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THE LAST DAYS OF STEAM ON THE CENTRAL LINE

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smallbrook junction and its seasons’ cycle

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PLUS KIRKCUDBRIGHT CONTRASTS

DERBY STEAM IN FULL COLOUR

TYSELEY ‘CASTLES’ SWANSONG: 1964/65

No 387

Cover: On Saturday, 26 June 1965 Adams ‘O2’ class 0-4-4T No 21 Sandown traverses the diamond crossing on approach to Smallbrook Junction signal box as it diverges from the Ventnor route with a Ryde Pier Head to Newport and Cowes passenger service. Sadly, this proved to be the last summer of Cowes line passenger services, which ceased in February 1966, but Smallbrook Junction box would manage one more summer.

A E Bennett/Britton Collection

November 2021

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Trains of thought

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Smallbrook Junction and its seasons’ cycle A key location on the Isle of Wight network each summer from 1926 for 40 years, Andrew Britton recalls operations at this junction signal box, some of the island railway’s characters, and even racing trains!

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The last days of steam on the Central Line Eric Stuart tells how the core 1930s Central Line operation between Liverpool Street, Shepherd’s Bush and Ealing Broadway adopted GWR and LNER lines to, at its peak, become a 52½ mile cross-London tube network.

33Rhondda’s TVR engine sheds and their duties, Part One: Treherbert

With Derby Works and its lengthy footbridge providing the backdrop, Ivatt ‘2MT’ 2-6-0 No 46497 takes a break between station pilot duties during 1962.

D Fielding/Colour-Rail.com/315351

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D K Jones offering an introductory overview before turning the spotlight on the largest of the four ex-Taff Vale Railway sheds.

EDITORIAL & DESIGN Rex Kennedy, Andrew Kennedy, Andrew Wilson, Roger Smith and Ian Kennedy 64 Littledown Drive, Bournemouth BH7 7AH 01202 304849 red.gauntlett@gmail.com ADVERTISING Craig Amess 01507 529537 camess@mortons.co.uk Fiona Leak 01507 529573 fleak@mortons.co.uk Group advertising manager: Sue Keily skeily@mortons.co.uk Publisher: Tim Hartley Publishing director: Dan Savage CUSTOMER SERVICES General Queries & Back Issues 01507 529529 Monday-Friday 8.30am-5pm Answerphone 24H help@classicmagazines.co.uk www.classicmagazines.co.uk

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STEAM DAYS in Colour 203: Steam around Derby Once the beating heart of the Midland Railway, Derby was served by main lines linking St Pancras and Manchester, and Bristol-Birmingham-Sheffield, while two routes were available to Nottingham, the competition coming from the Great Northern line from Derby (Friargate) station.

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Kirkcudbright contrasts While offering an overview of earlier times, Kevin Tiller highlights some of the more unusual sightings on the route through to Castle Douglas and on to Dumfries in 1962 and through to closure of the Kirkcudbright branch in 1965.

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Tyseley ‘Castles’ swansong Steve Bartlett looks back to June 1964 when 15 GWR-designed ‘Castle’ class 4-6-0s were gathered at Oxley and Tyseley depots for a late flourish on express passenger duties and associated work. This is the story of the five Tyseley ‘Castles’ and the wide range of duties they performed.

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Tail Lamp – readers’ letters

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TRAINS of thought

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Next month...

Engine shed calamities Thompson ‘A1/1’ Pacific No 60113 Great Northern The LMS Civil Engineers Department in wartime – The Blitz Unusual facets of the Far North line Great Western ‘4200’ and ‘7200’ class 2-8-0s – in full colour On sale Thursday, 18 November 2021

his month in Steam Days Steve Bartlett takes a look at the three Great Western ‘Castles’ – Nos 5014 Goodrich Castle, 5091 Cleeve Abbey and 7013 Bristol Castle (originally No 4082 Windsor Castle) – and the two BR-built ones – Nos 7014 Caerhays Castle and 7026 Tenby Castle – that ended their days working from Tyseley shed in Birmingham. The call for help came in June 1964 from the London Midland Region, with these Collett 4-6-0s widely expected to step in on summer Saturday work to and from the West Country and the South Coast. They worked as far as Westbury, Oxford, Reading, Kensington Olympia and Bristol, and most likely Weymouth, but the prime work was a regular Friday evening limited stop Paddington turn. The fleet of five were in mixed health, with some seemingly kept away from the expresses – freight, parcels and pilot work was better for them. There were even some local turns, such as the so-called ‘Worcester Roundabout’ duty that took in Evesham, Worcester and Kidderminster.

