The Sad Demise of the Stratford Slip Coach Service
Dick Bodily member of the SMJ Society
'Through Carriage to London' announced the proud
notice at Stratford Old Town as the 7.45am train for Blisworth prepared to
leave from the 'Up' platform sometime in the 1930s. Would be commuters were
directed by station staff to a smartly maintained LNER ex-Great Central slip
coach attached to the back of the train. It contrasted greatly with the two
ancient now LMS owned coaches which formed the rest of the train. As the signal
pulled off the train set off at a leisurely pace towards Byfield, stopping en
route not only to pick up the occasional passenger but also milk churns bound
for London via the Great Central route. At Byfield the slip coach would be met
by a LNER loco probably an ex GCR N5 tank and whisked off around the curve to
Woodford, along with the milk churns, where it would be quickly attached to the
Mansfield-Marylebone express. Passengers in the slip coach would arrive at
Marylebone at 10.48am after a 3hr 3mins journey. Not exactly express
standard.
The return journey to Stratford would be more exciting and
much quicker too by means of the crack 6.20pm Bradford express. The slip coach
having been carefully checked over under cover at Marylebone, would be attached
to the main train, with a further slip coach behind it which was destined for
Brackley. This was to be slipped at Finmere and worked forward to Brackley
tender first by a Woodford loco, often a B7 'Black Pig'. There was much
competition for the perceived potential first class custom in 'Lark Rise to
Candleford' country and the Finmere slip coach was in direct competition with
GWR slips made at Bicester. Both slip coaches were protected at the rear by
both white and red lamps and were manned by Marylebone based guards, while the
main train guard would be a Leicester man. The loco at the head of the train
was invariably one of Leicester's famous 'Jersey Lily' Robinson C4 4-4-2s and,
surprisingly for such an important train, not one of the new Gresley B17
'Footballer' 4-6-0s that had taken over most of other principal GC line
services. Its footplate crew would also have been Leicester men. The Woodford
slip would be made around about the site of the closed south curve junction. On
arriving at Woodford the coach would be attached to the 6.30pm Blisworth -
Stratford train, which had made a detour from Byfield. Pity any passengers
travelling from Morton Pinkney or stations further east who would have wasted
nearly an hour on their journey to Stratford, being thus diverted so that the
slip coach could be picked up! There followed a leisurely run to Stratford
behind a MR Johnson 2F 0-6-0 arriving at 8.37pm, with a respectable overall
journey time of 2hrs 17mins from Marylebone to Stratford.
This Stratford slip coach service had run since early Great
Central days but was withdrawn at the start of the First World War and not
reinstated until a few weeks before the 1923 Grouping, so it did run briefly
during GCR/SMJR days but mainly during the LNER/LMS period. Nevertheless the
SMJR Rulebook contained an appendix of no less than 9 pages of regulations
concerning slip coaches even though no slipping ever took place on its
metals!
Presumably this appendix was copied from the GCR rulebook.
The only rules really relevant to SMJR staff were:
1. the coach
must be coupled to the train by an ordinary coupling until the train arrives at
the last station before it is to be slipped ie. Marylebone, which meant it was
always normally coupled while on the SMJR.
2. the special red and
white slip lamps were to remain within the slip coach after slipping, but would
be replaced by ordinary tail lamps for the remainder of the
journey.
3. any problems or irregularities in working should be
reported to the General Manager.
4. slip coaches even when not being
slipped could not normally travel in trains other than those to which they were
timetabled to run with.
On a fateful evening of 19th December 1935 the Stratford
slip coach was full with Christmas shoppers. The train headed by C4 4-4-2 No
6086 consisted of 8 coaches including the two slips. The Finmere slip went as
planned, but calamity struck when the Stratford coach was slipped. Something
went wrong with the valve on the main train's brake pipe causing its brakes to
automatically come on. The driver feeling the brakes come on assumed that the
guard had applied them and that the slip had not been made. He had looked back
for the slip coach guard's hand signal to confirm that the slip had taken place
or to see the white headlight carried at the front of the coasting slip coach,
but his view had been obscured by smoke drifting back from the 'Jersey Lily'.
It was his responsibility to make sure whether or not the slip had actually
taken place and he had not done this. He decided to stop the train at Woodford
in order for the slip coach (which had already been detached!) to be uncoupled.
The smoke which had obscured his view also made it impossible for the slip
coach guard to see that the main train was braking hard to make an unscheduled
stop at Woodford. The inevitable happened near the Eydon Road bridge. The slip
ploughed into the back of the main train with enough force for its underframe
to override that of the main train's brake coach. Both guards were badly
injured but mercifully survived as did the 9 passengers injured. The Ministry
of Transport conducted tests on 2nd January 1936 to try to ascertain what went
wrong. The inspecting officer concluded that the LNER brake pipe equipment was
unsatisfactory and recommended that it should be replaced with GWR type
equipment. The LNER had not wasted any time making its own inquiry the very day
after the accident and decided to withdraw all its slip coaches permanently
immediately. The Stratford through coach service continued as a normal working
for a short while but was soon withdrawn altogether.
Amazingly the archaic, labour-intensive and potentially
dangerous practice of slipping coaches continued elsewhere on the Western
Region of British Railways until 1960! The Bicester slip was in fact the last
to go.
With many thanks to Alwyn Sparrow for supplying details of
SMJR rules and regulations regarding slipping. For further information on the
Stratford and other GCR slip coaches read 'The Great Central in LNER Days-
Volume 2' by David Jackson & Owen Russell, to see video footage of the WR
Bicester slip coach look at 'Railway Roundabout DVD Collection (Duke).
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