Archive-1981

A day trip out on a chilly March day to chase The Welsh Marches Express with David Brush, Graham Vincent and Mike Watts. I have not got it written in my notes but I think that we travelled in Mike's Ford Fiesta. We started off at Church Stretton in the pouring rain with 6000 'King George V' but as we chased the train south the weather improved with it seen in full sun hauled by 4930 'Hagley Hall' by the afternoon. On the way back we stopped off at Severn Tunnel Junction in the days when you could just wander around a depot and finally at Bristol Temple Meads.

I am not too sure why I visited Bath on this occasion but I did take a number of photographs for my college portfolio. I managed a few railway images too.

A long day out from Bath to North Yorkshire to see a southbound Cumbrian Mountain Express. We captured it three times with 46229 'Duchess of Hamilton' hauling and once on the return to Carnforth hauled by former LMS Black 5 5407. Graham, Paul, David and I travelled in Graham's Austin 1100 (UVJ 129J) that was a little overcrowded with four of us and all of our combined kit for the day!

As part of my A-Level photography course, we attended London's Photoworld exhibition held at the Olympia Exhibition centre. I was delighted that the course leader chose for us to travel from Westbury to London and back by train rather than by some rickety coach! We travelled up by HST and back on the legendary 1K68 all stopper loco. hauled 'Westbury Express'! After touring the exhibition I managed to nip across London by tube and visit King's Cross and St. Pancras stations for an hour or so.

I made two visits to Bath's Green Park station during May 1981 in order to take some photographs for an A-Level coursework presentation. At this stage in its life, the former Midland/Somerset and Dorset Railway joint station had been closed to passengers for fifteen years and to goods for just eleven. Following closure, it had been used as a car park but due to structural issues, it was closed for all use cordoned off and faced a parlous future. There was no security and the fencing was not very effective so I gained access to the site but had to take great care as certain parts of the station were falling apart, particularly the rotten timber platforms. By the time I visited to take my series of photographs its future had been assured as the site had been bought by Sainsbury's and a complete redevelopment, including a much-needed restoration of the lovely building, was planned. Today, the site has morphed into a brilliant and vibrant space for Bath with small scale ethical retailers and eateries as well as open space performances bringing life to this once gloomy and derelict place.

Whilst taking photographs of my Venture Scout unit's raft race practice on the River Avon at Bradford-on-Avon I turned my camera, somewhat inevitably, towards the railway!

With GWML services diverted off their usual route between Bathampton and Reading with trains using the Berks. and Hants. route instead I took the opportunity of capturing some of them passing through the beautiful Avon Valley. I rode my bike between Bradford-on-Avon and Freshford recording what I observed on black and white Ilford FP4 film. Unfortunately, I was getting somewhat cavalier with my note-taking and did not make a record of the locomotives and services that they were hauling; something I deeply regret now over forty years later!

I spent a day on the L&SWR and the South Devon coast with my former teacher Mr. Brush and a new railway acquaintance Paul who of the three of us was the only one who drove! We travelled down from Bradford-on-Avon is his 'W' registration Austin Metro that would have been almost brand new at this time. Unfortunately, the weather, for the last Saturday in May, was really poor with a lot of grey dullness with the coast enveloped in sea mist for the entire day. However, the weather was more than made up for with the variety of traction seen and photographed not that I would have probably recognised this so much at the time!

A mammoth revisit to Humberside following Graham and me sampling the doomed Hember ferry back in December. This time we focused exclusively on the ferry and the excellent railway infrastructure of north Lincolnshire. The weather was pretty gloomy but we still had a good time travelling in Graham's beige Auston 1100 (UVJ 129J). It's a strange thing but one often remembers the most obscure things, I have a powerful memory of listening on the car radio to the first day of the first test match of the 1981 Ashes series whilst taking a short break and having a brew in Goxhill station carpark! This was of course the famous series that included Botham's winning 149 at Headingly that won the third test match and ultimately contributed towards the Ashes win for England!

Having finished my academic year at college I attended an A-Level geography field course to Cornwall with Kingdown School in Warminster. In between the fieldwork being undertaken, I did manage some railway (and ferry!) related activity.

I spent a few days in and around Gillingham (Dorset as opposed to Kent) helping some colleagues of my mum move house ostensibly to look after their toddler it seemed! I did manage a little railway activity in both Gillingham and nearby Yeovil.

On the evening of the Royal Wedding day (Charles Philip Arthur George and Diana Spencer) Graham and I headed down to Witham in Somerset. It was a location and a signal box that I had never previously visited and never did again despite being relatively close to home where I lived near Bradford-on-Avon.

Graham and took a smashing weekend along the northern section of the Welsh Marches route from Hereford on the first day followed by a survey of the fantastic LMS North Wales route. We travelled in the trusty Austin 1100 camping wild in a field near Connah's Quay

With a spare Saturday in hand in between working at the kennels, my bike and I took the train to Salisbury. I had heard that the mechanical signalling was about to be wiped away and I wasn't wrong with just days to go I was just in time to capture some interesting photographs. In addition, and I don't know quite how I managed it, I was issued with an orange BR tabard and permitted trackside access as long as I stayed 'off the running lines'; can you imagine! I also was invited into Salisbury Tunnel Junction signal box with it closing eight days later. It was a fantastic day spoilt somewhat by it being a particularly grey day.

Following my visit to Salisbury the previous weekend and the realisation that the semaphore signalling was about to be swept away in a few days Graham and I took a crafty evening trip to the Wiltshire town. We stopped off in the Wylye Valley on the way down to capture the mechanical signalling still in place there. Once again, I am not sure how we blagged it but Graham and I got access to both Salisbury East and West boxes with just nine days left in operation.

For our 1981 big summer trip Graham and I headed east from our homes in the west country. We started off in the Leicester area on the MML before taking in the semaphore signalling on the line between there and Peterborough. Following a little Deltic activity on the ECML we took in much mechanical signalling in Cambridgeshire including a survey of the doomed 'Joint Line' that ran between March and Spalding. Finally, we headed off to the Ely and Cambridge area before making for home after a few exhausting days. Graham and I travelled in the Austin 1100 and wild camped at various spots as we usually did at this time.

During the autumn of 1982 was busy taking many black and white images for my photography A-Level coursework submission. I took a number around the rather rundown area of Bristol around Temple Meads. Inevitably the railways featured in some of the images.

As we had done for the past few years my family spent the October half-term week at a remote farmhouse on the North Yorkshire Moors near Whitby. Apart from enjoying the area and everything that it had to offer I got down to Whitby station on two occasions, once with colour Kodachrome in the camera and on the second occasion with Ilford FP4. In similar autumn weather the comparisons between the two film types are interesting.

My record-keeping has gone somewhat awry at this time with me having no record of the date that I headed to Cheltenham by train for my teacher training interview at The College of St. Paul's and St Mary's. I travelled from Bradford-on-Avon to Cheltenham via Bristol and Gloucester.

Again, my record-keeping appears to have fallen off a cliff! I have no idea why I called in at Trowbridge station, why I took this photograph or even the date. I have narrowed it down using its juxtaposition within the contemporary black-and-white negative strips that were, thankfully, filed in good order and looking at the low lighting puts it in the autumn /winter of 1981.