With Tyseley’s ‘Castles’ Nos 5091 and 7026 being withdrawn in October 1964, its remaining three were not withdrawn until February 1965.

On my earliest visits to Tyseley, the allocation was of more than 100 steam locomotives, and the twin roundhouses housed a variety of classes, with plenty of ‘Halls’ and ‘Granges’ and a significant allocation of larger 2-6-2Ts and 0-6-0 pannier tanks. Pre-1948, Great Western ‘Saint’ class 4-6-0s would often be on shed, plus a few 4-4-0 ‘Dukedogs’ and WD ‘Austerity’ 2-8-0s.

My final visit to Tyseley shed was on Sunday, 22 January 1967, my 33rd birthday. On that occasion, inside the roundhouse was the preserved No 7029 Clun Castle, and in pride of place in my office I have a framed print of the Terence Cuneo painting entitled ‘Castles at Tyseley’, which shows Clun Castle on the turntable inside the roundhouse, and Caerphilly Castle in the background. In true Cuneo tradition, in the bottom of his painting is the little mouse that he included in his paintings, resulting in the title of the beautiful New Cavendish coffee table book of his work being titled The Mouse and his Master. Also on shed at Tyseley on that January day in 1967 were 12 other steam locomotives, Nos 1638 (now preserved), 4176, 4696, 9774, all withdrawn, and Nos 44663, 44821, 44833, 44837, 45071, 45089, 45296 and 73045.

Without doubt, my favourite steam locomotives were the GWR and BR-built ‘Castles’, and their names too, as I have always been very interested in English history and geography. In fact, over the years, I saw all the GWR and BR-built ‘Castles’, including Nos 7000 Viscount Portal and 7005 Lamphey Castle (later re-named Sir Edward Elgar in August 1957 to commemorate the composer’s 100th birthday) when brand-new ex-works in 1946. My final ‘Castle’ eluded me for many years – No 5059 Earl St Aldwyn – but I eventually saw it one day when walking down Foregate Street in Worcester, as this engine was sat on the railway bridge at the end of Foregate Street station waiting to leave on a Hereford train. Enjoy your own special memories of those halcyon days of steam.

Steam Days Magazine My final elusive ‘Castle’ that escaped me for many years after seeing all other locomotives of the class was No 5059 Earl St Aldwyn. This ‘Castle’, withdrawn in June 1962, is pictured here in June 1961, gleaming clean, as it leaves Goodrington with the 5.20pm Newton Abbot to Kingswear train.

Records show that this locomotive was allocated to Shrewsbury shed at that time. P W Gray/Colour-Rail.com/BRW182

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Smallbrook Junction and its seasons’ cycle A key location on the Isle of Wight network each summer from 1926, Andrew Britton recalls the operations of Smallbrook Junction signal box, and with it offers an insight into the charm of the island’s railways, as well as recalling some of the railway’s characters, and even racing trains!

Created by the Southern Railway to increase line capacity for high season operations, Smallbrook Junction was were the parallel lines of the Isle of Wight Railway to Ventnor and the Isle of Wight Central Railway to Newport and Cowes diverged. This view records the approach to the junction signal box from the Ryde direction, with a scissors crossover where the double-track section from Ryde becomes two single-track routes – ahead for Brading and the seaside towns of Sandown, Shanklin and Ventnor (the former IWR route), or the line sweeping away to the right is for Haven Street, Newport and Cowes (the ex-IWCR line). Hauled by Adams ‘O2’ class 0-4-4T No 29 Alverstone, this is guard Percy Primmer’s view from the rear of a six-coach Ryde Pier Head to Ventnor train on 26 June 1965. Signalman Vic Hailes holds out the token for driver Ted Dale to collect. On a busy day when ‘O2’ availability was pushed to the limit, Alverstone, as ‘spare’ engine, had relieved No 28 Ashey for the latter part of Duty No 9. Britton Collection

