Ex-Stratford footplate crews travel from afar for annual nostalgia
FORMER Stratford footplatemen travelled from far and wide to meet up with ex-colleagues at Mangapps Railway Museum in Essex on September 24, with the longest journey being 550 miles undertaken by Danny Forbes and Chris Maguire from Aberdeen.
The occasion was the fourth annual reunion at the Burnham-on-Crouch museum organised by former driver Dave Brennand, a volunteer at the attraction who retired in 2013 after a 40-year career at the East London depot, which steam-era trainspotters will remember as 30A but the diesel generation as SF.
Also among the 30 attendees were two ex-shed foremen, Ted Kenny and Jack Stannard, while Peter Fox and Graham Smith travelled from Swindon, deep in GWR territory.
The museum is home to one of the country’s finest private railwayana collections, put together by museum boss John Jolly. Referring to the memorabilia on display, Dave said: “Many of those attending were in awe of the thousands of exhibits, and the comment ‘If only I had taken some spanners to work with me 60 years ago’ was often heard.”
He added: “The tea flowed at an unprecedented rate and tall stories, which were mostly true, were recalled from the days when life was far less stressful.
“We had much less money in our pockets back then, but we had a great time on the footplate and in the mess room.”
A highlight was rides on the working museum’s ¾-mile line behind resident Class 31 diesel No. 31105 (D5523). Such was the enjoyment of the occasion, said Dave, that laughter could be heard above the noise of the locomotive plying up and down the line.
“We all agreed that Stratford was one of the best depots to have worked at, and we are all so very fortunate to have this bond decades after its closure,” he said.
At its peak in the late 1890s, Stratford shed, which was opened in 1840 by the Northern & Eastern Railway, had an allocation of no fewer than 763 locomotives.
Its works alone employed more than 6500 people at its height, and even in 1947 it was home to 434 engines, making it the country’s largest depot.
Steam ended in September 1962 but the works survived until 1991, when in March that year the last locomotive to be overhauled there, Class 31 diesel 31165 (D5583), left the works, so ending more than 150 years of proud East London railway history.