It is perhaps the pastime of those aging gracefully to remember their younger days and the things they did.
I was musing over the lost practice of train spotting. When I say 'lost', I am sure it continues but not with the same intensity and dedication of my years at KBGS. I lived next to the shunting yards and was used to sitting with my back propped against the male toiets at Lawkholme Bridge and
' collect'. The gallant little 0-6-0 tanker LMS 1820(. I loved the little bugger and when he rested in the sheds at the top of our street I would go and run my hands over his dark oily skin as he cooled. He was busy through all the war years shunting, as heroic as any warrior. Lazy in the sun drenched noon time, I watched Newton's laws of motion enacted on a gigantic scale and never knew it. Then the guillotine chop of the signal and the intake of breath as something approached . Argyll and Southerners? Seaforth Highlanders? The heart pounded to the procession of heroic names. The 4-6-4's. The Moguls. Then the breathless rush to classes.
I used to turn in my sleep at 3-40 am as the Thames-Clyde express announced its thundering passage through our modest town.

I am sure there many who share this site who can contribute memories or correct my faltering recalls.

I had the same affection for the LMS lines which seemed to encircle our street.Living three parts of the way down Bradford Street in a relatively motorless age, on a calm night and abed, I could hear the approaching steam locos drawing trains "under Parkwood" and across the Worth, under Station Bridge, through the goods yard parallel to our row and then, under Lawkholme Bridge and off through Showfield and away up the valley.
As soon as I was old enough to be trusted out of the street, I would join Arthur and the other seasoned “spotters” on Lawkholme Bridge – (Ah, names to conjure with. ) Alternative venues were Station Bridge – even the station platforms (admission 1d platform ticket.) One development that tested my juvenile understanding of our railways was the renumbering of locos after nationalisation. I was convinced that 1820 would last forever but then one day a loco( 41820) appeared – and I recorded this as a new “cop” in my notebook . Its place was later taken by a similar class of loco beginning “417**”

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1952-60

Current location (optional) Nirvana

Wonderful times . The 4-8 left Keighley Station at 8 mins past 4 daily on the way to Carlisle. We had to sprint down Lawkholme Lane after School to catch a glimpse of the Jubilee or Scot as it pulled away from the Station . We must have been all together often enough , amazing isn't it .As for 1820 I never thought that that little engine would live in my memory all these years . My brother and I befriended one of the drivers of 1820 in the war years and some days after dark he would help us up on to the footplate and we would be in heaven for the next hour as we pottered about the yard shunting . At the time the cab was covered over with a fitted tarpaulin to stop the glare of the firebox showing in case of German planes being around . There were often troop trains roaring through non stop ,also lots of prisoners , the Italians all seemed pleased to be out of the war and waved cheerfully . Well done Arthur for bringing back memories of this activity .

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 43-46

Current location (optional) Tasmania

I spent many hours trainspotting. There were 6 trains a day where one might spot a named 'Jub' or a 'Scot' These were one at 11.01 in the morning ,the up and down Thames Clyde expresses at 2pm and 3pm and the down and up Waverley expresses at 2.10 and 3.10. and finally as you say the one a few mins after 4 pm. It was known as the milk train.
It was quite disappointing if we only got a 'Blackie'
I recall buying Fox's sports biscuits for a halfpenny in the station cafe, but a choc digestive was a penny. If we got up to any mischief, we were berated by the ruddy faced porter Mr. Chenier (had a son David of our vintage)
One regular unnamed engine which we saw regularly was no 46442. It was in a class known as the Beetlecrushers.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-64

Current location (optional) Wirral

The subject of 1820 has been mentioned in conversation between Terry M. and myself.
Living near the Rugby League ground, Lawkholme Lane Bridge was on route to and from school.
The main driver of 1820 was JIM CLARKE.
Mr Clarke was father of another KBGS pupil Peter Clarke. The Clarke family were neighbours of Richard Hartley and myself in Back Caledonia Road/Byrl Street
At times, on the way home from school, we would divert from Lawkholme Laneat the bridge and through the Bagcraft car park to the railway embankment, to watch 1820 at work. Sometimes Mr Clarke would welcome us on to the footplate and we spent a happy time watching, at close hand, the techniques and system of "Shunting" goods trucks.
A sentence, from the dim and distant memory, which was greatly used by the "Spotters" was "PEGGED HOME AND DISTANCE !!"
Any more Terry ??

