Well I too was at Paddington and add my thanks and praise for all those who made it possible. As already said, that final line up on platforms 1 to 4 was a particularly inspired event.
I suppose events like these mean different things to different people. I began to idly muse on how things had changed since I first went to Paddington by myself on 15th June 1963, 10 days short of my 11th birthday. Back then there were still 15xx tanks on empty stock workings to and from Old Oak Common, with the occasional NBL type 2 (D63xx range) when they could be spared from slightly less menial duties and were actually available for traffic…
There was still some main line steam to be found on the Cheltenham and Worcester services, and even a couple to Bristol until the end of the Summer timetable that year. Most express services were powered by Warships, the occasional Hymek and the few Westerns that weren’t still under construction at Swindon or Crewe.
And then we had the eras of the 47s and the 50s before the
HSTs▸ took over which, from a historical viewpoint, were collectively rattling up and down the
GWR▸ main lines for longer than all the “Kings” and most of the “Castles.”
The last time I was at an event which came anywhere near the one at Paddington on Saturday was on 8th July 1967 when steam finally gave way to electric traction on the Waterloo to Bournemouth main line (August 3rd 1968 on the 2125 Preston to Liverpool Exchange doesn’t really compare well because the vast majority of steam passenger workings had ended by April that year, and that final train was something of a one-off).
One stark difference between July 1967 and May 2018, however, was the condition of the motive power. By the end in July, most of the
SR‡ seam fleet could have been more accurately described as steam leaks on wheels, even if some of the drivers were getting unauthorised speeds out of them!
As others appear to have found far better places to stand than me with their cameras at Paddington O shall close with an image of one such steam leak on wheels, 73092 working the 1212 Weymouth to Bournemouth stopper all those years ago:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/93122458@N08/8467960045/By the way, I saw two dogs at Paddington but neither of them were Finn. I might have seen that cloth cap, but I didn’t see the photograph until I got home
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