CONFESSIONS OF A RAILWAY JOURNALIST
Like many teenagers in the 1960s I had been an avid trainspotter; in my case, my local line was the East Coast route where I managed to ‘cop’ many LNER Pacifics, including all of the A4s.
The King’s Cross engines such as Mallard, Sir Nigel Gresley and Flying Scotsman were an everyday sight but one afternoon in 1963 an apparition came into view at one of my favoured spots, Walton level crossing north of Peterborough. It was an immaculate but unfamiliar-looking steam engine heading south light engine on the slow line.
As it passed, I naturally noted down its number – 4472, but the four-figure number was unfamiliar, as was shade of green and the initials LNER on the tender. However, I recognised the name on the red plate over the middle splasher – Flying Scotsman. It was not the No. 60103 I had been familiar with though – and this was my first encounter with railway preservation. I later discovered that the engine had been purchased by Alan Pegler, overhauled at Doncaster and was heading for London to work its first railtour in private ownership.
Sadly it was another couple of years before I acquired my first camera, by which time the LNER Pacifics had retreated much further north, so I never photographed any in BR service. I did not even really notice them disappear as I think I was more interested in the shiny new diesels; ‘copping’ the Deltics in numerical order as they entered ECML service.
Maroon mogul
By the time BR steam ended completely in 1968, I was travelling more widely across the country. I saw more apparitions on my travels such as a maroon Ivatt mogul, No. 6441 among the rusty ‘Black Fives’ at Carnforth, then witnessed the arrival of No. 70013 Oliver Cromwell at Bressingham in August and a month later, a rusty Standard 5MT 4-6-0 No. 73050 appeared at my local shed at New England.
Once steam had ended, steam preservation was becoming established; there was still industrial steam to be savoured, and of course steam had many years’ service left in various
