IN 1960s Warrington, youngsters could get a bus from Horsemarket Street to the end of Kerfoot Street, where nearby Folly Lane gave access to heaven…Dallam Engine Shed.
Dating from 1888 and capable of holding 40 locomotives, it had a 65ft diameter turntable and a coaling stage with a water tank above.
There was always a wide variety of steam locomotives there making it a veritable paradise for trainspotters who would watch, mesmerised from a distance, discussing their chances of successfully “bunking” the smoke hazed shed without attracting the attention of the dust-coated, hatted shedmaster.
This is one of the happy memories recalled in a new book, “Shed Side in South Lancashire and Cheshire” by one-time trainspotter Kenn Pearce, now resident in South Australia but once to be regularly found with notebook and pencil near engine sheds in Warrington, Widnes, Wigan and Northwich.
The book is full of wonderful photographs of the steam locomotives which were once to be seen amid the smoke and steam of Dallam Shed, Arpley sub-shed, Warrington Central and other trackside locations.
Although the 176-page book is largely aimed at railway enthusiasts, it is not all about grimy steam locomotives and the characters who worked on them. It also contains much of interest to anyone interested in the history of Warrington and other railway towns in Cheshire and South Lancashire.
It chronicles the last days of steam when the railways played an important role in building the prosperity of towns like Warrington. Most of all it is a nostalgic record of what Kenn now calls a “misspent youth.”
But what could be “misspent” about golden summer evenings when a courteous request from a schoolboy could earn the reward of a spin up the shed yard in the cab of a grimy steam locomotive?
The book is published by The History Press at £14.99.
Pictures (by Eddie Bellass) show Dallam Engine Sheds and, right, the Britannia Pacific John of Gaunt passing Old Alder Lane bridge at Winwick on a wintry day in 1964 when, presumably, it was the right kind of snow.