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mallbrook Junction was claimed by British Railways to be the busiest singleline railway junction during steam days, the signalman reputedly the most photographed railway employee on BR. On peak summer Saturdays up to 12 trains an hour would pass the wooden signal box, which was 2 miles and 10 chains from Ryde Pier Head and was the junction for the RydeCowes and Ryde-Ventnor lines. The smooth operation of the entire Isle of Wight railway system was governed by Smallbrook Junction – a signal check at Smallbrook could soon react right through to Ventnor and back again thanks to the tight schedules at the passing stations down the line. It was this intense action that seemed to act like a magnet to attract lineside railway photographers during the summer season, this article being dedicated to the late Tony (A E) Bennett, photographer and friend.

Smallbrook Junction was only open during the summer months, from May to September, with the aim of easing the long block sections from Ryde St John’s Road The diagrammatic map included in the Section C British Railways Working Timetable for the summer of 1965 ‘places’ Smallbrook Junction and denotes double and single-track sections of railway. This was to be the last summer of full operation on the Cowes and Ventnor lines as the Smallbrook-Cowes line closed to passengers in February 1966, followed by the ShanklinVentnor section in the April. Britton Collection

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The Smallbrook Junction signal box diagram, showing the track layout and signalling for this lonely 20-lever signal box. Note that the up distant signal from the Brading direction is ‘fixed’ at danger and is some 800 yards before the outer home – it is 1,235 yards south of the signal box, whereas those from Cowes and Ryde are respectively 1,325 yards to the southwest and 1,163 yards to the north.

Britton Collection

station to Brading (3 miles 39 chains distant on the Ventnor line) and Haven Street (4 miles 16 chains on the Newport and Cowes route). During the winter months Smallbrook Junction signal box was closed and the two parallel lines south from Ryde St John’s Road were operated independently, but in the summer months the 75 chain section of line from Ryde St John’s Road to Smallbrook Junction became double-track.

The isolated small, wooden ground-level signal box boasted 20 levers and these were within what is known as a knee frame, since the interlocking was in a case at knee level. Opened by the Southern Railway on 18 July 1926, owing to a strike at the time of its construction the box opened minus a roof. Many of the materials used in its construction were secondhand and one little known fact was that even the famous wooden Smallbrook nameboard was a paintedover station sign from Mill Hill station on the Cowes line. The box remained unaltered until its closure on 17 September 1966.

The junction had the protection of distant and outer and inner home signals from all three directions: Brading, Haven Street and Ryde St John’s Road. This factor allowed the Smallbrook signalmen to pass trains across the junction while trains were approaching it on the other lines. Additionally, there was special authority to accept trains from Brading or Haven Street under Regulation 5, ‘Section clear, but station or junction blocked.’ On numerous occasions I have been travelling on trains, or watching from the lineside or in the box at Smallbrook Junction, as trains have been held

at the inner home signals from Haven Street and Ryde. The rule was that heavy (up sixcoach) Ventnor trains always had priority. On many occasions during my visits to Smallbrook, I have observed a down Ventnor train waiting at the down inner home signal and an up Cowes train at the up inner home signal. Both trains were waiting for a late running up Ventnor train. The up Ventnor train obviously had the preference to avoid too much delay to the down Ventnor line train.

At peak summer Saturday times, the Smallbrook signalman would handle a train every six minutes, eight trains to or from the Ventnor line and two on the Cowes line, all of which required single-line token instruments, plus a record entry into the train register.

Summer Saturday timetabling provided a peak service for tourists between 9am and 5pm.

