On the morning of the last Saturday in November I boarded the DMBS of 205009
at Victoria. This unit was coupled to 205001 and 205033, This was a sad day,
as I had many memories of these units since I had discovered them on late
1980´s Network Days on the Reading - Basingstoke line.
Summer trips with these units had centred on their Marshlink duties, with
occasional forays to Eastbourne. More recent trips included the London -
Uckfield evening peak services, from London Bridge to East Croydon / Oxted
and both Victoria to East Croydon. This was usually down the main line, but
one night I managed a trip to East Croydon via Crystal Palace one rather
fraught evening when there was a problem with the track at Thornton Heath.
Returning to ´The Last Thump´, we nudged 60 mph on the way to East Croydon,
and once clear of that, the power controller was left wide open. Seeing a
distant Leith Hill on the skyline near Salfords from the window of a Thumper
at 75 mph was an unusual experience to say the least. This was the maximum
speed of the day - recorded via my GPS instrument. 205009 was capable of
better - I had sampled 82 mph on more than one occasion with this unit on
the East Croydon to Oxted line - but perhaps it was better not to overdo
things and risk a breakdown.
The pace slowed noticeably after Keymer Junction, and after Lewis we had
caught up with a service train. This was a little frustrating from the speed
recording point of view although the scenery south of Lewis, dominated by
the South Downs and File Beacon, was pleasant enough, as it moved very
slowly past.…
A brief leg stretching break at Eastbourne preceded a spin along the coast
to Hastings, bringing to mind the Eastbourne to Hastings through services.
61 mph through Bexhill without stopping raised a few eyebrows! A blast from
the past was witnessed as HDL had parked the Hastings power car 1001 out in
the open at St Leonards.
When I got back to the station after a brief visit to Hastings seafront, the
DEMUs had been parked in a platform opposite a SWT 4-CEP. This would have
been a common site in the past, but with only a handful of 4-CEPs still in
service, this gave rise to a rare photo-opportunity.
On leaving Hastings we crawled along to St Leonards, where the class 205
de-icing unit had been started up and moved its full length out of the shed,
and left ticking over - as was 1001. This pleasant gesture on the part of
´the powers that be´ was much appreciated by everyone in my ´compartment´.
The route to Brighton was not especially memorable apart from our travelling
past London Road station. This was the venue for one or two memorable H&SUPS
meetings I had attended, when the likelihood of the DEMUs continuing in
service until as late as the end of 2004 was considered that likely...
At Brighton the Thumpers became local TV stars, as a BBC camera crew were on
hand to record a short piece for the local TV news. Presumably as one of
those ´and finally´ bits, a man from the railway company was interviewed for
posterity. What little I could hear above the background noise of the
station even with the units switched off, suggested that whilst from a
commuters point of view the new 171s were an improvement, a lot of
enthusiasts were shedding a tear over the end of Thumper operations.
Coincidently another diesel appeared at Brighton shortly afterwards in the
form of Voyager ´Mancuian Voyager´, but this largely and understandably
ignored...
Chris Dann arranged for some of us to visit the engine room and driving cab
of one of the units at Brighton. On entering the engine room, one was struck
by the size of the EE engine compared to that of an under floor MTU engine
in a Voyager or 171. As I walked around the room, without warning the 4RSKT
started to rattle, cough and bounce about as it fired up into its
characteristic uneven clattering idle. I went into the driver's cab, with
the heavy metal engine-room door closed the sound levels were not to bad,
but there was a lot of vibration in the driving cab.
Speeds on the fast run to Croydon were nothing special with about 70 mph top
speed. Now the more familiar territory was about to be explored with a
non-stop run from East Croydon to Uckfield and back. Highlights of the trip
were the violent lurching, bouncing and swaying on the faster sections of
the track, particularly between Hurst Green and Edenbridge Town. The Spa
Valley Railway parked 207017 (which achieved infamy during its final months
with Southern when its engine blew up) with its lights on at the junction
for the Tunbridge Wells line.
I had never seen the platform at Uckfield look so busy, with some
individuals climbing up the lampposts and some naughty people trespassing on
the track to get a better photograph. More rattling, pitching, rolling and
violent swaying ensued on the run back to East Croydon - the highlight being
73 mph in Crowborough area.
We accelerated from mid thirties mph to about mid-sixties from Oxted to the
fastest section of the line to East Croydon - speeds in the eighties were
not unknown in the past. A brief stop at East Croydon and a 70 mph trip to
London Bridge lead to a two minute early arrival platform 8 at London
Bridge, and that was that.
