NEW SEPTEMBER 2022.  The judges for the annual best-kept station competition visited the entries by a special train. Timetabling this must have been a difficult task, covering all the branches while fitting in with the ordinary service trains but allowing around six minutes stop at each of the stations concerned. Here you get an 11-page booklet which contains the working timetable for 1956.

The tour started from platform 5 at Liverpool Street at 8.42 am on Monday 9 July. After eight days of travelling, with a break for the weekend, the train was due back into platform 4 at Liverpool Street at 4.13 pm on Wednesday 18 July. To cater for the nervously-awaited visit, some signal boxes had to open specially and the timings of a few ordinary trains had to be adjusted that day.

The special consisted of two coaches - the directors' observation saloon No. 962451 and a brake first. The engine to be used was not specified, but the sparse photographic evidence suggests that an E4 or J15 was likely to be employed, on the branches at least - presumably because of their wide route availabilities (they were classified RA2 and RA1 respectively).

We must thank our member Brian Hornsey for providing these scans. He sells very good hard-copies of a wide selection of steam-era working timetables which you may find of interest. His website is to be found at http://wttreprints.uk/ which you can visit HERE.

The file will be available to download as soon as payment has been made. You go to your account and click on ‘Downloads’. New customers create an account as they place their order.