1948 in Toonheid (A Double Booking)
Glenallan
Amongst the companies, which were taken into public hands
'for the good of the nation', were LNER and LMS. I recall that
it took a few years for the livery of the rolling stock to be
altered to British Railways black.
This was actually a bit of a shame, as it did away with those beautiful
greens and browns that the engines used to be painted, and substituted
a matt black. I don't recall seeing anything other than these two
names,
London North Eastern Railways and London Midland and Scottish,
though there were many more all over Britain..
Nevertheless, it was still the great era of Steam Engines and
Diesel/Electrics were still of the future. In those far off days,
very few trains actually had a corridor between the carriages, so it
was important to make sure you were suitably composed before
you set off on your journey, if ye get my drift.
For Glaswegians, the principal train journeys were at holiday time to
destinations such as Ayr, Girvan, Helensburgh, Balloch, Gourock
and a myriad of other wee towns in and on the west coast of Scotland.
Other trains from Queen St Station and St Enoch would point you in
other directions of the compass. Edinburgh was always a popular
destination; and Waverley Station always had a magic of its own
with its big bright airy feel to it.
I was in my late thirties before I ever got the train to Aberdeen.
It passed through Dundee and I hate to confess, left me with a terrible
impression of Dundee as a dank and dismal place that has remained to
this very day.
On a hot summer's day my pals, Gillie Todd and Tom Hunter and I
would cross the wee humped back wooden bridge over the canal at
Glebe Street and make our way along Pinkston Road to the point where
the trains exited from under the Cuddy's Park on their journey up from
Queen St Station through the tunnel to Cowlairs and Spingburn.
Sometimes we'd make a full day of it and get our mothers to pack our
wee schoolbags with Irn-Bru and sandwiches. They were great days
and truth to tell, it seemed as though childhood would never end.
It was a great train spotting opportunity and the drivers used tae hing
oot the windae and give ye a wave. It was a different slower world
back then
Every train had to be assisted up the incline by at least one and
sometimes two auxiliary engines at the back or the front. Ye could hear
the low chuff of the engine as they left the station beyond the tunnel.
They always gave a whistle before they entered. It must have been
slippage on the rails or something, but there used to be a wee spate of
rapid chuff-chuff-chuffs, always at the same place. That was oor signal
tae get ready for the steam and smoke tae come belchin oot of the
tunnel mouth
We used to sit on the wall with a wee book and take their numbers
and any other vital information like the number of wheels.big wheels
and wee wheels, fixed coal tender or separate wagon.
There used tae be some beauties.
The best thing was that every engine had a name like
The Duke of Marlborough, The Durham Cathedral or maybe
City of Plymouth. We used tae talk for hours aboot
these names. Oh aye, these were important details that you
could look up in the book.
Gillie Todd, always excitable would shout out the wheel coding
four-six-four and the engine's serial number 51693.
He later became a minister and went tae Rhodesia..
In those days I recall,
the wee book had details of the depot where the engine was based.
We used to wonder where the trains were going, because our wee
world ended at Cowlairs. Any further away was uncharted territory
that could only be imagined.
Tom Hunter's father was an engine driver, and had been to places
as far away as Carlisle, wherever that was. Mr Hunter was able to get
railway timetables and tickets and all sorts of stuff that
nowadays would be highly prized as 'memorabilia'. Young Tom
became an Engineer, and went tae Australia. I never heard
of him again.
Years later, I found myself with my own Dad in the Boundary Bar
at Hawthorn Street, which was near to Eastfield Marshalling Yard.
This was the very epicentre of the Rail workers world. Big bluff
railway
engine drivers and wee skinny Guards and Ticket Inspectors would
conjoin here after a hard shift, every one of them sporting a dozen or
so
British Rail badges. The Boundary Bar was also a favourite with
workers from the huge North British Locomotive Company works
at Vulcan Street.
It's a pity I canny show ye some pictures.
My Dad worked in a Railway pub at Cowlairs
tae help the hoose finances
.
But that's another story.
--
Glenallan
Recollections of Toonheid
I was driving along Kennedy Street in Glasgow the other day,
and passed by the spot where my ancestral home once stood.
