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This page contains a few items from Special
Traffic Notice's issued in the 1970s.
An average STN contained about 100 pages
of which: -
75% were about passenger trains
5% were about freight trains
20% were about ballast trains
About 50% of the passenger trains section
were about Sunday Engineering Works
About 50% of the ballast trains section were about Sunday Engineering Works
Thus if you travelled on Southern Region
trains on a Sunday you were almost certain to be affected by the output of
this office.
The largest amount of space taken in the Special Traffic
Notice was for the weekly rewriting of the Sunday timetable for
engineering works. This table is one of the smaller ones
covering works between Pevensey and Westham and Bexhill
Central. On this occasion buses were scheduled to take
passengers between these stations - but not all of the stations could
cater for buses turning round outside so temporary bus stops were
introduced. To be absolutely precise the location was
sometimes given to help station staff and bus inspectors.
The note for Westham indicates that buses would stop at the cross roads
some 50 yards from the station whereas at Pevensey buses would stop at
the junction of Wallsend Road and the High Street - one third of a mile
from Pevensey Bay Halt (but in the village).
Relatively minor changes to train timings were shown in
text form. This example is chosen for two reasons - first it concerns the newspaper trains which were closely controlled for
the newspaper owners to get their papers in the newsagents on time,
second this particular case shows an additional news train from
Earlswood to Redhill hauled by a Diesel Shunting Loco. Cases
of DSLs working Class 1 trains must be very rare!
Explanatory Notes for these timings: -
B - As shown in the Working Timetable
QL - Quarry Line (avoiding Redhill)
TL - Through Line
An example of the enterprise shown in those days - an
advertised excursion with a 1,000 seats to the south coast.
Aimed at families without cars or encouraging them to leave their cars at home, these trains were a
fantastic success with a number of relief trains having to be run by
Control to deal with the number of people turning up on the
day. The 90p fare is the equivalent to £1.73 today!
Explanatory notes for this timing are: -
a - arrives 1 minute earlier (electric
trains were allowed 20 seconds unless otherwise stated)
b - arrives 1½ minutes earlier
d - arrives 2½ minutes earlier
e - arrives 3 minutes earlier
LL - Local Line
QL - Quarry Line (avoiding Redhill)
TL - Through Line
This section of the STN covers parties (and invalids) and
this example includes both. One hopes that Mr Carter and his
wife received all possible help at Littlehampton and Victoria on their
journey and that the people from Queen Charlotte's Hospital all recuperated
on the south coast.
"The Britainshrinkers" and
"Tjaereborg" are now names from the past but Glyndebourne
Opera is still with us.
Freight train alterations were never as numerous as those
for passenger trains. This example of alterations has been
included as it covers two points of the network now closed.
Ballast trains - the other large section of the
STN. This example was chosen after trawling through a
considerable number. One item of interest is that in this
case there are virtually no timing points - but the moves up and down
the line being worked on are shown in some detail.
Explanatory notes for this timing are: -
 - Indicated the point at
which pick-up shoes had to be raised or lowered on Electro Diesel
Locomotives
BFR - Brake Force Required
BFT - Brake Force Table
BL - Basic Load
EO - Work as required under Engineer's occupation between limits
shown in the Permanant Way Engineer's notice
LL - Local Line
MXL - Maximum Load
TL - Through Line |