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1950-1955

Current location (optional) KEIGHLEY

I have been left smiling quietly to myself by all these old memories. Surely days of innocence. I feel in myself those were better days than today of electronic bewilderment We have gained much, and that much is down to our generation, but lost much, I am sure. I am also furiously jealous of all those privileged to walk those well worn plates of 1820's fire deck.
Lovely sounds in the night as clank clank clank clank told us 1820 was busy through the night.

My journey to KBGS from Bradford Street was short enough. But.....!
I had to pass Farrar's stone yard, the engine shed where 1820 was getting rea

Bum-banging satchel belaboured me
running the long street to school.

The mason, hand bunched thick
round the stock of a flat chisel,
watched me through glasses
frosted by a million flying shards,
returned to peck at that day’s shape.
Strange curves emerged
from a peck, peck, pecking,
patient as dripping water,
that discovered bits of houses
in the bones of earth.

The oily shed, home to an old beloved tank engine
that seethed like a great black kettle on a hob
steam flowered from sprung seams.
I knew the sear of that coal-gulping maw
and the sudden vent of dragon breath
that filled the yard with scalding vapours
and belches of sulphur that engorged a sky
bannered with the smoke of a town girded for war.

In the farrier’s hearth,
a hoop glowed in its golden nest of coke
bellowed to a heat I felt feet away.
Mightily rang the anvil with his bouncing hammer,
as he fettled the sparking iron, plunged it back
into the belly of fire. Swarthy and grimed,
he chimed from the heart of a Vulcan reek
of quenched iron and burnt hoof.

Late as usual, I left to chase
into the place of hard desks
chalk and the long slow plod of hours;
a place where good French seemed a logical impossibility
and geometry was a foreign languaged for a day's work and the blacksmith's at the bottom of Alice Street.

Sorry Brian. Wrong (yet) again!

'Beetlecrushers' were also Ivatt 2-6-0's numbered 43000 onwards.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1959 to 1966

Current location (optional) Shoreham-by-Sea

Just checked again, you are right but 46442 is also an Ivatt 2-6-0. I am sure we called them beetlecrushers

Here is a pic http://www.warwickshirerailways.com/lms/mrkn1182.htm

Surprised it was Birmingham based though as I am sure that was the number we saw regularly through Keighley.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-64

Current location (optional) Wirral

You're certainly correct that 46442 would have been an Ivatt Mogul (Class 2), Brian. In fact, the next in sequence, 46443, is preserved and based at the Severn Valley Railway (although not currently operational). The guys there call it the "Mickey Mouse", but I believe that nickname was more commonly applied to the tank engine version.

Interestingly also (but perhaps only to anoraks like ourselves!), the sole preserved member of the Ivatt Class 4 Moguls, 43106, is also based at SVR and is currently steaming regularly. This they call the "Flying Pig" - different nicknames from different regions of the country, I guess.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1958 - 65

Current location (optional) Dudley, West Midlands

Thanks for that input Brian.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-64

Current location (optional) Wirral

46115 Royal Scot class (Scotch Guardsman), on test at Hellifield on 'our' line can be viewed here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZexFG4amLOU

.....and some 'Jubilee' stuff here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcLjNncY3cM

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-64

Current location (optional) Wirral

Buspiper now that`s a name to conjure with Brian, my old train-spotting mate.! I dare say you could write a book about our our trainspotting days when we "roamed"all over the North in search of "cops"

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1959-66

Current location (optional) Haworth

Remember putting a ha'penny on the line at Utley for a train to squash flat ?Problem was finding it when the train had passed

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-64

Current location (optional) Wirral

While we are on the subject of railways you will be surprised to hear that one of the old boys of the school owns a railway station yard, half a mile of the old line and a ,wait for it , a Railway Tunnel in Leicestershire .
Built in 1870.s it was on the G N and London & North Western Railways Joint line from Market Harborough to Bottesford . it is 834 yds long and I bought it in 1969 and it is in good nick , pardon the pun .I go and have a drool over the old place when I visit the UK , It's still mine .If only I had had the funds to buy an A4 Pacific and park it in there at the time but I was busy with farming and missed the chance of a lifetime.

