David McElroy reminsces about trainspotting when he was a boy
Resource Type: Audio | Posted on 1st August 2011 by Liam Physick
David McElroy recounts how, as a boy, during the school holidays, he would sit on the wall at Edge Hill station, trainspotting, though he gradually lost interest as a result of dieselisation. He also mentions the perils of getting too close to the locomotives
Interviewee: David and Steve McElroy
Interviewee Gender: Male
Date of Interview: 25th March 2011
Interview Transcript
David: Because I was the oldest, I was the first one that was, sort of, allowed a bit of latitude, so, I used to come to this station, particularly during the school holidays, effectively for the whole of the morning, go home just to present myself, make sure I was still intact, have something to eat, and then come back for the whole afternoon trainspotting . . .
Jenny: Oh, yeah.
David: . . . so, used to sit on the wall, and just watch the, the trains toing and froing. At, at one point I actually got myself a, a . . .
Jenny: A book.
David: . . .a trainspotter’s book with all the numbers in, and names, and as I say I’d literally spend days here during the, during the holidays, just watching the trains.
Jenny: Oh, wow!
David: And this was, this. . .
Steve: He, he invented the anorak, he’s got a load of them since! (Jenny laughs)
Jenny: I don’t know . . .
David: These were, these were steam trains . . .
Jenny: Yeah, yeah.
David: . . . so I, I, I, and, sort of, watching them to the point when they were started (sic) to be replaced by the, the large diesels, which weren’t anything like as, sort of, aesthetically pleasing as the, as the steam trains, but, but if you got too close to the tunnels when the trains came out, you know, with all the, the smoke and the steam, you could, you know, quite easily get, sort of, a lungful of (indecipherable) which probably were not that terribly good for you!
Jenny: Yeah.
Steve: You used to, used to get a lot of grit in your hair, as well.
David: Yeah.
Jenny: Yeah.
Categorised under: The Station & Railway Pioneers
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