Adey’s recent post has helped me decide when my interest in railways started.
I started trainspotting when I was about 8 years old simply because it was the done thing amongst young lads at the time and not because I had any real interest in railways. I think parents applied a similar logic when buying their kids toys. Boys were given train-sets, even though they might never have expressed a particular interest in trains and girls were given dolls.
As there were plenty of fields beside the railway in the late 1950’s we often played football between trains which meant that our initial attempts at trainspotting were often a bit half-hearted. If the game was at a crucial stage when a train came it tended to take priority and many a number was missed as a result.
One by one most of the gang decided that trainspotting wasn’t for them leaving just a few of us to progress beyond simply writing down numbers. I think the Ian Allan ABC books that we used for marking off our numbers were responsible for fuelling my interest. The little snippets of info contained in these books about each class of loco whetted my appetite and I started to develop a real interest and seek out more information.
Instead of simply being a means of visiting relatives our regular train trips to Manchester took on a new meaning. Perhaps I shouldn’t say this but the journey became more exciting than actually visiting my Aunts and Uncles.
Manchester was only 40 miles away but for a young lad with a newly found interest in trains it was a different World. I will always remember catching a brief glimpse of a Jubilee leaving Manchester Victoria with a train of carriages some of which had destination boards carrying the inscription London – Cologne. I had read about train ferries and was convinced that I had seen my first International train conveniently ignoring the fact that I was in the middle of Lancashire miles away from any North Sea port. It was a real disappointment when I eventually discovered that the destination boards actually read London - Colne.
