Nothing in my Attic

My attic used to be full of stuff until I decided that I was never going up there again [bad back, bad knee, moan, moan]. I cleared it out. If the ball cock in the cold-water tank fails, I shall have to get a man in. There is absolutely nothing else in the attic and certainly no valuable original railway posters. Such as I possess are framed and displayed on the walls already.

Every now and then, finds like this one come to light – treasure troves of rolled posters that have just been lying there collecting dust for decades. If only.

'Holy grail' rail posters collection saved from attic - BBC News

Of my ilk - sort of

 A special guest contribution today from my good friend, John Beck. A winter's tale with some atmospheric photographs to match.

"He pulled onto the wide cinder road edge, swung out of his car, pushed the metal gate leading down the steps to the track open, and polished his camera lens, seemingly all in one motion. 

‘Thought it would have broken through by now’ he said without looking up. ‘I saw the sun come up on the Malverns at 7.30 and then straight here for the 60 from Margam’.

He had a Worcester Warriers bobble hat firmly on, and a similar coloured scarf wrapped round his face. He had clearly done this a hundred times before. Confident, comfortable, communicative. A nice enough bloke.

I noted that there was an immediate assumption that I was ‘one of us’. That’s why I was there, on the bridge. 

Innocent, perhaps a little brave, perhaps a little foolish. In any event, not a moments doubt. Quite touching really.  He was right of course. 

‘The class 66, fully laden, came through 5 minutes ago’ I said. 

‘I know. 169 probably. The light engine from Bescot five minutes earlier was cancelled. Im here for the 60 from Round Oak in ten minutes’.

‘How do you know what the loco’s will be’ I asked.

‘Well there are certain apps, and it helps if you know certain people’. At this point there was eye contact.

 

There was no pressure to talk.  It was nice to start the day on the bridge, with the sun starting to break through the mist and frost, and in the company of my ilk. 

With one deviation - I mounted my (Wills) bike and, as a farewell offering, remarked that it will be some time before we see steam on this stretch. As my wheels started turning I was met with a resounding ’Oh, I don’t do steam’.  I’ve met people like this at SVR diesel galas I thought. There's more of them than you might think.

Each to their own."

Johnson 3F Tanks

Introduced in 1899 for the Midland Railway, the Johnson 3F Class of 0-6-0 tanks was originally 60 strong. They were numbered 47200 to 47259 in BR days. There were 18 survivors by summer ’62 of which I saw nine. The last ones were scrapped by 1966 and none were saved for preservation. Neither John Dyer or I took any photos of locos in this class, so it was yet another relatively unexciting group of ancient tank engines that slipped under the radar at the time. This picture of an example of the class is available to view online.

 

Stella and Charlotte

Colas Rail top and tail class 67s, Nos. 67023 Stella and 67027 Charlotte passed through Fiskerton yesterday afternoon with the Network Rail test train, performing a somewhat circuitous journey from Derby to Doncaster. The November sun was already low in the sky and it was a bit parky standing around, after the train had lost its path at Nottingham to be stuck behind a bug cart, making it 20 minutes later than scheduled.

While I was waiting, a red kite flew right over my head but when I tried to photograph it my camera went dead with a flat battery, so I had to take the train on my phone. On the plus side, the foot-long crack in the car windscreen didn’t get any worse while I was out. I had completed my bike ride for the day during the morning, passing this obsolete petrol pump on the way. Already a bit of a local feature, it now also stands as an omen of things to come for petrol pumps everywhere.

The Fowler 2F 0-6-0 Tanks

One might be forgiven for overlooking one or two of the more obscure locomotive classes, especially at the time, when attention was mainly directed at express passenger versions. Fowler’s 2F tanks might have gone relatively unnoticed, somewhat under the radar. Designed as a short wheel base dock shunter able to negotiate tight curves, 10 locos were built by the LMS in 1928/9. There were seven remaining by the summer of 1962, of which I saw three – numbers 47160/4/6. John Dyer photographed 47160 at Birkenhead sheds in 1961, 47165 at Agecroft MPD in 1962 and 47166 at Bidston sheds in 1959 and again in 1960. None survived into preservation.

Kitson Class 0F

Only ten of these 0-4-0s were built. The first five were constructed by the LMS in 1932, and BR added five more in 1953. Some of the second batch were used on the Birkenhead dock system. I saw Nos. 47005/8/9 in Birkenhead sheds, which is where John Dyer took these pictures, in 1960 and 1961.