These recollections are written in the hope that they will be of use in the history of Northamptonshire railways project. Most of the Great Central line from Woodford to Banbury was in present-day Northamptonshire (only two short section are in Wardington in Oxfordshire) and until 1888 most of the GWR main line through Banbury was also in Northamptonshire. Much of this material appears in a more academic form in my Junctions at Banbury (2017). These are personal recollections of how it all happened.

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Soon after I became interested in railways, in the summer of 1948, I suddenly became aware of the Great Central line into Banbury. I had purchased a platform ticket, perhaps for the first time, in order to see, with friends, what was happening at Banbury station. Just after half-past two a locomotive wholly different from those at the nearby ex-GWR shed arrived from the north, pulling coaches bound from York to Bournemouth. It was strikingly elegant, in a livery of stained apple green, bearing the number 60049, with British Railways spelled out on its tender, and the name Galtee More above its central driving wheel splashers. It had a banjo dome rather than a brass safety valve cap, and outside valve gear more complicated than that on a Western engine. A few days later I saw the same train arrive behind a locomotive of similar appearance, except that it had a blue livery, rather like the Rev Awdry’s Edward, and it bore the name Prince Palatine. These locomotives, I learned, were A3s. They came from the shed at Leicester (38C), and after arriving in Banbury handed over their trains to locally-based 'Halls', then turned at the shed and took out a single coach local to Woodford at about 3.45 pm. They returned tender-first just after five o'clock with three coaches, and took them back to Woodford at about 5.45 pm after the station pilot had placed them in the down bay. On summer evenings I regularly went to watch trains from Spiceball Park, immediately north of the station, and on one occasion arrived to find my friends excited that the 5.45 was headed by No 60103 Flying Scotsman, then at the start of a short stay at Leicester, and in 1953 there was a similar reaction to the appearance of No 60800 Green Arrow, which was briefly based at Woodford.

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In the spring of 1950 this train provided me with my first journey on ex-Great Central metals. My father was a Methodist local preacher who cycled to his services. He had an appointment at Chacombe on the Sunday evening of a great storm. His host, a local farmer, brought him back to Banbury by car and it was arranged that I should travel to Chacombe the following evening and ride back on his bicycle. I duly caught the 5.45 and enjoyed the wonderful experience of a three-mile ride in a three-coach train behind Galtee More. By then I knew that the A3s were named after racehorses, but it was not until the summer of 1963 in central Ireland, after a morning's exhausting cycling to the summit of a mountain pass, that I learned that Galtee More was the principal peak in that range.

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This was my final year at primary school and many boys in my class were interested in railways. We soon became aware of the principal workings from what we usually called the LNER line, although railwaymen knew it as the GC. The York-Bournemouth arrived early in the afternoon and might bring other A3s, 60054 Prince of Wales or 60102 Sir Frederick Banbury. The northbound train was brought to Banbury by a ‘Hall’ and was usually taken over by a locomotive from Woodford (38E), similar in appearance to Galtee More, but with a pony truck instead of the leading bogie, and usually a black livery below a covering of grime. I learned that this was one of Sir Nigel Gresley's V2 or Green Arrow class. The successor to the pre-war Ports-to-Ports Express, from Swansea to York or Newcastle via Didcot, arrived just before 1.00 pm, and also departed with an engine, usually a V2, that worked light from Woodford. The return working, usually with a B1 from Sheffield (Darnall), arrived just after 4.30 pm. The Western Region motive power on the 'Cardiff' as it was usually called, was of more interest to young spotters as, in due course, it brought to Banbury most of the beautifully-maintained 'Castles' from Cardiff (Canton) shed (86C), and later those from Landore (87E).

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We learned that spring and summer of another train that could be seen in daylight as the season progressed, the one-time Aberdeen-Penzance Express, which arrived in Banbury just before nine o’clock. It had the air of a romantic overnight train, the Orient Express or the Ost-West Express, although it included neither sleeping cars nor Royal Mail coaches, and it ran at a very modest pace only from Swindon to Sheffield, where it arrived at 12.29 am, too late for connections to distant frontiers. It arrived in Banbury with a Swindon engine, usually, in the summer of 1950, No 2927 Saint Patrick, but in the years that followed it was often a spotless ex-works locomotive. The train went forward with a locomotive that brought back to Banbury the single coach that had been taken to Woodford at 15.45. In 1950 this was usually an A3 from Neasden that had reached Woodford during the afternoon on a stopping train from Marylebone (an 'Ord' in GC parlance), and the working produced such wonderful machines as 60051 Blink Bonny and 60111 Enterprise. Another train followed the same course after midnight. The two balancing southbound workings passed through Banbury in the hours of utmost darkness. I gained acquaintance with them only in later life.

