Painting of Castlethorpe Station c.1900

Photograph of a water colour owned by Mrs. L. Harkin was painted in about 1900. Photograph taken by Mr. A. Blake who once lived in Castlethorpe.

Letter from Mr. Blake to The Wolverton Express 20th January 1965 A light weight express heading for Euston on the left. The right hand side is the workmans train standing on the up slow line, waiting to depart for Wolverton. This train was not in the timetable. Note the long chimneys of the engines.

The train on the right hand side is the 'workman's' used to take the the men to Wolverton Works. A shunting engine, as shown here hauled it. During the day it did shunting duties at Wolverton Works, but the carriages, not saloons of course, did nothing for their keep, only carry the workmen. In the daytime they stood in a siding at Wolverton and at night at Castlethorpe. The engine went back to the Works light, and returned in the morning for the train. The carriages had low backs, you could see right down to the end. If you did not like the company you were travelling with it was easy to climb over, but usually each person kept to the same seat. They were painted brown, no upper white panels. The fare was 1/- per week for 6 days. Less for 4 or 5 day ticket. A former station master at Castlethorpe said that this train paid for all the station expenses. A lot of men came from Hanslope to Castlethorpe. Tickets were obtained at Castlethorpe booking office. You paid 1/- and that lasted all the week. They were clipped each day at Wolverton, so by the end of the week there was not much left. The train on the left is a single wheeler express called 'high flyers'. they had a 7' 6" driving wheel, the wheel rotation was called 2.2.2. this and the shunter as shown, saddle tank 0.6.0 were early products of Crewe, built by Ramsbottom. In the picture they had been rebuilt by F. W. Webb in the 1870s. The last of the shunters series has only recently been withdrawn. A. Blake