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
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
