Family Holidays by Train, 1949-1957
Family Holidays by Train, 1949-1957
Don Winter
110/06/18
Family Holidays by Train, 1949-1957
Exeter, Easter 1949
This trip is a week long visit to the family with whom dad lodged during his RAF stint in Exeter in 1943-1945. It is the first time I have gone further from home than the 42 miles to Scarborough (where we routinely spend two week in August). For some reason, dad chooses to get from Hull to Exeter via London, rather than using a cross-country train via Sheffield and Birmingham. Our trip starts with a taxi ride to Paragon station.
In the years between 1949 and 1960, Hull (Paragon) station comprises nine main platforms, and one much shorter platform, under an overall multi-arched barrel vault roof of the same style as is used in a number of other stations built by the North Eastern Railway in the second half of the nineteenth century, notably at York, Newcastle, and Alnwick. Across the ends of the nine main platforms (at the east end of the station) is a set of buildings (lavatories, kiosks), interspersed with the ticket gates for each platform. An overall circulating concourse separates these from the enquiries office and booking hall, adjacent to the porte cochere that provides pedestrian and taxi access to and from Ferensway. Immediately adjacent to this, along the street, is the Royal Station Hotel, at the time one of the few class hotels in the city. Along the north side of the station are large doorways permitting (non-public) vehicular access to the station, and pedestrian interchange with the adjacent bus station. At the south side of the station, alongside Platform Nine, are the buildings of the original Hull & Selby station on this site which run at right angles to today’s station buildings. Beyond the old buildings (which are still in use for functions such as ‘left luggage’) is Platform Ten, much shorter than the main platforms, which forms the usual departure and arrival point for the three or four Pullman cars comprising the Hull portion of the Yorkshire Pullman.
We’re getting to Exeter by taking that Yorkshire Pullman to London (King’s Cross), and then a Western Region (former GWR) west of England service from Paddington to Exeter. We’re traveling third class, and our reserved space is in the leading Pullman Brake Third of the four cars making up the Hull portion. At this age, I’m very impressed by the inside of the car (and the subsequent meal), less impressed by steam engines and railway operations. The latter will arise later.
The interior of the Pullman cars in use on this train in 1949 is very ornate, with craved ceilings, fancily-curtained windows, tables between the groups of seats, and lamps on each table adjacent to the windows. The entirety is decorated in the Pullman Company color scheme, which seems to match the Brown and Cream used on the exterior of the cars. The train departs Hull at 10:30 am, and is added to the front of the portion from Leeds, during the stop in Doncaster. Luncheon is served after the train restarts from Doncaster. On departure from Hull, morning coffee is served. Naturally, all meals are at an additional charge, over and above the Pullman supplement charged simply for traveling.
In 1949, the economy is still in “austerity” mode, with even some foodstuffs still rationed. For this reason alone, the luncheon served on this train would have been the best meal I had yet tasted. However, I think the excellence of the Pullman catering staff also has something to do with it. We partake of the soup (Oxtail, I think, accompanied by a hard roll), main, and sweet/cheese courses. Luncheon service occupies much of the two and a half hour run between Doncaster and King’s Cross. Since we’re in the first car behind the engine, we’re almost at the buffer stops on arrival at King’s Cross, which results in my having almost no impression of the station on this trip.
Dad elects to get to Paddington using the Underground. (I think we must have sent the suitcases ahead using “Passengers’ Luggage in Advance”.) This means that we use the platforms on the original Metropolitan Railway line just below Euston Road, where the trains of the Circle Line and the Hammersmith & City Line run. These go to different stations at Paddington, which proves to be important to us. The first train that comes along is a Hammersmith train, which takes us to the original Metropolitan Railway station out by the end of the mainline platforms in Paddington Station. There is a large footbridge that connects from these platforms to the mainline platforms, with stairs down to each individual platform. I am impressed by the huge space under the several barrel roofs at Paddington, as we cross the footbridge.
This is a great vantage point for an overall impression of the station. However, we’re hurrying and there isn’t much time to savor that impression. As we reach the staircase with the sign announcing our train, the guard on the platform below whistles off, and our intended train leaves without us! Dad says that “if we had gone to Praed Street, we would have caught that train”. Praed Street is the station on the Circle Line at Paddington, and would have allowed us ground-level access to the platform end. However, since going to Praed Street would have meant waiting a couple of minutes for the Circle Line train, I don’t think it would have helped. Presumably, our previous train was late arriving at King’s Cross, and that was the real cause of our missing this train.
Dad gets the seat reservations folks to make us reservations on the next train to Exeter, and then we drop of our bags at “Left Luggage” and walk over to Hyde Park, just a few hundred yards south of Paddington Station. We have time to walk over to, and along the side of, The Serpentine (but not to cross to its south side), and walk over to the northeast corner of the park to see the Marble Arch (before it was isolated in a road island), before returning to Paddington and taking our train to Exeter. On this train, we have a third-class compartment in a former GWR carriage (probably of pre-war build). Somewhere between London and Exeter we must have eaten again, although since we’re used to taking High tea in the evening, its unlikely it was a full dinner. (We already had that at ‘luncheon’.) We get to Exeter after dark, meet dad’s former landlady and her children, go to their house on Heavitree Street, and we children go to bed.
