IT was a trait among steam era trainspotters to have as our favourites not only regularly seen classes of locomotives, but also those that never entered our parish, writes Geoff Courtney.
One of my trainspotting chums had a penchant for the ‘Hunt’ D49 class, even though – or perhaps because – opportunities to see such an engine on the main line out of Liverpool Street were less likely than one of our local First Division football clubs winning the European Cup.
For me, it was, inexplicitly, the former GWR Manor class, although I did manage to ‘cop’ a few in service, including No. 7818 Granville Manor at Reading General on August 30, 1958, and No. 7805 Broome Manor at the same station on June 8 the following year. The former, a Tyseley (84E) engine, was working an Up Birmingham express, while No. 7805, on an Up parcels train, was a Cardiff Canton (86C) resident and thus far from home.
That fondness for the class survives to this day, and I am fortunate enough to have recently obtained for my railwayana collection a cabside numberplate from No. 7821 Ditcheat Manor, one of the 10 built at Swindon in the post-Nationalisation era.
I therefore felt at home when this latest volume from Transport Treasury came through my letterbox, for any on the ‘Cambrian Coast Express’.
