Trainspotting: Crewe 30 years on…

30 odd years ago I used to beg, well maybe beg is too strong, pester my Dad to take me to Crewe to spot and watch trains on Sunday’s…

Yesterday I took my son down to do the same. He’s 10 and loves trains, but had never been to Crewe. We parked at Winsford after I picked him up from his Mum’s and took the L&NW down one stop, after seeing two Pendolinos pass through about 70+ mph, which in a small station with narrow platforms is quite breath taking!

The Thunderbird, parked up north of the station.

Crewe as a destination was everything and more than I remember. I felt at home. So much is visible and accessible and trains are arriving and leaving every few minutes there is always something to watch. Yes the Pendolinos and 350s dominate but a Northern CAF was spotted, a few TFW trains (150, 153, 175 and even new 197) as well as locos (a TFW 67 and the Thunderbird DRS57). What the location lacks in variety, it makes up for in quantity! The contrast between Victorian and more 1960s architecture to modern trains is peculiar but pleasing, I wonder where all those people were travelling? Just visiting the station you see people breaking their journey and rushing from platform to platform, whilst you literally watch the world go by, anyway it is time for a few phone snaps now…

My son and I caught the train from Winsford. Here a 350 arrives, looking a little tatty.

Platforms as busy with spotters, mostly younger than I remember. Here an Avanti West Coast Pendolino arrives in Platform 11 whilst the 67 gets a lot of attention.

The DB TFW 67 in black skuttled off, I didn’t see where it headed.

Out the back, at the old diesel depot were a few old friends. The 90 and 87 are the WCML of my childhood. I was explaining to my son that these are all you often saw at Crewe back in the old days!

This was a real surprise, I didn’t realise these unit’s still existed, a Royal Mail 325. I’ll have to look into what’s happening with them!

A TFW153, I was trying to work out if the bow on Dapol’s N scale model was prototypical, it does look like these have a slight sag in the centre. This was in the southern bay platform, so presume heading off towards Shrewsbury? Another L&NW 350 photo bombs the background!

The good old 150/2, I grew up with and still love these units.

Our TFW CAF 197 are slowly growing on me, which is just as well as we’ll have them for years. Yet to ride on one yet, and still not sure about the lack of a yellow nose.

A Northern CAF 321. Electric and no corridor connections. This certainly improves the look of the nose!

A busy TFW train heading for Carmarthen. 2 cars where 3+ would have been useful, it was full as it pulled in from Manchester and on the platform behind me were 50 odd more passengers. I used to find these units ugly, and I’d say they’re still challenged but the TFW colours have transformed them. As a passenger they aren’t spacious but they are very comfortable and quiet.

One thing that I noticed for me was that I wasn’t interested in long trains or long vista. I liked the up close snap shot, epitomised by the opening example of the 57. Similarly, if you stood looking across the end of the bay platforms you had the same feeling. Trains arriving and leaving but a more detailed view, it’s given me some ideas for station related cameos, we shall see what I draw up. 

I wonder if we take all this too much for granted, the nostalgia within me yearns for a time machine to experience all I missed as a child. These days, perhaps I need to view our current railway in the same fashion? Until next time, more soon…

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