Will Crompton

A couple of pictures from March 1985 of a Cowans Sheldon 6.5 ton crane used at Coton Hill Yard, Shrewsbury to change wagon wheel sets. Pictures uploaded to Flickr by Steven Clements.

In the 3rd Hannibal Lecter novel by Thomas Harris, 'Hannibal', the fearsome Lecter is hiding out in Florence where he uses the alias, "Dr Fell." Coincidence? I think not.

10202 in all its brutalist diesel-punk glory. Uploaded to Flickr by Colin Alexander. I encountered this picture in a Flickr gallery entitled 'British Railways Rarities - the early years' curated by 'The Mighty Hood'. There are some splendid photographs of early diesels here. It is well worth a browse. However I must warn viewers of a sensitive disposition that it contains one or two pictures of.....of......the 'Awful Thing.'

When you gotta fever and the only cure is running a steam hauled ballast train* on your 21st Century set layout..... Posted on Flickr by Neil Harvey - "75019 coasts into Skipton with a charter ballast train on the 26th February 2000. It was heading for the Rylstone Branch where the main photographic charter was to be held." *As opposed to more cowbell.

Good point. In 2021 I was on a train bound for Munich Hauptbanhof and in a yard nearby saw a pair of HST powercars. I nearly choked on my pretzel!!! It transpired RailAdventure had sent them over for display at a trade show.

I think the wrecked car is the cherry on the cake vis-a-vis atmosphere along with the gaps in the fence. All it needs to make it perfect would be some local ruffians playing in that patch of wasteland.

Yes, according to the discussion under the picture on Flickr - "Level X-ing at junction of Old Middlesbrough Road with Harcourt Road viewed from Middlesbrough Road over bridge." It seems to tally with former lines visible on Rail Map. https://railmaponline.com/UKIEMap.php Also the houses visible in the left background seem to be those visible on Google Maps abutting Leven Street and Alan Street.

A scrapyard, Middlesborough area, 1972. And more atmosphere than you can shake a stick at. Posted on Flickr by Kevin Lane.

To be fair one of my younger brothers was on bus spotting duties. I remember him and his mates were chasing after a rapidly disappearing single decker type used by London Transport. Funnily enough growing up in London, I found buses in Stoke-on-Trent where my family hailed from, very exotic as a nipper in the 60s. Routemastery types with doors and buses with doors at the front!!! I had two uncles who worked for Potteries Motor Traction as well.

We only did set numbers on SR EMU's in the naive belief that the the units were immutable. We always found recording DMU's a bit of a faff as you had to do the coach numbers, so if passing a location at speed they were usually ignored in favour of locos. We were a little suspicious of anyone recording non-DMU coach numbers, never saw anyone doing wagon numbers*. We did note that a tiny minority recorded London Underground stock. If we saw bus spotters we got out garlic and crucifixes. Looking at the replies (and thank you everyone who has replied to my addled musing) has reminded me of other locos we found exotic. 44's, I can still remember the excitement at copping no 1 at Toton or thereabouts. 26s and 27s on our one and only trip to Scotland circa 1973. We called 33s BRCW's so these we called Scottish BRCW's. Lines of withdrawn Clayton's at Glasgow works were strange. 76s not only were exotic but had a pleasingly archaic look. Funnily enough as we rarely ventured to Liverpool Street and Stratford so 37s were a bit unfamiliar, I think we saw more on trips to Wales than East London. South of the river we rarely went east of Clapham Junction so 71's were unfamiliar compared to 74s. I think I only ever copped one. Also PWM shunters and the funny little thing at Reading Signal Works before they got the 06. *Having developed an interest in wagons in my declining years I'm glad people did though.

My spotting days were back in the 1970s. I and my spotting amigos grew up in SW London, 3rd rail territory. We did a lot of spotting in London termini and depots and were fortunate that there was a great variety of locos/rolling stock to be seen. On visits further afield however there was always a point where we saw an engine or multiple unit type that made us realise that were no longer on our 'manor'. For us it was class 20s when we went 'oop' north' which for us started circa Wellingborough. 03s and Class 24s without headboxes were strange beasts to us as were class 124 DMUs. What locos or rolling stock gave you a frisson of the exotic?

