O/T FAO Alfinyalcabo/Oldcolner

[WOODLANDSWOLF]

Glad you liked the pic of the Semi. They were always one of my favorite locos too, unfortunately they were generally pretty rare were I lived. The main Wolverhampton to Stafford line ran at the bottom of my street however coming from Crewe and the north the main Glasgow to Euston line went west from Stafford and across country to Rugby and then south by passing Wolverhampton and Birmingham so we were left with pretty mundane selection of locos.

Except that is for the magical summer Sundays when the Trent Valley lane was closed at Stafford for maintenance and all the big expresses were diverted and passed the bottom of our road. So all day I could sit at the lineside watching Semis, Royal Scots, Princesses and Britannias majestically glide past. The Caledonian, The Royal Scot, The Mid Day Scot, all the prestige express trains, unforgettable.

These trains still bypassed Wolverhampton, they diverged at Bushbury junction and cut accross the back of Birmingham to Coventry and then Rugby and the south.

I could see Bushbury loco shed from my house, just a half mile on was the GWR Stafford Road shed and works and then another half mile on the GWR Oxley freight loco shed. That was pretty much a regular "bunking" trip on the bicycle each Sunday.

Never "bunked" any sheds up your way, I think Liverpool was the nearest I got.

Well anyway thanks for giving me the excuse to talk railways again and good luck with the rest of your season.

[alfinyalcabo]

I'm going to get called a Geek by the cnuts on here but never mind..lol.. I lived within access to Preston and Leeds so was able to catch the train to both of the stations that were within an hours train ride from my town.I Used to have days out to Manchester,Shrewsbury ,Crewe ,Doncaster and York when possible.. Done most of the sheds in those places plus Crewe and Doncaster works.. Great times and great memories and I still love to visit the heretage steam railways around here..The worth valley and East lancs lines are both within twenty five minutes from where I live.. I Also visit the Severn Valley and the watercress lines when touring in my Motorhome.. My wife has to grin and bear it..lol ..

Loved the Brits,clans ,streaks and the patriots.. Also the Deltics were great,saw all but one of them come through Doncaster one day..

[Altobelli]

I'm a cnut, ya phucin Geek

A couple of nice posts above

[oldcolner]

Sounds like you had an ideal location.
Thanks for the reminder of the good old days when several friends and I set off from Colne to go to places like Preston and Crewe where these were fairly commonplace on the trains to Glasgow and London. Got round the sheds in both a few times. Got bored of seeing Duchess of Hamilton and City of Coventry, how I would love to see them now! Even black 5s would go down a treat now. We saw a lot of Jubilees and Royal Scot class engines and some Britts at Preston and even met the Spurs team in the buffet there one time. Blanchflower Gilzean Smith Jones etc. Made our day.

We also went to Leeds quite regularly by getting the bus to Keighley and then the train to Leeds with Scots Jubilees and Brits and got round the sheds there and a few other times then onwards to York or Doncaster to see the A4s, A3s and A1s on the Edinburgh Kings cross run a few times. Just watched the BBC programme on Tornado trying to get to 100mph, which fills the A1 gap even though it’s a replica.

We saw a few GWR engines at Crewe and did our longest day trip to Wolverhampton Low Level to see a few Kings and Castles. Of course we rode much of the way looking out the window to get the numbers of trains coming the other way.
I recently found my old Ian Allan Train spotting books showing what we saw, which we cabbed and we’re pulled by. We set off with these in a haversack with meat paste sandwiches, boiled eggs, bananas, Smiths crisps and a drink.

Train fares must have been cheap then as we were in our early ****s and still at school. Doing a day trip to Wolverhampton seems mad now.

[alfinyalcabo]

We were only just in our ****s and we used to go all over the country trainspotting.. Never a problem from the parents as long as we were back by 8 pm.. They would have a pink fit nowadays if their kids did anything like that.. Skipton was quite near and very good as you sometimes got the odd NE train on the Thames Clyde and Waverley expresses that came through.. Saw the flying Scotsman come through Nelson as well.

[oldcolner]

Alf
We must have been in the same place at some time from the sound of it. There was often quite a lot of us.
I too like the Patriots and Clans and the Princess class too. Diesels weren’t my favourite but The D200 class was ok but I preferred the Peaks. Did once see the prototype Deltic at Lincoln going to Butlins Skegness and they were also common on the East coast line and saw quite a few.
I enjoyed the museum at York but haven’t made it to Shildon which has the Deltic prototype and I think the Duchess of Hamilton. There was talk of the NRM having to close last time we went a few years ago when they had all the A4s there.

[oldcolner]

We were only just in our ****s and we used to go all over the country trainspotting.. Never a problem from the parents as long as we were back by 8 pm.. They would have a pink fit nowadays if their kids did anything like that.. Skipton was quite near and very good as you sometimes got the odd NE train on the Thames Clyde and Waverley expresses that came through.. Saw the flying Scotsman come through Nelson as well.

Yes we would be 13-15 and our parents just trusted us. Learned a lot about geography, forward planning and using timetables.
Such a pity they shut the Colne to Skipton line. We also went to Skipton to spot but had to go by bus, though our school trip s to Tork and holiday trains to Filey and Skegness went via Skipton a few years earlier.
I think by 16 girls took over as our area of interest and going down the Imperial.

[alfinyalcabo]

I'm a Nelsoner OC,but we used to go trainspotting with Colners ,I had quite a few mates who went to Primet / fisher more / Nelson grammar ,who used to go trainspotting and down the turf together on the train..Nobody used to pay and jumped off the train at Burnley and through the open doors until then got wise and shut the doors and caught us all and made us pay..

You never know we might be geeky mates of old times ..lol

[alfinyalcabo]

Yes ,at six**** I was more interested in the semi I had on that the steam train semi..lol..I used to live down't' imp from being 16/26 ish ..anyway that's another story..

[WOODLANDSWOLF]

Great memories boys, duffle coats, jam sandwiches and that drink that came in a kind of triangular cardboard container [jubbly?], train spotters essential supplies.

Have to continue this conversation later.