Lockdown nostalgia!
19th April 2020
Digging out an old photo album rekindles some memories.
Being confined at home for the past 4 weeks, other than for those permitted essential journeys and exercises, has been trying at times, as it has been for everyone. It may have started out as a novel and unusual experience, but after a while you start to wonder when it will ever end.
Working from home during the week keeps you busy enough, but the long Easter holiday, and the weekends test your ability to keep yourself motivated and positive. But this past weekend I had spent a little time in my "train room", as my wife calls it, and stumbled across on old photo album of mine containing a collection of some of my earliest photos taken as an enthusiastic trainspotter back in 1982. Back then I was not using very good equipment but still, I really believed that an Instamatic 110 camera would do the job and get results equal to the best that have their work published in the monthly railway mags. Oh, such innocence and naivety! Anyway, I was a trainspotter first, photographer second back then. Nevertheless, I thought it would be fun to select some of the "better" attempts and go back to a time of great excitement, when you longed for summer Saturdays at Exeter St. Davids to come and I would spend, like so many others, literally hours at the end of platform 4 or 5 eagerly waiting for the semaphore to drop and signal the pending approach of the next train.
I would normally take the earliest train I could to get to Exeter for a full days spotting. So I was initially a little puzzled as to why on Saturday 29th May 1982 I was taking a much later train than normal. But another photo in the album - not good enough to show as I only caught part of the front of the front loco - was of the “Brighton train”, the Saturday-only 09.20 Brighton to Paignton, which explained it. I was catching that today! Always rostered for Hither Green Class 33s today it was no’s. 33062 and 33052 “Ashford”. But before they arrived I had to wait for the up train to get to Chard Junction first! So the 11.40 Exeter St. Davids to London Waterloo came and went, to allow the two trains to pass at the loop at Chard. The 3 mile section of double track at Axminster would not arrive for another 27 years yet! Anyway, back to that day in 1982 and here is large logo 50009 "Conqueror" arriving on the up service, the disused up platform looking incredibly open and uncluttered. The down platform, where I am standing, had yet to be extended, and just off the end would have stood Axminster signal box - and that gap in the old platform would have allowed signal interlocking equipment to reach through to the other side, where the Lyme Regis bay platform was located.
The next three images therefore were taken during that afternoon at Exeter St. Davids. First up, powered by its original Paxman Valenta engine, HST power car no. W43123 is at platform 1 with a west country express. A class 47 stands on the through line and semaphores guard all movements. That group of spotters at the end of platforms 3 and 4 were a fixture in those days, as was the group that would have been standing with me on platform 5. Happy days! The HST power car went on to be used by Virgin Cross Country, the Grand Central, and latterly, as of today (2020), for East Midlands Railway.
50040 "Leviathan" is on another express for Plymouth, Paignton or Penzance, leaving platform 1. Although I travelled behind all of the class 50s, I only ever photographed 49 of them with my 35mm SLR equipment, "Leviathan" being the one that evaded me, so this will have to do!
Local engine 50044 "Exeter" is also seen hear departing westwards. This was before the loco was rededicated, when a special ceremony was held at St. Davids and an additional crest was unveiled above the nameplate. By chance I happened to be there on the day it occurred, but that day had yet to come so in this image just the nameplate is present on the side.
So, that was 29th May. Now moving on to Saturday 26th June 1982 I have captured "Peak" Class 45/0 no. 45076, also sporting its pre-TOPS number 134, heading west over the barrow crossing. As well as keeping our eye on the signals a sure sign that something was coming was when the light illuminated on the barrow crossing. This linked platforms 5 and 6 with 3 and 4, and was in constant use by the BR staff moving mail sacks and Red Star parcels between trains, often towing “Brutes” behind a small tractor unit. Another everyday sight that is but a distant memory!
This random selection of (poor)images brings back some very happy memories for me, of a time when the world seemed so much simpler and uncomplicated. A touch of rose-tinted spectacles no doubt, but during these worrying times it has been a tonic to glimpse back to happier days.
