By Robin Jones, Editor
To mark the closure of the Peel line on the 7 September 1968, the Isle of Man Railway ran a special on the evening of 19 July during the annual Enthusiast Weekend. Hauling the train, which departed Douglas for Port Erin at 6.30pm, was what was advertised as an ‘unusual’ engine, the one which hauled the last train on the Peel line, No 5 Mona. However, the real Mona of 1874 has been in store in an unserviceable condition since late September 1968; and its seemingly magical ‘return’ to service was accomplished by renaming and renumbering sister No 10 GH Wood of 1905. The locomotive, resplendent in an Alisa spring green livery, was carrying the famous headboard of ‘Douglas or Bust’, which the original carried on the last Peel train. DAVID LLOYD-JONES
This year, many venues have arranged events to ‘celebrate’ the end of steam 40 years ago.
From a heritage point of view, this seems a contradiction in terms, for how can we ‘celebrate’ the loss of something that many people hold most dear?
However, was the end of BR steam in August 1968 really a loss? From my retrospective view, it marked the start of a big gain; the seeds of a magnificent new era, a living, vibrant preservation movement that achieved more than anyone back in 1968 watching the ‘15 Guinea Special’ would ever have dreamed possible.
It is ironic that the 40th anniversary is marked by the first movement of A1 Peppercorn Pacific Tornado, Britain’s first new standard gauge main line locomotive since Evening Star appeared in 1960.
That in itself is cause to celebrate, apart from the superb Keighley & Worth Valley 40th anniversary gala, which recalled not the launch of one of our Premier League lines just a few weeks before BR dispensed with steam, but with the diesel derailment on the Saturday which threatened to spoil all, showcased the determination of staff and volunteers to make sure that didn’t happen.
Isn’t that what the heritage sector has been about – the building of the Llyn Ystradau deviation on the Ffestiniog Railway, the restoration of Duke of Gloucester, the rebuilding of the Welsh Highland Railway, the Bluebell and Isle of Wight Steam railways’ wondrous achievements with coaches, a double-track heritage main line at Loughborough, the running of a GWR prairie in main line service on the continent…
Who would have foreseen that 2008 would again see line-ups of four A4 Pacifics, or three working on the main line the same weekend? Not only that, but also regular timetable steam, on the ‘Jacobite’ in the West Highlands, on the ‘Shakespeare Express’ between Birmingham and Stratford-upon-Avon and the ‘Scarborough Spa Express”?
Did the thought of losing steam forever back in August 1968 spur many more enthusiasts on to take the long, hard steps to ensure that it would survive? Subsequent decades indicate that it most certainly did.
Yes, let’s celebrate the occasion big time – and we are setting the pace with this souvenir issue.
A time chart highlighting the year 1968 and placing what was happening on the railways in the wider social and global context of the day runs throughout this issue, and we have a 20-page special feature bringing our landmark month-by-month blow-by-blow account of BR standard gauge steam’s twilight years to a conclusion.
Steam technology never disappeared with the locomotive: most of our electricity today is generated by steam turbines, for instance. And if you look at the time charts, one striking factor is the number of first generation diesel classes that were being withdrawn before the end of steam, or even rendered extinct in 1968. A fortune from the taxpayer had been wasted in the mad scramble to modernise, even before the last fire in Oliver Cromwell was thrown out.
Sadly, there was no preservation group around to preserve these early diesel types, despised as they were at the time, and it was to take more than two decades to save 213 steam locomotives stored at Barry scrapyard, another major miracle in itself.
Steam did not die in 1968; the whistles on the main line were silenced for just three years before it made a comeback, thanks to the pioneers of the day who explored every which way they could make it happen in the wake of 1T57.
Yet what a magnificent of portfolio of heritage lines, venues, locomotives and rolling stock we have inherited today, and which we have the duty to maintain and chance for future generations.
Britain invented the self-propelled vehicle in the form of the steam locomotive and changed the world forever. That is reason enough for everyone to celebrate.
Robin Jones
Editor
