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Yorkshire Diary:The first train from Leeds...
The 175th anniversary of the first train to leave Leeds took place earlier this week and brought back a flood of memories for one former railwayman.
Mr Reg French, 81, present chairman of the Selby Rail User's Committee and a former railway fireman, helped to organise this week's festivities.
He started working for the LNER (London & North Eastern Railway) in January 1947, although within months it had become British Rail.
Mr French said: "I was a railway fireman and I can remember on one occasion when we were coming out of Bramhope Tunnel on the Harrogate line when another passenger train went through our firebox and it went off like a bomb. Fortunately, we were not derailed but we had to stop the train and I had a one mile walk to Horsforth signal box. That was in 1953.
"I can recall other stories, things which wouldn't happen today. When I was learning to drive, one day the main driver said to me, 'let's see how you get on in fog'. We got to Osmondthorpe Station and I drove right past it and had to back up the train. You wouldn't be allowed to do that today.
"There was another time we went mushroom picking. It was the train from Selby to Goole and it was single line most of the way. We set off at 5am and one morning we spotted mushrooms growing between the tracks. The driver said to me, we'll have them tomorrow.
"Tomorrow came and we stopped the train and got off and we both went to where the mushrooms were and, do you know, someone had beaten us to it!"
Mr French said that when the Nelson locomotive left Leeds in 1834 it was seen off by a crowd of around 30,000 people. He added he felt privileged to take part in the 175th anniversary celebrations.
Driver
Mr French, who was married to late wife Kathleen for 56 years, is a father of three and has two grandchildren. One of his sons, Peter, 47, is a train driver with National Express.
He said: "I raised the idea of having celebrations in June because it was the first train service in Yorkshire to carry passengers and the second in the whole country. It was also significant in that so many engineers from Europe came to watch it.
"It was marvellous really because it meant for the first time people could travel by train instead of horse and coach. It was a revolution in travel."
My heart belongs to Gipton
Your letters...
Your article on Gipton Estate (Yorkshire Diary, April 4) brought back memories of growing up there in the 1960s and 1970s.
My family still live there and the old place will always be close to my heart. The aerial view of Gipton in the 1930s was fascinating and one of the pictures is without doubt the Ambertons part of the estate.
I lived for many years on Amberton Crescent and can clearly make out the streets and landmarks. Easterly Road can be made out, as can the Old Pit Hill, near what used to be Coldcotes School.
I never knew there was an old pit at Gipton and maybe this is why the old slag heap at the bottom of Amberton Crescent was known to locals as The Pit Hill. I've always known Gipton was built in the late 1930s and my Mam tells me where she grew up in Gipton Square was among the first houses to be built.
In 1975, as a 13-year-old nosey kid, I climbed into the loft searching for treasure and came across some old newspapers. They were all from 1939 and one of them was the Daily Mail, which carried the headline 'Hitler invades Poland'.
Were these newspapers left behind by the builders as the last houses on the estate were finished? Maybe I was the first person to enter the loft since the house was built 35-years earlier. I never knew what happened to the newspapers but I wished I'd kept them.
Steve Waterhouse, Wakefield, email: wakeylufc@msn.com
What happy memories Mrs Florence Norman's letter awoke in me (Yorkshire Diary, September 12).
I am a couple of years older but lived a stone's throw away at No 5 Well Close View. I used to go to Blenheim School.
I remember Meanwood Road Baths, where I learned to swim. My best friend was Alfie Cole and his sister Audrey, who lived round the corner in Carton Hill. No doubt she will remember Mr Mathers, who kept the small store and off-licence?
Leslie David Bath, Kentmere Rise, Seacroft
I used to go dancing at the Mecca and they sold a little booklet with this poem in it. I though you might find it interesting.
It's the Mecca Locarno calling, we think you are simply appalling, for ten pounds a week for the tripe that you speak, it's no wonder that Germany is falling.
We are sick of your bunk, and the Ark Royals you've sunk, of your pamphlets and cheap propaganda.
So you had better retire, you blue-pencilled liar, for you are marked down on our memoranda.
Sally Hudson, Norman Mount, Kirkstall.
Guess the year
The bear dug in, a sleeping giant stirred, as did two others one at either end of the calendar. What year are we referring to? Answer next week.
Last week's question: A king went under and his oil dried up and as Leeds famous bells fell silent the people spoke. What year are we referring to? Answer: King George VI was operated on for a lung condition, Britain lost its Middle East oil interests after a nationalist revolt in Iran, the famous bells of Leeds Meat Market were dismantled after more than 50 years and Clement Atlee called a general election. The year was 1951.
Did you know?
In 1988, two Leeds postal workers' refusal to handle "blacked mail" led to a 2,000-strong walkout at the city's Royal Mail sorting office. The mail had been brought from the Liverpool sorting office, which was on strike. Union officials began talks with management after the strike.
Appeared in EP 26 Sept 2009
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Weather for Leeds
Sunday 12 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 0 C to 5 C
Wind Speed: 7 mph
Wind direction: North west
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 4 C to 8 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: North west