There was a set pattern for trains from Ryde Pier Head: 10 past the hour – Brading,

Taken with the photographer stood on the Cowes line, this ground level view records Adams ‘O2’ tank No 35 Freshwater drawing away from the Smallbrook Junction bracket signal (supporting the inner home signals for the diverging Brading and Ashey routes) and crosses Smallbrook Junction with a heavily-loaded six-coach Ryde Pier Head to Ventnor train on Sunday, 15 August 1965. The Drummond chimney off this locomotive is now in happy retirement residing in Warwick in the author’s garden! A E Bennett/Britton Collection

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Shanklin, Wroxall and Ventnor; 20 past the hour – all stations to Shanklin; 35 past the hour – all stations to Cowes; 42 past the hour – all stations except Brading to Ventnor; 55 past the hour – Brading and Sandown only. In the up direction, the service pattern was roughly the same, except that departures from Ventnor were at 20 and 40 minutes past the hour, which meant that the short workings from Shanklin and Sandown followed consecutively. Summer Saturday services were worked by 14 locomotives, and from 1961, following the withdrawal of the last ‘E1’ 0-6-0 tank engine, this became the exclusive domain of the ‘O2’ class 0-4-4Ts. As the signal box at Smallbrook was so remote, there was no mains electricity and no running water. In fact, the only access to the box for signalmen was via the railway cinder path. Photographers who visited the box had to climb over a fence and tread with care

A different perspective on a similar moment, and indeed taken on the same day, allows the box to be framed by its two up inner home signals as fireman Roger ‘Chalky’ White prepares to collect the single-line token for the Smallbrook Junction-Brading section from signalman Vic Hailes. His driver Eddie Prangnell is at the controls of No 21 Sandown, which is hauling a Ryde Pier Head to Ventnor train. Driver Prangnell was known to hundreds of young railway enthusiasts as ‘Uncle Eddie’ – in return for a donation of two shillings and sixpence to the Southern Railway Children’s Homes, it was possible to have a footplate ride from Ryde to Ventnor or Ryde to Cowes. Eddie was always particularly kind and encouraging to local railway enthusiasts, offering a bed to sleep over at his house, an English breakfast served up from Mrs Prangnell and the opportunity to experience a night turn on the footplate – a great memory for the author. A E Bennett/Britton Collection Passed fireman Ron Brett opens the regulator on a late running up fast Shanklin to Ryde Pier Head train, seen accelerating away from Smallbrook Junction hauled by No 26 Whitwell on 21 August 1965. The carriages of a waiting southbound Ryde to Ventnor train (set 494) are seen as their service, held for the Ryde-bound service to pass, gets the road to continue the 143 yards towards Smallbrook Junction box to receive permission to continue south. Note the concrete constructed fogman’s hut on the left and, in contrast, across the tracks an older SR wooden sleeper-built hut. Britton Collection The overbridge used as a vantage point for the previous photograph is seen with its summer signalling arrangement – with double-track operation, the arm of the right-hand signal has been removed; when complete, it is the up distant for Ryde when the route is operating as two single tracks. Working engine Duty 9, driver Jim Hunnybun sweeps No 14 Fishbourne under the bridge towards Smallbrook Junction with the 1.10pm Ryde Pier Head to Ventnor train in July 1965. At the time the picture was taken No 14 was the oldest working steam locomotive on British Railways, having been completed in December 1889. Notably, Fishbourne was to haul BR’s last steam-hauled passenger train on the island on the 31 December 1966.

David Benning/Britton Collection

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The smiling face of driver Ted Dale leans out of the cab of No 30 Shorwell as he collects the single-line token to Brading from signalman Eddie Spears. No 30 is heading a Ryde Pier Head to Ventnor train on the 15 August 1965.

It was always a great pleasure to visit Smallbrook box when Northumbrian-born Eddie was on duty. One could happily pass many hours listening to Eddie’s soothing accent, whilst enjoying some of his home-made ginger beer. Under strict guidance and a watchful eye, Eddie would allow regular visitors to pull the knee frame levers within the box.

Happily, this same lever frame survives and is currently stored in Magician’s Row at the National Railway Museum in York.

A E Bennett/Britton Collection

across the fields avoiding lurking adders basking in the sun along the trackside. A warm welcome always awaited visitors to Smallbrook Junction, which was manned by the island’s relief staff – Eddie Spears, Vic Hailes and Ray Draper. If anyone of them were absent, Jess Wheeler or John Frodsham would step in on a temporary basis to cover. A frequent visitor to the box on summer Saturdays was the island’s area inspector Ron Russell, who lived at Brading station house.

Ron was always welcomed by the signalman as he would deliver fresh supplies of ginger beer and mouth-watering homemade butter shortbread or fruit cake made by his wife.

