Should I really be going to Doncaster?

As I look back at them now, I would admit to an underlying sadness about some of those day trips I took by myself during my half term holidays in the early 1970s. My mates had lost interest in spending time on the national network since the end of steam and so I was on my own. It concerned me that I perhaps should also have given up what might have been widely regarded as a kids’ hobby. I was full of self-doubt.

I had to keep justifying my continued interest to myself, yet it continued to provide me with an occasional welcome escape from the demands of my work situation, as I tried to establish myself as a young teacher in a tough secondary school. It was escapism, but I still needed it. Railways have always provided me with a safe place to go, to step out of the day to day, to unwind and relax in an environment in which I feel at home.

When I returned to Doncaster on Friday 15^th February 1974, I had not been there since the end of steam. Taking the train from Liverpool, via Manchester and Sheffield - though not by the Woodhead route this time, which was by then freight only - I appear to have taken only two pictures all day, an EE Type 3 in Sheffield and St Paddy in Doncaster. Perhaps I was too busy soul-searching.