ABOUT ME Brian's RAILWAY YEARS INDEX
Hello and welcome to my web site, my name is Brian Irwin and I was born in the City of Carlisle
Cumberland England
on the 15th July 1942. My first understanding of trains was in 1944 on the line which ran behind our
house at Lund Crescent Currock. It is known as the Mary Port & Carlisle Railway.
In 1945 my next door neighbour Eric Buckley took me to Carlisle station when he was on leave from the Army. He lifted me up onto the fence which is on the approach
ramp at the north end of the Citadel Station. A large black locomotive went by, and he told me it was a streamliner,
I did not know
the meaning until much later. Eric took me too a local toy shop and bought me a model of the engine. It was painted blue with silver strips and it had four metal wheels, so it ran like a car. This was not the beginning of my railway years, it came much later in1955.
My main interest was going to the cinema, I had a small Eagle projector which was produced by the comic of the same name. It showed a 35 mm film with 4
sets of pictures
in comic strip form. My mother did not like me spending time under the stairs in the summer months with my projector. She told me to go with my brother who was watching the trains in the field at the back of the house. Here was the humble beginning of trainspotting which you will find documented
in the
INDEX.
DID YOU KNOW
On the 27th September 1825 was the opening of the Stockton & Darlington Railway
On the 25th September 1925 was the 100th anniversary of the Stockton & Darlington railway.
!923 was the year of the pr-grouping of all of the railway companies into S.R G.W.R L.M.S & L.N.E.R.
On the 27th September 1935 the first L.N.E.R streamline train The Silver Jubilee ran from London Kings Cross to Grantham on a press run and reached 114 m.p.h.
1937 was the year the L.M.S produced a streamlined train known as the Coronation Scot, it was the rival to the L.N.E.R
On the 3rd July 1938 A4 pacific
Mallard achieved 126 m.p.h, world speed record for steam at Little Bythem on the
E.C.M.L.
On the 27th September 1975 Prince Philip The Duke of Edinburgh opened the National Railway Museum at York. On the same day he opened the Darlington North Road Railway Museum.
On the 27th August 1975 the 4 car APT-E reached a record speed of 152 m.p.h. between Swindon & Reading. The train retired to the National Railway Museum York in April of 1976, and was superseded by the A.P.T-P. The project was withdrawn in 1983, and some of the train is in the Crewe heritage center.