Llangollen Railway: Flying Scotsman at Berwyn...
Another from the archives to round off the kids holidays before normal service resumes tomorrow, these scanned negatives show when Flying Scotsman visited Llangollen in 1994/1995…
These photos show a working engine, alive and connected with us in a way that museum exhibits can’t evoke the same emotional response. That said, the Gresley A3 has never really got me enthused, I guess I am fully indoctrinated in the cult of the GWR to see anything other than Panniers, Prairies, Manors, Halls, Castles and Kings as inferior! Blame my Dad and Grandpa… the story goes they took me to Didcot as a baby, and on the footplate of a castle the driver baptised me with sooty fingers on my forehead. Forever GWR. Until next time, more soon…
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| Arriving 60103 at Berwyn, c1995. James Hilton photo |
This wasn’t the first time I’d seen her, she has visited Llangollen previously I think, when in LNER apple green, and I’m sure I have also seen her at the National Railway Museum. What made this sighting unique was she was in steam, and working tender first!
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| Slowly processing through the platform at Berwyn, c1995. James Hilton photo. |
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Just a few years before, she came down here to Australia. As well as chasing it all over the place, dad was working for the NSW railways (which Wikipedia tells me was the State Rail Authority at that point), and so got word that it was stopping at Broadmeadow station for a bit, so mum took me down to have a look. I got invited into the cab but didn't stay long as the fire was TERRIFYING to a four year old. I think mum got at least one photo of me in front of it, but I'm sure we saw it elsewhere so the photo could be from a different time when I wasn't screaming at the firehole.
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Tim isn’t it amazing that one locomotive can connect us across oceans. Thank you for sharing your memories.
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