“Extreme Gricing”

The first meeting of 2022 was a presentation by branch member Austin Hughes, telling of a couple of distant trainspotting adventures to the title of “Extreme Gricing”.

As an enthusiast from the Birmingham area with an objective of seeing everything Great Western two of their 1600 class pannier tank engines (1646 + 1649) were out-stationed at Helmsdale depot (60C) in the northern extremities of Scotland.  Quite simply these had to be seen which resulted in the setting up of a special journey in 1960, by rail, to this remote location. Many were the photographs taken along the way depicting scenes at the major railway centres of Carlisle, Glasgow and Edinburgh before journeying along West Highland territory to Oban.  Inverness, via the Highland main line, followed before finally taking the “Far Lines North” tracks to the intended destination of Helmsdale where the two locomotives were duly photographed, noted and underlined!!  Before returning home the opportunity to visit both Wick and Thurso was not to be missed.

As a follow up to the touring of Scotland, and in continuation of the quest to cover all things Great Western, a weekend ‘shed bash’ (by coach) through Wales to as many depots as possible was undertaken in that same year.  Phase one began in Birmingham taking the party through the coal mining valleys of South Wales, where 2-8-0 and 0-6-2 tank engines aplenty were photographed in action and on shed.  Along the way to the destination of Swansea a high number of both remote and major Western Region sheds were visited in places such as Newport, Radyr, Cardiff Canton, Port Talbot and Neath plus the LMS depot in Swansea.

In total over 600 locomotives were to be seen on that day.

Carmarthen, Whitland and Fishguard featured in the itinerary for the second phase along with a visitation to the Vale of Rheidol Railway at Aberystwyth.  In total a further ten sheds were toured in the day and 240 engines were observed.

As the depicted illustrations were largely from territories outside England it was, indeed, an excellent show of 1960’s “Gricing in the Extreme”, all enjoyed by another excellent attendance.