recollections of a magical childhood

Yes, a pretty good reminder. I don't suppose there was much honey to be had from the bees on the roof though. It did jump about a bit in time judging by the platform furniture - e.g. the illuminated platform numbers above the gates which were a new addition and weren't there in some shots. Nice to see Bulleid Pacifics....coaches.....and quite a few Lord Nelson class there....they were mostly scrapped not long after 1960 I thought.

All were withdrawn during 1961 and 1962 and subsequently scrapped, except 30850, "Lord Nelson" the first built in the class being the only survivor!  

It amazed me that 90% of the railway workers all wore glasses! All of similar National Health style of course! All the railway workers were of the same mould and about 50 years old!! Most of the women were 40+ and I think that's probably just how the world looked to us then. Surprised to see a cat in the signal box....bloody hell! Ours would have pulled a few levers when bored.

Don't particularly remember the boat trains bringing in the Trinidadians en mass but I suppose it happened. Most of them became bus conductors! And prisoners off to Weymouth, maybe?

I stumbled across this rather amazing video yesterday and thought of you.

It's absolutely amazing what can be done to old footage nowadays (I think we were both pretty surprised and impressed with that program I use to sharpen old photos of us - elsewhere on this website.  As you said at the time, like those bits in old films where they zoom in on a grainy image to read the words on a page, or something impossible. 

Watching this makes you feel like you've gone back in a time machine. 

I haven't got a good shot of the hydraulic buffer stops at Waterloo yet (see Page 22)...they've apparently been modified nowadays because some modern trains don't have two buffers as of old so a plate has been welded between the two buffer plates as a means of engaging with the centre auto-couplers. I can't find any diagrams of the flange retarders which I'm sure used to be fitted to the last 20 feet of track nor pictures of the platform end signals showing the "Down Main" indicator.

Speaking of which, I do remember the News Cinema which was located next to platform 1 because I sometimes went in there on a Saturday whilst on totally unnecessary return trips to Waterloo when I was about 10 or 11 years old. They also showed continuous programs of Cartoons such as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck etc.  Such was my interest for film going at the time!

I found this on this website which has a series of pages about Waterloo Station.  The links to each subsequent page in the series are at the bottom of each page.  The above image was on page 7!  It has some amazing stuff on it so it is worth persevering and working through the pages.

Thanks for all the photos and I know we do need to build the story and incorporate all the photos (plus more that we need to find).  Do you remember the ad we used to see by the track for Slater's Paints? It was two cut-out decorators carrying a ladder between them over their shoulders, in white overalls each carrying a bucket of paint. Can't find a picture anywhere but there was one in a magazine my Dad gets called Best of British. 

Yeah, I remember the hoarding but not exactly where it was...on a wall somewhere.

Haven't had any luck with train timetables or ticket prices. It seems the only place such information is kept is at the National Railway Museum in York. Pity we didn't keep such stuff isn't it - even a platform ticket! 

Just watched the first half of that film....good stuff; no wonder we were hooked!..... a little faster moving than real life I thought (especially through Vauxhall) but that was early 8mm cine stuff...and the sound effects were badly synced or possibly even unrelated!  

Yeah, I noticed that - especially the Bulleid engines zipping back to Waterloo or Nine Elms at about 60mph! 

I was surprised at the Berrylands shots, especially across the recreation ground because the trees were so small but it was a good nostalgic reminder of what we took for granted.

Thought you'd like that and those of Bournemouth which you'll see later in the video. 

Did the Pacifics really slip as much as that on start!! Apart from them having an unbalanced power to weight ratio, there is quite a lot of info. On various sites about why the Bulleids suffered so much from oil in the wrong places which didn't help their traction.  

Gordon Bennett - they could hardly get away - great to see though (see subsequent email exchange discussing this point below)!

I don't think any of this spoils our project because we're after a sort of static reference but it acts as a great atmospheric reminder.  

I've been trying to find a copy of Departure times from Waterloo to see if we can work out what trains we were likely to have taken.....and probable ticket prices; and would like a decent passing time log so we can estimate general speeds at various places.  

Also was looking for a shot of the Johnnie Walker statue that adorned one of the kiosks on Waterloo Concourse...surprising what you can't find when you know what you're looking for isn't it?

