One of my first encounters with freights was as a young lad on King’s Cross Underground station’s Circle line platform awaiting a train to Paddington. The unrecognisable sound of a steam locomotive was heard in the tunnel, and it burst into the station engulfing passengers in steam, who were unable to move because it was impossible to see anything. It was hauled by a pannier tank heading one of London Underground’s rubbish or engineering trains; its origin or destination was completely unknown, but it was definitely somewhere around 1963 and 1964. Being a steam enthusiast, it made an incredible impression on me – so much so that I had to be there to see the last steam on the Underground on June 6, 1971, when the then London Transport ran a freight train from Barbican to Neasden Depot for an open day. At that time, little did we know where the railway preservation movement would go, let alone that steam trains would once again run through those same tunnels to celebrate the Metropolitan Railway’s 150th a decade ago, even though that was with passenger trains.
Ever since that early encounter, I have always held a fascination for the lowly freight or goods. Preservation has moved on considerably and our heritage sector has gone from strength to strength, saving what many thought was unnecessary or unwanted. Who would have thought