On summer Saturdays the box used to get like an oven and the signalmen would pray for the sun to go down. Sometimes on hot sticky evenings the box was plagued by midges that appeared to make a bee-line for the poor signalmen. Signalman Eddie Spears often recalled that the island’s red squirrels could cause havoc at Smallbrook Junction. One summer Saturday morning the bushy tailed red rodents paralysed the summer timetable and brought the Ventnor line to a stand still by

nibbling through the signalling cables on the single-line section to Brading. This resulted in temporary pilot working at a critical time until urgent repairs could be effected by the S&T duty man Cyril Henley. A special light engine movement using ‘E1’ class 0-6-0T No 4 Wroxall, with driver Pete Mills at the controls, was hastily arranged to taxi Cyril and half a dozen other helpers mustered from Ryde Works to Smallbrook box. The Brighton ‘E1’ tank’s footplate and coal bunker were packed to the brim with signalling tools and spare equipment, and wooden ladders were lashed along the top of the water tanks. Not everyone could fit on to the cramped footplate, so the Smallbrook emergency crew stood in front of the side tanks, by the smokebox and next to the chimney, and clung on to the handrails. The usual sound heard on the footplate, the deep throaty roar of the engine, was superseded by the rattle of metallic tools and the moans of squashed S&T men! Ryde Works’ boilersmith Peter Malone, who volunteered to help, summed up the experience of the dangerous, rickety ride to Smallbrook on No 4 and recalled with a stutter, ‘Nnnn, never again!’

Driver Mills admitted that No 4 Wroxall felt like an old fashioned vintage fire engine – all that was missing was a bell!

Smallbrook Junction could be a lonely place and the signalmen would smuggle in a radio to listen in to the news and cricket results. Signalman Vic Hailes, who was a wellknown island cricket umpire, used to send the cricket scores via the single-line leather pouch to the signalmen at Brading and at Haven Street. A railwayman who the Smallbrook Junction signalmen were always on their guard for was driver ‘Mad Jack’ Sturgess, the regular driver of ‘O2’ tank No 22 Brading. He was renowned on the Isle of Wight railways for getting up to all sorts of tricks with his colleagues. Prior to the introduction of singleline tokens conveyed in leather pouches, the section to Haven Street was operated by a metal staff system. Signalman Eddie Spears, in his warm Northumbrian accent recalled that ‘Mad Jack’ Sturgess would often warm the metal staff in the firebox of No 22 Brading as he approached the box. On other occasions ‘Mad Jack’ would spray the Smallbrook signalmen with water via his engine pep pipe!

Occasionally more serious problems occurred at Smallbrook Junction. Signalman Vic Hailes recalled, ‘A calamity happened one summer day at Smallbrook when the single line token for the Smallbrook-Brading single

The driver of Drummond-boilered ‘O2’ tank No 31 Chale, heading an evening train towards Newport and Cowes, slows at Smallbrook Junction to collect the single-line token to Haven Street from signalman Vic Hailes. Perhaps also in the leather pouch are the latest cricket results obtained by signalman Hailes via his radio. He always maintained that he was the most photographed railway employee on British Railways. Britton Collection

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line section went missing. Strangely enough, it involved the preserved No 24 Calbourne. I remember making the token exchange with the crew of the passing train which was bound for Ventnor. Some minutes later signalman Roy Way ‘phoned from Brading to inform me that the single-line token pouch did not contain a key token! This completely baffled me and I asked that Calbourne’s crew check in their cab to ascertain that the token had fallen out. Driver Ken West and fireman Ray ‘Joe’ Maxfield searched their footplate in vain.

Meanwhile, a piloting arrangement had to be brought into use between Brading and Smallbrook until the token machine could be balanced. I believe that they even took engine No 24 out of service on the return ‘up’ run and returned her to St John’s Road depot, where her fire was dropped and the ashes raked through to double-check for the missing token. Along with Cyril Henley, I checked the box and surrounding vegetation for that token, but all to no avail. Quite what happened to the missing token remains a mystery to this day, but if ever someone on the preserved Isle of Wight Steam Railway discovers it they will know where it came from. I still get a bit of leg pull from colleagues about a token tree that has been spotted growing at Smallbrook.’

