.... as far as I can tell my father always wanted a boy, indeed ,he'd bought
the Hornby OO model railway before I was born. Instead he got me!!
Not to be put off he took me as a toddler to watch the Jinty at our local
sidings anyway. I have dim memories of him taking me to Derby Works open
day in 1963 in non-corridor stock hauled by an 8F from whose smoke I acquired a
gritty eye.
It was all too much to resist and I became hooked. My school was alongside
the Midland Main Line and there were loads of trainspotters., we delighted in
Brush 4s, Brush 2s, Peaks and then the rare (for us) Growlers and
Whistlers, we traveled as far as our pocket money would would allow, stretching
it especially to the delights of roaring Westerns on temple Meads and oh I could
go on. I have such fond memories of those days, of tea in green mugs in
steamed up buffets, of the Swindon Cross Country units that took me to
Birmingham New Street and beyond, of the local wagon shops in the pouring rain,
Mark One Stock, Crewe diesel, Edge Hill, Dent; totems, large goods yards,
telegraph poles with masses of wires, lower quadrant signals, bull head rail and
those palisade fences that always seemed to border stations.
Anyway, I gave up trainspotting in 1980 or thereabouts and am now mainly a
railwayana collector. I love totems especially,but also worksplates, wagon
plates, cast iron and finials. They are progressively taking over my
house; lucky I have an understanding partner!!
I am also a poet by the way, real published and paid for it! here is my
opus on Trainspotting, hope you like it... (sorry if all the line breaks get
corrupted in the email, you'll get my drift anyway).
Trainspotters
Get up before dawn, bus
to London Road, day rover
check out Leicester m p d,
station pilot and cab the bug car to Brum, change at New Street,
class eighty seven to Stafford, emu north, Crewe diesel, Hartford and Arpley yard
arrive Bank Quay in driving rain scan the working timetable such anticipation
right the lecky bug
in the bay is a cop and its a Brush four on bogie well steel flats far on the up slow
four seven three one oh with the atom flask quick get to the down side
or the up slow Crewe will obscure the view
trans pennine units arrive on the down slow ignore them set cleared
oh my god the down fast's pegged as well I can see it it's it's
it's a holy mother it's
a Growler Oh no, there's a Hoover on the up fast ahead of the Crewe stopper just look
at it move so sexy, where's my film the film, the film pen, pen, pen, pen
don't pack up now, and here comes the Hoover oh
wow its a double
header I am in heaven:
thirty seven one
two one with split head codes,
fifty oh four five
a namer Achilles
fifty oh four nine
delight its Defiance
I've cleared the fifties
all seen in just one year.
Later, back south via
Crewe, Derby for the postal ,
Loughborough, home of the famous Brush,
then late warm and content
we coast in
to Leicester London Road, forty five
hauled.
She pauses on platform two, humming warm and sweet
in gentle rain , neon
flickers to a
remnant,
we walk home , tired , close and so happy ,
Annie and Dawn.
You will of course see that such a combination of events couldn't happen,
especially, since if I am correct, the Hoovers weren't named when they they
were running double-headed north of Crewe. Still, the intention of the
poem
was to capture the feeling of excitement. From a poetic point of view its
worked as the poem has been widely published in the poetry world and always
ignites an audience.