long distance spotters

[Magdalia]

Not quite in that league, but Peterboro to New England shed was quite some hike. Anybody know? I'd guess 2.5 miles or so.

Did that in, I think, half-term Saturday, Feb 1964. 34E was a shadow of its former self, of course, but still an A2 and maybe an A3 in steam, as I remember. Bloody long walk for those though.

By rail it is less than 2 miles. MP76 is next to Nene Sidings, MP78 is at the north end of New England.

But I'm guessing that the 1960s walking route wasn't very direct, possibly having to use Lincoln Road?

 

[GusB]

I think there was a rail ticket offer, maybe by Persil, late seventies/early eighties for a free day return journey to anywhere. I would be around the age of 14 and on my free ticket I filled it in with Peterborough to Edinburgh Waverley. HST there and back. Couple of hours filling my books with 26s and 27s before getting back home for supper. I was asked by my parents what I had been up to all day and I just said the usual footballing mad day. Don’t think I ever told them I went up to Scotland.

I certainly recall that there such an offer. My brain was telling me that it might have been Kellogg's (similar-shaped box...) but now you that mention Persil it definitely rings a bell. I was too young to be off gallivanting on my own at the time, though. I think it was early 80s.

 

[Magdalia]

I certainly recall that there such an offer. My brain was telling me that it might have been Kellogg's (similar-shaped box...) but now you that mention Persil it definitely rings a bell. I was too young to be off gallivanting on my own at the time, though. I think it was early 80s.

There were promotions from both Kelloggs and Persil. It is a good idea not to mix them up, especially at breakfast time!

 

[Whisky Papa]

Being on the Cheshire Lines SW of Manchester as a teenager in the 1970s, there wasn't much to see locally. At least the central Manchester stations obviously had their attractions, and it was also possible to get to the WCML at Warrington or Wigan fairly easily, and rather oddly, the father of my chief conspirator worked for a company with premises at Acton Bridge so we were sometimes able to spend an hour or two there, on one occasion with more time getting the train up to Crewe. My spotting pals and I also used to get to some of the local depots around Manchester by cycle or bus.

However, it was the BR 'Merrymaker' excursions that really got us around the country, either with older siblings, parents or (later) on our own. I can recall day trips to Newton Abbot (jumped off a Torquay/Paignton trip early), Norwich, Eastbourne, Southampton (twice), Windsor & Eton Riverside (twice, we obviously headed to Slough for Westerns!), Bournemouth, Cardiff, Edinburgh and the last one in 1980, Aberdeen. On top of that, my friend and I did a 'Three Cities' ticket in 1976 or 1977, which gave trips to London, Edinburgh and Oxford (for Reading) in a week. Finally, the school transport society organised trips to cover the then-new HST service from Swansea to Paddington, amongst others.

My interest tended towards buses as time progressed, and also aircraft, with a series of coach excursions organised by a local enthusiast group getting us to the London airports regularly and a string of smaller airfields, along with a memorable trip to Scotland, Dyce being the furthest point.

 

[70014IronDuke]

By rail it is less than 2 miles. MP76 is next to Nene Sidings, MP78 is at the north end of New England.

But I'm guessing that the 1960s walking route wasn't very direct, possibly having to use Lincoln Road?

I followed the Shed Directory instructions. As I remember, it was parallel to the railway, on the east side. Pretty straight road, I thought. I suppose two miles of straight nothingness feels longer than 2m! Then a big long footbridge (over sidings?) to the shed itself. I think there were only a dozen or so steam on shed by that time. I think the A2 may have been Dante, BICBW. It happened to be one of my first two LNER pacifics three-four years previously.

 

[Merle Haggard]

Not quite in that league, but Peterboro to New England shed was quite some hike. Anybody know? I'd guess 2.5 miles or so.

Did that in, I think, half-term Saturday, Feb 1964. 34E was a shadow of its former self, of course, but still an A2 and maybe an A3 in steam, as I remember. Bloody long walk for those though.

I walked it a few times, too. From what I remember, to get into the shed you had to cross a footbridge (across the loco. turning triangle) and this made you very visible to the shed staff of the 'oi you get out' persuasion. I have an idea there may have been a 'spare' often stationed there. Remember once seeing all the stored locos from the 31.12.62 cull but not being able to read the numbers - I remember they included a clearly ex-works K2 or K3.
I did get around once by catching the first train from Northampton and going straight there. Didn't want to risk being seen by venturing up the yard but luckily there was somewhere there with a notebook, so I asked him what was up there to see if it was worth the risk. Bad move - he was the shed number-taker.
E.R. sheds always seemed harder to bunk; March (also a long walk) was entered by crossing a small bridge over a dyke and I remember, on my only visit ,beside the bridge sitting on a bench there was a railwayman who wasn't very welcoming. I could only look at the lines of stored locos (mostly ex G.E. 0-6-0s at the time), just too far away to read the numbers, in disappointment.

 

[Falcon1200]

Back in 1972 BR offered some cheap fares from Oxford, 35p return to Birmingham and 75p return to Manchester. So a friend and I took advantage, and on our Manchester trip we visited Reddish Depot, which to us WR spotters was utterly exotic, and wonderful. We were 12 at the time....