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Two fish trains also passed southwards in the middle of the night but two others stopped in Banbury station between 7.00 and 8.00 pm. The first was the 1.02 pm from New Clee, carrying Grimsby fish to destinations all over southern England and South Wales. Its nominal terminus was Whitland in Pembrokeshire but only one or two vans went that far. The 'fish' usually followed into the station the 4.35 pm Shrewsbury-Paddington express which reached Banbury a few minutes after seven o'clock/ Almost always the 'fish' was hauled by a K3 2-6-0 from Immingham (40B) shed which gave way to a Swindon engine, and then clanked its way to the shed to be turned and returned through the station to the down yard to pick up a load of fish empties with which the Swindon engine had arrived earlier in the evening. The Grimsby was followed after a brief interval by the Hull fish, brought in by the engine that had gone to Leicester with the Bournemouth-York, a Woodford loco before September 1954, and a Western Region 'Hall' afterwards. The Grimsby fish was an exceptionally long train that, in the early 1950s usually filled Banbury's lengthy up platform. Plops of water from melting ice could be heard from every van, and the station was pervaded by odours from the harvest of the ocean.

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The local service between Banbury and Woodford conveyed few commuters and was of limited use as a connection between long-distance trains on the GC and GWR routes. One regular user I remember was a rather angular lady who was senior assistant at the Banbury shop of W H Smith. The service was known at Woodford as the 'Banbury Motor', probably because in the early days of the branch it was worked by a push-and-pull train. The first train from Woodford arrived in Banbury just after 8.00 am, and returned for some years at 10.04 - the timings were altered slightly in the late 1950s. This was usually a three-coach set, worked by a Woodford engine, which returned with the same coaches, arriving just before 1.00 pm and departing at 1.16 pm. The 15.45 departure was a single coach worked by the engine off the York-Bournemouth which returned with the three-coach set, departing at 17.45. The final service was the return of the single coach with the locomotive for the Swindon-Sheffield running tender first. The first working of the day produced a variety of motive power and I was able to observe it on most days from September 1950, initially from the bus that took me to school. From May 1953 I cycled to school and made sure that I saw it every day. When I first knew the train it was worked either by one of the four B17 'Football' class from Woodford, all of which were in a notoriously bad condition (described by the late Dick Hardy in Steam in the Blood) or by the locomotive allocated for the purpose, the ex-Great Northern N2 class 0-6-2T No 69560, which, according to Dick Hardy, was unpopular with its crews. It was replaced in 1952 by a Great Central engine, a C13 4-4-2T No 67408, which was followed in 1953 by a Great Eastern engine, N7 class 0-6-2T No 69621. A variety of other engines appeared on this turn, B16 4-6-0s from York, the huge Great Central 2-6-4Ts of class L3, the Pom-Pom 0-6-0s of class J11, the Great Central class N5 0-6-2Ts that normally shunted the yards at Woodford, an occasional class A5 4-6-2T from Neasden, and, later, class L1 2-6-4Ts and Ivatt class 4MT 2-6-0s.

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Summer Saturdays saw an increase in services from the Great Central. There were several southbound overnight services to the south coast. The return working of one of them was the 08.05 from Bournemouth Central which ran non-stop from Oxford to Leicester with a WR engine. A group of southbound trains arrived in mid-afternoon, the Bradford-Poole, the Newcastle-Bournemouth which ran every day of the week, its Saturday relief the 12.10 Sheffield-Bournemouth, and, rather later in the afternoon the 10.08 Newcastle-Swansea. Most of the equivalent northbound trains also passed through Banbury between 2.30 and 4.00 pm. One or two southbound trains continued to Oxford with their GC locomotives, and several WR engines took their trains northward to Leicester Central or Nottingham Victoria. There were usually additional workings, especially at the conclusion of the Leicester and Nottingham holiday weeks.

