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Did we really look like this when out trainspotting?


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Windcheater, jeans, duffle bag, notebook, Combined Volume. No way would a skool cap be worn except on skooldays!

 

Never took my Combined. It was too precious - I didn't want to risk losing it.

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Fashions of the day  -  30th September 1961.

 

Lousy quality picture, I know, but I was only 12 when I took it - and with my Dad's folding bellows camera at that!  Still, an interesting subject especially considering that it was taken at Blackpool North (or Talbot Road, if you prefer) shed.

Hi Graham

 

The test is can you name all your mates you were spotting with? Nicknames allowed. :)

Edited by Clive Mortimore
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Short trousers were the only ones allowed until I finaly got long trousers after a big battle ,didnt look back after that we were all big boy,s couldnt name the lads I went spotting with but we went all over N London in late fifties.My favourite place was Liverpool Street all steam we ignored the emu,s the crews were always freindly and if the were not to many of you they let us cab the loco ,no chance today!

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I still see one of my spotting mates (from the 1950's) usually once a year at Wigan exhibition.

We were both members of the School Transport Society and he usually organised the week end trips (with a willing teachers help)

The best ones I remember being as far as Reading with visits to most of the sheds South of Coventry - all in one day!

Another local one was all the sheds and Gorton works in the Manchester area where we noted over 500 locos in one day.

 

Unfortunately School uniform was de rigeur but school caps were dispensed with.

 

Anyone else remember the other extra to the staple diet of spotters - the Lyons Gala Fruit Pies, An absolute  necessity when your Tizer and sandwiches had all gone.

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School cap!, worn for about 5 minutes on the first day of your first year. Once it had been snatched off your head, thrown all over the playground, and on to a low roof , it was rescued and thereafter lived in your pocket. Well, I went through the charade of leaving the house wearing it for a few weeks, because my mother liked it, before removing it once round the first corner.

 

Yes, combined volume safely at home, I had those paperback loco spotters logbooks for the actual number recording.

 

And, as Paul mentions, I just wore what my parents supplied, I don't recall anyone of my age having any notion of fashion, nor caring what we, nor anybody else, wore.

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School cap!, worn for about 5 minutes on the first day of your first year. Once it had been snatched off your head, thrown all over the playground, and on to a low roof , it was rescued and thereafter lived in your pocket. Well, I went through the charade of leaving the house wearing it for a few weeks, because my mother liked it, before removing it once round the first corner. Yes, combined volume safely at home, I had those paperback loco spotters logbooks for the actual number recording. And, as Paul mentions, I just wore what my parents supplied, I don't recall anyone of my age having any notion of fashion, nor caring what we, nor anybody else, wore.

You had it easy (as they say!). School rules absolutely required wearing of caps on all journeys to and from school, even in the 6th form. Mind you, in the early 60s, prefects were allowed to wear trilbies, but that had died out before my 6th form years. Girls had the same tedium - but wore a different sort of headgear (a boater), in the Summer term.

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Hi guys,
 
I need your expert trainspotters' assistance!   :help:

 

I want to have trainspotters on my footbridge.  The problem is I've only got black and white references to fashion.

I don't suppose any of you have any colour photos of those days (early - mid 60s?) or remember what sort of colours you wore?  The more memories the better so that I can get the right mix - and age, of course - I'd be really grateful if you could divulge your age - something like: pre/early/mid/late teens will do.  I remember colour being a very defining factor in how grown up you were - guess it still is, only when you get to my age, its how young you are.

 

So, school uniform - that would be Southall area (any takers?) - but what about weekends?  [i wonder if there were regional differences?]

 

Look forward to any comments.  Many thanks for bearing with me.

Polly

 

Edit: Girlswear - early 60s, I envied the older girls who had long white socks (not ankle ones) and wore skirts instead of tunics and didn't have to wear a beret.

Edited by southern42
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The transition from shorts to long trousers used to be with the move to 'big school'- forty-seven years later, I can still remember the name of the pour sod whose parents insisted that he continue to wear shorts at grammar school (it wasn't me, thankfully). By Christmas, they'd relented.

I used to record numbers in a notebook; I think they were blue, cloth-bound ones that dad use to get for work. Part of the fun was trying to decipher my handwriting when I got home; my handwriting's never been very good.

As to my fellow spotters, there were Robert Lindsay Jenkins (of Jenkins the Bakers, Llanelli, so good for pies) and Andrew Williams in the early days. No idea what became of either. Later, there would be Chris Lewis, whom I'm still in regular contact with, though we eschewed loco numbers in the quest for obscure wagon and coach types.

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Hi guys,

 

I need your expert trainspotters' assistance!   :help:

 

I want to have trainspotters on my footbridge.  The problem is I've only got black and white references to fashion.

I don't suppose any of you have any colour photos of those days (early - mid 60s?) or remember what sort of colours you wore?  The more memories the better so that I can get the right mix - and age, of course - I'd be really grateful if you could divulge your age - something like: pre/early/mid/late teens will do.  I remember colour being a very defining factor in how grown up you were - guess it still is, only when you get to my age, its how young you are.

 

So, school uniform - that would be Southall area (any takers?) - but what about weekends? 

 

Look forward to any comments.  Many thanks for bearing with me.

Polly

 

Edit: Girlswear - early 60s, I envied the older girls who had long white socks (not ankle ones) and wore skirts instead of tunics and didn't have to wear a beret.

 

My recollection was that colours were somewhat subfusc; grey shorts in winter, beige/khaki ones in summer. I had a few check short-sleeved shirts; as I had blond curly hair and glasses, this led to inevitable references to 'The Milky Bar Kid'. I still hate white chocolate. I'd normally have a jumper in a 'practical' colour. In later days, we gravitated towards ex-Army jackets, along with old gas-mask bags to carry notebook and snap. To be honest, we didn't pay that much attention to what we wore; it might have been different in big cities.

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You had it easy (as they say!). School rules absolutely required wearing of caps on all journeys to and from school, even in the 6th form.

Same here. If a prefect spotted you on the way to or from school without you were reported for detention or other punishment.

Never had a duffel coat or similar, usually a blazer (school or other)

 

On the way home from school (using several different bus routes) I sometimes took the slightly longer way round, alighting from the first bus at one end of Queen's Drive (New St Station) and walking to the other end to catch the next bus, with of course a slight deviation via the platforms for a bit of spotting!

 

"Sorry I'm late for tea Mum, the buses were awful tonight!"

 

Keith

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