When Andy was on Bournemouth Central station in 1963, he was offered a cab ride in Merchant Navy Pacific No. 35002 Union Castle to Bournemouth West and back, which, needless to say, he gratefully accepted. On the 3rd August 1965, Ian and I met up at Bournemouth for the day. Ian came up from Weymouth, where he was on holiday with his family and I came down by coach from Crewkerne on what was ostensibly a day by the seaside for everyone else on board the bus, except for the rest of our family. They all went to visit my mum’s auntie who lived in the town.
I think that we saw MNs No’s. 35027/26/11 and BB/WC No’s
34101/009/053/76/59/77/51/32/60. I’m not sure because this page in my notes has
become too worn along the seam for me to be quite certain in every instance.
Ian reminds me that we also got kicked out of the sheds. The good thing about
the sheds was that you could see into them from the down platform. The bad
thing about the sheds was that they were tricky to get round, because, although
they were nearby, the approach was very open and the site was right next to the
main line and so staff were obviously on the ball from a safety point of view
as far as keeping out spotters was concerned.
Fifty-seven years later and here I am at Bournemouth once
again – no longer called Central, since the closure of West. The impressive
overall roof is still there and the two extensive and wide platforms are as
before. We caught it on a particularly quiet day this time, with disruptions to
services caused by an overspill from subsequently dropped strike action plus
the impact of severe weather further east. There were plenty of potential
customers around but many were looking somewhat confused by all the uncertainty
on the rails.
The first thing I noticed when I walked onto the platform was the removal of the through lines. This practice is commonplace on the network, of course, as rationalisation and attendant signalling upgrades have led to simpler track layouts. I hate it. It looks so empty. That’s nostalgia for you. The world does not stand still. Sometimes, it’s best not to go back. Sometimes, it’s probably best to simply live with the memories. Sometimes, however, I just can’t help myself.
No comments:
Post a Comment