Trainspotting: Chester Summer Sundays…

Summer sunday afternoons in the mid 1990s, I can almost feel the warmth on my back getting out of the car in the old lay-by (now the taxi rank) outside Chester station with Dad and wandering through the foyer, past Menzies to the old ticket office...

37429, Chester, mid 1990s. James Hilton photo.

The station hadn't been rebuilt at that point. The aging tarmac of the platforms and forecourt peppered with old chewing gum and pigeon droppings, the smell of stale body odours and an almost sleepy feeling as if everything snoozed in the afternoon sun, between trains. 

'Wigan Pier' 31421 (of which I had a OO model), Chester, mid 1990s. James Hilton photo.

Leaving Dad to buy tickets for his Monday morning train I'd wander over the footbridge, and as I got closer to the tracks the smell of warm creosote and sticky tarmac wafted on the air. Across the bridge, through stale diesel exhaust and to the usually windy cold island platforms but on these warm occasions the air seemed still. Hoping to glimpse something more interesting than the usual Pacer, Sprinter or Merseyrail EMUs there may be an Engineering train in the sidings, or even better, some locomotives stabled in the yard. In those days the ETH fitted 31/4s and 37/4s seemed to be ever present in their Regional Railways colours, but celebrity 37408 Loch Rannoch in large logo was seen on one occasion, cold quiet and silent but with the tattoos of a hard life.

A rare celebrity, 37408. James Hilton photo.

I didn't always take a camera, but I was glad that when I did I seemed to strike lucky. Either a new 37/4 or something else worth a frame of the precious print film loaded into my Dad's old Olympus OM10 that I had 'inherited' in my mid teens.

Cleaner than most other 37/4s I saw that summer. James Hilton photo.

James Hilton photo.

That tarmac, it seemed to even be sticky in the dead of winter. James Hilton photo.

Those same sticky platforms would see the occasional North Wales coast train appear, even on a Sunday. Then you were treated to the raw of the English Electric prime movers, a sensory experience of rumbling under feet as the ground shook, your ears filled with a glorious raw and the exhaust plumes drifting down as the train left leaving with an unmistakable feeling of being in love with trains.

James Hilton photo.

56071. I can't remember if this was a rail tour, or a stand in for a 37/4. Summer mid 1990s, Chester. James Hilton photo.

As well as the typical you may have glimpsed the unusual, either a rail tour or failure leading to a freight unit in action. Crewe TMD was only a short hop down the mainline, meaning despite it's purely regional importance variety was still possible during this period. As my Dad came to find me, we'd make our way silently back to the car, respectfully recognising the importance of witnessing these sights first hand, having already seen so many favourites pass the way of the cutting torch, yet as the keys turned in the ignition and we glided out of the lay-by and back home my youthful excitement would mean the car journey would be filled with questions and analysis of all we had just experienced. Great British Rail. 

Until next time, more soon...