Two steam specials came to Chester from London, both travelling
via Hereford and Shrewsbury. The Merchant Navy Locomotive Preservation
Society’s “Return to Steam 3” began at St Pancras and returned to Paddington,
while the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway Society’s “Mayflower” started
and ended at Euston.
We chose Gresford to watch the action. Gresford colliery, on
the North Wales coalfield, had closed two years earlier. In 1934, 266 men died there
in an underground explosion. Only 11 bodies were ever recovered and the seam
where the accident took place was then permanently sealed off. It was reported
that the mine owners docked the men half a day’s pay as they had not completed
their shift.
The mine occupied a site just north of Wrexham, between the
1 in 82 Gresford Bank on the Chester to Shrewsbury line and the main A483 road
which runs parallel to it. The local station, Gresford Halt, closed in 1962. We
watched both northbound steam specials drifting down onto the Cheshire Plain towards
Chester, behind Merchant Navy Class No. 35028 Clan Line and King Class No. 6000
King George V. We then hung around until they both came back up the hill later
in the day. This time we climbed the embankment to the track side so that we
could view them at close quarters.
I finished the black and white print film in my camera with
a photograph of a northbound English Electric Type 4 on a normal service train.
I had chosen Agfa, rather than the usual Kodachrome, this time, for my next
film of colour transparencies.
No comments:
Post a Comment