Trafford Park steam shed.

[LesW]

I found these photo's that I took many moons ago when I worked on the railway.
They are taken at Trafford Park shed, probably around 1966. It seems that photo's of Trafford Park are quite scarce.

My Dad was on the footplate there working some Manchester Central to St Pancras turns before he changed roles to become a fitter at the shed.
I spent many a happy day there as he used to take me to work with him, it was the old school version of childcare! when you could get away with that sort of thing. Not much fun getting up at 4am some times but well worth the excitement.
I even got to drive the Flying Scotsman up and down the shed when it was there during a tour when Alan Pegler owner her. Wonderful experience.

I did eventually become a Driver myself, no surprise there!

[LesW]

Appologies for the duplication.

[Dad-1]

Hi Les,

Parents carry a lot of blame !!
My middle boy was brought up with aircraft models - ended up doing something like 25 years in the RAF.

Amazing when you look at all the supposedly dangerous places we went that we're still here. I shouldn't
laugh at safety rules, but there are legally much more dangerous people on the street nowadays than we
ever met in most works.

Geoff T.

[LesW]

Hi Les,

Parents carry a lot of blame !!
My middle boy was brought up with aircraft models - ended up doing something like 25 years in the RAF.

Amazing when you look at all the supposedly dangerous places we went that we're still here. I shouldn't
laugh at safety rules, but there are legally much more dangerous people on the street nowadays than we
ever met in most works.

Geoff T.

Very true Geoff. My Dad had me hooked on model railways at a very young age. We had O gauge live steam that we used to run around the rooms of the house when Mum was out. Happy days.
My parents talked me into leaving the railway to join the RN. I eventually went back though as the lure of train driving was still there.

[glencairn]

Hi Les,

Parents carry a lot of blame !!
My middle boy was brought up with aircraft models - ended up doing something like 25 years in the RAF.

Geoff T.

Yes! I'll go along with that.
From being 'knee high to a grasshopper' to leaving school I seemed to be always around road haulage. For 48 years of working life road haulage vehicles were in my vision. In fact models of vehicles are predominant on my layout.

Glencairn

[Bigmet]

...Parents carry a lot of blame !...

Inevitably.

Ma was a nurse, my sisters followed.

Pa was an electronics engineer, working in and around UK aerospace, and made his own hi-fi among much else, and oldest boy was using a soldering iron while still at primary school as a result. When thoughts of career were foremost Pa then encouraged me toward the financial world as the path to much wonga; a friend was a partner at what eventually became KPMG and could find me a place to give me good start. But no, I didn't want to be a bean counter, it was the world of science and engineering that fascinated: so I only made a reasonable living having fun, instead of a mountain of dough by - most likely -being miserable in finance.