The 'Kenny O' Postal

As a lad, living in Wimbledon, my meagre finances didn't stretch far so the service for postal workers between Clapham Junction and Kensington Olympia was a great opportunity to get behind steam at low cost. I stumbled over it by chance when I was passing through Clapham one day and saw the train heading off towards Kenny O. By asking around I gradually pieced together what was going on and that triggered a number of return trips with various locomotives over several years.

It wasn't clear to me at the time whether this service really was for the public - well not the reverse working, anyway - as it was always empty (apart from me) on the Kenny O - Clapham leg in the morning and
the Clapham - Kenny O leg in the evening. I always used to get strange looks from the postal workers when they saw me already on the train when it arrived for them in the evening especially as I was clearly a bit young to be a worker!

There were two trains at each end of the day. Journey time - eight minutes. The morning train left Clapham at 0816, returning at 0832 from Kenny O. Just a six minute run around before setting off again at 0846 and returning at 0900. In the evening there was a 1650, returning at 1706 and the second train left at 1720, returning at 1736. Although there seemed to be pattern of operation, it did vary. Trains usually started out of Platform 1 and returned to Platform 17 for the second trip. At the time, (1965), the service was usually the Standard 3 tanks like 82018, 82023, 82026. Things moved on in 1966 to Standard 4s such as 80015, 80133 and 80154. Finally, in 1967 I picked an Ivatt Class 2 - 41319. However, the highlight for me, and what started it all, were the H Class tanks that worked the duty in 1962 - 31305, 31542.

This truly was one of London's hidden gems and a steam 'commuter' service that survived in the capital long after everything else had disappeared.