An account from Adrian Searle from March 1974 describes a Sunday “Mystery Trip” rail excursion beginning at Oakham, travelling across multiple regions before arriving at Herne Bay. The journey reflects typical excursion travel conditions and routes of the period.
THREE-HUNDRED MILES FOR £1·50 ON A SUNDAY MYSTERY TRIP
Oakham departure
OAKHAM, sole surviving passenger railway station in the County of Rutland, was a pretty strange place to be at ten past nine on a Sunday morning: for normally there are no trains until eight minutes past two in the afternoon. But, on that wet Sunday morning in July, Oakham’s main platform was thronged with passengers. We’d come to catch a train at 9.30, although none of us had a clue where we were going—on a BR ‘Explore Britain by Train’ Mystery Trip. For £1·50 apiece we had been promised a nine-hour round journey, with four and a half hours at our unknown destination.
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Class “47” No. 1675, “Amazon”, on the Midland inter-regional link near Cricklewood on September 23, 1973, heading a Western mystery trip from Gloucester to Diss, Norfolk.
The mystery begins
We knew from which direction our train would arrive. Possibly in an effort to give as little away as possible, BR had listed departure points on the excursion ticket as Leicester, Oakham, Melton Mowbray, Loughborough, obviously, the train would not be picking up in that order—or we’d be to-ing and fro-ing all day! It would surely have to start from either Loughborough or Oakham, and as there was no sign of it here at Oakham we had cleverly deduced that the starting point was Loughborough and the train would appear from the Leicester direction.
Early journey deductions
This also seemed to indicate a journey to the South, or possibly East Coast. But, when a little old lady loudly recalled a previous trip to Rhyl, British Rail Passengers Network maps were quickly brought out from coat pockets, baskets and bags, and a group of elderly passengers behind us discussed the possibilities. “Eric says we’ll know where we’re going when we get to the next station; isn’t that right, dear?”, if we turn right it’ll be Bournemouth and if we go left Eastbourne.”
I was still trying to work that one out when the excursion, comprising eleven coaches hauled by green-liveried class “47” diesel No. 1811, arrived from Loughborough, Leicester and Melton. It was compartment stock and we settled ourselves in with a family of four: Mum, Dad and two young children. So there were prospects of a somewhat less than tranquil journey as 1811 pulled its train out of Oakham on time.
Routing through the Midlands
On through the former Harworth and Greet stations and past the innumerable sidings at industrial Corby—surely a town of this size is worthy of a passenger service?—and on to the main Leicester line at Glendon Junction, then Kettering and Wellingborough, the latter still displaying “Midland Road” on its nameboards although, since the closure of London Road, it has been the town’s only station.
The excursion crawled past closed Irchester and then sped up through Sharnbrook and on to Bedford. Time for ‘elevenses’. The buffet car, which had been serving light refreshments since we left Oakham, was far from crowded. Over coffee we watched Flitwick, Harlington, Leagrave and Luton flash by, as we headed for London. “Southend, I reckon,” said one lady passenger to another. “No, that’s not enough,” replied her companion.
South London and onward
Others in the buffet car had stopped pondering for the moment over likely destinations while they tried to remember how it was discovered X-rays and how many balls there were in a snooker set. These were two of the five questions a competition form handed out to passengers by the BR Representative to add a little more interest to the trip. First prize was a First-Class Family Return ticket to London, and the runner-up would receive two second-class tickets for the next mystery excursion.
Glimpses of Hampden, St Albans, Radlett, Elstree and Mill Hill Broadway—then back to our compartment, where the youngest occupants had not turned out to be the howling little monsters we feared they might be. We discussed the big topic. Some of us plumped for Bournemouth, others for Eastbourne (perhaps we’d all been brainwashed by Eric). But it was pure guesswork: we wouldn’t have much idea until we started weaving through the maze of tracks heading London.
Suddenly, the possibility that we could be heading for Portsmouth occurred to us, although it was again with little foundation. Twenty years living at Ryde, on the Isle of Wight, meant that Portsmouth—at the other end of the ferry route—and Southsea became all too familiar. There’s very little mystery about them for us. Still, we thought, we could always pop across to the Island and see the folks.
