big jim's 1980's instamatic photo collection

[big jim]

got a huge box of photos from my dads house last night and have started to scan some of the better ones to put up on rmweb for old times sake

 

most were taken with an instamatic camera but some were on my dads "decent" camera, the shots are nothing spectacular, mainly the mundane (back then) but with a few exceptions, amazing to see just how much things have changed since the piccies were taken

 

none are dated but the likes of the crewe works ones can be pin pointed to the open day in 1987 and others are around that time...

 

so far i've scanned about 50 pictures, firstly of crewe and if anyone is interested i have more to scan of warrington bank quay with 20s and 25's etc as well as a few scottish and southern too

 

so here we go....(excuse the little oik in some of the pictures, he's got better looking with age!!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

37414 is actually off the road in this piccie, it had just come of the shed when.. thump, thump, thump, the leading wheelset came off the track!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

who'd have though that about 20 years after this picture was taken i'd have been driving the same loco through crewe, this was the last class 47 i drove while i was with fastline!!

 

thats the best of the crewe lot, there is also a load of swiss railways from 1985 if anyone is interested as we had a family holiday there at the time (visiting my swiss grandmother's old home village)

 

onto north wales, mainly flint as at the time 1987ish we lived in Mold so it was a quick hop to flint to see any interesting stuff

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

crewe works could really throw up a few surprises, i remember my dad getting a call on christmas eve afternoon froma mate in colwyn bay "get down to flint theres a scotrail 47 on a penmaenmawr ballast train", rushed down there and low and behold.....

 

 

 

47709 "The lord provest" rattling through with a short train of engineers wagons, that was a "cop" for me that day!!

 

keeping up the scottish theme, class 303 in bagillt anyone!

 

 

 

 

 

 

and onto wrexham and penyffordd, to be honest i don't remember wrexham like the photos, suppose i never took any notice back then, i do know we went to penyffordd as we had heard the class 20 turn was going to be a class 58 but as it happened it was a pair of 20's, mundane then but interesting now, again in the same way i have driven 47501 in the crewe pictures, 20 yeards down the line i ended up driving class 20's on this line for drs!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and on to a few from the cambrian, i used to live in llwyngwril so have fond if somewhat distant memories of the cambrian line, my dad however stayed with his grandma in barmouth during the summer back in the 50's and 60s so has a lot of memories, i have a shed load of pics taken from (and of) the cambrian coast express that run back in 1987 if anyone is interested, nothing spectacular but some pics some of the boxes en route, exchanging tokens etc...again 20 years down the line i i used to sign the cambrian from shrewsbury to machynlleth, strange how fate can twist and turn!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and to finish a very old picture, i assume from the 70's, a class 40 in barmouth station

 

[Leicester Thumper]

Thanks for sharing them, I enjoyed looking through those

 

many of those sights in there are very interesting!

[buckdancer]

Thanks very much for your efforts - it was really enjoyable looking at them!

[Ressaldar]

Hi BigJim,

 

many thanks for taking the time to post these and I'm looking forward to seeing the Southern ones in the not too distant future.

 

regards

 

Mike

[Pannier Tank]

Hi Jim,

 

Great photos, remember the Class40's on Crewe Works in the early eighties, those were the days:)

[PhilH]

Very interesting, and that's from a steam man.

 

Thanks for posting.

[muddys-blues]

Some great pics the Jim for us 80's era modellers.

[Simon Moore]

Jim the photo's of Crewe bring back many memories of standing on platform 1 with my dad. Infact one of the photos i think i have one almost the same possibly we were their the same day?? When i come home i shall have a see because their is a photo of 2 class 85's ?? & a class 31 in the background with the badger passing & im sure i have almost the same photo.

 

Simon.

[St. Simon]

Hi,

 

Some really nice photos there Jim!

 

Keep them coming.

 

Simon

[dave_long]

I remember that Crewe open day, the long cues outside to get in and this photo brought back a few memories too. I remember that 87/2 was stenciled on the side of the loco:

 

 

 

 

[Waverley81]

Thanks a lot Jim. It can be quite an effort scanning loads of photos. Appreciated your hard work. Great memories:good_mini:

[branchie]

Fantastic pictures Jim. Can't wait to see the rest.

 

Branchie.

[chriswright03]

As others have said Jim fantastic memories brought back by your pictures so a big thanks from me as well. Especially liked this one

 

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y163/s-type-driver/flint25095.jpg

 

Who says you can't have short trains on your layout?

 

Alas from all of my spotting days I only have one picture and that is a black and white of a 40 (I think) pulling out of Waverley Station and I can't even find that now.

 

Chris

[Kris]

Those are some really nice photo's Jim keep them coming.

[P.C.M]

Hi Big Jim,

Great pics I really like the North Wales Coast ones as its somewhere I didn't really get too. I am not sure if you have the loco numbers on all those but the class 33 with 33 as the headcode looks like it has red bufferbeams which narrows it down to 33009 or 020.

 

Cheers Peter.

[Pugsley]

Cracking photos Jim, thanks for posting them. I take it that's little Jim in the first couple of photos

[Blackthorn]

Those are great pictures, Thanks for posting them.

 

They may have seemed mundane at the time, now they're gold!

[reevesthecat]

Thanks for posting jim -looking forward to the warrington ones, I was in my teens at the time living nearby the fiddlers ferry line and travelling often from bank quay ,I am sure they will rekindle alot of memories from those times.

cheers

mark

[big jim]

Cracking photos Jim, thanks for posting them. I take it that's little Jim in the first couple of photos

 

yeah, not so big jim!!

 

just started scanning the warrington picciesbut will be away from the scanner for a week from today so will get as many done and posted before 6 today!!

[Welly]

Oh yes! Crewe 1987! The long queue because my older mate didn't realise that we could get in quicker with advanced purchased tickets!! The crowds on the platforms all with notebooks! The line of condemned 40s, the sheeted over Colwich locos, the then new class 87/2s ( now 90s ) Cheers for the memories, Jim!

[big jim]

and onto a few from warrington bank quay

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

found this random one too, 31 at blaenau

 

 

got a few scanned from our trips round the east and west midlands, gonna have to get the rest scanned next weekend now but there are a few from toton, tinsley, doncaster etc as well as the southern stuff inc ripple lane open day and old oak

 

vic berry

 

any ideas where this is?

 

 

 

 

a taste of things to come!!

[250BOB]

Hi Jim

Loved the pics......we must catch up soon.

Bob.

[Leicester Thumper]

you came to Leicester too and saw Berry's yard!

 

The whole yard is now gone due to the fire in '91 and has now been fully redeveloped around there, the bridge carrying the upperton road over the access to the yard is now gone as well all that remains are the old GCR river bridges and the old carriage shed which is now an industrial unit, som of the trackbed still exists with ballast and some other goodies which are too heavy to move without either 20 blokes and a van or a body builder!

[Les Bird]

There's been a great deal in the modelling press recently about weathering techniques and we're always being told how dirty locomotives usually are. Looking through the first batch of photos it's amazing just how clean some of the locomotives are.

[big jim]

thumper: that was the only time i ever visited leicester as a kid, my dad was there to assist loading of a class 25 onto a low loader as it headed of into preservation (may have been 25085), i think there is a picture of it im the box somewhere.

 

Funny how things turn out, the next time i visited leicester was about 25 years later was when i signed the mml

 

If i can get some more pictures scanned before i go away on hols ill get them posted