r00fie1
Well-known member
Reminded me on another thread of the sort of thing lads, in particular, gravitate towards.... Certainly as a young un, it wasnt unusual to see lads with Loco-Shed books, pencils and sandwiches-in-duffle bags on a Saturday, at the end of a platform somewhere, or poking noses over the bridge nearest the local Engine Shed. [Some - I`m lead to believe - are now called "stabling points"]. I think they are like Bus Stations for Diesel Multiple Units.
Got my first loco-shed given from a signal man who lived in my Nans street. It was one of the Ian Allen British Rail Locoshed Directories. Although there was hardly a steam engine left around - apart from on the Great Central - there were plenty of relics of the steam age left, still waiting to be ruthlessly stripped from our railway history.
A pencil, a Locoshed and a duffel bag! What more could we want? Like a passport to the world - a brilliant boys-own adventure to see far flung places, in regions with different coloured enamel station signs - representing the various regions of British Railways. There were still plenty of relics from the "The Big Four" and even before that.
"Fines" inscribed on cast-iron line-side and station walls were in £sd. Water towers and Round-Houses, turn-tables, stations made of brick and stone, with awnings of glass and decorative surrounds....Signal Boxes of Midland, North Wester, North Easter....design, all added spice to Saturdays and more. Even humble brake-vans had different shapes, dependant on their railway origins.
Our stations were Cathedrals of Steam. True, by the 60s, some were decayed and suffering years of neglect. But, before the days when railway land was sold off to provide concrete for the "convenience" of cars, stations had freight sidings, cattle docks, carriage sidings, parcel offices, and everything else connecting with modern travel. No petrol pumps or concrete. No miles of boring shapeless motorways or urban round-about`s, traffic lights and Belisha Beacons....
Just the "open road" of thousands of miles of viaducts, climbs over the steepest hills, like the Pennines, the Scottish Highlands, Beattock, Shap, Ais Gill, Lickey Incline...and more. The Cumberland and Durham Coast, the North Sea from the East Coast Mainline north of Alnwick.
The Great Western snaking to Penzance from Paddington and riding above the Somerset Levels. Huge viaducts and long tunnels - Woodhead, Totley......
Even with the Diesels ......scramble to see Deltic`s bombing through Retford and Thirsk. Class 81 electrics shooting through Nuneaton at up to 100 mph. Westerns and Warships.
Class 45`s on the Thames-Clyde Express. Tommy`s double-headed over Woodhead loaded with coal. Double - headed "Whistlers" "Long-noses" [class 20s] on holiday specials to the Lincolnshire coast. Six mark ones with a Brush Two on the Birmingham - Norwich. Class 73`s on the Southern - that strange commuter line with third rail, which covered the whole of the South East. We thought it was an extension of the London Underground [pretty boring].
British Rail Range-Rovers were the order of the day in the summer and we dreamt, but never managed it - to buy an All-Line-Rail Rover - for the whole of the UK. Those hefty Passenger Timetables allowed us to dream: plan a journey to places like Manchester Central, Sheffield Victoria, Birmingham Snow Hill, Yarmouth South Town and Mablethorpe. Many long gone.
We often took our bikes and put them in the Guards Van, so we could pedal off and explore far away places when he got off at the other end. No reservations for cupboards on tin - cans and Pendelino`s - there was space for the kitchen sink on the Mk 1s.
Got my first loco-shed given from a signal man who lived in my Nans street. It was one of the Ian Allen British Rail Locoshed Directories. Although there was hardly a steam engine left around - apart from on the Great Central - there were plenty of relics of the steam age left, still waiting to be ruthlessly stripped from our railway history.
A pencil, a Locoshed and a duffel bag! What more could we want? Like a passport to the world - a brilliant boys-own adventure to see far flung places, in regions with different coloured enamel station signs - representing the various regions of British Railways. There were still plenty of relics from the "The Big Four" and even before that.
"Fines" inscribed on cast-iron line-side and station walls were in £sd. Water towers and Round-Houses, turn-tables, stations made of brick and stone, with awnings of glass and decorative surrounds....Signal Boxes of Midland, North Wester, North Easter....design, all added spice to Saturdays and more. Even humble brake-vans had different shapes, dependant on their railway origins.
Our stations were Cathedrals of Steam. True, by the 60s, some were decayed and suffering years of neglect. But, before the days when railway land was sold off to provide concrete for the "convenience" of cars, stations had freight sidings, cattle docks, carriage sidings, parcel offices, and everything else connecting with modern travel. No petrol pumps or concrete. No miles of boring shapeless motorways or urban round-about`s, traffic lights and Belisha Beacons....
Just the "open road" of thousands of miles of viaducts, climbs over the steepest hills, like the Pennines, the Scottish Highlands, Beattock, Shap, Ais Gill, Lickey Incline...and more. The Cumberland and Durham Coast, the North Sea from the East Coast Mainline north of Alnwick.
The Great Western snaking to Penzance from Paddington and riding above the Somerset Levels. Huge viaducts and long tunnels - Woodhead, Totley......
Even with the Diesels ......scramble to see Deltic`s bombing through Retford and Thirsk. Class 81 electrics shooting through Nuneaton at up to 100 mph. Westerns and Warships.
Class 45`s on the Thames-Clyde Express. Tommy`s double-headed over Woodhead loaded with coal. Double - headed "Whistlers" "Long-noses" [class 20s] on holiday specials to the Lincolnshire coast. Six mark ones with a Brush Two on the Birmingham - Norwich. Class 73`s on the Southern - that strange commuter line with third rail, which covered the whole of the South East. We thought it was an extension of the London Underground [pretty boring].
British Rail Range-Rovers were the order of the day in the summer and we dreamt, but never managed it - to buy an All-Line-Rail Rover - for the whole of the UK. Those hefty Passenger Timetables allowed us to dream: plan a journey to places like Manchester Central, Sheffield Victoria, Birmingham Snow Hill, Yarmouth South Town and Mablethorpe. Many long gone.
We often took our bikes and put them in the Guards Van, so we could pedal off and explore far away places when he got off at the other end. No reservations for cupboards on tin - cans and Pendelino`s - there was space for the kitchen sink on the Mk 1s.
