My family moved from Surrey to Bournemouth in 1945. I was then seven years old, still very impressionable, and even then, naïvely very keen on all things railway but with experience mainly of the Southern.
Thus it was always exciting to be told that we were going to stay with my grandparents on holiday, which happened almost every year. My first awakening to the fact that we were going on strange railways was the sight of the locomotive at the head of the northbound ‘Pines Express’ when we joined it at Bournemouth West terminus on our first such trip, in 1946. Not only were the coaches all labelled LMS, but so was the locomotive! I had not understood about the Somerset & Dorset route north from Bournemouth, and the sight of an LMS engine at Bournemouth West amazed me (I now realise it shouldn't have!).
Also, I didn't understand that the S&D line forced our heavy train to climb over the steep Mendip Hills to a summit over 800ft above sea level. That's what made it such a slow journey, at least until we reversed at Bath Green Park. Having left Bournemouth West soon after breakfast, we reached Manchester London Road at around tea-time. My mother then told me that the worst part
