Roger Westney

My earliest memory of railways was being terrified by the sound of steam engines !

As I grew up in the 60’s me and a friend used to go train spotting , mainly in Sheffield , but did sometimes wander further away to Doncaster or even York.

We lived quite near to what now is the Midland main line and used to hang about at the south end of Bradway tunnel and would spend hours sat at the top of the bank watching the “new” diesel engines pass through , along with the very occasional steam engine, which were being phased out by this time .

The steam engines always seemed to be really rusty and badly maintained, not like the ones on present day preserved railways of today .

I do remember seeing the Flying Scotsman going through Doncaster at great speed, which I discovered later was the non stop run from London to Edinburgh run by Alan Pegler.

In fact the said engine has played a big part in my life, through 4472 to 60103 days. It did pay a visit to Sheffield station in the early 80’s and my son stood on the footplate and blew the whistle.

I think I passed my love of railways onto my son although he was not a fan of standing in station platforms for hours on end seeing almost nothing!

We also visited Norfolk and of course went to see the North Norfolk railway and once again my son stood on the footplate of some of their steam engines .

He did however build a quite impressive model railway and of course I bought him a Hornby Flying Scotsman (4472 apple green)

I later years I lived I York and was present when it was brought home, and did travel being her on trip from York to Scarborough. The service ran a little late and as we travelled back to York is was dark but we could hear the sound of the engine, I would say we were going at 100 mph !

After the re build I once again saw the engine around Yorkshire and on the North Yorkshire moors railway , as well some runs from London to Edinburgh .

I now live in North Yorkshire and regularly visit the NYMR , travelling from Pickering to Whitby behind their lovely steam engines .

Over the lock down time I have built a model railway which now resides in my garage , so I am back in time again , and my son bought a model of a Jinty engine that we regularly saw in Norfolk .