029 following the 8.01pm arrival at Westerham on 28 October 1961. What the 'patch' on the rear of the tender was is not known but the apparent marks on the tender side are just where the camera flash has caught ripples in the side panels. These ripples would be virtually unnoticeable in daylight. The inscription on the buffer was supposed to say 'RIP' but it would not be RIP for the locomotive as she outlived the Westerham branch by just over two years, being withdrawn from Three Bridges in January 1964. Introduced in 1942, the Bulleid Q1 class was still relatively young by railway standards when it became extinct on the main line. Shortly after these pages were prepared, information was received concerning the 'patch' on the rear of the tender, as visible above. Apparently some wit had chalked 'Ban the Beeching' on the tender while the locomotive stood at Dunton Green but an inspector hastily rubbed it out again. Quite how it was hastily rubbed out is unclear as the 'patch' looks more like sloppily applied paint then a rubbed-out chalk mark. 'Ban the Beeching' was a play on the then-popular slogan of the Campaign For Nuclear Disarmament (CND) 'Ban the Bomb'. The reference to Dr Beeching is curious. Richard Beeching's appointment to the chair of the British Railways Board was announced in March 1961 and he took up the position on 1 June 1961. His remit was to stem or eliminate the financial losses then being incurred by British Railways but at the time of his appointment nothing official had been publicised about widespread railway closures. Dr Beeching's report, The Reshaping of British Railways, was not published until 1963. Thus we can only speculate that 'Ban the Beeching' suggests it was suspected Beeching's remit would
result in railway closures. Photo
by Ian Nolan from his Flickr photostream
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The final service is seen 26 October 1961, D1 No.31739 looms out of the darkness having arrived at Westerham with the 9.50pm from Dunton Green. As it was the last day the return working to Dunton Green, normally empty stock, was run as a passenger journey. Long exposure photographs such as this give a very atmospheric, even ghostly, result. The 'Beer - it's lovely' advertisement is making sure it doesn't get ignored either.
Photo by David Pearson old116.jpg) Westerham station seen from Hortons Way in 1962.The building on the right in front of the goods shed was at this time a cement store.
Photo by Ted Burgess old98.jpg) An August 1962 view across the goods yard with the station building in the background. Some fittings had been removed from the station and grass is growing in the area of the track but generally it would to difficult to realise that the line had closed ten months previously. The Crown Hotel stands in the right background and would continue to do so until 1990.
Photo by Ian Nolan from his Flickr photostream old99.jpg) Westerham station during its period of relative slumber in August 1962. Note the area of damage to the platform canopy has been repaired. Another image from 1962 showing a group of preservationists beavering away would appear to be the moment when the repair was effected; they took a lease on the building a few weeks earlier. The two-tone goods shed door will be noted; presumably this was also the result of some repair work.
Photo by Ian Nolan from his Flickr photostream old100.jpg) Looking due north from the goods yard towards Westerham signal box in August 1962. The signal box looks quite comical in this view, for some unexplainable reason. To its right the signalman's toilet still stands and towards the left the starting signal and platform ramp are seen. The large nameboard which once adorned the front of the box was removed after closure. Westerham station and environs were fairly ramshackle when still open but views such as this show how quickly deterioration sets in during disuse. Photo by Ian Nolan from his Flickr photostream Click here for Westerham Station Gallery 10:
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