Yes, you sort of feel that there must be one somewhere but it has just been described differently (or not at all so can't be found). Some stuff on Flickr can be located within the website but doesn't appear when you do a Google search. Which means, there are probably loads of other photo sites which have the shots we want but don’t always come up when searching from Google?  Eventually found - see Page 22.

In the meantime, here are some other possibly useful links for you to use to do research and possibly ask questions and get answers from:–

Nine Elms and Archive of Steam Performance Logs 

Just a little extra bit for you. I was looking for a shot of the Hydraulic buffer stops at Waterloo when I accidentally came across this bit of video which includes those buffers.  Obviously filmed more professionally than other clips, it shows many aspects of those Bulleid Pacifics when they were new including the novel hidden valve gear and lots of good shots of the motion, the steam reversing gear in action and the steam-operated firehole door.  The only pity is there's no sound but worth a watch.

Some great footage there! They looked so ugly in their very first original design but they were transformed when the changed the profile of the leading edge of the streamlining bodywork and smoke deflectors.  [Note - some of the original links were broken as the originals videos have been removed or just moved so those links have been deleted, but you can browse for videos here].

Some fantastic videos with "Sounds of the Sixties" as the audio track.

Had to change the video as it had been removed.  Now replaced with these two videos (below).

Not that excited about the choice of music though but a good reminder of why the Beatles were so successful eh?

Absolutely right!  Here's another video mostly of the Isle of Wight but some shots from Waterloo and en route.

Watching the video (above right) I can't believe how little traction the Bulleid Pacifics have.  Check out from 3 minutes in!  I wonder why this is.  Any ideas?

As regards the subject of Bulleid Pacifics and their apparent lack of traction (especially on starting), there is some discussion about it here: https://www.national-preservation.com/threads/bulleid-wheelslip-question.543086/

Which broadly seems to point to issues with the small amount of movement required of the regulator, distance from the regulator to the cylinders via the superheater header or the unevenness of drive from the 3-cylinders....which I find not entirely convincing.

I suppose it is possible the regulator valve didn't allow a gently progressive enough increment of steam making it difficult to control.

However, I do recall that the valves of the unrebuilt engines were chain driven instead of the usual Walschaerts (Sp?) valve gear and the chains and gear wheel(s) at the axle end were encased in an oil bath (much like a car engine). Slipping on these engines was common and largely blamed on oil leakage from the oil bath casing where the axle passed through it onto the wheels/rails That would seem a very likely occurrence.

As for the wheel slip, your suggestion that oil on the wheels being the more likely cause does seem to be borne out by that video.  Even as a light engine the driver can't stop the thing (it just skids) and then spins its wheels just trying to move just itself!  If the driver of the Bulleid couldn't stop the engine without it skidding like that how would one have coped trying to brake on the incline out of the Bournemouth engine shed? 

I presume they would have had to apply sand. I seem to remember they would take a bit of a run up when heading for the slope into Bournemouth shed.

Quote from Wikipedia re West Country and Battle of Britain classes:

Performance of the unrebuilt locomotives

As with the Merchant Navy class, they could generate great power using mediocre quality fuel, due largely to Bulleid's excellent boiler. They also ran smoothly at high speed, but they were also beset with the same technical problems of their larger sisters:

• Adhesion problems. The lighter loading on their driving axles meant that they were even more prone to wheel slip than the Merchant Navy class, requiring very careful control when starting a heavy train. Once underway they were noted for their free-running, excellent steam production and rapid turn of speed.

...but that doesn't really explain the slipping problems with all the versions of Bulleid Pacifics either.

Just another thought....you may remember that the regulator lever in the Bulleids was like a sort of inverted brake lever which the driver pulled outwards. It didn't appear to have a lot of travel to it....so maybe it was difficult to apply steam in a gradual way?  i.e. Most other steam engines seem to have had a long lever which was rotated in an arc parallel to the boiler backplate which may have allowed more movement/precision.  

Also, when Mr Bulleid was designing these engines he was trying to keep the overall axle weight down (21 tons) so they could run on most of the Southern's routes which may have contributed to the problem. This was partly also why the originals had the flat-sided (Spam Can) casing to reduce weight.

The drivers obviously learned to live with the problem!

......and that's my knowledge exhausted!!