recollections of a magical childhood

Reflections on our epic journey!

June is always astounded that our parents could happily leave us to go off to school in the morning and not know if we'd reached Mimosa until Pop called them from the phone box on his way to get the fish and chips for us!  Even I am now a bit surprised by it.  Equally, Nanna and Pop letting us toddle off to Bournemouth whenever we fancied or even to Eastleigh for goodness sake.  If something had happened to either one of us, how would they have been able to justify their approach?  And yet, we never felt in any danger at all.  It was just a bit of an adventure. 

As regards our travels as unsupervised youngsters, I agree few would let their 10-year-olds gad about London or set off on a 100-mile train ride alone nowadays. I think perhaps, for the first fifteen years after the war the world (well, England at least) was not such a dangerous place. We were used to looking out for ourselves and finding our way around. Also, we weren't prone to foolish behaviour - we trusted adults and respected the rules. Dare I say we had common sense! Having said that, goodness knows what we would have done if something disastrous had befallen us - a phone box, some pennies and press button A, I suppose - or find the nearest police station. I'm sure we would have coped somehow and got back home to talk about it! 

Couldn't agree more with your thoughts on our use of common sense to avoid trouble in the first place and the capability to survive if something did happen. 

I think the first one or two times we went to Bournemouth for our school summer holidays our mothers must have taken us. Thus the routine was established and was repeated -

Lovely!

Thanks for bringing it all back!

The Journey on Film!...................

You can, should you wish, watch one or two videos, below, that feature many of the locations we have just visited on our journey from Waterloo to Bournemouth.

Waterloo to Basingstoke 1964.mp4

The footage itself looks quite good but I think it was a technical issue when the film was initially transferred to video because the weird shadowing in certain areas of the screen "real estate" is consistent throughout.  So, I have downloaded it and tried to brighten it and add some contrast and a bit more colour but with varying degrees of success as the footage is over-exposed in places and under in others.  Obviously, when you start with such poor quality it's impossible to get a good result.  But it is better.  I've also toned down the volume level of the (slightly odd) commentary.  On the upside, there is some footage of Berrylands!  Yay! 

Waterloo to Basingstoke revealed some interesting familiar locations although I did find the shots a bit too clipped (film was too precious to waste, I suppose) and the commentary by the lady sounded odd. The narrative was obviously written by a train buff which the lady, very obviously, was not. Anyway, it's a great reminder of our holiday journeys. 

Southern Surrender 1967.mp4

This is fairly interesting in that it has some footage of Waterloo and quite a bit of Bournemouth (at the end).  Watching it does "pain me" - central tracks removed, etc.

There are also more familiar locations in this and nice to see them in colour too.  

The Glory Days of Steam Edited Sharpened.mp4

When the commentary started and I was at first just interested in what it showed of Waterloo and Nine Elms but then it drew me in and I realised, near enough, it comprised our entire holiday journeys. We could almost have made the film ourselves!

Eastleigh and filling the tender at Southampton. Yes, even passing the Queen Mary - exactly as we remembered it.  A lucky find.

Given the strange introduction I decided to edit it before adding to the website. but what an incredible video!  I reckon it's the best we've seen and, as you said, follows "our route" from Waterloo to Bournemouth.  To relive that journey the above video probably can't be beaten by any other one on this website (at the time of writing!)

A few things I noticed as I watched it (I've just finished!):-

Eastleigh station (& Eastleigh) was highly featured - the location of our adventurous trip as nippers.  It was brave of Nanna and Pop to trust us to be able to undertake that without a hitch wasn't it? 

The clip of the Queen Mary reminded me how close to the train the liners could be.  That is how I remembered it but lots of photos I've seen since show them to be off in the distance.

I thought the commentary was really informative and interesting - a change from usual.

Those Bulleid Pacifics really did struggle with traction, didn't they?!

Quite a few clips of double-headers which, I confess, I don't recall seeing.  Do you?

Isn't strange to think that we could well have been on one of the trains featured in the video?


I got inspired by your video find (see above) and have this one (below).   There's no audio (although in a way that helps you concentrate on the visuals) but some of the footage is very good and some is of amazingly good quality for the time.  The cameraman had an eye for a good shot and there's plenty of Waterloo, Eastleigh and Bournemouth (but no Berrylands, that I spotted).

I've Just watched the video and I agree there are some nice shots of activity at locations we're familiar with.  Nice to see some shots of Worting Junction where the Salisbury line branches off.

Every time I watch the A4 sequences it leaves me wondering how he managed to follow the train's progress from Clapham Junction through to New Malden. It would have been some amazing feat to jump in his car and negotiate all the traffic between Clapham Junction, stopping to film at Wimbledon and then on to New Malden.  Perhaps the A4 ran on several days...?  Also a bit sad to note that none of the Bulleid engines had their nameplates on by then.  Waterloo was as busy as ever while the electric stock looked decidedly dated by then. The plain BR blue was dreadfully dull, wasn't it?! 

I have since added to the end of this video two minutes of extra footage (also without any sound) from another video made of the last train from Bath Green Park to Bournemouth to run over the Somerset & Dorset railway on March 5th 1966.  The section I have added just shows the traffic and loco movements at Bournemouth Central, of which there are many!

The manoeuvres/arrivals (of the extra footage) at Bournemouth Central were quite familiar...(pity no sound).  Makes you want those days back again, doesn't it? 

Yet more (another 10 minutes worth) has been added (also without audio) and whilst some of the footage is grainy other parts are surprisingly high quality.  So, I decided to keep it all in there.  Can't have too much footage of Bournemouth Central, surely?

Southern Region Scenes 1965 - 70 plus last train from Bath to BC 1966.mp4