Eighty years ago this month there was an exciting visit to the Village when the Cranleigh locomotive called in at the station for its official naming ceremony.
One of the last of 40 School Class locomotives built for the Southern Railway between 1930 and 1935, Cranleigh’s visit continued the tradition for the trains to be brought to a local station for the official naming ceremony and also inspection by pupils.
“I was able to join some 30 to 49 others from school and view the splendid engine,” recalled Roy Hudson (I North 1937). “We formed a semi-circular shaped crowd at the side of the footplate. Someone discovered that the name of one of the drivers was also Hudson. There were shouts for me to be pushed to the front row, where the driver leant out of his cabin and we shook hands very heartily. I don’t think any of us were allowed in the driver’s cabin.”
Cranleigh, which never worked the Guildford-Horsham line, was taken out of service and scrapped in 1962.