Prior to 1904 through services to the South East from elsewhere in the country were rather erratic and largely related to cross-channel steamers from Queenborough Pier and Dover but in July that year the L&NWR inaugurated the ‘Sunny South Special’ via the West London line featuring through carriages from Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham to Brighton and Eastbourne. This became a dedicated service the following year, with further services to Folkestone and Dover added in July, followed later by a Manchester to Deal train. Similarly, after a brief flirtation in the 1860s, through Birkenhead-Dover services via the SER line between Reading and Redhill were reintroduced by the GWR in 1904, with a Hastings portion detached at Tonbridge. Two world wars curtailed these trains but the pattern followed in the inter-war years and resumed in the summer of 1949. With post-war austerity lifting, the number of trains increased as the emphasis shifted towards the holiday trade, while cross-channel ferries were served by overnight sleeper and car carrier trains - the steam-hauled BR era is represented here.
Collett 4-6-0 No 4074 Caldicot Castle heads south at Hatton with train 1O48, the 10.42am Wolverhampton (Low Level) to Margate in May 1962. A Maunsell ‘Schools’ class 4-4-0 will take over at Reading (General) for the journey over the former SE&CR route to Redhill. By now this weekday service ran only between April and October, and over the peak holiday periods of Christmas and Easter as required. It was divided upon reversal in Redhill, with a short portion going to Eastbourne via Brighton while the main train continued on to Ashford diesel-hauled, where another division was made. The front carriages continued on to Sandwich via Dover, while the rear continued to Margate via Canterbury (West).
Keith Pirt, courtesy Book Law Publications
GWR ‘Manor’ class 4-6-0 No 7817 Garsington Manor pauses at Guildford with 1V82, the 9.25am service from Margate to Wolverhampton (Low Level) on Saturday, 15 September 1962. This multi-portioned train ran Mondays to Fridays and with a slight variation on Saturdays. The main train ran via Canterbury (West) to Ashford, where a section from Sandwich that had run via Dover was attached. A portion running as the 10.03am from Eastbourne via Brighton would be attached at Redhill outside of the peak holiday period, commencing on the day of this photograph, so is being conveyed in this train.
On Saturday, 24 January 1959, British Railways Standard ‘4MT’ 2-6-0 No 76062 nears the station at Ash with train 1147, the 7.35am Birkenhead (Woodside) to Margate. This year-round weekday service would cease at the end of the summer timetable in October 1959, only to be revived as the cut-back 10.42am Wolverhampton (Low Level) to Ramsgate duty from 2 May 1960. Thereafter it ran for six months only between May and October (inclusive) with steam eliminated on the Southern from 24 September 1962 when a diesel from Margate started running all the way through to Reading. It as withdrawn altogether at the end of the summer 1964 timetable as BR prepared for a revised service with the introduction of diesel-electric-multiple-units over the Reading to Redhill line from 4 January 1965.
GWR ‘4300’ class Mogul No 6385 nears Chilworth station with the summer Saturdays-only 1V86, 12.20pm from Hastings to Birmingham (Snow Hill) on 21 July 1962. The train picked up at St Leonards (Warrior Square), St Leonards (West Marina), and Bexhill (Central) and was then routed via the Eastbourne avoiding line at Stone Cross Junction to Polegate, where a connection was made with a short service from Eastbourne. A locomotive change occurred at the Brighton reversal and in turn the pictured Reading-allocated engine came on at the Redhill reversal and worked through.
Ken W Wightman