Childhood Memories Steam Locomotives

J

John Morgan

Steam Traction
Hi Group,

Who remembers as a child standing next to the railway waiting for the next stream loco to come thundering past or maybe the 4pm pick up goods shunting the yard. The local passenger service from St Pancras to Bedford as it was for me in my childhood, living on the "London Extension".

This morning we woke up to a heavy frost in Mid Bedfordshire. Not worth chancing a gas firing, to cold, so it was out with my Roundhouse John Shawe converted "Jack".

When ever I get a coal fired loco out I get the same feelings inside. Just the same as when I was a child.
Anticipation at the thought of running the loco.
Satisfaction at seeing it run on the track.
A sadness when the run comes to an end.

Is it just me? Am I going mad?

John.
 
As I was born in the 60's, I can only recall seeing a steam engine only once on BR metals in Leeds?

Shortly after that, all steam locos were withdrawn.

However, I still like to see steam on the many preserved lines and on the main line railway too. Theres something about steam that a diesel or electric loco just can't hope to emulate....
 
My major memories of steam are bigger than most. After school I would trek out over a couple of miles of bush tracks to the side of the line and watch mostly goods trains being pulled by some of Gorton's famous products.

I do just about remember UK steam but it's very vague, by the time I returned to the UK steam was all but dead and gone.
 
I well remember the ex-Crosti 9Fs on the up coals John - they used to stand at Harpenden Junction for ages. And the panting Jubs too, passing with the expresses. Funny how the Scots never used to pant ! Well it seemed that way, anyway :)

Sheer magical childhood memories !

I too was a child of the Midland :)

(With the odd foray to Welwyn Garden City on the Harpenden East line to see the wonderful Eastern Region and it's fast dwindling steam :( )

Ohhh edit away Donald !!! I forgot the trips to Watfod Junction from St Albans Abbey............

And then there were the treks around the London sheds...the Grand Union Canal walk between Old Oak and Willesden......
 
Up until recently i had forgotten i remembered anything Steam at the time.....but i lived in Hornchurch until the age of 7 ...1965 and our garden backed onto the railline embankment (cumberland ave) if anyone knows it and i now have slight memories of looking down on dirty black locos chugging below.. my mum says she remembers me crawing though the fence and just sitting there for hours at the top of the bank.... it could well be the thing that gave me the intrest later on

Tony
 
I remember my grandfather taking my brother and me for a walk every Sunday over to Middlesborough docks.On the railway sidings were dozens of engines being cut up,there were boiler tubes everywhere,really sad to see.
 
The school I went to was near Clapham Junction - the former LSWR and LB&SCR split just before the entrance and the lines ran either side of the school. King Arthurs, Lord Nelsons, Schools and Bulleid air-smoothed pacifics pulling passenger trains (including the Atlantic Coast Express, or Ace as we kids called it) were my daily treats. There were loads of other classes to be seen both on passenger and freight trains. I was always fascinated by Bulleids Q1s, and I also liked the standard Britannias, 5MTs and 2-6-4Ts.

I remember being on Clapham Junction station one day when what I thought was a Brit rolled to a stop, but it had a number beginning with a 3. What is it? I asked the driver - it was the first rebuilt Merchant Navy I had ever seen, and although I loved the spam-cans it was a magnificent sight resplendent in its fresh from the paint-shop finish.

Another abiding memory of Clapham Junction was the overhead foot bridge that ran from the High Level station entrance across 20+ lines right down to platform 1. It had very grimy windows that just about let the light in, but its best feature was the wooden decking that let the smoke from locomotives passing underneath through the gaps in the boards so the whole structure always had that unmistakable smell of live steam!

Happy days!
 
My memories are on preserved lines especially the Severn valley (it was their layout at hampton load plus the Southwold line in railway modeller that made me promise myself one day I would have a NG garden railway).
Some of my earliest memories are of Owen Glendower on the VoR, guess it such a striking loco.
Spent all my childhood holidays near preserved lines.

I think those that saw an A4 being used in anger have seen something very special.

My wife's uncle was recalling as how as a boy he would jump on the footplate of locos near his house and be allowed to drive them back to the sheds...can you imagine that now!
 
My earliest steam memories are of putting pennies on the line near Mangotsfield for the locos to flatten as the pounded over them. Later on I also lived near the BedPan line (Leagrave) for most of my teenage years in the 1960's, but sadly by that time it was dieselised. I became a keen steam chaser 1966 - 68, saving my pocket money to visit Waterloo and taking train spotting trips to the northwest: Manchester Victoria, Warrington, Preston and shed visits to places like Rose Grove, Lostock Hall and Carlisle Kingmoor...just the names bring back memories...
 