Some of you will know that this entire area, known affectionately
as Toonheid lives on only in a diminishing number of memories.
Toonheid was famous for nothing in particular.
Its houses were ancient grey sandstone tenements which reeked
of the stench of urine and shite. Long ago I was domiciled in one
of these quaint little places. It was a far cry from the Grannies
Hielan Hame, so beloved of generations of Scots who live
everywhere but Scotland.
Toonheid gave up the ghost in the seventies, I believe, when
Glasgow Corporation razed it to the ground to make way for smart new
hooses for the lieges. My ancestral home, which I am told,
subsequently became a brothel was a victim of this sea change
in the fortunes of the working people of Glasgow.
In particular, my thoughts were guided to the Grafton and Carlton
cinemas. There was one other opposite the Carlton, in Castle Street
adjacent to Valerio's caf, but I forget its name. As a boy, when the
notion took me, I could run round all of these three cinemas to see
what was showing, and then make up my mind where I would spend
the next three hours or so.
It was always a hard decision if the Bowery Boys and
Buster Crabb were showing in different picture hooses.
It was a time of innocence. There was no 'drugs scene' or any
great expectation, for good or ill, that things would ever change.
Indeed it appeared that the tenement buildings had always been there
and that they would always remain. Parliamentary Road, with its
awesome name was the Main Street of Toonheid. It had seen
countless generations of young Scots before I, jist anither wee boy,
appeared on the scene.
Parly Road had its fair share of men's pubs in its length from the
Empire Theatre to Castle Street at its other end. There was always a
great bustle of activity in Parly Road, which constantly had tramcars
running to and fro. In a short time I learned the art of dodging the
trams as I crossed from one side of the road to the other. In fact,
I always had a smug pride that I carried out Tram Dodging with
consummate skill.
If you are ever in Glasgow's Renfield Street, take a look at the
locals ducking and diving, bobbing and weaving with the buses.
You'll see what I mean.
Anyhow, as far as I could see there is only one bulding
remaining in Toonheid, amid the sea of new hooses.
It is St Mungo's RC Church.
As a wee Presbyterian with an inbuilt sense of bigotry,
which has waned through the years, my pals and I would scatter the
water in the wee font at the door to the four winds.
There was no particular malice in this.
It was jist something that ye did, in 1948.
Glenallan
-------------
Ian Morrison
news:1148412698.2...@u72g2000cwu.googlegroups.com
> I don't recall seeing anything other than these two
> names,
> London North Eastern Railways and London Midland and Scottish,
> though there were many more all over Britain..
Not *that* many more, since the grouping of 1923 (IIRC). LNER and LMS
were the only ones which served Scotland after that.
> I was in my late thirties before I ever got the train to Aberdeen.
Why?
> It passed through Dundee and I hate to confess, left me with a terrible
>
> impression of Dundee as a dank and dismal place that has remained to
> this very day.
I was there today, and I marvelled at how beautiful the City of
Discovery looks from the south side of the Firth of Tay. If I could
afford to buy my late mother's house, I would move there like a shot.
<trainspotting and Ian Allan book reminiscences snipped>
--
Ian O.
http://www.iomorrison.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk
--
Posted via Mailgate.ORG Server - http://www.Mailgate.ORG
Cory Bhreckan
> "Glenallan" <glen...@msn.com> wrote in message
> news:1148412698.2...@u72g2000cwu.googlegroups.com
>
>
>>I don't recall seeing anything other than these two
>>names,
>>London North Eastern Railways and London Midland and Scottish,
>>though there were many more all over Britain..
>
>
> Not *that* many more, since the grouping of 1923 (IIRC). LNER and LMS
> were the only ones which served Scotland after that.
>
>
>>I was in my late thirties before I ever got the train to Aberdeen.
>
>
> Why?
>
>
>>It passed through Dundee and I hate to confess, left me with a terrible
>>
>>impression of Dundee as a dank and dismal place that has remained to
>>this very day.
>
>
> I was there today, and I marvelled at how beautiful the City of
> Discovery looks from the south side of the Firth of Tay. If I could
> afford to buy my late mother's house, I would move there like a shot.
Even the vast bounty of the Civil Service Pension has its limits, does it?