The Last Days of Steam on the Southern

London, Brighton and South Coast Lines and the Isle of Wight (Transport/Railway)

Plot

The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway was one of three major companies which were grouped in 1923 to form the Southern Railway. It served virtually the whole of Sussex and Surrey, much of south London and part of Hampshire; commuting to London, holiday excursions and cross-Channel traffic were important elements of its business. The Brighton was also a joint operator of the Isle of Wight ferry service from Portsmouth to Ryde, where two local railway companies, the IOW and the IOW Central, operated the island trains. In 1958 most of the secondary and branch line services of the LBSCR and IOW lines were still steam-hauled. Vintage locomotives and carriages from the pre-grouping era could be found, including classes C2X on freight, E4/H/M7 on secondary services and AIX 'Terrier' tanks on the Hayling Island branch. The Isle of Wight was the province of ex-LSWR class 02 tanks, which were named after the island's towns. In contrast, the very successful BR class 4 tanks were dominant on the services to Oxted and Tunbridge Wells West. This superb and evocative collection of photographs, taken between 1958 and 1966 and published here for the first time, captures the romance, beauty and fascination of the last vestiges of steam on the LBSCR and IOW. Covering all types of line, this book will appeal to railway enthusiasts, modellers and social historians.