Becoming a Railway Enthusiast

I became interested in railways at an early age partly due to my older brother. In the school summer holidays of 1962 I started joining my brother train spotting at Cheltenham Lansdown Station which was less than a 10 minute walk from our house. I soon found that ‘spotting’ was my thing and for the next few years I could be found at the station virtually any day in the school holidays, in term time at weekends and occasionally after school. The location of choice was on the raised embankment situated between Lansdown Station down bay and the Honeybourne line, ensuring that virtually every passing train loco could be identified.

Nothing could be done about missing the occasional southbound loco due to passing trains on the Honeybourne line, but northbound trains through Lansdown Station that were likely to be obscured by southbound trains were normally successfully recorded by a quick dash into the station. The situation was more complicated in wet weather when the best location was part way down the steps to the down platform, from where it was possible to look along the down platform to see the southbound signal on the Honeybourne line which normally came off providing enough time to dash up onto the embankment. For northbound Honeybourne line trains if it was quiet it was possible to hear the signal located in the cutting coming off, however it was more likely that a train would come into view which meant dashing out of the station across the car park and jumping up onto a wall that ran along the top of the embankment. Many summer Saturday only holiday trains to/from the South West were routed via the Honeybourne line and my favourite memory of one of these was on a wet Saturday afternoon when I observed from Lansdown Station a steam hauled northbound train. Following the method described above I arrived on the top of the wall just in time to see ex LNER B1 61002 Impala pass.

Another thing of great interest at Lansdown Station was the platform level signal box on the down platform where you could watch the signalman busy at work.

There became the desire to travel and see more of the classes of trains not seen or rarely seen locally. Initially this started with trips to Gloucester with its engine shed. The pull of London and all the different trains to see was first achieved by catching the 0230 coach from the Black & White Coach Station for a whole day in the capital. Doing a newspaper round then funded days out and Midland Runabout weeks. Starting work expanded this further to include All Line Rovers. This was then enhanced with passing my driving test and getting a car which along with some friends lead to Sunday Depot/Works trips – these were a fantastic way of seeing a large number of trains in one day. My ‘Shed & Works visits’ records may have given you a clue to some of these trips, but a good example is as follows.

Sunday 011274

Westhouses MPD – 17 locos.

Barrow Hill MPD – 30 locos.

Tinsley MPD – 75 locos.

Orgreave – 7 locos.

Wath MPD – 24 locos.

Doncaster MPD – 38 locos/1 dmu.

Doncaster Works – 65 locos.

Worksop MPD – 20 locos.

Shirebrook MPD – 37 locos.

Toton MPD – 69 locos.

Burton upon Trent – 13 locos.

Total – 395 locos/1 dmu.

Andy's later trainspotting trips can be found here.

Andy's Photos

Below follows a collecton of photos taken by Andy either through times trainspotting and through his work with British Rail.

Trip to Boston Lodge

In October 2019, Andy took a trip to Boston Lodge works at the Ffestiniog Railway. Here are the photos he took on that day.

Present on this day were:

• Quarry Hunslets 'Lilla', 'Hugh Napier', 'Velinheli', 'Britomart' 'Blanche' and 'Linda'

• Hunslet Diesels 'Moel Hebog' and 'Moel Y Gest'

• Baguley-Drewry Diese; 'Castell Harlech'

• Boston Lodge Double Fairlie's 'David Lloyd George' and 'Merddin Emrys'

• Beyer Peacock Steam Loco '138'

• Southern Railway 'Lyd'

• George England & Co. 'Palmerston'

• Vulcan Steam Loco 'Blanche & Taliesin'

• F.C. Hibberd Planet 'Upnor Castle'

Working Memories

A trip to Tytherington Quarry

The second stage of my railway career was in the TOPS office located in Bristol Panel box. Spare days were extremely rare but in May 1986 I had one and lined up a trip from Stoke Gifford Yard to Tytherington Quarry with a train of PGA wagons for loading. The train loco was 56033 and departing Stoke Gifford we proceeded to Yate where the branch line to Tytherington commenced. Once the single line token was obtained, we continued along the single line stopping at the two crossings in the Iron Acton area for the guard to operate the barriers then onwards before passing through a tunnel from which the train emerged into Tytherington Quarry.

Photos : Tytherington Quarry 56033 having run-round its train with the PGA’s being loaded & 56033 on the return trip to Stoke Gifford Yard stands at Iron Acton crossing waiting for the barriers to be lowered. (C) Andy Sutton