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Although I lived in Surbiton in Surrey, I went to school at Dulwich, in South London. This involved a train to Waterloo in London, a 68 bus to Herne Hill and a No. 3 bus to West Dulwich. The school was then just a 10-15 minutes walk.

With daylight raids, coming home could present quite a problem and one day we heard hat the main electricity producing plant had been hit, and there would be no electric trains! I managed to get a couple of buses to get me to Wimbledon, which was halfway between Waterloo and Surbiton. When I got down to the platform in the station, there were hordes of people waiting patiently for a train they hoped would arrive, sometime. They were about 8-10 deep. Eventually the staff announced that a steam train, eventually going to the West Country would stop at Wimbledon and then the various stations down the line — Surbiton, Esher, Weybridge and so on. There was a huge cheer.

The train arrived and we climbed aboard — a bit like sardines — and off we went. Unfortunately, no one had told the driver!! He had halted the train at the signal and went on when it said the line was clear! It finally stopped at Woking — about 30 miles down the track and a lot of angry passengers fell out of the train. Then they had to wait for about an hour while they cobbled up an engine and some coaches to take us back again. That time it did stop where it was meant to.

That night I was a bit late home and I seem to remember getting into trouble for not doing my homework, even thought my Dad gave me a note saying what had happened!

This story was submitted to the People’s War website by John Boileau, volunteer of the CSV Action Desk at ´óÏó´«Ã½ Hereford and Worcester. The author fully understands the site’s terms and conditions.

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