Happy New Year to all contributors and guests!
I have thoroughly enjoyed all of the contributions on WTF over the last couple of years and look forward to next year’s posts.
Two items have recently entered my psyche.
1968 was the year that BR finally stopped using steam locomotives. I cant believe that 40 years after walking through the several lines of recently abandoned steam locomotives, their connecting rods disconnected and lying in their or other’s tenders, awaiting being taken to the South Wales scrapyards, we would see the return of live steam at Westbury Station. And in this anniversary year, at least one major locomotive from each of the 4 major railway companies from before the BR days. Despite the marvellous recent scenes at the station, it’s a sound in 2008, which is the most memorable for me. Standing in the high street car park, in the clear cold dark, listening to that distinctive Gresley beat as the loco crew on Bittern attacked Upton Scudamore bank on the return leg of the Cathedrals Express on the 6th December.
I have just correctly guessed the location in one of the mystery pictures, as the mouth of the tunnel at Wellhead Woods. I haven’t been to that part of Wellhead for about the same length of time as I was trespassing in the freight yards. Though I have walked along Wellhead, Grassy Slope, and continued through to the White Horse, either on top of or at the bottom of the escarpment that is the edge of the Wiltshire Downs many, many times since.
That picture and the seasonal weather we are enjoying (?), reminded me of sledging down grassy slope on a piece of plywood. Something which on reflection was pretty dangerous, though from memory we never managed to go very far in each go, as the steering was non existent and so descent was a series of crashes into the bushes at either side. I find it hard to reconcile that those marvellous woods, grassy slope and that magnificent cereal field between grassy and the A360 may go under tarmac. So you may find me doing a swampy up one of the trees, especially if I can find one that I carved my initials in, in the 1960s.
Take Care and Good Luck and Happiness in 2009.
