MY LIFE IN TRAINS
Lineside and Station Sequences
Part Sixteen
West Ealing, Hanwell and Bethnal Green – 15 April 1960
The next week I decided to head out early on the Great Western line from Paddington to the west. I went to West Ealing first and here are half a dozen photos, all steam, mostly of up expresses with motion blur, so not some of my best.
After an hour or so at West Ealing, we moved on to another new location, on the platform end at Hanwell. The trains were travelling faster and my fastest shutter speed was not fast enough. So plenty of motion blur, but another record of thirty minutes that we will never see again. Six photographs and five GWR classes – I wonder why we left.
My next photo, taken a couple of hours later, was in Threadneedle Street, so I can assume we wandered around the City of London for a while. On my way home from whatever I did on the rest of this day after leaving Hanwell, I stopped off at Bethnal Green station for half an hour, and took three photographs – if you followed My Story, you will have seen these before. I took one photo before these three, at 17:35, of BR Britannia 4-6-2 No 70002 ‘’Geoffrey Chaucer’ on a down express, but it is so out of focus that I’ve never scanned it. That’s one that got away.
All Photographs by Alan Lewis Chambers ©
9:30 GWR Modified Hall 4-6-0 No 6959 'Peatling Hall' heads an express away from Paddington at West Ealing on 15 April 1960.
9:55 GWR Castle 4-6-0 No 5065 'Newport Castle' heads an express away from Paddington at West Ealing on 15 April 1960.
10:02 GWR Castle 4-6-0 No 5051 'Earl Bathurst' heads an express away from Paddington at West Ealing on 15 April 1960.
10:10 GWR Castle 4-6-0 No 7001 'Sir James Milne' heads an express away from Paddington at West Ealing on 15 April 1960.
10:15 GWR County 4-6-0 No 1004 'County of Somerset' heads an express away from Paddington at West Ealing on 15 April 1960.
10:32 GWR 6100 2-6-2T No 6163 passes West Ealing on a down train from Paddington on 15 April 1960.
11:23 GWR Hall 4-6-0 No 5987 'Brocket Hall' approaches Hanwell on an up Paddington express on 15 April 1960.
11:31 GWR King 4-6-0 No 6015 'King Richard III' passes Hanwell on a down express from Paddington on 15 April 1960.
11:35 GWR Grange 4-6-0 No 6863 'Dolhywel Grange' passes Hanwell on a down express from Paddington on 15 April 1960.
11:36 GWR Castle 4-6-0 No 5082 'Swordfish' approaches Hanwell on an up parcel train on 15 April 1960.
11:40 GWR Hall 4-6-0 No 4919 'Donnington Hall' approaches Hanwell on an up Paddington express on 15 April 1960.
11:50 Pioneer GWR County 4-6-0 No 1000 'County of Middlesex' speeds through Hanwell towards Paddington on 15 April 1960.
17:41 LNER N7/5 0-6-2T No 69671 storms to the top of Bethnal Green bank on 15 April 1960.
17:48 Brush Type 2 No D5558 hauls an eastbound parcels train towards Stratford past Bethnal Green station on 15 April 1960.
18:07 LNER B1 4-6-0 No 61287 comes off the Cambridge line into Bethnal Green station on 15 April 1960 near the end of its journey to Liverpool Street.
