For any of you that were around back then, what were the last few days of BR steam like for the enthusiast? These days interest me greatly as the accelerated kicking-out of steam is something I'll never fully understand.
Also of note is the day after the special. Now, I'm aware that despite the new ban on steam, Oliver Cromwell travelled under her own steam to Norwich (presumably from then-closed shed 10D Lostock Hall) so I'm assuming she attracted some attention, but what was it like in the first few days after steam had gone? Was it strange? Was it boring, or exciting?
Didnt Oliver Cromwell go to Norwich overnight? Or is my memory really shot?
For me the whole of 1968 was sad. So sad in fact that I decided that I didnt want to witness the end of steam with run down 8Fs and Black 5s wheezing around in the rain on occasional parcels and freight trains, followed by hoardes of men with cameras.
My sadness and dejection came from the speed at which locos were taken out of service from about 1962 onwards. I remember beginning to see Brush Type 2s instead of Gresley O2 2-8-0s on iron ore trains to Frodingham, and wondered why I hadnt seen any of the latter for a few months.
A look at the latest Combined ABC when it came out filled me with horror - there were no O2s in the book. At first I assumed the page was missing, but no the pages were all there, it was the entire class that was missing, along with most of the 200 K3s that I was used to seeing.
A similar thing happened a couple of years later when I looked at the page for the A3s and found them down to just two locos.
A severe depression descended and I virtually gave up trainspotting completely but I had subscribed to a railway magazine and by some coincidence the cover one month was a photo of a train along the sea wall at Dawlish next to a long sandy beach.
My mother (who loved sandy beaches) saw the photo and asked where it was, and as a consequence of that my parents booked two weeks in a wooden chalet affair at Dawlish Warren.
So I spent the last week of BR Steam watching Warships, Westerns and class 22s (amongst many other classes) from either the sea wall or even in the sea if the tide was quite high.
It worked for me, but I just wish I could have afforded a decent camera.