READER MEMORIES

We asked our readers for their favourite railway memories and were pleased to be swamped by tales that were funny, touching and full of nostalgia. We thank everyone who took the time to write in, and present here a selection of the best.

A kindly soldier

MY dad worked most of his life in Swindon Works and, although I was not all that interested in railways then, I was occasionally to be found at Swindon station jotting down numbers in my notebook.

One day, a young soldier on his way back to duty asked me what I did with the numbers. Seeing that I had no idea what he was talking about, he went off and came back from the WHSmith kiosk with an Ian Allan ABC (Western Region) 1958 edition, which he presented to me. It cost two shillings and sixpence, which must have been a fortune for him in those days.

I wish I still had the book – but what I do have, thanks to his generosity, is a life-long love of railways that has taken me all over the UK and many places abroad. Over 60 years later, I’m now a volunteer at the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway.

If only that soldier knew what his random act of kindness had begun.

Bob Jones By email

School library copies

I HAVE so many memories since the 1940s, but perhaps the most relevant is from 1953.

To my delight, my new school library took the monthly issue of The Railway Magazine and had bound volumes back to the early years.

This helped me to understand the railway scenes around me. And, each day, the Pacifichauled ‘Golden Arrow’ passed up the gradient in all its Pullman splendour. Wonderful days.

John Pearse Bradford-on-Avon

The view from the cab of 2-6-4 No. 80045 as it banks a holiday express up Beattock in July 1965.

ANDREW DOW

1 Cab ride up Beattock

GETTING behind the controls of a steam locomotive is always a bit of a thrill, but there is nothing to beat being on the footplate whilst the iron horse right in front of you pants and puffs its way up a steep gradient in mountain territory.

So I vividly recall in July 1965 cabbing Standard tank 2-6-4 No. 80045 at Beattock station and watching mesmerised as, with ear splitting sound and fury, she blasted up the 10- mile incline on banking duty for a Stanier Class 5-hauled Saturday extra holiday express bound for Glasgow.

The Rev Canon Andrew Dow Moreton-in-Marsh

A chance for ‘the ton’

IN 1961 my aunt told our parents how much their son was enjoying the Crusader sessions that he attended on a Sunday afternoon and how beneficial these were to his broader education. My parents then decided that my brother and I should also attend. This was a society for the religious education of impressionable young chaps, and required us to spend two rather tedious hours on a Sunday afternoon in the Friends’ Meeting Room.

On one particular occasion, however, it was mentioned that the Crusaders also had something of an interest in railways, and that one of the senior Crusader leaders was none other than Cecil J Allen. Early in 1962 we were told that the Crusaders would be running a special train from King’s Cross to Doncaster in the April. For once, we returned home full of animation and asked if we could go on the trip.

Mum and dad could hardly refuse, after all it was all part of our broader education.

The outward trip was behind ‘Deltic’ No. D9015 Tulyar to Doncaster for a visit to the Works. But the highlight of the day was being hauled back by No. 60022 Mallard with authority to reach 100mph. Naturally, everyone was waiting to see how she would perform down Stoke Bank, and we were mindful that three years earlier No. 60007 had reached 112mph on an SLS special.

With a clear road we roared through Grantham at over 70 and raced up the bank past the iron ore sidings at High Dyke and into the tunnel at the summit. Out of the tunnel we burst and could feel the acceleration as we tore down the gradient. Reports came back from the footplate and the excitement mounted: 80mph, then 85, 90, 91, 92, 93 with the passing landscape a blur. But then, a cry of woe from the footplate, we had a caution signal against us (despite being promised a clear run) and on went the brakes.

As we passed New England Yard at Peterborough, we espied the culprit – a‘9F’ hauling a lengthy unfitted freight train pulling off the main line to enter the yard. Oh if it had cleared the main line just a few minutes earlier!

John Chapman By email

Turbomotive tale

IN 1949 I was a trainee telecoms technician in the Post Office and, returning to London from a course at the PO training school near Stone in Staffordshire, I caught an afternoon semi-fast from Norton Bridge to Stafford with a Caprotti Class 5 (a novelty then), but the train onwards was even more remarkable.