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Many varieties of excursion trains used the branch. The outstanding football specials arrived in the small hours of Saturday 8 March 1952 taking Newcastle United supporters to a cup tie at Portsmouth. The locomotives remained on Banbury shed later in the morning, Three B1s, a V2 from Heaton, and the ungainly No 60501 Cock o'th North, the rebuild of Sir Nigel Gresley's 2-8-2. Reputedly the latter was too long for the turntable at Banbury and had to go to Woodford to turn on the triangle. There were always summer time excursions to Oxford, Windsor or Bourne End for trips on the River Thames, and usually specials for Royal Ascot. There were several regular excursions from the Southern Region to Leicester and Nottingham. One, from Bournemouth, usually ran on the last Sunday of July and, at least in 1956 when I travelled on it, was headed by a King Arthur all the way to Nottingham Victoria. Some troop specials also used the branch. My outstanding memory of such a working must be from 1952. With friends I was on Banbury station when porters assembled a long line of parcels trolleys on most of which refreshment room staff placed mugs, with urns on another. A friendly inspector told us that an RAF special was due, running from Oldham Mumps to Lymington, and Bert Wells, one of the friendliest of Banbury drivers backed into the down bay with a 'Hall'. Signals went down and a huge train appeared with 15 or 16 coaches filling Banbury's down platform, and B1 No 61185 and A3 No 60102 Sir Frederick Banbury at the head.

 

RAF men swarmed out of the train for their cups of tea. As one of the GC firemen was uncoupling the locos from the train Bert strolled over and cheekily asked the driver 'Why do you need two engines for this train?' He later told us that he proceeded with his 'Hall' to Brockenhurst (for Lymington} without assistance, turned his engine at Eastleigh, and drove it home.

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All of the above activities could be viewed at Banbury station, but there were more workings from the former Great Central line that could not be seen there. About a mile north of the station the GWR main line is crossed, about half a mile south of the junction with the Woodford branch, by Old Grimsbury Road, which was within easy reach of my home. The bridge carries the road across the mid-point of the reception sidings of the hump yard opened by the GWR in 1931, and the road beyond runs parallel to the ends of the sidings of the down yard. From the bridge it was possible to see passenger and fish trains from Woodford joining the main line, and freight trains making their way into the reception sidings. Trip workings arrived from Woodford approximately every hour, and were hauled by WD 2-8-0s, usually tender-first. They ran round their trains to pick up return workings, either from the down yard, or from sidings alongside the branch near the junction. There had been up to 20 WDs at Woodford since 1946 and they almost monopolised the trip workings. Just one train that arrived just after noon and included wagons from the North East that were put on a fitted train for Bristol that left Banbury at about 2.30 pm, was sometimes hauled by another class of engine, a J39 or a K3. Much of the southbound traffic from Woodford was coal, but the trip workings usually included wagons carrying steel and some vans, as well as chemical wagons and hoppers carrying gypsum from East Leake to the Bletchingdon cement works. These workings continued with little change until into the 1960s after the takeover by the Midland Region in 1958. Return workings chiefly consisted of empty wagons including fish vans working back to Grimsby or Hull.

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I'm not sure when I first went to Woodford, but it was probably in 1951 or 1952 while the Great Central class N5 0-6-2Ts were still shunting the yards and before the arrival of diesel shunters in the autumn of 1953. I probably travelled by train but from the summer of 1953 it became a gentle afternoon excursion by bicycle. It was fairly easy to see most of the locomotives in the yard, but to penetrate the interior of the shed without being challenged was difficult, and scarcely worth the effort since most of the locomotives there were familiar WDs, J11s or V2s that frequently came to Banbury. The only engines that were unfamiliar were the O1 2-8-0s from Annesley working the 'Windcutters' which turned on the triangle before returning north.

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I saw something of the Northamptonshire section of the GC London Extension in the 1950s and early 60s. A trip to Brackley, only nine miles by bus or bicycle, was not difficult, but what could be seen was not especially exciting, familiar A3s, V2s or B1s on the expresses, Woodford’s WDs on the infrequent freight workings, and just a little interest in the semi-fasts (Ords) from Marylebone which might produce an A5 4-6-2T or a new Standard class 4MT 2-6-0. On August Monday 1953 I cycled to Mixbury (strictly in Oxfordshire), principally to look at Beaumont Castle, whose presence on the OS map had always intrigued me. I was rewarded by the sight of B1 No 61105 hauling northward two dead locomotives, L1 No 67770 and Ivatt 4MT 2-6-0 No 43065. My friend and I made increasing numbers of excursions by bicycle to the West Coast Main Line and customarily halted when crossing the London Extension, usually by the bridge on the B4525 just south of Helmdon in the hope of seeing some movements. We were often disappointed. We did occasionally, as we became more interested in photography, visit various locations alongside the Woodford-Banbury line. We were impressed to see the depth and width of the great cutting near Thorpe Mandeville, where my own attempts at taking photographs were always disappointing. We happened to be on the platform of Eydon Road halt on 21 May 1956, about seven weeks after its closure on 2 April, when we were delighted to see Leicester's newly-acquired A3 No 60106 Flying Fox bound through with the one-coach 15.45 from Banbury.