I think it's genetic as one of my uncles and my dad used to go spotting around Stoke-on-Trent where my mum and dad are from. My dad used to claim him and his mates once had a 'ride' in the revolving tender of an LMS garratt parked in a country siding near where they lived. For a time we lived in Stoke when I was a toddler and my Grandad used to take me on a 'speed whiskered' green DMU from Meir Station to Stoke-on-trent station to watch trains. This would have been circa 1961/2 and it's funny how some of the memories are very vivid i.e. the steps down to the platform on (the now closed) Meir station and being allowed onto the footplate of an engine at Stoke courtesy of a friendly crew. I also remember Stoke MPD from later visits as the two sets of Grandparents lived at opposite ends of the Stoke er..erm...mega-city and the bus between went past the MPD. As it was above road level you would get a glimpse of filthy black engines looming above you, I was always entranced by this as being a nipper they seemed huge. As this was the mid 60s (shed closed in 1967) I think they would have been Black 5s, 8Fs and standard types. I can also remember the coaling stage. We moved to SW London circa 62/3 and I can remember Bulleid pacifics and and a Q1. I used to play in a 'rec' next to the SW main line and vividly remember the pacifics rushing past and then later maroon warships (I always thought Warships looked good in this colour). Circa 1971 me and some mates decided to take up trainspotting. Our first location was the footbridge just south of Wimbledon Station where we would go after school. There was a good view of Wimbledon (south) goods yard from their as well. Lots of EMU's of course which we generally found a bit dull* but during an hour one would get BRCW's (33s or 'Cromptons' as I believe young people call them) on Exeter, Bournemouth and Weymouth trains, BRCWs and Electro-diesels (73, 74s) on parcel trains plus there was often a 73 shunting the yard. We caught the tail end of Warships on Exeter trains. I think I remember seeing 74s on passenger trains. (I rather miss 74s. I'll get me coat.) Our first 'excursion' was to Clapham Junction one Saturday Morning. As luck would have it engineering diversions were in place so our train to Clapham went from Wimbledon via the District Line through East Putney and joined the Barnes/Richmond lines. Imagine our excitement as we were slowly coming down the incline and could see a freight train being held to let us pass double headed by a Brush 4 and a Peak. Talk about exotic! Eventually we had a regular London itenary on a Saturday - Paddington lots of Westerns hoorah!, Bakerloo to Willesden, ask nicely at shed office to go round Willesden TMD, over the hill to Old Oak Common, walk in bold as brass, never challenged, cop everything there, sandwiches on the carriage siding buffer stops by the main line, then Euston, St Pancras and best of all Kings Cross, Deltics, 40s, Peaks, Brush 4s, A1A's etc etc etc. We also did long distance trips - I can remember Newcastle, Swindon, Doncaster, Derby, Toton, Tinsley, Glasgow, Immingham and Cardiff (where we were unceremoniously turfed out of Canton before we had hardly set foot in the place). Did Barry scrapyard a couple times as well. Then interest faded for the usual reasons until one day commuting home from work from Denmark Hill in the early 21st century I saw a 37 in EWS red (one of the few decent privatisation liveries) pass through with a rake of varied wagons. 'There's lovely' I thought and I was hooked again. *What I wouldn't give to hear and smell the insides of a 4-Sub as it ticks over now though. Blub!

In the 70s I remember a lot of stations painted in Pantone grim no. 66.

Many thanks for posting this and previous links to your relevant photographs Paul, it is really helpful and much appreciated.

As promised a few further snippets I have found by, in the spirit of 'shopping your own wardrobe/pantry/greenhouse', researching my own library. They are all from writings by David Ratcliffe. 1) From his book, 'Private-Owner Wagons in Colour for the Modeller and Historian (Ian Allan Publishing , 2009, ISBN 9780711033658). Pages 23 and 24 have details and pictures of tank vehicles used to convey china clay slurry to Crosfeild and Sons soap works. The traffic ended in 1991. 2) In his article 'Clay Slurry Tanks' in the bookazine, 'Modelling British Railways. Wagonload Formations' (Simon Bendall editor, Key Publishing, 2021). This has some further pictures and details. The traffic started in the mid 1970s and for a time also included ball clay slurry. 3) In his article 'Departmental tank wagons', in issue 231 of Rail Express, August 2015. The article has a picture of an ex Shell Mex/BP diesel fuel tank wagon (ADB999014) used to carry waste oil from Arpley locomotive stabling sidings to the C and W sidings where there was road access so that, I assume, the waste oil could be transferred to a road tanker. The last of these interests me particularly if I ever get off my ar....er...erm......if I get around to building a little layout inspired by this location as it gives an excuse for some extra traffic.