I get to share the bedroom of the older daughter, who must be about nine. This has a dormer window (set into a sloping ceiling) on the street side of the house. In subsequent days, I notice that the street is on a hill, that adjacent buildings are stepped up or down from one another, and that there is an intensive bus service along this street.
I remember little of what we did during the week we were there, except for bus rides to Exmouth and to Paignton using the services of Devon General. One favorite anecdote is that on one of these rides, in the front seat upstairs, I read out the destination sign of another bus, that includes the word ‘via’. Another passenger asks if I know what ‘via’ means, and I proudly answer “by way of”, to his astonishment!
We return by the same route as we came. This time, we know in advance that we have time to wait in London for the 5:30 pm departure of the Yorkshire Pullman, so we again take the Underground (from Praed Street) to King’s cross, where we leave our bags at ‘Left Luggage’ and take a bus down to Aldwych and across the Strand to Trafalgar Square. We spend some time looking at the square, Whitehall, Admiralty Arch, and the park beyond it. However, we’re too far away from Buckingham Palace to see it usefully, and we never catch sight of the River Thames. We do, however, see Big Ben down at the end of Whitehall.
Returning by the same bus route to King’s Cross, we retrieve our bags, and board the train for home. Again, we’re on the carriage nearest to the buffer stop, so I again get no feel for King’s cross the way I had of Paddington. We eat dinner on the train (whatever we chose to call it), and it gets dark outside while we’re doing so. By the time we get home, it’s way past my bedtime.
Belper (Derby), early 1950s
My uncle (dad’s brother) is the hospital administrator, and my aunt the matron, at a hospital occupying the old workhouse in Belper, Derbyshire. As a result of my aunt’s position, they live in the facility itself, and get their meals from the kitchen and housekeeping services from the staff. This means they can easily accommodate a fairly large number of visitors. One spring in the early 1950s, we all go to spend a week with them.
Of the many train services from Hull to Sheffield each day, only one pair goes to/from Sheffield (Midland). This is timed to connect with one or more cross-country services from Leeds or York/Newcastle to Bristol and the west country. From Sheffield, there are no reasonable trains (the night postal service is probably the only one) that stop at Belper, even though it is on the route to Derby, so we must take a train to Derby and then backtrack to Belper.
We take the morning train to Sheffield Midland. This travels via Doncaster, and to that point is exactly the same as any other journey to or via Doncaster. Southwest of Doncaster, the former GCR route enters the South Yorkshire Coalfield in all its full glory, with many pits and lines servicing those pits, on either side of the track. At Mexborough, we take the line turning off south to Swinton, and the connecting track thence to the former Midland main line through Rotherham into Sheffield (Midland). Now, massive steel mills of all kinds, from basic blast furnaces and Bessemer Converters through to specialty rolling and finishing mills occupy both sides of the track, al the way into Sheffield.
Sheffield (Midland) is down at the bottom of a valley between opposing hills. The city centre is up on one of those hills, to the west. The land and hillsides on both sides of the track appear to have been cleared by the Luftwaffe, leaving (at this juncture) nothing but muddy derelict ground. Here, we change trains, with awhile to wait in this cold, draughty place for our second train to come. I’m still not into recording engines and carriages, so I don’t know the particulars of the train to Derby. Sheffield (Midland) station has one through platform adjacent to the booking office and entrance, an island with both through faces and bays at each end, and a further island with through faces. The whole station is so dark and dingy that I form no clear impression as to whether it has, in the early 50s, and overall roof. Perhaps the darkness and dinginess stem from being down in a valley in Sheffield, where the impact of the round-the-clock operation of the steel mills is that, so it is said, “people in Sheffield see the sun only on Sundays”.
South of Sheffield, the line climbs to Dore & Totley, with its long tunnel, after which the main line and the Hope Valley line to Manchester split. We take the main line, continuing through Chesterfield where we’re all instructed to pay close attention to the church with the tall twisted spire, which is on the west side of the line. Further south, there is another split between the Erewash Valley line heading directly for Trent, and thence to Leicester and London (St. Pancras), and the original North Midland line to Derby. We take the latter, through Clay cross and the southeast curve at Ambergate Junction, then through the Derwent River valley past Belper and Duffield and into Derby (Midland). Across from the station, to the east, are the facilities of the Midland, later LMS, Railway’s Derby Locomotive Works.
Derby (Midland) is a large through station, with a main platform adjacent to the booking office and waiting rooms, and several islands with main through faces, each of which has waiting rooms and refreshment facilities. There is an overall roof in the centre section, with individual platform canopies towards the ends
There is a train service from Derby to Belper and beyond, but it is infrequent and inconvenient for passengers with luggage. (When I take that service, in 1958 or 1959, it comprises noncorridor compartment stock, pulled by a 4F 0-6-0! It operates from a bay platform at the north end of the station.) Accordingly, my uncle comes to collect us in his car, which seems like a limousine to us carless “poor” folks.
