Partners in Crime

My dad liked trams, trains and ships, and he introduced me to them all. We looked down on the Liverpool trams from upstairs at Reece’s restaurant, while enjoying afternoon tea and hot-buttered toast. Dad took me on the Liverpool Overhead Railway, from which we saw the Empress of Canada burnt out in Gladstone docks. He walked me down from our house in Tiverton Avenue, Liscard, to Egremont Promenade to see the Cunard liners on the Mersey, and he arranged my first few train trips behind steam on our annual summer holiday.

While I still needed him around for a bit of re-assurance, he also accompanied me on a few train spotting trips. Here he is in the cab of the A2 Class Pacific No. 60537 Batchelor’s Button at Carlisle Canal sheds, on Monday 23/7/1962. He asked for permission at the shed master’s office and we were given the OK to walk round. We were then denied similar access to Kingmoor, which was a much busier depot, so Dad lit a cigarette and stood out of sight around a corner near the entrance while I hurried down the lines on my own. It was the closest he got to flouting authority that I can ever remember.

In today’s safety-conscious age, his action in turning a blind eye, would, no doubt, be considered highly irresponsible - even negligent. This was effectively an active industrial site with large moving parts. Yet, kids bunked round sheds all the time and their folks were either complicit or ignorant about what their offspring were getting up to. Sadly, in the end, having a smoke proved to be the more critical choice, in Dad’s case. 

My notebook does not indicate exactly where our visit to Canal sheds began and ended, but this is the full list of what I recorded, in the order that I wrote them down. We may have seen the last three listed engines during our walk between the two sheds alongside the Anglo-Scottish main line. Carlisle Canal sheds closed in June 1963, so we actually got there just in time.

42440, 64895, 60151 Midlothian, 80113, 60537 Batchelor’s Button, D5308, 60043 Brown Jack, 65321, 42720, 64877, 64499, 65237, 42081, 64888, 60816, 61053, 12080, 42067, D328, 46107 Argyll and Sutherland Highlander, 45363.