Recent content by barbarajohn

I shoveled coal into 6119," THE LANCASHIRE FUSILIERS", from London to Carlisle in 1956, when at Camden steam depot, Boy, that was a long journey.

i saw it comming! (the breezeblock i mean!) from the vandals throw, swoooooom BANG!,,showered with glass, blinded , shocked, shivering like an M P with his pants round his ankles, i rolled drunkedly out off the cab at liverpool lime st. The station inspector never even looked at me, "OH," he...

The scariest thing i experienced was firing the night mail out of euston. approaching linslade tunnel just north of leighton bussard, i forgot to close the damper and nearly got fried!

hi, brian, did you know "black" charlie middleton, he was in the hostel with me and later he came to my depot speke jct, he died a while back, have you ever been through the single line tunnel south of reditch? nearly got smothered a few times with bournville drivers,john.

hi, brian, did you know Jimmie Tipping? he came to my depot, speke jct, then went back to brum. and became an specky. Also ronnie parkingson, he came to skipton and became a driver, i "minded" him, john.

hi, paul, i,m pure LMS, at age 15 i oily ragged my way up to steam loco driver at sutton oak st helens. eventualy , age 50, i was employed driving trains at skipton , yorks, including steam, idrove the mighty "mallard" on one of her last runs,john.

it was a cold dark night, i was putting the last railcar into the siding at skipton,over the pionts,change ends, i put the keys in ,reved the brakes off,into first gear and she trundled clickety clack, towards the block. suddenley the passenger door flew open but there was nobody there, a...

hi paul, going north from st helens central, there is a rail branch off the main line into cowley hill siding worked from a ground frame in conjunction with st helens signal box. this branch off used to be a double track railway to rainford jct.this disused line runs at the back of my garden, i...

hi royalscot, i live in st helens, im a retired engine driver, i once fired steam loco royal scot when at camden london,john

hi, 43050, i was a driver at skipton,1987-1999,i was a minder driver and trained a lot of the boys there, my name is john anthony.

hi saltleyman, i was a fireman at saltley on loan from sutton oak depot, merseyside, in 1955, ,did you know drivers, Firth, Midleton, Carlton, Tipping or Steadman of saltley depot? barbarajohn.

hi,brian,did you know drivers, firth, carlton,middleton,tipping,steadman,of saltley depot, i sent you a p.m. before, did you get it? barbarajohn.

when i was a driver at speke jct. liverpool, we had a part fitted job from runcorn . one of our drivers "ran away" down the incline to weaver jct. and collided with a whisky train from scotland, the runcorn train was carrying soda ash! the main line was closed for a week, nobody was killed (or...

if you would like a brimfull of railway nostalgia, hop aboard a 142 "nodding dog" from lancaster to skipton via bentham, o k, you,ll think you,ve ridden round the grand national for about umpteen cicuits, but the scenery will certainly make up for your jig-a-jig ride!

When i travel on the swift inter city pendaleno to london euston,i am all eyes right comming out of primrose hill tunnel, looking for ghosts of those massive great steam loco,s... I worked there "on loan" in 1956 as a f/man, I remember sitting on the turntable waiting for the royal train to...