Coming from the flatlands of East Yorkshire, the countryside in Belper, where the hills rise directly from the hospital grounds to altitudes of several hundred feet or more, is quite startling. I decide that I prefer this environment to the one we have at home, but mum and dad don’t agree.
At the end of our week, we return home by the same steps in reverse: car to Derby, cross-country express to Sheffield (Midland), connecting train from Sheffield (Midland) through Doncaster to Hull. Dad never even considers a schedule that would have required crossing from Midland to Victoria station, in Sheffield, even though there are many more services from Victoria to Hull.
Ilkley, August 1955
This year we’re venturing away from Scarborough for our August holiday, for the first time that I can remember. I think this has something to do with the fact that we children are getting older, and something to do with the changes that the owner has made, and is making, at the hotel we’ve stayed at for the past several years. So, we’re spending a week in Wharfedale, using a rented house in Ilkley as our base. We get there and back by train, another novelty since we’ve always taken a taxi for the 42 miles to and from Scarborough, at least for the last six years.
We take a morning train to Leeds (City), to connect there with an onward train to Ilkley. As our train leaves the station, it takes one of the many tracks along the station throat, curving gently to the north (but not to the point of facing north) and then back to a westerly direction, under the road bridge and past the Paragon signal box where my grandfather worked until his retirement in 1948. Passing under Argyle Street Bridge, we reach West Parade Junction and its associated signal box between the Hessle and Cottingham lines. The Doncaster-bound train takes the leftmost set of tracks, leaving the Beverley tracks in the centre and the Botanic Gardens tracks to the right. The latter will join the Victoria Dock Branch before reaching Botanic Gardens station. We pass Anlaby Road signal box, next to the cricket ground, and cross Anlaby Road on a level crossing that will be replaced by an overbridge in 1963.
Crossing diagonally through the housing and streets between Anlaby Road and Hessle Road, with two more level crossings of streets that do go through, we reach Hessle Road Junction, where the direct line from Cottingham to Hessle joins us from the right, cross Hessle Road level crossing, pass Hessle Road signal box and go under the bridge carrying the former Hull & Barnsley lines to the western docks. As we curve gently to the west, we pass Dairycoates locomotive shed on the left (with more covered turntables than any other in the country), and Dairycoates marshalling yard on the right (where the Inbound Yard was one of the first hump yards constructed in Britain). After passing under the ex-Hull & Barnsley lines on the bridge, the passenger lines rise up on an embankment, cross over access line from the eastern end of the marshaling yard to William Wright, Albert, and St. Andrews docks (the latter being the ‘Fish Dock’), and descend to ground level again as they head further west. At Hessle Haven, the west end of the yards, the line becomes four tracks (slow and fast in each direction), and Hessle station is reached (platforms on the slow lines only). Since our train is on the ‘up’ (towards London) fast line, it can only stop at stations with platforms on the fast lines.
The line remains four tracks until Staddlethorpe, junction of the Doncaster and Leeds lines, is reached. West of Hessle, the tracks run along the north foreshore of the River Humber, moving away to pass through Ferriby (platforms on the slow lines only) and the workmen’s halt at the Earl’s cement works. On the side of the line away from the river, the south end of the Yorkshire Wolds provides the only uplifted land along this route. Passing alongside the airfield at the Blackburn & General Aircraft factory, Brough station is reached. Brough has platforms on all four tracks, useful for coping with the daily arrival and departure of the workers at the aircraft factory.
West of Brough, the line embarks on the longest stretch of straight track in the British Isles (some 19 miles or so), although in truth only the tracks continuing towards Leeds from the fast lines are truly straight. This part of the route runs across extremely flat and level countryside, agricultural land that is just above the water table, in many places. At Staddlethorpe, the two Doncaster lines curve away to the south. West of Staddlethorpe, the line is now only double track, but we’re still on the long straight track. The train passes under the elevated H&B line to Cudworth, and then through one of the Howden stations (the other is on the H&B line). East of Selby, the line from Market Weighton and Bridlington trails in from the right. Then, at Barlby, the line we’re on joins the ECML tracks from York and the north, passes the BOCM plant alongside the Ouse on the right, and then crosses the Ouse on the infamous swing bridge with the gantlet track (point frogs on one side of the bridge, moveable points and controls on the other, and enters Selby station. There are four tracks through the station (which is why there are points straddling the bridge). Most ECML expresses do not stop at Selby, where there are no platforms on the center tracks, but all other trains do. In addition to platforms on the outer tracks of the main line, there is also a bay for the Goole branch trains, and perhaps others. (I have never actually been on the platform at Selby, only in a train, so my vantage point for description is a little restricted.) West/south of the station, the line splits again, with two tracks going south to Doncaster, and two going west to Leeds. This is now the route of the original Leeds & Selby Railway.