MY LIFE IN TRAINS
My Story - Part Four
Chester, Wrexham and Oswestry
I had been taken to Edinburgh for a few days in 1959, again without a camera. I was let loose on my own – a day on Waverley Station with plenty of NB 4-4-0s and 0-6-0Ts still working, a trip over the Forth Bridge and back behind a V3 2-6-2T, and a day in Glasgow touring Queen Street where the NB 0-6-2Ts were still banking trains up Cowlairs Bank, Buchanan Street, Central and St. Enoch’s – my favourite because of all the LMS 2P 4-4-0s on the trains to the coast.
There was a thriving spotters, or enthusiasts, club at Sir George Monoux Grammar School, encouraged by two masters, ‘Iffy’ Durrant and Peter Groom, later well known as a railway photographer, and they encouraged us to organise trips around the country. The first I went on were by train and service buses to the sheds in Newport and Cardiff, and another to Bristol, but unfortunately this was before I had a camera worthy of the name, so I don’t have any photos of these trips and my notebooks from this time are long gone.
Our next trip was to Chester, Wrexham and Oswestry, travelling overnight by train from Paddington via Shrewsbury on New Year's Day, 1960, arriving in Chester early on 2 January. After Chester we caught a train south to Wrexham, and then went to Oswestry where we visited the shed and the works. It was a grey dark winter's day, and the negatives are thin and grainy - I've done my best to improve them in Lightroom and Photoshop. These are definitely not among my best photos!
I've been told that photos from inside Oswestry Works are rare, and my negatives of hand held long exposures were so thin that they could only be rescued by digital technology - a dedicated film scanner, Lightroom and Photoshop to the rescue.
I assume that after visiting Oswestry Works we caught the push-pull back to Gobowen and then made our way back to Paddington, and home, but I have absolutely no memories of the journey!
All Photographs by Alan Lewis Chambers ©
Here's my photo of our group of trainspotters from Sir George Monoux Grammar School, Walthamstow, taken at Saltney Junction on 2 January 1960.
About 45 minutes later, LMSR 8F 2-8-0 No 48111 heads past Chester engine shed (6A) with a down freight on 2 January 1960.
GWR 28xx 2-8-0 No 2856 heads a southbound freight through Wrexham as our party walked to Wrexham Rhosddu shed on 2 January 1960.
BR Standard Class 3 2-6-2T 82031, with a couple of GWR 0-6-0PT in the background, at Wrexham Rhosddu shed (84K) on 2 January 1960,
two days before the shed closed.
LMSR Stanier Class 3 2-6-2T No 40205 at Wrexham Rhosddu shed (84K) on 2 January 1960, two days before the shed closed.
LMSR Unrebuilt Patriot 4-6-0 No 45506 'The Royal Pioneer Corps' is about to resume the journey north from Wrexham General on 2 January 1960.
GWR Hall 4-6-0 No 6944 'Fledborough Hall' speeds through Wrexham General with a southbound freight on 2 January 1960.
GWR 56xx 0-6-2T No 5606 passes through Wrexham General with a southbound freight on 2 January 1960.
GWR 43xx 2-6-0 No 5361 passes through Wrexham General with a southbound freight on 2 January 1960.
GWR Dukedog 4-4-0 No 9018 stored at Oswestry on 2 January 1960.
Welshpool and Llanfair narrow gauge 0-6-0Ts Nos 822 'Earl' and 823 'Countess' after their ‘rescue’, languish inside Oswestry Works
on 2 January 1960 after the closure of their line.
Vale of Rheidol 2-6-2T No 8 'Llywelyn' inside Oswestry Works on 2 January 1960.
While you were there I wonder if you got to notice how Rhosddu is pronounced.