Atlantic Coast Express
The Atlantic Coast Express (ACE) was an express passenger train in England between Waterloo station, London and seaside resorts in the south west. It ran between 1926 and 1964: at its peak it included coaches for nine separate destinations.
The Origins
The First World War inevitably brought an end to competition between the London and South Western Railway (L&SWR) and its historic rival the Great Western Railway (GWR) for traffic between London and the cities and holiday resorts of south western England.
However, in 1923 the Railway Grouping Act came into force creating four new companies to run Britain’s railways, and the former London and South Western Railway became part of the new Southern Railway (SR).
This was an era when air travel was still in its infancy and journeys by road uncomfortable and slow, and in consequence Devon and Cornwall were fashionable destinations for London’s wealthy and cultured society and the railways their preferred mode of transport.
The GWR had been left virtually unchanged by the railway company mergers, and the directors of the new Southern Railway recognised that some initiative was needed to publicise their services to the South West, and in addition show they were ready to compete with “the old enemy” once more. They decided on a competition open to all employees to choose a name for the principal West Country express of the day, the 11.00 a.m. departure from Waterloo. The winning entry was submitted by Mr F. Rowland, a guard from Great Torrington in North Devon, who won a prize of three guineas for suggesting "Atlantic Coast Express". This name was very soon abbreviated by staff and passengers alike to the "ACE", from its initial letters.
The Route
From the beginning the "ACE" effectively had five destinations, three in Devon and two in Cornwall.
Plymouth, by far the largest city in Devon, was served via Okehampton and Tavistock. The steep gradients and tortuous nature of the route beyond Exeter meant that it was not possible to compete with the Great Western Railway’s "Cornish Riviera Express" in terms of speed, but it was a useful alternative route, particularly for passengers from the South and South East of England, who could make a connection at Salisbury and thus avoid traveling via London.
Okehampton was the junction for the two Cornish destinations: Bude, a small but growing resort on the most northerly part of the Cornish coast; and Padstow, a fishing port at the mouth of the River Camel and the Southern Railway’s most distant outpost, 260 miles from Waterloo. The two portions of the train normally continued together as far as Halwill Junction, where the Bude carriages were detached and the Padstow section turned south to Launceston, skirting the edge of Bodmin Moor before reaching Camelford. A swift descent to Wadebridge followed, through countryside immortalized in the writings of Poet Laureate John Betjeman. A picturesque journey beside the River Camel completed the journey.
The North Devon portions of the "ACE" followed the route from Exeter Central through Crediton to Yeoford before turning north west and reaching the valley of the River Taw at Lapford. Thereafter the line hugged the river to Barnstaple Junction, the junction for the two North Devon destinations of the "ACE". From here the Torrington portion followed the estuary of the Taw westward to Instow before turning south along the River Torridge to Bideford and its destination of Great Torrington. The portion for Ilfracombe, another port that owes its status as a holiday destination to the coming of the railways, continued northwards. Started from Barnstaple Junction, the branch for Ilfracombe headed north through Barnstaple Town and climbed to Mortehoe before descending steeply to the terminus at Ilfracombe.
The Service
The heavy reliance on holiday passengers meant that the volume of traffic varied tremendously according to the time of year. On summer Saturdays the "ACE" consisted of up to five trains departing Waterloo in the 40 minutes before 11.00a.m., stretching resources on the long single-track branch lines to the limit.
In the winter timetable one train was sufficient for all of the branches, and stops were made at all but the most insignificant stations west of Exeter. Significant delays were frequent at the junctions, as coaches were detached or attached and shunted between the various sections of the train, making the "Express" part of the name appear distinctly ironic.
In later years a carriage was detached at Salisbury to join a following stopping train along the main line, and two carriages were detached at Sidmouth Junction, one for Sidmouth and one for Exmouth via Budleigh Salterton. The restaurant and buffet cars were normally removed during the major division at Exeter Central.
Services continued in much the same pattern until the outbreak of World War II, which necessitated substantial deceleration on all lines, and named trains were no longer deemed appropriate.
The Zenith
With the end of hostilities the Southern Railway lost no time in reintroducing its most prestigious express. The company’s locomotive design department under its innovative Chief Mechanical Engineer, Oliver Bulleid, had not been idle during the war years and his two controversial new designs of express locomotive, the "Merchant Navy" class Pacifics for services between Waterloo and Exeter Central and the lighter "West Country" and "Battle of Britain" class for the branches beyond, enabled improvements in timekeeping and reliability and facilitated the introduction of heavier trains. Initially there was little increase in overall speeds owing to the poor state of the track which had suffered neglect during the war.
The 1950s marked the highpoint of the "ACE", with the first mile-a-minute timing on the Southern Region (as the Southern Railway had become) with a 12.23 pm arrival in Salisbury, 83 miles from Waterloo. Gradual improvements in schedules continued until the final acceleration in autumn of 1961, when the journey time between Waterloo and Exeter Central came down to 2hr 56min going down, and 2 minutes longer in the reverse direction.
Terminal Decline
In common with lines all over the country, the 1960s were a period of steady decline for services to the West Country. Increased car ownership gave families a cheaper alternative for reaching their holiday destinations, and even in the narrow lanes of Devon and Cornwall the convenience of having your own vehicle on the doorstep inevitably lead to a dramatic fall in passenger numbers.
In 1963 control of all lines west of Salisbury was handed over to the Western Region – still the hated Great Western Railway to most of the Southern employees – and changes to the "ACE" followed swiftly. From June 1963 the Bude, Torrington and Plymouth through carriages were withdrawn except on summer Saturdays.
The remaining services survived through the summer of 1964, the last "ACE" running on 5 September 1964.
Dr. Beeching’s axe fell with its usual severity in the West Country. Torrington lost its passenger services in 1965, the North Cornwall branches in 1966, the Plymouth line in 1968, and Barnstaple to Ilfracombe in 1970.
