Readers’ Letters
Salisbury inter-regional services
Sir: I thoroughly enjoyed the Salisbury interregional services article in the December 2023 issue, particularly as it identified a service which I thought started from Cardiff or Bristol. I was on a photographic trip to Weymouth, Yeovil, Templecombe and Salisbury having taken the newspaper and mail train in the early hours of Saturday, 10 August. There had been a fire near Vauxhall or Queens Road and trains were delayed departing Waterloo, which played into my hands as arrival at Weymouth was at a more suitable time for me and not the unearthly hour as per timetable. The train 1O91 (7.35am Nottingham Midland to Bournemouth West) arrived behind No 6814 Enborne Grange, then allocated to 82B, St Philips Marsh, displaying head code O91 was replaced by No 76064 allocated to 71A, Eastleigh, displaying a via Fordingbridge and Verwood headcode. As I have been doing some presentations, this information is very useful because it doesn’t just rely on number and location. By reading magazines such as yours, I pick up snippets of information even if it may take 60 years to ascertain. By having a loco change at Salisbury and as your photo caption mentions, at Rhubarb Curve, I wonder if there were any other loco changes?
I always look forward to each issue as it gives me at least two hours of reminiscence. Long may it continue.
Martin Hubbard (by email)
Coach liveries of 1948 and later
Sir: May I pass one or two comments on the above given note in the December issue, firstly page 11 in the article ‘British Railways 1948, summer and (just) beyond’ concerning stock forming the 10am Glasgow (Buchanan Street) to Aberdeen and 5.30pm Aberdeen-Glasgow return, the August 1948 issue of the Railway Observer noting ‘an 8-coach chocolate and cream rake’ being used. I rather think this should be ‘plum and spilt milk’ as a photograph taken in the varnish shops of St Rollox Works in Glasgow on 13 June 1948 shows two 1947 built LMS type CKs, 4841 and 4844, displaying their new ‘plum and off-white BR livery’ and carrying Glasgow (Buchanan Street)-Aberdeen carriage boards. Somewhat intriguingly, beyond them is an LMS composite dining car of the six-wheeled bogied build of 1936/37 in number series 240-243, 250-252 similarly liveried. This is more than likely to be the set so used.
For verification or otherwise, I have never seen a photograph of this service working in the manner described and just how long it did so is a matter of conjecture. As you state in the article, film stock
