Short and sweet. I was about 3 or 4 standing with my parents and grandparents on the Rhyd yr onnen platform of the Tal-y-Llyn. Looking towards Tywyn I saw Duncan! Fiberglass face covered in Smuts, red paint dull with oil and muck, working about as hard as those little locos can, barking away it gave a blast on the whistle as the train got to the end of the platform. That's it from then on I had coal dust in my blood and the smell of hot oil in my nostrils. Steam got it hooks in me then and there. It took almost 30 years more for me to fall for a beautiful class 52 on the seven valleys diesel gala a few years ago, the sound of those maybachs through the tunnel at flat chat almost brought me to tears. But that's a different story
When I was 2, me and my sister were being babysat and they [the baby sitter] put Thomas & Friends on the TV. I was instantly hooked and for the last 18 years, the railways has been my main passion to the point where I am the 'go to' person to answer questions about the railways within my family and family friends. That love of the railways (and steam traction) soon evolved into my interest of old vehicles of other types - ships/boats, planes, tractors, cars, traction engines you name it but my passion will also be in the railways. I am who I am because of the railways and I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful I didn't grow up like every other lad - playing football and video games etc. As corny as it is, I would say that the railway is my main love and that I will love no one else more then I love the railways (well apart from my mum & my sister obviously).
My Nan and GD lived at Albany Park next to Albany Park Station and we lived close by. We visited all the time and as a little kid I used to run to the fence shouting ‘Twain, see the Twain’… a story oft told be my mum.. so I started liking trains early and I’ll still jump at any chance to ride a steam train.. you can’t beat it. I did loads of trainspotting as a kid and three of us took a train to Waterloo and played the London Underground game for real. That was great fun. It’s a shame that today you couldn’t let kids experience that.. riding on the underground all day and learning.. we also went to Crewe on our own. Great times. I’m lucky that today I get paid to ride on trains and I have to say the GWR trains (hst 802? types) are the most comfortable … if your on a GWR service and some Herbert beats you to a table seat.. that could ne me.. LOL
When I was still in my pram, my mam thought it would be amusing to take me down onto the platform at Moston station near where we lived to see my first train. It's the first station out of Manchester Victoria heading to Rochdale and is featured in my avatar picture. Anyway, she was expecting a nice, relatively quiet, diesel unit, like a 101 to call at the station. What actually happened was a steam locomotive hurtled through the station with a long goods train. I screamed the station down. And was hooked forever.
Ha ha ha… well that’s mostly what I get to ride on unless it a cross country service.. and their trains are not great for space and comfort… but I did ride from Stockport on a really nice train, north west trains I think, no idea what type it was, but it felt new, was spacious and had an cafe car.. so I sat in there to Birmingham where I had to change to a cross country train all the way home. Thursday I’ve an 11 hour journey from Whitby via Middlesboro, where I’ve enough time between trains to see if I can find any monkey hangers, Darlington and lastly Newton Abbot and back to deepest Kernow. It’s a loooonnng day as I gotta drive up there overnight first
Looking at the mail today about the new release, the train I was on may well have been an 805. And to correct a couple of errors in my post, monkeyhangers are in Hartlepool, nit Middlesboro.. sorry about that, LOL and my journey was from Wigan not Stockport but I did go to Stockport.
For me it was definitely watching Thomas the Tank Engine on the TV. When I was just 3 years old my Dad took me to Ipswich Station one day on the Great Eastern Main Line. The sights and sounds of the trains back then lit a lifelong passion of railways for me. Still fondly remember the days when Class 86 electric locos hauled the Norwich - London mainline trains.
