RIGHTFUL RETRIBUTION

When I read of 12-year-old vandals throwing ballast at passing trains on the Bluebell Railway, I wondered if they were perhaps wreaking vengeance on the establishment. Had they been turned away as potential young volunteers because they were aged under 16? (SR483 News, ‘Young volunteers barred by ‘obscure’ 1920 legislation’). Perhaps I’m being a bit cynical…

How sad it is that on the one hand we have this mindless behaviour, while many other young people may be denied the chance to volunteer on a steam railway because of an obscure law.

The Bluebell’s Stepney and ‘9F’ clubs have done a superb job in introducing young volunteers to the world of steam railways.

It would be a fitting punishment if the two young ballast-throwing vandals were taken to Sheffield Park and made to do a number of hours of voluntary work. Perhaps they would learn to love the railway as much as many other young people have done.

Humphrey Atkinson, St Leonards-on-Sea

GUM DELIVERED BY 5690

Following on from the theme of memories of ‘Jubilees’ in the 1940s, my trainspotting days started in 1943, when I was six, and living near Birmingham.

I was walking home with my mother from a shopping trip and it took us down by the four-track railway, adjacent to the Austin motor company. I saw the main Down signal was up to allow a main line passenger service to pass, heading towards Birmingham, and as it passed I noticed soldiers at the door drop windows.

They were American GIs and they were throwing things out of the windows. I left my mum, dashed down a small bank, checked that there weren’t any goods trains around and managed to retrieve two of the packets.

My mother wasn’t best pleased about me running across the track, but when I opened the first packet it revealed something wrapped in silver paper: chewing gum! It was a luxury during the war years.

The engine that hauled the train was now-preserved No. 5690 Leander, wearing wartime black. Don Bailey, Redditch

‘BILLY’ NEW MATES

I enjoyed the article on ‘Billy’, the priceless George Stephenson 0-4-0 of 1816, and its eventful career. Dr Bailey’s suggestion of building a replica will hopefully have sown a seed or two.

The ideal location for a working ‘Billy’ would be Beamish Museum, where appropriate surroundings exist, along with two other replicas of pre-main line Georgian motive power: ‘Steam Elephant’ and ‘Puffing Billy’. Both are convincing in an authentic environment. Michael Denholm, Dunbar