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Porter article stirs photographic memory

Taken on January 25, 1964, it shows two porters at Kettering station, on the St Pancras-Leicester main line, who have just pushed an old trolley across the tracks.

One of the porters is young and wearing the winkle-picker shoes which were popular at the time, while his older colleague wears more sturdy boots, a BR cap and has his trousers tied at the bottom.

Their lightly laden trolley is carrying packages, fresh flowers and what appear to be paint tins, perhaps unloaded from the six-car DMU that is disappearing into the distance. Close to them is a sole coal wagon, its contents spilled on to the trackside.

Kettering had been the site of a shed since the Midland Railway opened its first depot there in 1866. Coded 15B by the LMS in 1935 and in its final years 15C by BR, it closed in June 1965, and towards its end was often the temporary home of withdrawn ‘foreign’ locomotives on their way to George Cohen’s scrapyard, examples including GWR No. 7218 and SR No. 31924.

Geoff’s article is accompanied by a photograph that appeared on the front cover of The Railway Magazine, showing a porter passing A1 Pacific No. 60114 WP Allen at King’s Cross in 1961. The photographer, Rex Conway – a very good friend of mine – is quoted as saying how pleased he was to have one of his photos on the magazine’s cover.

I remember that feeling well, for I have been a professional railway photographer since 1964 and have also had a photograph appear on the front cover of RM. Taken when I was on holiday in Scotland in June 1970, it shows Class 26 diesels (D) 5333 and 5336 at Aviemore, and was on the cover of the March 1971 issue.

Norman Preedy,
Barnwood, Gloucestershire