Irecently wrote an editorial comment for Steam World around a fascinating picture of a Bulleid ‘Pacific’ at Eastleigh. The locomotive was ‘Battle of Britain’ No. 34057 Biggin Hill and it was standing at the head of a short Down parcels train. Staff were busy loading goods into the second vehicle, working in the lee of a building that was being demolished. Minimal health and safety at work in 1967!
However, what had caught my attention was that the locomotive was Biggin Hill. Between 1959 and 1963, when I was in my early teens, I changed from being a kid playing with a train set to being a railway modeller. Several developments prompted that change, not least Meccano’s switch of Hornby-Dublo from three-rail to two-rail. It wasn’t just the track and the electrical system that changed. The models switched to plastic construction.