If it was possible to rise early and get to Smallbrook Junction on a summer Saturday, one could view the regular double-headed down trains on the Ventnor line. The first double-header was the 7.40am Ryde to Ventnor passenger train, and this was followed by the 7.50am double-headed parcels train. These workings were to cut out light engine movements and position locomotives to start their day’s work at Shanklin (for the 8.38am to Ryde Pier) and Sandown (for the 9.17am to Ryde Pier). As the double-headers accelerated away from Smallbrook Junction they would whistle profusely and their crisp exhaust barks echoed around the trees. Photographer A E Bennett visited Smallbrook Junction to

record these workings on the morning of Saturday, 4 July 1964, an occasion when, unfortunately, the 7.40am passenger duty proved to be a solo ‘O2’, and No 14 Fishbourne, the Duty 11 engine that would usually be the pilot from Ryde St John’s Road through to Shanklin, passed Smallbrook Junction light engine; the Shanklin parcels duty was in the hands of Nos 20 Shanklin and 17 Seaview.

That summer Saturday was an interesting day at Smallbrook Junction, signalman Vic Hailes remembered. With 14 ‘O2’ tanks required to operate the summer Saturday service out of the 17 available, there should have been a leeway of three spare engines. On this day however, the three spare engines were not serviceable, with one in Ryde Works undergoing a general overhaul. With the bare minimum of available engines in service, No 26 Whitwell broke a crank pin between Haven Street and Smallbrook. On learning of this news from Vic Hailes the Smallbrook signalman, the Ryde shed foreman, Bob Menzies, blew his top, shouting down the phone, ‘Now they’ll have to send over them promised BR tanks!’

Nearly a year later, on Saturday, 19 June 1965, driver Dennis Snow and passed fireman Paddy Lock derailed a bogie wheel on No 22 Brading at the crossover points at Ryde Pier.

Within minutes of this happening, the news filtered through to Smallbrook Junction.

Signalman Ray Draper was on duty at the time and was instructed to hold the up train from Ventnor outside Smallbrook box. He lowered the inner home signal next to the signal box and waited for driver Frank Ash and fireman Terry Hatcher to draw to a stop on No 18 Ningwood with their six-coach train. He casually said like a lord of the manor’s butler, ‘Gentlemen, here is your tea and the newspaper. Put your feet up. Driver Snow has had a slight mishap. His 22 Brading is off the road on the pier. I will get guard Sammy Wells to let the passengers know.’ Shortly afterwards, driver Ted Dale on No 29 Alverstone drew to a stop on the opposite line next to the box with

a four-coach train from Cowes. Calmly, signalman Draper explained the situation again, produced two more mugs of tea and enquired, ‘Would you like sugar and a piece of the misses sponge cake?’ Where else, but at Smallbrook could this happen?

After a long, hot intensive summer Saturday, the Smallbrook Junction signalmen would be physically and mentally exhausted.

On one ice-melting evening at just after 7pm the train service had quietened down and signalman Eddie Spears decided to spend a few minutes sitting down relaxing to appreciate the peace of this rural location outside the signal box, watching the swifts scooping up the midges. The next thing he was aware of was a gentle tap on the shoulder from fireman Roger ‘Chalky’ White. ‘Any problems, Eddie? I have come to sign the book for Rule 55 and tell you that we are waiting at the outer home signal with the train from Cowes.’ Eddie had to admit that he had forgotten about the train, but such was the comradeship of the Isle of Wight railwaymen that nothing was ever reported or said about it. As driver Eddie Prangnell and fireman Roger ‘Chalky’ White drove past on their regular engine, No 21 Sandown, they called out to Eddie, ‘Shall we bring you some binoculars when we come back?’