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The Great Central lines passed into the control of the London Midland Region from 1 February 1958 and by the summer of that year Black Fives were bringing the York-Bournemouth to Banbury, and the Woodford locals were being worked by ex-LMSR 2-6-4Ts. An ex-LNER presence remained however, and one curiosity in the summer of 1958 was the regular appearance on the York-Bournemouth on Thursdays of a Heaton (52B) locomotive, usually a V2 but on 18 Sep 1958, the A3 No 60069 Sceptre.

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Most of my journeys on the Great Central took place after it had passed under the management of the London Midland Region. On Saturday 13 August 1960 I enjoyed a round trip from Banbury General to Banbury Merton Street via Leicester Central, Leicester Midland, Peterborough North, Peterborough East, Northampton and Bletchley. I left Banbury on the local, then timed to depart at 09.35, with a two non-corridor coaches labelled 'GE Branch Set' headed by L1 No 67743. At Woodford, Standard 5MT No 73157 brought in a terminating northbound local, and a southbound passenger left with V2 No 60864 piloted by B1 No 61085. I went north behind Standard 5MT No 73158, and saw several Black Fives and 9Fs, a K3 and LMS 2-6-4T No 42556 at Leicester Central. I made several other journeys on the GC that summer and in 1961 and while I don’t have detailed records, the picture was much the same, with many ex-LMSR locomotives in evidence, together with B1s, L1s, K3s and the occasional V2, and Standard class 5MT 4-6-0s, 4MT 2-6-0s and 9Fs, with J39s and even a J10, No 65158, dead on Woodford shed. WDs continued on the diminishing number of Woodford-Banbury trip workings until the cessation of through freight operations on the GC in 1965.

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In the winter timetable of 1961-62 the curtailment of services included the reduction of the York (or Newcastle)-Bournemouth to an out-and-back working by dmus from York to Banbury. I spent the spring term of 1962 doing teaching practice at Tadcaster near York and had occasion to use this service twice. I travelled north for the first time on the Midland from Birmingham New Street since there was no convenient GC service, and returned by the 18.40 York-Swindon which reached Banbury just after midnight. I returned on the dmu service, but, departing at about 15.15 from Banbury in February, the journey was largely in darkness. I travelled home at the end of term on a sunny Saturday morning, which proved a delightful journey, passing through the entrails of the huge coking plant at Manvers Main, and enjoying views of springtime scenery across Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Northamptonshire.

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I saw just a little of the last days of the cross-country services on the Woodford-Banbury branch, some of which produced ex-LMSR express locomotives, Royal Scots and Jubilees, usually ill-maintained. I have a photograph of No 45739 Ulster from Holbeck arriving in Banbury on 12 August 1961 with a train for Poole with a large red patch on the front of its smokebox.

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The chronology of the last years of the Great Central is set out on pp 179-82 of Junctions at Banbury. That account is drawn largely from secondary sources since I saw very little of operations at Banbury in 1965-66 after taking up a new job in Shropshire.

I learned much about Woodford and the Great Central over many years from working with the late Dr Jeff Cox of Wolverhampton University. Jeff was the son of an engine driver at Woodford and had the luxury of travelling daily to and from school at Brackley behind V2s and A3s. He was always keen to convey the idea that driving an engine was a craft, and to express some resentment that Woodford was perpetually short of cleaners, which meant that its locomotives were never well-maintained. In 1996-97 one of my students at Northampton University undertook a small project at Woodford, and was astonished at the hostile feeling still felt in the railwaymen's club towards the London Midland Region whose managers had laid waste a national asset.

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I have two abiding sound memories of the Great Central. We lived on the east side of Banbury and through my teenage years I was accustomed to go to sleep to the sound of WDs being thrashed up the gradient through the great cutting several miles away at Thorpe Mandeville. I realised how I missed this sound many years later in 1986 when I was at Sanok in the eastern part of present-day Poland and heard from my hotel room the distant exhaust of a large steam locomotive working hard to take a freight train into the USSR. The other memory is of a stop at Helmdon on the return leg of an exhausting return journey by bicycle from Banbury to Wellingborough. Looking south there was a wisp of exhaust and a sound whose volume gradually increased, the three-beats-to-a-bar rhythm of a V2 heading for Bradford with the South Yorkshireman. Few railway sounds were more dramatic.

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Barrie Trinder

May 2020