WHAT ON EARTH WAS THAT ALL ABOUT?!

摘要

With retirement approaching and a plan to relocate to warmer climes, my wife and I decided to have a clear-out of many years' accumulation of "stuff". When we got to the bottom of the big metal trunk at the furthest reach of the loft, I came across an old cardboard suitcase. I remembered exactly what it contained ― my notebooks of shed visits and loco performance logs from the 1950s and 60s. Needless to say, that spelt the end of work for the day and with a disgusted but resigned "humph", my good lady left me to my reminiscences! Flicking through a book dated 1958, I came upon a performance log with, written large at the head of the page, a question to myself: "What was that all about?" I started to read my scribbled notes, then came the trigger to a flood of memories ― a small brown stain at the foot of the page ... but more of that later. Technical College had finished on Friday July 18 in 1958 and I soon set off with my Western Region 'Railrover' ticket on an orgy of shed visits and train timings. The early morning of Wednesday July 23 found me at Cardiff General station, having arrived in the small hours by newspaper train and with Canton and Cathays sheds satisfactorily, if unofficially, visited in the pre-dawn hours.