Trains of thought

Readers of Steam Days magazine will have noticed, among the varied articles and photofeatures over the years, that we have covered many detailed surveys of engine sheds, from both the historical side and in the form of detailed accounts by railway enthusiasts of visits in the days of steam. This month we continue by taking a look at ‘The locomotives of Carlisle London Road’ – the fourth and concluding article in this extensive survey of the LNER sheds of the area. From readers’ letter received, the subject matter of engine sheds and their locomotives seems to be one of the most popular, and since I took on Steam Days from the March 1993 issue we have covered, in one form or another, more than 100 different locomotive sheds and sub-sheds, in addition to most of the locomotive works premises.

Starting my trainspotting days in 1942 at my home town of Worcester at the age of eight, visits to engine sheds away from Worcester had to wait until my teens, when they extended to Gloucester, Cheltenham, Stourbridge Junction and Swindon by bike, with an occasional visit to the Birmingham area by bike or by train. Looking back at those days, I can never understand why I did not cycle to Hereford – the same distance from home as Gloucester, where I visited many times. Personally, I preferred the roundhouse sheds than the straight shed, and my early visits to roundhouses as a teenager and in my early twenties took me to the GWR roundhouses at Bristol (St Philip’s Marsh), Laira, Wolverhampton (Stafford Road and Oxley), Tyseley, Stourbridge Junction, Newport (Ebbw Junction) and Swindon, to where I cycled from Worcester every Wednesday for the works ‘open’ afternoon. I never ventured far into LMS, LNER, and Southern territory, apart from Gloucester (Barnwood) and its roundhouse, where I once saw ‘Big Bertha’ on shed, and to the Saltley and Bourneville roundhouses too.

By the time I had regenerated my interest in the steam scene, in 1966, many of the sheds of the past were now non-existent, and this was the first time that I had had the chance to visit engine sheds in the north by joining the Worcester Locomotive Society who organised ‘day’ coach trips at weekends every two weeks, and some for more than one day. Mind you ‘one day’ trips with the WLS were, more often than not, ‘20 hours’! My first-time shed visits with the WLS took in all the Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool area sheds where steam still reigned supreme, and those on the Southern Region too until the end of steam on that region. Those were happy days, re-living my youth with my young son Ian, who, like me, started his spotting days at the age of eight. We hope that all our readers continue to enjoy the engine shed articles that appear in Steam Days magazine from time to time, in addition to all the other articles and photo-features that we publish each month (some call it their monthly ‘fix’), hoping that they all bring back happy memories for you too. No one can take those special memories away from us, and none of us will ever forget them, I am sure of that. Enjoy your read.

T B Owen/Colour-Rail.com/197295 The atmosphere created inside a roundhouse full of locomotives was second to none, especially if it was one of those double-roundhouses like Newport (Ebbw Junction) – pictured here on 15 September 1963 – one of my favourite roundhouses, visited by me in the early 1950s. Newport’s roundhouses came into being in July 1915, with a line joining them and with 48 roads going off the centre turntables. At the height of the steam era Ebbw Junction shed had an allocation of around 140 locomotives and when filling the roundhouses it was a sight to behold.