Wigan Album

My Dad - Ernie Morris was still working then - he was a goods guard, he loved his job.

I spent many a Sunday morning tip-toeing around these whitewashed sheds. You never felt totally secure in this environment, for many reasons: health and safety (these could be dangerous places) was a key factor; and the security aspects that went with it. That said, I was never approached by any shed official in all the time that I visited there. To any eleven year old who was besotted by steam trains, this was the ultimate place to go...and we got trouble free easy access to it. To the young spotter, it was the place to be - if you wanted to see the rare visitor...maybe from the eastern region. But to the staff that toiled here, it was a place of numbing cold and vicious draughts in winter. Summer would be the total opposite: heat, dirt and hard graft in the sun. However, we saw it in a totally different light. I will always remember the engines that ended up here on the 'scrap' line that led to the Wagon Works: Coronations, Jubs and even the odd Western tank...on their way to be broken up and removed from the history books. But to the young lads of the mid sixties, these icons from pre-war times, were never, ever, to be forgotten. And to this day, never will be...

My older brother Colin worked there and used to lift me up on the footplate.....magic to a child!

From my bedroom window I could see all of springs branch we spent all most all our time in the sheds in the 60s happy days

Jarvo, why are you not posting on General anymore?