SIXTY YEARS AGO – FARNBOROUGH HOLIDAY – 1961
The summer of 1961 was probably the last opportunity to record the dying embers of the Southern Railway’s classic motive power in main line action. Ruling the roost in the 1930s, the ‘King Arthurs’, ‘Lord Nelsons’ and ‘Schools’ would all be gone by the end of 1962, leaving the ‘West Countries’, ‘Battle of Britains’ and ‘Merchant Navies’ to continue the fight until July 1967. British Railways Standard classes of both the 4-6-0 and 2-6-0 configuration accelerated the decline – unlike their neighbours on the Western Region, the Southern enginemen seemed to get on with the BR classes rather well! At the end of my first year at Yeovil Grammar School in July 1961, my mother, father and I took our usual summer holiday to my maternal grandparents in Napoleon Avenue in Farnborough, the street name being derived from Napoleon III’s wife, Princess Eugénie, the last Empress of France, who lived at Farnborough from 1885 to 1920 following the death of her husband in 1873 and her son, the Prince Imperial, in the Zulu Wars in 1879.
We travelled from Yeovil on Saturday 29th July 1961, my father having finished work the previous day from his job as a draughtsman at Normalair – a subsidiary of the Westland helicopter factory next door. Our motive power out to Yeovil Junction was M7 0-4-4T No.30131 – I am lucky to have the smokebox numberplate now in my collection from an auction 50 years later! From Yeovil Junction No.34062 (rebuilt in March 1960) hauled us to Basingstoke where we spent some time watching activities from the up slow platform. I was always pleased arrive at Platform 4 with the 10.25 Poole to Leicester and Bradford Exchange. It was replaced by ‘Modified Hall’ No.7929 for the journey north.