My earliest memories of trainspotting include watching northbound trains cross the river Derwent via five arches bridge just north of Derby Midland station, wandering round Derby works on the open days and, when I'd saved up enough pocket money, travelling from Derby Friargate to Grantham. The distinctive wail of an A4's chime whistle shortly before an express hurtled through at high speed is permanently etched on my memory. Just for a change I sometimes travelled to Crewe via Stoke on Trent or Wolverhampton via Walsall. When at Wolverhampton I'd go down to the Low Level station as the locos were unusual to a Derby lad and tended to be cleaner and far more were named.
Happy days
 
My memories go back (alas!) to the early 1940s with LMS liveried locos; although most had been painted in "Austerity" black it was poor quality paint and soon washed off revealing the glorious crimson with gold blocked lettering. I had an older brother who took me trainspotting. Our nearest shed was Lower Darwen, I never got access to it but if I was taken to watch Blackburn Rovers I could always be found on the wall at the back of the terraces peering into the shed which was next door.
The best station for spotting was Preston, preferably on the "glass bridge" which linked Platform6(?) with East Cliff the Lancashire County Council offices. From time to time we would be turfed off by a pompous individual wearing a brown overcoat and trilby. About 12yrs later I applied for a planning job at County Hall as I was handing over my application this same guy walked past and went into the office. On enquiring as to who he was I discovered he was the County Planning Officer, (one Udolphous Aylmer Coates, you had to have an unusual name it seems in those days to be a County PO, I had one called Octavius and another was Ulysses!!) my potential employer!! I went off the job, just as well because I didn't get it...
My memories at Preston are legion - seeing a triple headed and double banked train pounding out of the docks with an enormous train of loose coupled wagons, all the locos were ex LNWR Super Ds; being smuggled onto the footplate of Royal Scot whilst she shunted a couple of vans for the London-Perth express; seeing just the top of the only streamlined Duchess I ever saw because I had upset my brother and he refused to lift me up to see it. I never forgave him for that!
Marvelling at Sir William A Stanier fresh from the paintshops at Crewe in an amazing Caledonian blue livery. Looking in horror at prototype diesel 10000 and 10001 heading an express instead of a real loco................. The next time I saw 10000 it had failed and was being towed by steam. :bigsmile:
On one occasion I got the chance to operate the regulator and brake on Stanier 2-6-4 tank 42614 between Blackburn and Cherry Tree, the only time I could claim to have 'driven' a loco in service.
On another earlier occasion I was taken onto the Liverpool Overhead Rly with its antiquated wooden boarded almost American looking stock and looking down into two loco graveyards where battered and bent crashed locos were stored prior to being broken up I suppose.
At the tender age of 11 (imagine that nowadays?) I was allowed to go on Ian Allens tours to Horwich and Gorton Works; it was like Valhalla seeing giants such as Garretts being repaired at Gorton to the diminutive Wren at Horwich.
My final memory of revenue earning steam was hearing in 1968 in the early hours of the morning an Austerity 2-8-0 running down the bank through Daisyfield station en route to Blackburn with unfitted stock and hearing the distinctive clanking of the crank bearings. A couple of days later it was all gone.
Happy Days. :clap:
 
My first memory was my dad holding me up to the open window in our compartment and saying look at that son, you might not see another one again. The locomotive was a B1, in a sort of dark grey dirt livery , the coach was a maroon Mk1. We had set off from Sheffield Victoria.
 
I can remember as if it were yesterday, and it was about 65 years ago. It was a long summer day in Waterbury, Connecticut, and I was being a little stinker about bedtime. My Mom decided to try and tire me out with a car ride. (Remember gas was only about $0.15/gallon back in those days.) We ended up in downtown Waterbury near the train station. Mom said, "Lets see if there are any trains due in." Turns our there was a Winsted to Bridgeport branch line train due in about a half hour, which is an eternity to a four year old, but I waited patiently. I remember first seeing a headlight far up the distant track, then a plume of white smoke. As the New Haven Railroad I-4 Pacific rumbled into the station, with steam coming out of seemingly everywhere, it scared the dickens out of me. I thought it would fall over on me. I was petrified, but I was hooked. The only toys I ever wanted from that day forward, were trains.

I was privileged to see the last steamers in action. The steamers were replaced with Alco RS3s. The heavyweights were replaced with smooth sided "American Flyer" coaches, and they eventually were all replaced with Budd cars. The magnificent Waterbury train station was sold to the local newspaper, who still uses it as their headquarters, but at least it has been preserved.
waterbury1.jpg



It was sad, but at least I got to see the real thing, albeit so many years ago. Running live steam locomotives is the spark that keeps the fire lit for me, and hopefully for future generations. I feel privileged to be part of the hobby.
 
One of the very few benefits of being brought up in the Manchester area in the 1960s was that steam lingered there until the very end. As late as 1967 it was possible to see unfitted coal trains being dragged to the local power station behind an unkempt Black 5 from Newton Heath depot, just two miles down the road and alongside our line into Manchester. My mother still rues the day in the very early 60s that she found I could be kept quiet for a while if she and I stood overlooking the tracks from the footpath down to Moston station. I never let any shopping trip go by after that without nagging her for "time at the station" and it was mandatory as far as I was concerned to be on the left side of the train into Manchester and right side back to get a view of the loco shed!
 
