The end of steam in 1968 left us at a bit of a crossroads.
No one else in our group was prepared to go off looking for diesels. The focus of
our collective activities had changed. Girls now monopolised our activities as
well as our thoughts.
What we actually did was travel extensively within Britain.
Two things made this possible – the Youth Hostel Association and access to cars.
This was theoretically a problem, because the YHA was initially opposed to
people travelling around by car. I think we were amongst the pioneers, who, by
our brazen flouting of their number one rule, eventually encouraged the
organisation to change their policy.
To start with, YH holidays were lads only – after all we
very much hoped that we would meet new and different girls from those we were already
getting to know back home. As we moved towards having steady girlfriends, going
away to meet other girls probably became a bit contentious. We relented and
went off together thereafter in a mixed crowd - and sometimes quite a large
one.
Steam took a back seat, but was not totally overlooked. The
KWVR and the SVR were quickly out of the blocks as far as the standard gauge heritage
railways were concerned and we visited both early on. In Haworth yard at the
KWVR, on a cold bright day in February 1968, ex-LMS Ivatt 2-6-2 tank No. 41241
was complete with crimson livery, tarpaulin and a covering of snow.
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