STEAM RAILWAY MEMORIES
ADDED 3 FEBRRUARY 2006
In
the days of steam hauled trains, it was the local train-spotters dream for
some maintenance to be required on the East Coast Main Line or the
Doncaster to Leeds Central Station route.
Usually
this occurred on a Sunday, during which time all the main line expresses
were diverted through Knottingley along the branchline via Askern, known
locally as the 'top line'.
The
poor quality photographs included here, of two A3 class locomotives, were
taken with a Kodak Brownie 127 during such a diversion, at a point known
as the 'bridges' where the roads or cart tracks lead to the fields and
lime quarries south of the railway line.
Quite
a collection of 'Pacific' type and former LNER express loco's could be
seen throughout the day including the Mallard and Flying Scotsman etc.
There were rarer loco's such as the ones shedded at Haymarket (Edinburgh)
which rarely worked south of Newcastle. These included A4's 60011 'Empire
of India' and 60024 'Kingfisher'. The latter derailed its front bogie
wheels at Walden Stubbs after hitting some cattle that had somehow found
their way onto the line. This was evening time but the news travelled fast
and quite a few lads raced towards the scene on their bikes. It was
perhaps as well that several fields were situated between the derailment
and the closes vantage point.
The
top line was always frequented by several train-spotters on summer
evenings to see what was referred to as the twenty-past-eight 'namer'.
This was usually a gleaming Pacific recently turned out of Doncaster Plant
and hauling a goods train at a very sedate pace. Very often these were
Haymarket shed locomotives and were considered as 'cops', a phrase used
when first seeing a loco. All were underlined in the Ian Allen Loco
Spotters Book, which contained all the numbers and which every boy carried
in his back pocket.
My
personal recollections of 'cops' were 60035 'Windsor Lad', 'Tudor Minstral'
and 'Sun Chariot' - all named, I believe, after classic horse race
winners.
Ken Rhodes
susan (at) rhodes9969.fsnet.co.uk
3 February 2006
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