(Below) On a very wet morning at Leeds 43105 with 1S11 0707 to Aberdeen and 90022 with 1A04 0700 to London Kings Cross on 18th December 1996. (Above Right) Two views of the same platform at London Kings Cross station taken some forty years apart.The topmost shot shows 60014 Silver Link and D9009 Alycidon on 15th May 1962, while the bottom shot was taken on 2nd July 20 has just arrived with 1X from Leeds. Having a driver and signalman together on the same page is a little bit different.'Īnd so.here we go again, only this time we're at the dawn of a new age on the ECML. I'm pleased to supply photos for Freddy's page. If a traction motor was out on a 91 or a Power car out on a HST it was the driver who informed the signalman before departure from Leeds, the signals had to be off as far as Ardsley to make sure it got up Ardsley bank, the 89 was a much better loco on Ardsley bank than a 91, until GNER mucked it up. 'As a signalman at Leeds I must have worked F reddy's train and maybe even spoken to him on the SPT. Throughout his 45-year career he was only made redundant twice, the first when Leeds PSB opened in May 1967 and the second when Leeds PSB closed in June 2002. He retired at the end of 2005 after working in 21 different boxes. Keith started working in signalboxes at the age of 15 in 1960, first as a train recorder and then passing out as a signalman in 1965. However, I haven't cherry-picked the best, merely chosen those shots that are relevant to Freddy's page. Keith's photos of 1960's steam and diesels are the best on the Internet, and so I am delighted he has agreed to release some of his shots of ECML electrics for publication here. Īnother major contributor to this site is retired signalman, Keith Long, who goes by the name of 'Cabsaab 900' on his excellent Flickr website - links at the bottom of the page. This is not always the case, of course, and Freddy's frequent clashes with the 'men in suits' demonstrates the point perfectly. Indeed there seems to be a common strand in the decline of respect for people in authority today, mainly because people at the top seem to have conditioned themselves into believing that they know better than the rest of us. Of course, regular visitors to the Freddy's pages know all about his constant railing against authority, but then his narrative wouldn't be the same without his witty anecdotes since they add credence to his stories. All photos and images reproduced courtesy of Keith Long - 'Cabsaab900'Īs the title suggests this is the final page of Fireman Fred's railway stories.though with Freddy you never know! H e seems to have an endless repository of hairy tales to tell about his experience on the footplate from steam days through dieselisation to ECML electrification, spicing his writing with liberal doses of caustic comments.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |