6th September 1964

Lyons Maid
Zoom Special(s)

Route : (4)

Route : 1X77 throughout

Notes :
(1) This were two of a number of specials run by Lyons Maid Ice Cream to promote the 'Zoom' ice lolly. Route confirmation required. Richard Barber comments: I'm currently working on cataloguing two photo collections, one shows Black 5 44767 on York shed with the 'Zoom Lyons Maid express' round head board adoring its smoke box. The other collection shows the Black 5 approaching York near Church Fenton with Lord Garnocks K4 3442 'The Great Marquess' leading the Black 5, and also showing both locos on York shed. The date is the 6th September 1964 and I suspect that the photographs show the railtour from Liverpool/Manchester area. I do not know the routing of the charter nor weather the K4 only came on the train from Leeds.
(2) David Johnson comments: I travelled as a guide on 1X77 from Birmingham Snow Hill to Paddington with a clean but lacking paint 70000 (5A). I do not know from where the special originated. The tour should have been hauled by 46245 but I guess you know the sad story of the end of the Duchess class. From Paddington we had a coach tour to Clapham Museum. The train ran with 7 coaches and a GWR buffet car. 09.05 Snow Hill/ Paddington 11.30 and return 17.30/19.55 booked times. My notes record a storming run up Hatton and an early arrival. Train ran for competitors in a picture colouring competition (Mallard).
(3) Kester Eddy comments: As I remember it, Lyons Maid originally advertised trips on seven specials they planned to run. You had to paint a lined picture of an A4 coming towards you to win  - I did mine from copies put into the Eagle and Look and Learn. They were published in May/June 1964 in two consecutive issues of both magazines. Presumably in other kiddie's magazines too. Footnote; thinking about this many years later, I wondered, from a commercial/professional point of view, what Lyons Maid were up to. You had to paint the painting and send it in with two wrappers from Lyons Maid Zoom lollies which cost, at the time, I think 9d. You also do "cigarette" cards showing trains with the lolly. I think there were 50 cards, and I still have some  (spares) stuck in my 1964 combined volume. They show, for example, the Midland Pullman, and A4 at Waverley, and 92220 Evening Star. But how on earth Lyons Maid could justify the huge outlay - seven special trains!!!!! - and other costs (such as judging the paintings, plus consolation prizes - I got some of those too) I do not know. Finally, from a marketing point of view - what on earth had steam trains to do with Zoom (i.e. rocket age!!) lollies. Kester believes the other trains that ran were;

(3) Nick Pigott comments: I was a passenger on the 'Zoom Special' that ran from the North-West to York on September 6, 1964, having been a prizewinner in the A4 painting competition. I was only a schoolboy at the time so cannot remember much and didn't take any notes (apart from loco numbers), but what I can tell you is that the train picked up in Manchester (where I joined it) and at some stage passed Farnley Junction shed, near Leeds, as I distinctly remember copping 'Jubilee' No. 45581 Bihar and Orissa in the shed yard. I think the special was double-headed by 44767, carrying a large round 'Lyons Maid Zoom Special' headboard, and No. 3442 The Great Marquess in LNER apple green livery, but whether it was double-headed the whole way or just from Leeds I can't remember. I don't recall seeing No. 70000 Britannia at any stage during the day (I certainly would have remembered if we had been hauled by that!). At York, we were all taken on a tour of the railway museum and then steam-hauled back, by the same two locos I think. I can also answer your contributor's query about why Lyons Maid would run steam specials for a lolly associated with the space age. The answer was that inside the double-skinned wrapping of each rocket-shaped lolly at that time was a collectable Railway Locomotive card (exactly the same size as a cigarette card) with a description on the back. I think there were 50 in the series, ranging from the Rocket itself right up to modern forms of traction, and Lyons obviously thought the outlay on the trains would help promote the series and get kids buying the product. (It certainly worked in our house, for my brother and I were forever pestering mum to stop and buy us Zooms for just that reason! I think certain cards must have been distributed in certain areas of the country to make them rarer, as we had a holiday in Kent and got loads of cards we'd never seen before in our native Lincolnshire!!

Sources : Kester Eddy, Richard Barber & David Johnson

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