The morning and evening rush hour trains didn’t stop at all stations to London, mostly they were all stations to Shenfield and then straight through to Liverpool Street. Living close to the station I would get the 8.08am or the 8.15am train. The journey took about an hour and a quarter. The trains were obviously very noisy so you heard your train coming before you saw it; people stood back from the edge of the platform for safety reasons. The train drivers weren’t supposed to “let off steam” while standing in a station but they sometimes did and then the people standing on the platform got covered in black smuts.

You got into your carriage by stepping first onto a step and then into the body of the carriage itself; they were all the same, with bench seats along both sides and luggage racks over these. The carriages were single compartment. The windows (as such) were fixed into position but the top halves of the doors were made of glass and could be operated as windows by the use of a heavy duty rubber strap, these had holes in and when you had the window positioned where you wanted it you held it in place by placing the hole over the knob on the door.
Some of the carriages carried notices such as First Class, Ladies Only and No Smoking. The only difference between the First Class carriages and the remainder was the arm rests which pulled out so passengers had their “own” seat, on the more common bench seats there were no such dividers and you could feel uncomfortably close to others - men for example mainly sat with their legs wide open and generally read a newspaper and weren’t fussy where their elbows landed when they were turning pages! A lady knitting could have much the same effect on her neighbours.
The heating on the trains was somewhat variable – it blasted out through a grill which ran the length of the bench seats, situated at roughly the height of your ankles, and was often extremely hot and uncomfortable ; at other times you couldn’t feel that it was even on (perhaps it wasn’t!)
Boarding at Prittlewell Station guaranteed me a seat. Like nowadays the carriages became full, with those that had to stand usually stepping on the feet of those who were seated.
When loaded, the trains were released from the station by the stationmaster who waved a green flag to the engine driver and blew a whistle.