John Blyth's Gloucestershire Railway Memories

John Blyth was a career railwayman brought up in Cheltenham close to Malvern Road and Lansdown stations. He came to be known as 'Blyth of Paddington' to some and I believe he was the BR official responsible for liaising with SLOA, the main line preserved steam locomotive owners association late on in his career. He became Editor of the Stephenson Locomotive Society journal after retirement and was also Chairman for a short period. I corresponded with him about local railway matters and his observations follow.

'Ashchurch was where my notorious railway career started, on 16 January 1948. Alf Jones was then the stationmaster and a kindly man. I had been there pre-war as a teenager and got to know Harry Rogers in the Level Crossing Box, he was still there when I joined. The Junction Box had plenty to do and warranted a booking boy, even though he was an adult. They had train reporting to do to Gloucester LMS Telegraph Office.

The son of a much earlier Ashchurch stationmaster, William Watkins, was J W Watkins who became General Manager of BR London Midland Region and a member of the British Railways Board. He was 'something' at Derby at one time and when he came down in the Inspection Saloon, he always visited his father's grave in St. Nicholas churchyard. There used to be a photograph of the staff posed on the platform, with old William with his beard, centre back row, and little 'J.W.', then a junior clerk, cross-legged at the front.

I have worked at Tewkesbury, Ripple, Upton-on-Severn and Malvern Wells, also at Beckford, Evesham, Broom Junction (for months) and at several stations on the SMJ. At Beckford my railway career was in jeopardy as I answered back the Assistant Commercial Manager from Worcester.

The 'Pines Express' existed as a train long before it was named in 1927.The little 'finger' destination boards at Cheltenham used to read 'LNW Express for Liverpool Lime Street and Manchester London Road' until they were repainted in the 1930s.

On the GWR, the roof boards of both the 8.0am and the 'Flyer' were lettered 'Cheltenham Spa Express', but when they were going for a record, they carried the nickname on a loco headboard. The 8.0am was due in Paddington at 10.30am pre-war, but never got back to it after, it was a poorish timekeeper when I used it on Mondays to get back to work.

'Castles' came on the Honeybourne line from early 1933 with 4096 and 5031 as regulars. I was very young indeed when 4081 was around on a race special, six years old at the most. The 4800 class 0-4-2T came brand new in 1932 and went on the Honeybourne autos at once. At Malvern Road station was a signal used for wrong direction moves out of the main platform, as far as I know only when an auto engine was not provided or was faulty and another engine had to come on the rear to take the train out. Two coaches and two engines were too long for the bay platform and the 'main' had to be used.

The GWR Cardiff – Birmingham railcar (on the Honeybourne line) came in around the summer or autumn of 1934, and railcars 2, 3 and 4 were built for it, having a tiny buffet built in. At first they didn't call at Cheltenham and there was an outcry, but were not used much when the stop was put in – when Mother and I went on it (supplementary fare half-a-crown I think) we heard the comment on the platform: 'Oh, passengers today then!'

I was on the last 'Ports – to –Ports', from Leckhampton to Gloucester, about 1 September 1939 and remember the guard coming round for tickets and saying 'You won't be using this train again for a very long time.' I didn't believe him but he was right – it never came back. 7800 'Torquay Manor' and 7801 'Anthony Manor' were earmarked for the working when new. 7800 made just one run from the Banbury end, during which it took off all the coping stones from the station platforms as it came over the Cotswolds. Eventually 7810 'Draycott Manor' and 7811 'Dunley Manor' were the regular locos.

In 1940 the coping stones at Lansdown station were set back to allow GWR engines with wide cylinders to pass through and run to Worcester.

Also in 1940 we got LNER J25 0-6-0s and O4 2-8-0s and, from the Southern Railway, Gloucester got 2332, an N15X 4-6-0, and for helping out on the locals, a pair of I3 4-4-2T, 2089 and 2091, the latter quite good, but the former dreadful. I came over from Gloucester on the 1.57pm Paddington – Cheltenham in December 1941 with a 45XX 2-6-2T and 2089, with no idea this thing was around. We brought 16 coaches up, all full right through, and had to stand 20 minutes at Churchdown while the I3 got up a bit of steam. My shock on seeing it at St James' can well be imagined.

Above: Brand new Stanier 8F LMS 8289 at Malvern Road West in September 1940 on what looks like an iron ore train. The loco was one of 50 built by Beyer, Peacock & Co, Manchester for the War Department,No.403, and initially loaned to the LMS. Photo John Blyth (taken with a five shilling plastic bodied Brownie camera using 127 film).Below: Another brand new Stanier 8F LMS 8290 at Malvern Road West in September 1940, being delivered from Beyer, Peacock with a virtually empty tender. Again built for the War Department, No.404 was loaned to the GWR. In 1941/42 it went to Persia and by 1945 had gone to Iraq where it stayed. Photo John Blyth

I recall an ambulance train arriving from the north with an LNER B16/3 on the front and it was assisted forward over the MSWJ by a 'Manor'. About 1942 I suppose.

