The First Time You Went Solo

You know, rather than be allowed to just go to your local station, your Mum and Dad said ok to your first trip. Just that little bit further afield. EG I persuaded my folks to let me go to Crewe early one Saturday in January but from then on.. About month later I went to Plymouth with D9000 made a few of my normal mates jelous at school at the time the furtherst they were allowed was Merry Hill (Round Oak)

 

I persuaded my folks to let me go as far as Taunton by train instead of joining them in the car en route to Devon. .

 

The footbridge at Arlesey level crossing in the summer of '64 was my first solo trip.

 

I'd have been about 14, and it was my Mum's suggestion that instead of waiting for my dad to have a day off to take me on a trip, maybe I should go somewhere myself, so I elected to go somewhere I knew well, so headed out from Wolverhampton via Crew, The North Wales coast and Conwy Valley to Bleanau Ffestioniog, then had a day on the Festiniog railway, in the pouring rain. I remember the sharp intake of breath from the girl in the information office when I enquired the week before about timings and price, telling me it was £22, if only a day out was that cheap now!

 

I must say I was rather honest with my mates at school and they knew I was a crank. On a Monday I'd get the question 'Right Matt where you been this weekend?' Schooll holidays were great the one half term I was asked the question and reeled off 'Saturday I went to Holyhead, Monday I didnt go to far just a little spin up to Crewe, Wednesday popped down to Cardiff and went up to a little village called Rhymney, Friday I had another little trip to Crewe and on the second Saturday it was a toss up to go to Weymouth or Plymouth, and I decided on Plymouth' my mate Liam slightly opened mouth just said 'you get around a bit don't you Mr Green?' thinking about it now I suppose I did a bit, get the odd day of School and think nothing of going to Birmingham New Street and having a look at the arrivals and departures and end up somewhere like Sheffield, Manchester, Bristol or Paddington. All Child fare too!

 

I was escorted to primary school on my first day aged 5. Thereafter I was on my own and free to explore the neighbourhood as my confidence and that of my friends increased. By 8 years I was roaming London by bus and Tube, and had started bunking sheds. Times change.

 

Hi there, until I was 8 I lived with my parents in Soundwell, Bristol. Our local station was Staple Hill, Bath Green Park - Temple Meads. My mother would take me to Temple Meads and then put me on the Penzance train,having a word with the guard to make sure I got off at Taunton where my grandfather would meet me. My grandparents lived in Watchet, I was their first grandchild so I was spoilt rotten by them and spent most summer and Easter holidays there. So if anyone knows Staple Hill station they will know that a tunnel is almost on the end of the platform so when the steamer burst out of the tunnel in clouds of smoke and steam it used to frighten the c@@p out of me.

 

If memory serves correct I was 10 and I took myself from Haywards Heath to York to do the Deltics*. The return fare Kings+ York I remember was £2! and then during the summer hols of the same year I was entrusted to take myself and my 6 year old sister to Altringham to visit auntie, trouble was I had to bring her back with me...........only joking sis.
* Then begger me 45 odd years later they came to visit me.

 

Spotting trips on the platform at Bristol TM, watching the workings at Bath Road, that would be circa 1980. Then a whopper in 1982 - age 14. We lived in Somerset and I planned to visit Welshpool and back - to do the W & L. I took my brother age 12. Changed trains at Britsol TM, which connected into an 0707 DMU to Bristol Parkway. Then a Cardiff Newcastle loco and coaches to Brum, for a train To Salop, change for train to Welshpool, walk to Raven Sq, for steam haulage with Joan, the Kerr Stuart 0-6-2. I recollect ringing the folks at pre agreed times, with a collection of 10p pieces!

