He cut his teeth at various places around the triangle at Shipley, but soon found the delights of Manningham, Holbeck, Copley Hill, Neville Hill and Skipton sheds. In fact most of the school holidays were spent in Leeds, alternating between City and Central (for the White Rose) stations and the outlying engine sheds.

Holidays spent within sight of the railway at Arnside, Deganwy and along the Settle & Carlisle reinforced his early interest.
In addition excursions from Bradford (Exchange) to Belle Vue zoo, and one to Whitley Bay taking in Darlington, Gateshead, and Newcastle enabled Mark to underline new sections of his Ian Allan Combined Volume.

Towards the end of steam a couple of trips were made to York (via The North Briton) were memorable for the long lines of locomotives awaiting scrap.
In the last few months of steam, Mark was attending Saltaire County Secondary School which had several classrooms and a playground bordering onto the line between Shipley and Saltaire.

This resulted in Mark seeing lots of Scottish locomotives as they made their way South on their last journey.
The French classroom offered the best view of the line and Mark recalls recieving 500 lines from Mrs Matthews for leaping up and running to the window as an A4 made a rare appearance on a Southbound Thames-Clyde Express`.

As steam ended , Mark started to frequent the embryonic Worth Valley Railway and worked on several steam locomotives such as the Crab 42700 and Royal Scot 46115 `Scots Gurdsman` as ther arrived from service with BR.