Classing the semis

The semis were the engines we admired most. “How many semis have you seen?” was almost certainly my standard opening line for a conversation with anyone who I had just discovered was also a spotter. For a time, in the early 60s, I had seen all but one of them. It must have been weeks, and it may even have run into months, before I finally classed them. 

On an undisclosed date, which I’m working out was probably during springtime in 1963, my friend Andy rang our door bell around tea time on a Sunday afternoon. He told me that he had been to Edge Hill sheds [8A] earlier that day and seen Coronation Class No. 46245 City of London. He knew it was the only one of the class that I had not seen, so this was a generous and noble act on his part.

That left me with a problem. It was school the next day and by the following weekend the semi would have gone. It was a case of Dad to the rescue again. We went on the Sunday evening underground train service from New Brighton to Liverpool James’ Street station, by bus from the Pier Head along Smithdown Road and then walked along Tiverton Street to the sheds. There she was, as promised, stone cold and hemmed in between other engines.

I must have kept my part of the bargain with Dad by not doing a full round of the sheds or taking note of what else was there and by agreeing to come straight home once we had seen her. I have no record of the event, though I remember cabbing her before we left.

I had been the recipient of two good turns in one day. I positively bounded into school on the following Monday morning.

With Chris and Alice Priestley and Coronation Class No. 46233 Duchess of Sutherland, sister engine to the City of London, at Hellifield, in 2014 – still chasing the semis.