Nighttime at Smallbrook Junction was always a special experience on warm balmy evenings, as one could hear the curious sounds of nightjars and owls hooting in the neighbouring Whitefield Woods. On summer evenings it was possible to see glow worms alongside the track on the Cowes side of the box. The whole atmosphere of this isolated rural signal box took on a different character with primitive lighting and flickering paraffinilluminated signal lamps. For the regular signalmen the golden glow in the night sky from a steam locomotive cab and a cascade of red hot cinders from the engine chimneys of passing trains continued to remind them that the railway activities did not cease in the

On Saturday, 4 July 1964 ‘O2’ tanks Nos 20 Shanklin and 17 Seaview, heading the 7.40am Ryde Pier Head to Shanklin fish and parcels train, wait patiently at Smallbrook Junction for the signalman to pull off the inner home signal for the Brading route. The train is made up of a converted ex-South Eastern & Chatham Railway full brake bogie coach and a former SE&CR four-wheel utility van. A single-headed service as far as Ryde St John’s Road station, it was there that the Duty No 3 engine was added as a pilot. A E Bennett/Britton Collection

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With the line now clear, signalman Vic Hailes stretches out to hand the single-line token to the driver of No 20 Shanklin, which is piloting No 17 Seaview at the head of the 7.50am fish and parcels duty to Shanklin on 4 July 1964. As the Duty No 3 engine, Shanklin would work back at the head of the 9.17am Sandown to Ryde Pier Head service, while the next Duty No 10 role for Seaview was to run light engine from Shanklin to Ventnor before heading the 9.40am passenger train away from that terminus. A E Bennett/Britton Collection

hours of darkness. It was a truly magical place of awe and wonder memories, so inspiring.

At the end of the summer season Smallbrook Junction would be closed and placed into hibernation for the winter. After the last up train of the night, the points would be clipped and plugged in their normal positions, the signal arms were then removed from their posts for storage inside the box and the single line instruments were transferred to St John’s Road. The opening or mothballing of Smallbrook Junction could be completed within four hours.

During the winter months when Smallbrook Junction was locked and boarded up, there was always a quite unofficial tradition of train racing along the independently-operated parallel lines from Ryde St John’s Road to Smallbrook and vice versa. Historically, this originated from pre-grouping days when the Isle of Wight Central Railway’s Ryde-Newport-Cowes service and the Isle of Wight Railway’s RydeVentnor service trains were booked to depart from Ryde St John’s Road station at the same time, running on the parallel single lines to Smallbrook Junction. Human nature being what it is, it is hardly surprising that crews of the opposing companies’ trains made a race of it. The Cowes-bound train usually had the advantage of a lighter loaded train, but being

on the outside curve, and so with a slightly longer distance to travel, the contest was fairly even.

The train racing tradition between Ryde and Smallbrook continued right up until the last week of operation when services on the Newport and Cowes line finished on 21 February 1966. The unofficial competition was known to Ryde shed railway crews as ‘The Blue Riband’, and driver Ken West proudly boasted that he held the record as the undisputed champion for Smallbrook trainracing on his regular engine No 24 Calbourne for the last few weeks of steam in 1966. The last return services to Ryde would be unofficially halted at Brading and Haven Street. Theoretically, train racing should not have occurred as the timetable allowed sufficient time intervals to prevent up trains

The Smallbrook Junction train register for 4 July 1964 records that the fish and parcels duty – denoted ‘F & Pcls V’ in the first column, was received from Ryde St John’s Road at 8.04am and was in section for 15 minutes, with 11 minutes stationary. Reference to the page for up services (not shown here) reveals that the 7.37am service from Ventnor was accepted from Brading at 8.07am and did not clear the end of the single-line at Smallbrook Junction until 8.18am. Also of interest is that signalman Hailes booked on at 3.55am, the various rear section and forward section details that fill the register, and the near constant flow of services – these are just the down trains – are the remarks of signalman Vic Hailes in reference to the 11.30am Cowes service – ‘Advised 12.20 that 11.30 C. disabled at Ashey. Asst. Eng Dep H St 12.31 to propel to S J Rd arr. 13.00hrs’, along with cancellation details. Britton Collection

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approaching Ryde together. However, in practice trains were often late or a sporting arrangement was made between crews. At a set time they would be waved off and the race was on. The first train to reach the Ryde St John’s Road home signal first would be admitted to the station and would be consequently declared the winner. The Ventnor line trains signalled to the St John’s Road signalman with one long whistle, whilst the Cowes line trains signalled their approach with two whistles. The losing footplate crew bought the winners a round of drinks at Ryde after the engines had been put to bed.

I was lucky enough to experience a number of Smallbrook trains races. They were always guaranteed to regularly occur with the last service trains of the night during the winter months. The first train race I was

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