My maternal Grandfather was a train driver in WWI in France. When he came home his family had been allocated "soldier Sellement" farms around Mudgee and Wellington.... Then my Mum was born then I came along ( Mum confessed to sex in the dunes at Cronulla where presumably I was concieved) anyway by this time Fardy ( as grandad was known ) had risen to higher rank than mere driver and was some sort of locomotive inspector. So anyway to see the rellies we used to travel by train as one did in those days twice a year. Of course romantics like me no longer travel by train unless it is steam hauled, theres no huff & puff, no hiss of steam no smell of burning coal just an all pervading sickly diesel aroma.... So I got to travel with Grandad in the cab sitting on a little fold down seat... I don't have a clue what class of locomotive it was probably a 36 class as far as Wallerawang but extra engines would be attached at Valley Heights for the steep climb up Boddington hill as I think it was called. We changed at Wallerawang to a smaller engine with 4 carriages after a Railway Pie at the RRR ( railway Refreshment rooms) My MIL worked for the RRR for 40 years and will take to the grave the secret of getting the corners of the sandwiches to curl up as they did.
Oh yes very emotional memories, I would have been 4 - 6 years old at this time.
When I started high school the building backed onto the railway line and there was always much fun to be had with some of the other fellows in my class who were avid train spotters, they even had timetables and would interrupt classes with lengthy descriptions of the engines and the carriages wagons etc. In wet weather if it was a garret hauling a heavy train up the hill a slip was always on the cards, when this happened the entire building reververated, the class was called to order to no avail the windows opened and dozens of 14 year old boys yelling encouragement to the crew who would take the time to throw lumps of coal at us...
Yes I remember with great fondness the steam era my wife tells me I should have been born a century earlier....
I have never owned my own locomotive but I have built 3 steam launches and spent 10 years as Master/Engineer on a paddle steamer and of course living in Sydney the harbour was alive with steam ferries and as a teenager I managed to ingratiate myself with the various crews and spent many happy hours in the engine rooms of the Dee Why, South Steyne, Curl Curl and the Stockton car ferries were also still running and a guy named Harry Moore befriended me and I used to spend weekends at Newcastle with him working the ferries...
Its in my blood.....
Then I was conscripted and was sent off to Vietnam and in a "council Yard" at Baria were 3 traction engines of some weird French manufacture and another sapper and myself set about raising steam and getting one of them running.... Well there was talk of court martial and all sorts of punishement but the local Vietnamese head honcho told our CO that were were NUMBA 1!!! getting the thing going; calm was restored and when I left in 1970 that engine could be seen chuffing along the dirt track that was "Route 1" towing loads of stuff under tarps, probably stolen cement or black market goods.....

In 1970 there were still some steam hauled trains running in NSW and in Queensland steam locomotives were hauling carriage sets made up of stainless steel electric cars that were waiting for the overhead, and a trip to remember was the express steam hauled servces to Ipswich... ah yes the memories flood back
Who started this??? I'm getting all emotional, it's not fair......
 
I am to young (honest).
my Dad's story would be as a boy in the engine sheds in Glasgow with his Dad a train driver talking to the driver of 'the Union of South Africa' which was new and being told it couldn't pull for toffee and the wee man might as well talk it home and all my old man could think was where i am going to keep that!!
 
sorry to be a bother, but how do I post a question.I had to find some one on line so I could ask.Thank you
 
lgbmad said:
sorry to be a bother, but how do I post a question.I had to find some one on line so I could ask.Thank you
Click to expand...

Do you mean, how do you create a new thread/ topic to ask a question?
If that's it, first decide in which of the basic sections from the Forum's home page your question belongs. Click on that section (for example, the Coffee Lounge) and you'll notice that there is the option to "Post New Thread" on a button top left of the list of topics (threads) already extant. It should then be pretty clear from there. Before going to the effort, you may want to check that your question has not already been asked and answered by using the "Enter Search Phrase" box top right of your screen.
 
Trainspotting at Trent Junction in the late 1940's, lots of grimy 8F's, Black 5's and Garrets going to and coming from Toton, lots of Jubilees, especially 5611, "Hong Kong" (Kongy) which came past several times a day, many types of local tank engines, 2P's and Compounds on locals or semi-fasts, the fish train trailed by the smell of kippers followed fifteen minutes later by the Royal Mail, running from school at noon to catch a glimpse of a Jubilee piloted by a Compound pulling the Thames Clyde Express through town heading up the Erewash Valley line, taken by my dad very early on a Saturday morning to see the LMS diesels 10000 and 10001 double-heading south to London over the River Trent and disappearing into Redhill Tunnel, the Royal Train parked overnight on the North Curve (Squeaker) at Trent Junction and travelling to Grantham from Nottingham Victoria on the somewhat unfamiliar LNER to visit my dad's brother who drove those wonderful A4's. God, I'm getting OLD!
 
my fondest memories when a young lad ,were thundering over the forth rail bridge and my mum letting my brother and i throw pennies out of the window for luck.
down below you could see the ferry boats crossing the forth. and the smell of coal smoke(sticks with me to this day) wonderfull. allan.
 
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