A 52XX 2-8-0T was working locals one Sunday in Summer 1943.

It was a tradition at one time to visit Malvern Road shed on Christmas morning and one year we had a sharp verbal tussle with a person who had no seasonal feelings at all! The shed extension was wartime, of course.

In 1943 and onwards United States Army Transportation Corps (USATC) 2-8-0s were arriving at Birkenhead and being worked down dead in fours through Malvern Road to storage sites in South Wales awaiting D-Day. They were a very under-recorded type for obvious reasons… I have more pictures of them in Italy and Greece than in the UK. Also right at the end, and before I went to the army the following month, we saw three of the Yankee Whitcomb Bo-Bo diesel electrics hauled through. The next I saw were at Suez Junction in Egypt, at 169 Railway Workshops Co of the Royal Engineers.

'Royal Scot' 6130 worked the evening up stopper one night in December 1943, thought to be the very first visit of the class, but a rumour went round of another one in the offing about the same time.

The wartime widening from two to four tracks between Cheltenham and Gloucester – MacAlpines were the contractors and had their own light railway with four or five steam locos working in the then traditional way, with the dumpings (of earth) adjacent to Hatherley Lane becoming known as the 'Humptydumps'   The work copied a scheme for widening which dated from 1917 but didn't get done before 11 November 1918. It was a pretty poor layout both at Cheltenham Lansdown Junction and Gloucester Engine Shed Junction. Badgeworth and Elm Bridge signal boxes were put in before the widening and had to be enlarged as part of the scheme. Photographs of the widening had to wait until after the War to be published – though one did come in a propaganda leaflet without the location being disclosed. Cloddymore was at the time more or less in the countryside and the foot crossing was very convenient for suicides. Badgeworth box was taken out of use quite soon after war traffic finished.  In the 1950s the BR Regions had to look at works like this which had been done on Government account and decide which were still wanted – and they had to pay for them then – so I think this was when they must have failed to make a case for the retention of four roads.

The railway between Gloucester and Cheltenham was a joint one between the GWR and Midland/LMS. I remember the Mid-Way Post on the up (LMS) side; it seems to have got lost in the mud during the widening as it was never seen afterwards. It had 'MID-WAY POST' and, underneath, two arrows pointing outwards with 'MR' and 'GWR'. The Churchdown signalman, like a good many others, had to be passed in LMS and GWR block working so that he could work one towards Gloucester and the other towards Cheltenham. There was a good deal of this in the area until the regulations were made standard (as far as they could be) – Tramway Junction worked GW to Gloucester East and North Junction; and LMS to Engine Shed, Passenger Station and Goods Junction. They had a real heller of a signal just outside the box; it was their home for the Swindon line, but also the advance starter for East Box and outer home for North Junction, all of whom had to pull a lever before it would clear. I saw the tons of ironwork at the bottom of the post for the slotting and was duly impressed, but it was done in a single electric motor before Gloucester Panel Box took it all away.

Garratts became regular or almost so for a short time around 1949. They were a favourite for the China Clay train which used to work as required from Cornwall to Stoke. Walter Dendy, one time Goods Agent at Cheltenham High Street saw them more than I did, and I have his photograph of one, and also of two coupled together (which was forbidden!) at High Street returning north light engines.

R H B Nicholls, Divisional Superintendent, Gloucester and whose father R H Nicholls had been the GWR's Superintendent of the Line, always insisted that Malvern Road station should be called just that and not add the name of the town. No doubt this may have had something to do with the way St James' was titled. It was quite stupid to hear on the tannoy at Paddington – 'Gloucester, Malvern Road and Cheltenham Spa'.

The names Eastgate and Central for the two Gloucester stations only came in during 1951.

The working of Southern Region 2-6-0s (of the 'U' class) into Cheltenham over the ex-MSWJ line seems to have begun in about June 1952. I have a picture of one so marked that was published in the Railway Magazine, possibly the September 1952 issue. BR Standard 76XXX Class 4 2-6-0s also came in occasionally.'

BR Standard class 4 76027 of 71A Eastleigh arrives at Lansdown on the 10.10am from Southampton Terminus on a snowy 2 February 1954. Note the loco carries express headcode for this train,due in at 1.35pm, a throwback to pre-grouping days when the MSWJ express had through carriages for the north which were attached to Midland Railway services here at Cheltenham. In 1954 the service connected with the up 'Devonian' which arrived at 1.49pm. According to information on the picture's reverse, this was the fourth and last day of the initial trial period for 76XXX class locos over the MSWJ to Cheltenham;two previous occasions had been 12 November 1953 with 76007 and 1 February 1954 with 76029.The class was newly built, with the first going to Eastleigh in March 1953. 76027 was only three months old when this picture was taken.  Photo John Blyth