Wish I had now but i have books so it is'nt so bad. I still remember the Thames Clyde Express and The Waverley
come roarin' through Keighley, the station used to shake pulled either by a Royal Scot class or Jubilee class engine. I also have sad memories of what we'd call scrap trains , trains made up of engines stripped of their runnin gear being towed away for scrap.

My favourite sound was 8f's or 9f's pulling a heavy freight train the deep throbbing sound was unreal.

                                   Yours Sincerely: David Walbank

E-Mail jimi_rocks@hotmail.com

PS: I've also visited Crewe Works and Doncaster Works in the days of
steam............
 (21/10/04)

Hi again

Yes u can post my email with pleasure if u like. Maybe my friend maybe out there somewhere and he might read it , I have'nt seen him since the mid sixties now we grew up together in a village near Keighley called Oakworth.
We used to go all over as kids collecting engine numbers we were nuts on steam engines Peter Carmen his name was.  

He moved away in 1966 to Preston with his folks to work on the Railways and I hav'nt seen him since.
He might still work on the Railways, even my wife used to enjoy steam engines as a child she used to go down the Worth Valley Railway and help paint stations and clean engines.
Every Saturday my friend Peter and I would go to Leeds as I said before, after school each day we used to run down to Keighley station in time for the 4:10 pm train to come in the mail train, that always was a Jubilee class engine they were special engines because they had names as were the A1s',A3's,A4's Brittania,Clan,Royal Scot classes anything with names.

In the school holidays we'd go down and spend the day trainspotting in Keighley we'd have a term called cabbing where we used to stand on the footplate if the driver let us, in our books we used to put a line under the number and a little c at the side to say we had cabbed it. We went all over Crewe Works, Doncaster Works, Lancaster station, Leeds,Keighley station and Skipton.

I remember Dr Beeching, my friend and I used to hate him we used to blame him for all the engines getting scrapped that was a sad site seeing engines in shed sidings all rusty no running gear on waiting to be scrapped.
Diesels were'nt the same although we collected their numbers too I remember visiting Toton just after it was built it was posh not like the smelly steam sheds. I remember we could tell the class of engines by hearing their whistles, the best Diesels at the time were the Deltics they had a wonderful sound those and the whistlers the D200 class.

Even those have sadly gone now those where brand new at the time along with the Peaks and the class47's.
I visit preserved railways when I get the time well I lived for a time near the Keighley Worth Valley Railway, my saddest site of all was when my family and I went to Wales and I tracked down Barry Island the big scrapyard there back in 1980, as I stood there reading some of the messages people had written on the engines like "Gone But Not Forgotten" and "Save Me" I got a lump in my throat and a tear in my eye I can tell you. I had a uncle Jack his name was he worked all his life on the railway started off as a engine
cleaner worked his way up fireman and then to engine driver sadly he is dead now has been for some 18 yrs he died in the cab of his Diesel engine as he had parked it up at his depot.
When we'd meet we used to spend hours talkin' about engines askin him what he had been drivin' and where he'd been.

I even find your pictures on your site sad even though I am not familiar with the area's you can imagine what they were once like. I think all that remains in Leeds of Central Station is the water tower that might have gone now because it is some years since I was there last because I live in Hartlepool now and have for some 20 yrs with my wife and children.
The shed at Holbeck has gone too and Farnley Junction is just weeds.

                                           Yours Sincerely

                                            David Walbank

E-Mail jimi_rocks@hotmail.com

PS sorry waffling on (lol)
(22/10/04)

Hi Again

I found some photo's I took around Leeds they are about 25yrs old. The Farnley Junction one's tie in with your map. I have the same bridge as you I remember standing on that as a kid.



I took a photo of what would have been the shed from the bank behind you can clearly see where the shed tracks were. On the right hand side is the mainline,
 

also all that remained at that time of the gate you walked in to the shed, on the path that goes over the bridge we took.






The one of Leeds Central Station is all that remained at the time, the water tower on the left.




The Low Moor one is a bridge that stands in the middle of a field were Low Moor was.




And the Holbeck pictures are the depot at the time the main picture the shed round house was on the left and




in the picture with the maintainance shed, thats the site of the coal bunker for loading the tenders.



The other is one I took at Barry Island about the same time turn of the 80's, I have some better pictures of Barry I found on the net. So the photos would be 13yrs after steam went,


sorry about the quality but the pictures are old and the camera was'nt a expensive one.

                                                   Yours Sincerely Dave

                                                                        (See Leeds page)

E-Mail jimi_rocks@hotmail.com

Hi Dave

Me again I was sorting through my train books today and came across this picture of Farnley Junction just before the shed was pulled down. The lines have been took up and on the right is the railway house where engine crews
used to stay the night according to my book, the picture was took by someone traveling past on a train.
Thought you might want it for your site, I used to see it full of steam engines you could see it a good half mile away from the road as we walked up from Leeds the shed was on a hill.

(David Walbank)                                             (See Leeds New Line page 6)
E-Mail jimi_rocks@hotmail.com

Hi Dave

Strange all these Dave's lol. No he did'nt get in touch and yes your info is correct on the tower. I was at Blackpool for the weekend the other week. With my missus and youngest lad who is 11 to see the lights. On the Saturday 30th Oct I took a trip in my car up to Carnforth to have a look around Steam Town and show the lad some engines only to find it had gone been bought out by some buisness man I was told and is now a carriage works or something I was told so no engines and you can't walk round anymore.

So Steam Town is a part of history now must have been 14yrs since I was last there. Anyway I went up to Hest Bank and stopped there for a hour or so to see the Virgin Pendelino as I do have a interest in modern aswell as old. While I was there I discovered a steam special was due so it made my trip worthwile and I saw a Pendelino a few infact, while I was at Hest Bank I got talking to a couple of blokes who where there for the train, and we had a good chat about the old steam days.

One a pensioner used to live in Leeds years ago and started spotting around 1947 bit earlier than me I started late 50's and we
discussed Leeds as I used to go regular as you know and the other bloke a bit younger than me he used to train spot in Leeds too but towards the end of steam about 1966/67. We chatted about Holbeck and the Central Station and Farnley Junction, he told me it was a wagon hoist but I seemed to remember a large tank on top but must be wrong.

Anyway apparantly it is still there he said because it is a listed building, we went on to talk about the station
too which compared to the City Station was dead scruffy.
He also told me he is a fireman on a preserved railway and often fires on a old 8f so I had a very interesting day.

The special by the way was pulled by Black Five No 45407 with 10 carriages and  Brush Sulzer 57601 running light on the rear, Crewe Carlilse steam special it came roaring through Hest Bank at full bore


looking a little scruffy but doing the job well. I have enclosed a couple of photos taken on that day I found on the net, I took a couple but did'nt turn out too good because I have just got this new digital camera and am not very
used to it yet but i'll enclose mine also lol.

                                                 Dave............
(David Walbank)
E-Mail jimi_rocks@hotmail.com
 

31-07-05