 

[McRhu]

In the early 1970s ('72 or 73 I think) The Scottish Railfans' Society (late of Camelon, Falkirk) organised a bus tour of far-flung railway destinations over the border and far away, including Tinsley, Wath, Mexborough (I think), Shirebrook, Derby, Worksop, Drem?, Grantshouse, etc, etc. D6130 and I boarded the coach at it's nearest stopping point to us and off we went. I think it lasted 2 or 3 days and by the end of it, having had very little sleep sitting bolt upright for an impressive number of hours on a relatively hard seat, I hirpled gratefully back onto familiar Scottish soil vowing never to do a bus tour again. It did wonders for my Combined Volume though, and although memory is more than a little hazy I remember being very glad to have copped a Tommy or two and a good brace of 31s amongst many others rare and exotic specimens. My main impression of the tour, after all these years though, was that English cities seemed to cast a cold, whitish glow into the night sky, while Scottish ones illuminated the heavens with a cosier orangey hue.

 

[neilmc]

Where to start? Probably March 1967 when some other boys persuaded me to start trainspotting. I lived in Cross Gates, Leeds, and we would turn up at Leeds City station one weekday evening for a couple of hours, homework permitting! On Friday we would gather at Cross Gates to see the steam-hauled Manchester-York and on Saturday we would bunk Holbeck shed then hang about on the "triangle" near the West end of Leeds City where we could see everything passing on the avoiding line. Soon we took a Saturday trip to York (still some dumped steam there) then since I got back OK we followed it up with Doncaster and Wakefield and, the biggest trip so far, Manchester during the summer holidays where the number of active steam sheds and the variety of electric locos was amazing.

Somewhere along the line came the idea to see every class of loco, then every member of every class, and you know where that leads! Train fares were much cheaper then, especially for a young teen paying half fare, and the borders for a Saturday day out by rail were maybe Newcastle, Carlisle, Hull, Grimsby, Crewe, Derby, Liverpool and (at a pinch) Birmingham. A few sheds such as Westhouses and Blyth Cambois were really awkward to reach, and a couple of us decided to branch out and go with railfans clubs coach journeys to the difficult and faraway places. Eventually, a couple of years down the line, when I was about 15 my parents let me go to London in the company of a couple of older boys for a weekend shed bash. Of course, for the self-organised trips we didn't have any permits so just sneaked round everywhere, almost always successfully. I remember just once we balked at a shed bash, and that was to "do" Stewarts Lane by means of crossing four third rail tracks with trains coming every few seconds, in view of a signal box. Though I remember with the Dalescroft/Jubilee club forty lads crossing a live third rail track at Selhurst, and the lot of us veering off the M1 in our coach to do an unscheduled bunk of Tinsley on the way home from a Midlands trip!

I don't think my own sons did anything more adventurous than going to Altincham ice rink, and the way things have gone I certainly wouldn't have encouraged trainspotting, at least in the old way!

When we were a bit older (16/17) we bought a Freedom Of Scotland pass and, together with a planned club trip to Glasgow Works, we tried to see every single loco in Scotland! This involved multiple overnight journeys, the odd hotel and bashing every single shed except Fort William, often several times. I came back "needing" just seven locos which was upped to eight when 20007 was transferred from nearby Tinsley to Haymarket! And that was a sign to give up and become more interested in music and girls.

 

[westernpunk]

does anyone remember, inter city railway society ( not sure the exact name) they ran organised tours you would start off at some london terminus , on an overnight service, then visit , sheds, the next day,

 

[Western Sunset]

When I was 16 I went on a 2-week All Line Rover. Only went home once the whole fortnight...
Didn't use any hotels or sleepers as there were plenty of overnight trains in those days.

 

[LMS 4F]

Living at Bedford I regularly biked to Sandy for the East Coast line. Trips to Bletchley and London were by train and I would have been no more than12 in the late 1950s and early 60s.
The best trip was a special to Derby for a works open day. We caught it at Wellingborough and the return was that late we missed the last connection.
Four small scruffy lads found some unlucky staff member and told him we would have to sleep on the station to await the first train on the Sunday morning.
he obviously wasn’t happy with this idea because from somewhere a train with 3 coaches appeared and we were the only passengers for the trip back to Bedford.
Customer service at its best. No wonder my poor mother suffered with his nerves. What I was allowed to do would have social services involved today

 

[Spaceship323]

From Leicester we'd get the train to Grantham to see the Deltics roaring through the station, that would be around 1979, and also regularly used to cycle the 20-odd miles to Toton and spend the day on the bank with lashings of crisps and pop!

 

[Forty29]

That's it.
A6 size on white card with booking office date stamp.

If you're able to post a photo, that would be great.

Sorry for delay in replying. I have leant it with some other souvenirs to a friend, l will post a photo as soon as I get it back.

 

[xotGD]

At the opposite end of the scale, my regular spotting location was looking out of my bedroom window, armed with a pair of binoculars.

 

[norbitonflyer]

At the opposite end of the scale, my regular spotting location was looking out of my bedroom window, armed with a pair of binoculars.

My first flat overlooked the cutting just outside Clapham Junction. The Exeter trains were still in the hands of Class 50s, and whole house would shake when they opened up as they cleared the speed restriction through the station. Moved after I met Best Beloved (we have many shared interests, but trains are not among them!)