Recollections of Richard
Kerridge
Yarmouth Southtown and Bungay 1941
I recall travelling from Bungay to Gt. Yarmouth on Friday nights during
1941 when I was attending Bungay Grammar School as a weekly boarder.
The train left Bungay at 6pm. The Waveney Valley Line was single track
from Tivetshall to Beccles but there was a passing loop at Bungay as
well as some sidings. The line went through Ditchingham, Ellingham and
Geldeston before finally reaching Beccles. The journey took about 15
minutes. Beccles had four platforms. One was for the Waveney Valley
line, another was the down from London, plus an up for London and finally
one for Oulton Broad and Lowestoft. The latter two making an island.
Beccles was quite an important junction and the staff there served it
with typical railway pride of the day. At Beccles the train from London
was divided; the front portion going to Yarmouth and the rear to Lowestoft.
"Up the front for Yarmouth, rear for Lowestoft", was a familiar
call from a porter as the London train arrived. When the train had stopped,
the engine was reversed to loosen the couplings to allow the staff to
unhook the carriages and undo the brake and vacuum hoses. The engine
then advanced a few feet to leave space for the hoses to be capped and
a rear light to be put on the end of the Yarmouth section. The guard's
job was then to make quite sure the internal doors between the carriages
were securely locked. It always appeared to me to be a very dangerous
job particularly when it was being done in the reverse way and two sections
were being joined together. The train left Beccles about 6.30pm arriving
in Yarmouth Southtown around 6.50pm. after a non-stop journey. There
were occasions when I remember being held up at St Olaves because there
was an air raid in progress at Yarmouth. On Monday mornings I returned
to Bungay leaving Southtown at 8am on a non-stop train to Beccles arriving
there at 8.19am. The carriages from Lowestoft were already standing
at their platform, less a locomotive, ready to be picked up by the engine
of the Yarmouth train and then backed onto the Yarmouth carriages to
make one train to proceed to Ipswich and London. Something we 10 year
old schoolboys enjoyed watching and no doubt it was quite a skillful
operation. There was a wait at Beccles before I could catch the Waveney
Valley train for Bungay which meant that I was late for school which
began at 9am. Since this happened only on a Monday, the Head didn't
appear to mind too much. During the war at Bungay I remember seeing
train loads of evacuees arriving from Gravesend in London. The train
that brought them was a full blown London express with a proper engine
and corridor coaches; not often seen on the Waveney Valley Line whose
engines and stock were of very antiquated origin. As schoolboys during
the war, we often walked along sections of the track near Ditchingham
with buckets picking up pieces of coal the engine-drivers had used to
throw at rabbits. It was surprising how much coal we could collect over
quite a short stretch of line and the quality was good.
Yarmouth Southtown to Beccles 1945 to 1948
After the war I returned to live at home but continued with my schooling
at Bungay so I travelled to and fro on a daily basis. I left Yarmouth
still on the 8am train which arrived in Beccles at 8.19am. There was
also a train which left Yarmouth at 8.10am to call at the intermediate
stations of Belton, St.Olaves, Haddiscoe (High Level) and Aldeby. It
arrived in Beccles at 8.45am. From Beccles I travelled to Bungay by
bus in order to arrive at school earlier than if I had caught the train
from Beccles. At the end of the day I caught a bus back to Beccles and
the 4.39 train from there to Yarmouth. This was a slow train calling
at all the stations and taking 35 minutes to do the journey. In the
winter of 1947 I remember that in places there was only a single track
in use and the snowdrifts on Aldeby station were reaching the top of
the lamp posts. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to ride on the
footplate on a slow train from Beccles to Yarmouth - very exciting for
a schoolboy or indeed anybody. Can't imagine anyone allowing it today
- who would dare to take the risk? We often used to talk to the drivers
and I remember one once giving us a lesson, so to speak, on how heat
travels - namely by conduction, convection and radiation. I also knew
one of the drivers of the main line expresses, a Mr H.Muskett who was
at one-time Mayor of Yarmouth.
It was a great shock when the Yarmouth to Beccles line was closed and
Southtown Station with it. It seemed as if Yarmouth had had one of its
main arteries severed as indeed it had - a rail link to the metropolis
which I am sure would have greatly benefited the town today. The fastest
train which ran from Yarmouth Southtown to London was the 7.25am arriving
in London about l0.30am. The 8am didn't arrive until around 11.30am.
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