During the late 1950's when my life consisted of trains, trains and more trains I would travel by train to such exotic places as Bletchley, Sandy, Hitchin and Cambridge. Nowadays although all these places still have lots of trains, getting there direct by train is almost impossible. Bletchley is still connected by the Marston Vale line, but even that can be a gamble as frequently, for a number of reasons, buses are substituted. Eventually it is hoped that a connection to the east coast mainline (not to Sandy or Hitchin however) will become a reality when the East - West link is built from Oxford to Cambridge. Time will tell if the cost of a ticket will outweigh the advantage.
However, I digress. Here are some photos taken on these intrepid expeditions to Bletchley. I assume that as I have no photos from either Sandy or Hitchin, that those lines had already closed before I acquired a camera.
These are from 1958.
The next set are from 1959 when Diesels had started to appear.
I was also lucky to have holidays where trains played an important part of the time. These are from Margate, Dover Marine and Boston.
One memorable holiday was to Scotland. In those days, before health & safety had been invented !!, the shed foreman was usually only too happy to allow you to wander around his domain, and even give you a guided tour himself.
In this selection are photos from Corkerhill, Dalry Road, Motherwell, Carstairs, Polmadie, St. Rollox, Haymarket, St. Margarets, Polmont and Hurlford.
Most, if not all of these depots have long since disappeared.
I hope you have enjoyed this nostalgic look back at a time when trains were noisy, dirty and smelly.
Looking at these photos I can still smell the coal dust, steam and soot - MAGIC.
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