I was born a few years after the end of WWII when railways were very much steam hauled. My dad, who was forty at the time, was Head Shunter at King's Cross Top Shed so I grew up with access to the ultimate train set! We went everywhere by train. We had no car because railway workers got cheap travel which was factored into their pay. If you ran a car you did yourself down double (a) you had the cost of the car (b) you didn't make use of the cheap travel. I had an ID pass which got me tickets on BR at 1/4 of the normal child's fare and anywhere on the underground for sixpence (2.5p). The world was a very different place then and by the time I was ten I would walk to Cockfosters tube station, buy my ticket and ride to King's Cross. I would then walk along to the depot and present myself at the timekeeper's office. I always got the same reaction, "you're Bill Young's boy aren't you?" followed by "does your mum know you're here?". He would then fetch dad and I would spend a few hours with him helping to move the locos about. Dad's job was to ensure that the right loco was in the right place at the right time in good running order and if it was for the Royal Train that everything visual was also 100% spot on. He even had a signwriter to make sure that all the lettering was perfect! Naturally I got to drive some of the locos and my best ever was to drive Mallard (the world speed record holder) down the yard and back turning her on the turntable and picking up coal and water. How much of the driving was me and how much the official driver I don't know but I certainly pulled the throttle lever and we went down the yard. Good enough for me!!
The picture below is from Steam Shed Portrait by H.G. Forsythe and shows dad and his mates drinking tea!
It's hardly surprising that even though I wanted to be a photographer dad wanted me to have a proper engineering job so I served my apprenticeship with Standard Telephones and Cables and became a Mechanical Engineer. Although I started as a Toolmaker I ended up as a Designer. I've designed all manner of things ranging from factories to hi fi cartridges.
My first model railway was the usual double oval on a board which slid out from under my bed. When I "grew up" I gave it to my nephew. All that three rail Hornby Dublo! Hey! Ho!
I spent a period modelling in 3mm scale which I still think is the ultimate scale but there was so little commercially available that I traded it all in for a load of N Gauge kit. When we moved to this house in 1988 I decided to build a loft layout and made a start but it never got anywhere due to a lack of time. I did a fair amount of model making however as I belonged to the Bury St. Edmunds MRC where I was the Chairman for many years.
Now I'm retired (except for my photography business) I have the time to build my layout. So what am I going to build?
No comments:
Post a Comment