John's Hobbies

I became interested in railways at an early age. In the 1950s and 60s

most of our family travelling was by train.

By the early 60s, along with school friends, I was trainspotting and

starting to take pictures.

The picture above is much more recent and I think must have been

taken sometime in the 90s and captures me on the footplate of an

A4 Pacific, having been invited to have a look around.

The above picture was taken in the summer of 2006, where I am

seen with some trams at Fleetwood Ferry. At this time Nida and I

were making quite frequent trips to Blackpool to keep in touch with

friends and also promote our C.Ds. We still enjoy our visits there.

During our visit to Canada in August / September 2009 we spent some

time in Jasper. In the above picture, the "Rocky Mountaineer", has just

arrived at the station. Nida and I are hoping that we may have the

opportunity, sometime in the future, to ride on this train.

In the above picture, a westbound "Double Stack", hauled by three

locomotives has just arrived at Jasper and will shortly be continuing

it's journey towards Vancouver.

The above picture was taken at Crewe South Motive Power

Depot in the Mid Sixties. At this time, steam was on the way

out, but it still survived in the North West and the North Wales

Coast. I was a member of the local Locomotive Society and

made several trips to depots with them. Those were the days!!!

I took the above picture during a summer holiday in North Wales

in 1964. It shows the unnamed Britannia Pacific No. 70047 hauling

a down excursion train near Towyn.

Leighswood Sidings, on the Walsall to Lichfield Line, was about

a mile from home and the nearest place for me to watch the trains.

At this time there were both passenger and freight trains. I took quite

a lot of pictures here, including the one above.

This shows an 8F 2-8-0 No. 48135 passing Leighswood Sidings

Signal Box, heading towards Walsall with a train of mineral

wagons.

I took the above picture sometime in the Spring of 1966.

Steam still survived, but by this time the signal box had closed.

Also, the sidings themselves were becoming disused.

In the picture a Stanier 8F 2-8-0 is seen heading towards

Walsall with a freight.