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Footplate Cameraman by JR Carter w/ dust jacket
Footplate Cameraman by JR Carter
Hard Cover w/ dust jacket
127 pages
Copyright 1983
CONTENTS
Foreword5
Introduction 7
From Cleaner to Passed Fireman8
Some Photographic Tales 18
Edge Hill Motive Power Depot26
Stanier 'Duchesses' in Action32
Focus on Manchester38
Patricroft Motive Power Depot46
Stanier 'Black Fives'54
Stanier Pacifics at Crewe60
Steaming into Yorkshire66
Stanier 'Jubilees'76
'Baby Scots'86
Rebuilt 'Patriots'92
'Royal Scots'96
LM at Chester102
Great Western Steam in the 1960s112
A Day Trip to Southampton120
BR Class 9F 2-10-0s126
INTRODUCTION
As a young boy I was always fascinated by steam engines and used to spend all my spare time spotting and taking photographs with my first camera, a Kodak Brownie. Saturday was the highlight of my week - with my younger brother Colin, camera and the few coppers we had managed to save, we would spend the day at Wigan North Western station. It was during those early days that my association with Stanier Pacifics really began. The sight of No 46245 City of London cruising towards the station on the 50mph curve with the northbound 'Royal Scot' and being opened up to tackle the incline just north of Wigan was an experience that has left a lasting impression on me.
As I grew older the yearning for railways grew stronger and at the age of 15 I started work for British Railways as an engine cleaner at Sutton Oak depot, St Helens. I was as happy as anyone could be with the knowledge that I was on the threshold of a career that would eventually lead me to the position of engine driver. It wasn't long before I became friendly with some of the drivers and firemen at the depot who were impressed with my enthusiasm - I was always more than willing to help with the preparation of their engines. Eventually after a period of providing certain footplate crews with the convenience of stepping on to a fully prepared engine, I was invited to a footplate trip on the 7.45pm local passenger train from St Helens junction to Liverpool Lime Street. The fireman on that first of many trips on the 7.45 was an ex-Edge Hill man who had spent several years in the London link, but had moved back to Sutton Oak for domestic reasons. After arrival at Lime Street on that first trip we were standing at the bottom end of platform 5 waiting for our train to be moved off, when a train from London came to rest at the end of platform 6 with a 'Princess Royal' in charge. 'Have you ever been on a "Lizzie" young Jim?' the fireman asked. 'No!' I replied. 'Well, then, come with me!'
We then walked round to platform 6 and were invited on to the footplate of No 46203 Princess Margaret Rose. As I stood there listening to a three-cornered conversation about the trip the Edge Hill crew had just completed, I couldn't believe the size of the firebox on this big Pacific. Looking around the cab the controls looked similar to a 'Black Five' but on a much larger scale. On the trip back to St Helens with our lvatt 2-6-0 No 43025, I couldn't help wondering what it would be like shovelling coal on a 'Lizzie' all the way to London - I was tired and I had only been to Liverpool and back. I spent a total of 27 years in the footplate grade and eventually achieved my ambition to become a main line driver.
It will become increasingly apparent as one progresses through the pages of this book that I am a 'Duchess' man. I make no apologies for including what some may say is an excessive amount of 'Duchess' photographs, after all this is purely a personal view of locomotives as seen through the lens of a railwayman's camera. I doubt if there is anyone who could have wasted more film than I have, but through the years I have taken some reasonably good photographs, some of which appear within the pages of this book. I will be the first to admit that I am not the world's greatest photographer, and as a writer will never be amongst the best sellers: I am just an ordinary railway enthusiast who has enjoyed opportunities open only to railwaymen.
I consider myself very fortunate to have an understanding wife, who for 25 years has helped and encouraged me in my hobby of railway photography. Apart from one isolated incident during September 1959, she has never complained about her railway-crazy husband who thinks nothing of staying out all night just to photograph one steam engine, or travel hundreds of miles, climb trees, wade across rivers and brave all kinds of weather just to photograph trains. She knows what it's like to spend hours by the lineside to await the passage of various steam hauled trains, and on return to be locked out of the bathroom whilst the films are being developed.
To get back to the one and only occasion that my wife put her foot down - we were on a train bound for Torquay, when passing through Newton Abbot I observed a scene that would have wet the appetite of any steam enthusiast; dozens of engines with copper-capped chimneys glistening in the afternoon sunlight. I tried everything to pursuade her to make a visit to Newton Abbot sheds but my request was met with a point-blank refusal ... possibly due to the fact that we were on our honeymoon!
The main objective of this book is to try to be different from other railway books. I've tried to make it easy to read and understand, and without getting too technical - explain some of the more interesting aspects of the happy years that I spent as a footplate cameraman. If readers enjoy this book half as much as I have during the time taken to put it together, the project will have been well worthwhile.
J. R. Carter Leigh, Lancs.
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