 

Did a few trips to Bristol TM probably around 1982/84 - had a few school mates that would come as well - our school at the time was alongside the mainline out of Bath so an interest in trains wasn't seen as quite so weird. I know in that period we did a trip to Severn Tunnel Junction in the hope of spotting a class 40 or two but despite creeping round the back of the yard nothing on that score (plenty of others). Did a trip aged 13 from Bath to Windermere and back - which got interesting when the train we were due to head from Preston to Oxenholme on got diverted and we had to jump trains at the last minute. However not long after that I was doing a regular Bath to Eastbourne run - my Grandma used to live half the year with us and half with her other daughter in Eastbourne. She had a BR pass from her late husband but struggled to carry her bags etc so I'd do the trip alone one way and with her the other a couple of times each year. Got quite good at jumping connections to arrive early if I was alone. Seem to recall much later (probably aged 16+ but not 18 as I know we didn't dare drink) doing Bath to Carlisle via the S&C including staying overnight in a B&B in Carlisle - at the time the S&C was still threatened with closure hence the trip. Can remember getting off and walking under the Ribblehead viaduct but to be honest not a lot else.

 

Very similar to my experiences when I was 5 in 1953. Whilst I was not roaming the streets of London I was taken to my new school in Morley near Leeds once and after that I was on my own to go there and back twice a day (home for lunch). Around 9/10 I would cycle the 6 miles into Leeds and spend many happy hours at one or both of the main line stations including a visit to Ninevah, Copley Hill and Farnley on my way home. Similarly Ardsley was another regular spot for me and a couple of mates.

Times certainly have changed, I would tremble with fear at the thought of my 9 year old Grandson doing that now.

 

I was always an independent kid and used to wander far and wide on cheap day returns from Lancaster. Then in the summer of '64, I bought a 'Northern Railrover' which covered the WCML from Warrington - Carlisle and the ECML from Newcastle to York (I think) and everything in between. What a week that was! The following year (aged 13) I was allowed to have a Scottish Railrover, providing I stopped at the SYHA in Glasgow. The warden and his wife were like a second set of parents! Glasgow Buchanan Street to Aberdeen and back every day....A4's galore! Repeated that in 1966

 

I was very lucky living in South East London I had all four of the old grouping companies locomotives close at hand. I think I was just 12 when three school mates and me bought a half crown bus rover ticket and set out on our first shed bashing trip. LT Red Rover tickets were a remarkable bargain, 5 bob Adult 2/6 child for a days unlimited travel on London's red buses. For 10 bob adult you could include the Underground.

Confidence grew as we refined the itinery and most sheds from Stratford in East London round to Nine Elms and Stewart's Lane in SW London could be done if we started earlier enough. Yes we got thrown out a few times but well worth the risk with places like Camden seemingly full of Scots and Duchesses and the two sheds opposite each other at Willesden and Old Oak Common with the added bonus of a trolley bus ride there from the Midland shed at Cricklewood. It's hard to convey the sheer size of the four turntable roundhouse plus works at Old Oak and always seemingly full of the GWs best and it was one place we never did get thrown out of. Stratford was also vast but rather dispersed and difficult to get into.

Hard to believe now, with CCTV and security fencing everywhere, that groups of schoolboys could get away with this sort of thing. We didn't knwo it then but we were the last generation of youngsters who would be able to enjoy the greatest free show on earth, the workings of the steam railway.

 

April 1964 in a Sedburgh at RAF Ouston...........oops, sorry, wrong type of solo.

 

SVR Cambrian Gala - only went for the Friday but was enjoying it so much stayed for the overnighters.

Heading home Saturday evening as I wanted to see the D49 at Embsay, cam belt snapped not long after leaving Bridgnorth. AA got delayed rescuing me, so after saying I'd be home for 10pm I finally got in at 3am... Seeing the Dukedom on a GWR line was well worth it though, and the DH with 813/5526 will live long in the memory as will the 4566/5542 DH on 10 the Saturday morning!

 

You seem to have done the North London sheds in the opposite direction to me and full marks to you we never did find our way in to either Kings Cross or Bricklayers Arms. I don't know how far you go back but, prior to 1962, the journey between Cricklewood and Willesden/Old Oak involved a trip on the 660 or 666 trolleybus, a wonderful mode of transport.

One comical incident which will remain etched in the memory for always involved a trolleybus, we came out of Cricklewood and saw one waiting at the traffic lights. As we ran to catch it a rather rotund lady ahead of us did the same and as she got one foot on the platform the bus started away and threw her backwards (those who remember them will know a Trolley started off with a pronounced jerk). All I will say is that a horse drawn conveyance had obviously been held at the lights a short time before and she sat back into a pile of something warm and not very pleasant!

Happy days.