Reminiscing

[Parthree]

These photos were taken around 1964/5 (i was 4/5} i was sorting through my portable hard drive and found myself just staring at them .

i can only remember the `04` going past my house and the way i remember it ,is a `dirty black tube`

Nostalgia ain`t what it used to be

[Tricky Dicky]

I lived through the 50’s so very much post war Britain. At the time I did not think too much about about the decrepit environment and depravation where I lived. Now I look at photos of the place from the fifties and how bad it looked and find myself shocked that what I see. The “good old days” were not really that good after all. The only thing I feel was good was peoples attitude with the war time spirit still evident where neighbour would help neighbour despite the obvious poverty around .

Richard

[glencairn]

I lived through the 50’s so very much post war Britain. At the time I did not think too much about about the decrepit environment and depravation where I lived. Now I look at photos of the place from the fifties and how bad it looked and find myself shocked that what I see. The “good old days” were not really that good after all. The only thing I feel was good was peoples attitude with the war time spirit still evident where neighbour would help neighbour despite the obvious poverty around .

Richard

So true, Richard.

I remember being in Leeds City Station in 1950. The smoky, dim atmosphere. The light shades so filthy giving scant light for the staff working in the ticket office. The light shades had never been cleaned since before the start of the war.

Dewsbury Market Place Station was another (seemingly) run down one. The passenger station closed in the 1930s, but was kept open as a Goods Station. In the mid to late 1950s passenger excursion trains departed during Summer weekends. The line to the station was single track. Before entering the station trains passed through a tunnel. Smoke lingered everywhere as it was difficult to escape; even when trains had gone on their journey.
Oh! How I loved Dewsbury Market Place Station. A sad day (to me) when it finally closed

When I applied to join British Railways the first job was cleaning locomotives ready for their next turn of duty. I rarely saw 'dirty and unkempt' locomotives

Glencairn

[cheshire lines]

Living in Northwest England I got to see the last couple of years of steam from 1966 to 68 (my local shed Northwich remained open to steam until March 1968). Unfortunately I didn't have a camera back then.

The passenger service between Manchester and Chester had been operated by DMUs for several years, but there was still plenty of steam (8Fs and 9Fs) on the freight services, mainly associated with the local ICI works.

I did get to ride behind steam on a couple of occasions, once from Northwich to Knutsford on a special May Day service and once from Chester General to Anglesey for a fortnight's holiday.

[bulleidboy]

I was born in 1947 and raised in North London (Muswell Hill) and life did appear to be much quieter then - there were still bomb sites dotted around. My mum took me on the steam train from Cranley Gardens to Alexandra Palace. We lived in a flat, and the barbers shop on the ground floor that my dad took me to is still there. Walking to school - no problem. In the mid-fifties we moved to Friern Barnet - it was a penny ha'penny on the bus, and I can still remember the day the fare increased to 2d - I spent the ha'penny in the school tuck shop, and as I got off the bus the conductor told me to tell my mother the fare had increased. I used to train spot at New Southgate - a few stops out from Kings X - so A4's (streaks) were regularly seen and the blue Deltic. Summer holidays in Swanage, and having to send our clothes in a trunk about a week before we travelled - those were the days.

[Walkingthedog]

The good old days were always wonderful because we didn’t have a care in the world.

[Tricky Dicky]

The good old days were always wonderful because we didn’t have a care in the world.

Too true, as a kid you generally accept what is around you as normal until you learn otherwise. A bomb site was a great place to play with little thought about who lived there and what happened to them.

Richard

[RogerB]

A bomb site was a great place to play with little thought about who lived there and what happened to them.
Richard

Or what might be lurking in there about to wake up the neighbourhood. R-

[hunslet]

I was born in 1948 and lived about 200 yards from the WCML where 4 tracks passed under a bridge.
I remember reading abut the LMS Turbine loco and wondered if all 4-6-2 s were turbine so only had
to walk up the road and wait a while until one came through which showed that they were not.
The local station had a signal box between the tracks and one of the signal men had a ground level
"0" gauge track at the end of the platform which we kids used to run our Hornby clockwork locos on.
At Tamworth station the previous MR and LNWR lines crossed and a field at the south side of the station and
at weekends and holidays was absolutely full of trainspotters who could see both lines at the same
time.A double bonus.
My aunt would occasionally take me into Birmingham to Snow Hill station where it was a different
world with GWR stock and I remember seeing sometimes a GWR diesel railcar in a siding
at the west end of the station.
On the platform was one of those machines which you could print out a metal strip with your
letters of choice.
My future brother-in-law used these station name plates on his model railway.
Colin.

[cheshire lines]

My local station was Northwich, on the ex Cheshire Lines Committee line from Manchester to Chester (hence my user name). The original termini were Chester Northgate and Manchester Central. When Northgate closed trains were re-routed to Chester General.
When Manchester Central closed the trains ran into Oxford Road. When the line between Altrincham and Manchester was converted to the Manchester Metro, the Chester trains were re-routed via the South Manchester freight loop to Stockport and on to Manchester Piccadilly.

In the early 1970s I used to cycle to Hartford Station on the other side of Northwich. This was on the main line from Crewe to Liverpool and also the West Coast main line (which diverged at Weaver Junction). At that time the Liverpool line was fully electrified so local passenger services were operated by EMUs and expresses were hauled by electric locos.
The WCML wasn't electrified, so services from Crewe northwards were hauled by class 50 diesels, often double headed. I managed to 'cop' all 50 of these before they were moved to the Western Region.