It seems like half a lifetime ago (probably because it was half a lifetime ago) that I commuted to school on the electric trains of the Southern Region of British Rail(ways) ... trains with doors that the passengers opened and closed for themselves, just like your door at home, without the aid of electrical / hydraulic systems. The doors needed a hefty shove to make them work, as there was a safety catch to work too - so they were known as "slam door trains" ... a name which has transformed into the current term "slammers". In my days, I used 4EPB units (5001 upwards) and with some 2EPBs (5701 upward) to strengthen them, with 4CEP and the occasional 4BEP unit ... with a few very modern (in those days) 4VEP units getting onto our lines around 1970, having spread from the Western and Central division to South East ... the lines from Petts Wood and Orpington outward (School and work at Seiscom) to Sevenoaks from 1966 to 1971 and 1972 to about 1975, and inwards to Sydenham Hill from 1962 to 1966 and London, including the long lost station at Holborn Viaduct, from 1972 to 1976. So there's a huge nostalgia - a childhood - wrapped up in those slammers. The healthy feeling of a door well slammed, the partial and timid half rattle if it hasn't closed properly, which left the handle at 45 degrees as a warning to staff looking along the train that it was not ready to go. In those days, the doors were not centrally locked, but everyone knew the system and accidents were infrequent.

On Thursday evening, I caught the 18:14 from Lymington Pier to Brockenhurst, tipped off that the line is being operated by the very last two 'slammers' running on the main commercial railway network ... and I was not disappointed. A journey back in time - yet still the smoothest of rides, and the fresh sea air wafting through the carriage rather than the air conditioned and perhaps germ laden offering of a hermetically sealed modern unit - I have see numbers like "444" and "450" for the replacements. Some things have changed; the doors are now centrally locked so that the guard (sorry - "conductor") can stop you opening the doors at 60 m.p.h. and the 4CIG had shrunk to a 3CIG, with the intermediate trailer which, as I recall, had doors for every compartment, having disappeared [Added correction - I was thinking that the Lymington trains were 4VEP not 4CIG originally - the 4CIG were on the Brighton line in my days].

From Lymington Pier, where the "Ugly Duckling" ferries run to and from the Isle of Wight, the line crosses the end of the yacht-encrusted harbour. Glorious, picturesque views of the boats, the ferries, the sea and the sky had my shutter clicking through a long series of images which - in the olden days of the CIGs would have meant an expensive bill at Boots for developing and printing. These days it leaves me asking "what can I do with all of these pictures?" some of which - such as this one here - capture the glory of the late summer evening at the British Seaside. The picture feels timeless, but the trains are set to be replaced by something more plastic (and diesel powered during the week, too) from next May, so it's not as timeless as we think. Next year, this picture won't be possible as the 18:14 from the Pier will be a sealed sardine can called a "158" - not a bad train, but not such a loveable one.

With my specific 'practical useage' rather then 'enthusiast' background to rail operation and knowledge, I have posted a follow up thread concerning the background to the switch away from heritage stock here where I am soliciting comment. Although it would be logical to operate the whole network on a few standard train models, there are some odd and unusual issues that make it appropriate at times to leave odd-ball specials (it's always been the case, and there are others such as Cardiff Bay with a 'bubblecar' unit) and I am flumoxed at the need to take a step across (retrograde?) to diesel.

I recall going to an evening's celebration of the local railway service in a town local to us in Wiltshire, and seeing picture after picture of trains - even though we were really there to celebrate the whole railway - and wondering "why". And yet I found myself the other night creating something of a pictorial record of the CIGs ... not only of them at Lymington Pier, Lymington Town and Brockenhurst, but also the trains themselves, the aspects of the compartments which - to this day - I recognise as being so characteristic that show me a picture out of content and I'll identify them. The picture here is the door / entrance. You can tell it's a CIG because of the beading around the door, the lack of an internal latch, the colour of the seats. And I could tell an EPB and the others too. But these memories will fade, so I have put a whole series of pictures, and at far higher resolution that I usually upload, on our "share" pages - you can find them here here and here

Part of my reasoning is the horrid realisation I had a couple of months ago when I was hunting for EPB pictures and they were truely had to find, and the discovery that not one Bullied EPB had been preserved; a unit had been put aside, but had then mouldered. (There is a BR style 2EPB at the East Kent railway - [picture] which would make a fine extra unit on 'the Lymington'. And I'm aware that preservation is life extension, not the creation of a limitless life. See Forest of Dean - comments for example.


Brockenhust is the end of the run for the 'slammers' these days - so after just 10 minutes across the New Forest from Lymington, the train draws to a halt in the segregated bay platform and passengers must change to catch onward services to Southampton, Basingstoke or London, to Bournemouth, Poole or Weymouth, or to Reading, Birmingham and Manchester. The 'Old lady' - Unit 1497 - take a five minute brake, loads in fresh set of commuters, people heading for holidays on the Isle of Wight, before heading off into the sunset down the branch again.

(written 2009-09-05 14:53:33)

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