Arrival and destination revealed
We passed Hendon and then the train halted for the first time. It was 11.10 and we were standing near Brent Junction, Cricklewood. Five minutes later 1811 roared off, the excursion heading for St. Pancras route, towards Dudding Hill. Over the main line out of Euston, at Willesden, we passed Acton Wells Junction and took the old North & South Western Junction line through Acton Central and South Acton. It was raining as we continued our slow progress and arrived, on Southern Region metals, at Chiswick. Over the Thames, through Barnes Bridge, Barnes and Putney, and we were heading east. Stop-go in pouring rain through Wandsworth Town, where electro-diesels E6035 and E6024 were spotted on engineering trains. Then thunder and lightning made their debuts. It wasn’t the best day for a trip to the seaside.
Right on Noon, we arrived in Clapham Junction. We knew we would soon get more of an idea of where we were bound. We made for Brixton, then Herne Hill, West Dulwich, Sydenham Hill and on to Beckenham Junction—and back to the buffet car for lunch. Well, it was going to be the South-East, that much was certain. But where, exactly? Would it be Hastings or Folkestone, or Margate, perhaps?
Getting stuck-in to ham rolls and coffee, we passed Shortlands, Bromley South, Bickley, and then St. Mary Cray. That made Hastings very doubtful. On to Swanley and Farningham Road, and that all but ruled out Folkestone. We flashed through Sole Street and one passenger was in no doubt where we were going. “Bournemouth, I’m sure,” he exclaimed. Perhaps he was joking.
Mystery tour train from Llanelli to Canterbury West passing Factory Junction, by Stewart’s Lane motive power depot, south-east of Clapham Junction, in February 1972, behind class “47” No. 1666, “Odin”.
Journey’s end
The mystery was soon to be no more, however. Before we reached Chatham the secret was out. The BR Rep, arrived in the buffet car (yes, we were still there) and onto our table dropped a leaflet. “We hope you are enjoying the journey and have a pleasant time in Herne Bay, which is the destination for today’s train.”
Passing E501 at Faversham, we pulled into Herne Bay at 13.30—38 minutes ahead of schedule—left the station and made for the sea front with the aid of the map on the informative BR leaflet. Thankfully, it had stopped raining. Meanwhile, 1811 and the eleven coaches continued to Margate to await the return trip.
It was nice to be beside the sea again, although we probably didn’t appreciate it as much as most. Living on the Isle of Wight for any length of time tends to spoil you so far as the seaside is concerned; other resorts seem to pale in comparison. But BR had chosen a good day to visit Herne Bay, as the Town Regatta was taking place.
A lazy afternoon drifted by, with not that much rain, and we were drinking tea in the station buffet before 6 p.m. Trains for London—Charing Cross and Victoria—and the coastal stations to Ramsgate arrived and departed. But the highlight of our wait was the arrival of class “47” No. 1805 with empty excursion stock from Margate at about ten past six.
British Railways had, in fact, run two excursions to Herne Bay from the East Midlands that day. This one had started from Leicester and, following the same route as ours slightly later train, picked up passengers at Kettering and Wellingborough instead of at Melton Oakham. “The train now standing at Platform Two is the 18.12 return excursion to Leicester, calling at Wellingborough and Kettering,” said the station announcer.
“Did you hear that, Henry? This train’s going to Leicester.” “Yes, dear. Probably a factory trip.” “There’s Leicester, anyway?” “In the Midlands.” “Oh yes, it’s in Yorkshire isn’t it?”…
About twenty minutes after the departure of the 18.12 excursion, our own train, with No. 1811 still at the head, arrived at Herne Bay. We made our way to our compartment and the train was away right on time—at 18.35.
The return route was as we had outward trip as far as Shortlands, where we turned up the Catford line to Peckham Rye and then headed through East Brixton, Clapham and Wandsworth Road to Clapham Junction. We then regained our outward route and continued on through Wandsworth Town back to Dudding Hill Junction.
We were halted again at Brent Junction, apparently for a crew change—which must have been reason for our stop on the outward journey—before regaining the Midland main line and heading north for home. A very wet Oakham Station was reached at about 22.55 and we were soon in the car heading back to Stamford.
Apart from the weather—which even the most ardent BR knocker could hardly blame the railway for—it was a fine day out, with around 300 miles of comfortable travel for £1·50 apiece. And that can’t be bad.
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