Lyme Regis Branch

46441 stored at Carnforth, April 1968

On 8 September 1962 we set off for a family holiday at Lyme Regis. It needed two taxis to get us and our luggage from Barnsbury, London N1, to Waterloo Station. As we drove around Buckingham Palace a gent came out in full morning dress complete with top hat and, steeped in Rev. W. Awdry lore as I was, I shouted "Look--the Fat Controller!"

The chief attraction of Waterloo was the man in shiny waistcoat and rolled-up shirt sleeves who used a long pole with a hook on the end to change the columns of enamelled destination signs on the huge varnished wooden indicator board. The station was a wonderland of 'M7' tanks and 'King Arthur' 4-6-0s. We set off for the West Country at a sprightly pace behind an unrebuilt Bulleid--no. 34041 'Wilton', if I remember rightly.

At Axminster Junction I was off down the platform to see the 'West Country' Pacific depart for Honiton and Exeter. Yellow light from the open firebox door played around the cab and the train left with a thrilling burst of slipping that sent the massive side-rods whirling crazily. Then in came the Lyme train: two green Maunsell composite coaches drawn by 1882-vintage Adams radial tank 4-4-2 no. 30583, the middle one of the three that had been kept on to work the Axminster-Lyme Regis because few other classes of locomotive could negotiate its tight curves. The driver's name was Reuben and his banter with the signalman revealed that they both had thick West Country accents. I still have the ticket for that journey: the fare had just been raised from 1s/4d to 1s/8d, a fact that set the adults in our party muttering. The train trundled sedately around the contours, with the wheel flanges squealing against the rails and the couplings groaning and grating. Cinders and steam mingled with the sea air that streaked through my hair as I stood at the carriage window watching the locomotive do its work. Finally there we were in Lyme station, perched high above the water front and cramped and curved like the rest of the branch line. And a very rural place it was at that point in time.