Being confined at home for the past 4 weeks, other than for those permitted essential journeys and exercises, has been trying at times, as it has been for everyone. It may have started out as a novel and unusual experience, but after a while you start to wonder when it will ever end.
Working from home during the week keeps you busy enough, but the long Easter holiday, and the weekends test your ability to keep yourself motivated and positive. But this past weekend I had spent a little time in my "train room", as my wife calls it, and stumbled across on old photo album of mine containing a collection of some of my earliest photos taken as an enthusiastic trainspotter back in 1982. Back then I was not using very good equipment but still, I really believed that an Instamatic 110 camera would do the job and get results equal to the best that have their work published in the monthly railway mags. Oh, such innocence and naivety! Anyway, I was a trainspotter first, photographer second back then. Nevertheless, I thought it would be fun to select some of the "better" attempts and go back to a time of great excitement, when you longed for summer Saturdays at Exeter St. Davids to come and I would spend, like so many others, literally hours at the end of platform 4 or 5 eagerly waiting for the semaphore to drop and signal the pending approach of the next train.
I would normally take the earliest train I could to get to Exeter for a full days spotting. So I was initially a little puzzled as to why on Saturday 29th May 1982 I was taking a much later train than normal. But another photo in the album - not good enough to show as I only caught part of the front of the front loco - was of the “Brighton train”, the Saturday-only 09.20 Brighton to Paignton, which explained it. I was catching that today! Always rostered for Hither Green Class 33s today it was no’s. 33062 and 33052 “Ashford”. But before they arrived I had to wait for the up train to get to Chard Junction first! So the 11.40 Exeter St. Davids to London Waterloo came and went, to allow the two trains to pass at the loop at Chard. The 3 mile section of double track at Axminster would not arrive for another 27 years yet! Anyway, back to that day in 1982 and here is large logo 50009 "Conqueror" arriving on the up service, the disused up platform looking incredibly open and uncluttered. The down platform, where I am standing, had yet to be extended, and just off the end would have stood Axminster signal box - and that gap in the old platform would have allowed signal interlocking equipment to reach through to the other side, where the Lyme Regis bay platform was located.
The next three images therefore were taken during that afternoon at Exeter St. Davids. First up, powered by its original Paxman Valenta engine, HST power car no. W43123 is at platform 1 with a west country express. A class 47 stands on the through line and semaphores guard all movements. That group of spotters at the end of platforms 3 and 4 were a fixture in those days, as was the group that would have been standing with me on platform 5. Happy days! The HST power car went on to be used by Virgin Cross Country, the Grand Central, and latterly, as of today (2020), for East Midlands Railway.
50040 "Leviathan" is on another express for Plymouth, Paignton or Penzance, leaving platform 1. Although I travelled behind all of the class 50s, I only ever photographed 49 of them with my 35mm SLR equipment, "Leviathan" being the one that evaded me, so this will have to do!
Local engine 50044 "Exeter" is also seen hear departing westwards. This was before the loco was rededicated, when a special ceremony was held at St. Davids and an additional crest was unveiled above the nameplate. By chance I happened to be there on the day it occurred, but that day had yet to come so in this image just the nameplate is present on the side.
So, that was 29th May. Now moving on to Saturday 26th June 1982 I have captured "Peak" Class 45/0 no. 45076, also sporting its pre-TOPS number 134, heading west over the barrow crossing. As well as keeping our eye on the signals a sure sign that something was coming was when the light illuminated on the barrow crossing. This linked platforms 5 and 6 with 3 and 4, and was in constant use by the BR staff moving mail sacks and Red Star parcels between trains, often towing “Brutes” behind a small tractor unit. Another everyday sight that is but a distant memory!
This random selection of (poor)images brings back some very happy memories for me, of a time when the world seemed so much simpler and uncomplicated. A touch of rose-tinted spectacles no doubt, but during these worrying times it has been a tonic to glimpse back to happier days.