I find they are always a joy to me - a rare joy, admittedly and one that I never experienced in the Borders.
The BBC has a video of the Flying Scotsman on the 40th anniversary of its first public journey. The anniversary took place in 1968 - a non-stop run from King's Cross in London to Edinburgh Waverley where it was welcomed with a pipe band. See Tweedmouth signal box, the train crossing the railway viaduct and Berwick-upon-Tweed in its 1968 colours.
There are several well-known faces on board including Rev Wilbert Awdrey, the author of Thomas the Tank Engine and he describes how he came to write the series.
There are even more steam railway videos in the BBC's collection.
1 comment:
I must be getting old as I remember as a child guessing how many carriages the steam engines would be pulling each time we saw a train travelling along the line Waverley line which ran reasonably close to my old house.
It was just another childhood game and something we took for granted but I also remember the soot and the grime at the station so it wasn't all pleasure especially for folk who lived near the line and whose washing would be covered in specks of soot as each train passed. .
As a matter of interest, Hawick station had the distinction of being one of the few, if not the only, station to have its platform on a bridge over the river.
To reach the southbound platform , you went donstairs and through a tunnel underneath the railway line. On emerging up the stairs on the other side, you were met by the ticket inspector standing at the concertina iron gate as of course in those days, you needed a platform ticket to even get onto the platform.
Not much use for the disabled or the elderly. I don't know if platform tickets are still needed as it must be nigh on 30 - 40 years since I was last on a train. How times change!
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