Our poor parents!!!

grumbeast

Member
Hi all,

I've spent all afternoon scanning some negatives from when I was a boy. Various trips in the early 80's, Crewe, Birmingham, Cardiff, Cardiff Canton Open Day etc etc. you can find them at

http://grumbeast.fotopic.net/c391645.html

if interested. I was from between 12 and 15 for these pics and looking through my spotters books and the dates and places I just have to say that MY MUM IS AWESOME! I cannot believe she let her 12 1/2 yr old Son walk the 2 miles to Caerphilly station at 5am to get the first train to Cardiff and then on to these places ON HIS OWN!!. i cannot believe the worry I must have caused her but she never said no and I scraped my pocket money together to buy the tickets and sometimes film.

I even have a trip recorded to London Paddington in 1983 (I would have been just over 13). No pictures though, I remember it was expensive and I couldn't afford the film too.

Oh btw, please excuse the quality of some of the shots, 13 year olds don't look after negatives well (in fact I've lost a bunch :( ) I also went through a phase of thinking 1000ASA film was faster and so better.. so some of the shots at Crewe are grainy

Well I just wanted to share that.. Does / Did anyone else have such accomodating parents?

Cheers

Graham
 

ross31r

Member
well some of them must be fairly new, the sheds have only been around for a few years and the fag packet FGW HST livery was only abround for a few years in the late 90s before barbie livery replaced it.

Some good photos there, including one of my second favorite class - the 43s (or HSTs)
 
Graham - I don't think Mum would have been too worried - there was a different mindset back then, and parents didn't automatically keep their kids within arms length - and worry about pedos and kidnapping and muggings - I guess we had it good!
Shortliner(Jack)away up here in the Highlands
 

jkristia

Member
Funny, I just talk about something similar with my wife the other day.

When I was a kid, probably from when I was around 9-13 (25 years ago) we would always spend a week or two in Kufstein in Austria each summer, staying on a campground a couple of kilometers from the station, and almost every day I would walk alone to the station, walking on a bike path right next to the Inn river, and cross a busy street to get there, and my parent never told me anything except for 'be careful'.

Today you would never let a kid do something like that alone.

Jesper
 

grumbeast

Member
Newer Pics and a question

Yeah, Some of the pictures were taken on a trip back in the late 90s. I had a wonderful nostalgic afternoon scanning the older pics, but of course I had to do some surfing too and discovered that Cardiff Canton and Bristol Bath Road are both closed!!! :( :( :(

Class 43's as your favourites!, that would've been a very unusual choice in my day, but things certainly do change.

I'm hoping to get back the UK next spring and my wife has promised me a little time to "trainspot". As things seem to have changed so much does anyone have suggestions for where might be good these days? (and safe, after all the terrorist paranoia the last thing I want to do is upset the authorities)

Graham
 

grumbeast

Member
I had another thought, I don't think the world has changed all that much (there was as much crime when I was growing up, it just wasn't reported as well) I think its more that fact that people seem to be scared these days, not only of crime but also being prosecuted for being a "bad parent" etc

Graham
 

interurban

Active Member
Very nice Graham, I wish I had a camera way back when.

I use to see the steam engines coming out of Bayer Peacock on Peacock street Gorton Manchester back in the 60s loaded on pickford huge trailers. ;)
 
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