Yes Brian we also put our coins on the line at Utley . There was a point where the stone wall nearly seemed to touch the line and it needed some nerve to stay on it when an express came by . We also had a job searching for the flattened coins . Often with a slow goods they would bounce up and down as the wheels bumped over them and you had time to see where they landed.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 43-46

Current location (optional) Tasmania

Yes, remember it well plus the time B.R.M. was nearly no more when the said person ran in front of the Express and kicked my large boulder off the rail with just feet between it and the steamer going full pelt towards KLY and it was a new "cop!"

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1959-66

Current location (optional) Haworth

Don't remember the boulder John, that was very naughty !

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-64

Current location (optional) Wirral

I am trying to remember the names of the most common 'namers' we saw at Keighley, whether a 'Scot'or a 'Jub'

Indomitable, Agamemnon, Leinster, Munster, Connaught and Mysore all ring a bell
The latter we called 'MysoreBum' (these were Jubs)

The Green Howards and Sherwood Forester are the only two Scots I can recollect.

Ah , another Jub (I think), Gilbert and Ellice Islands

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-64

Current location (optional) Wirral

For all the names of Jubilee Class and Scots look in the trainspotters section of the photos. I have put them all in .

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 43-46

Current location (optional) Tasmania

Grandads and Snorters. The latter at Skipton Sheds. Now one a stalwart on the K.W.V.R. Trainspotter speak.My favourite was 40586 or something which arrived in KLY.every Sat. morning on its way to Costa D`ell Geriatrica.A pre-compound but obviously a real work-horse.Have even been on it.Always remember being thrown out of the cab of a "Streak"at York Station whilst it was moving . Could have ended up in Newcastle!
I credit my great General Knowledge re-the plethora of quiz shows on the `box to my Train-spotting days a/ Because of all the namers and b/ we could "roam" all over.Finally,the intense competitiveness of"copping"

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1959-66

Current location (optional) Haworth

I have just seen in our photos section the picture of 'Britannia' class 'John of Gaunt' (who is my Great x19 Grandfather!). Britannias (50 odd of them ) were the last big class of steam locos and were built in the early 50's as an attempt to standardise loco design through the regions . I do not know if any ever came through Keighley , or were used by our region. I have seen 'Oliver Cromwell' at Bressingham Gardens (Near Diss) and he looks magnificent

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-64

Current location (optional) Wirral

I always understood that steam locomotives were female Brian as opposed to male!

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1959 to 1966

Current location (optional) Shoreham-by-Sea

Actually I did think about that when I posted., but could I relly post J of G as a female ?? I suppose he did sort of 'drag' stuff around !

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-64

Current location (optional) Wirral

Try: 'Scots Guardsman' Brian.

The other Holbeck 'Scots', or those that were regulars through Keighley were:

Royal Scots Fusilier
Seaforth Highlander
Royal Engineer
Sherwood Forrester
Cameronian
Scots Guardsman
The Green Howards
The Duke of Wellington's Reg.(West Riding)

Whilst Jubilee's were:

Alberta
New South Wales
Victoria
Queensland
Western Australia
Tasmania
Newfoundland
Gwalior
Barbados
Cyprus
Gibraltar
Raleigh
Drake
Hardy
Bellerophon

That's how we learned about the 'Commonwealth' and our history, not forgetting geography!

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1959 to 1966

Current location (optional) Shoreham-by-Sea

Dave, interesting to compare the list you have with the ones underlined in the ABC of LMS locos that I saw in 1945. I too credit the train spotting for my life long interest in Geography and History.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 43-46

Current location (optional) Tasmania

Latterly, Clans were put on the 11:01 Service to Carlisle. There was always a collective groan when the same "Namer"appeared at Kly Station and for that matter any engine we had seen before.One reason why we all"roamed" in our quest to "cop"numbers.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1959-66

Current location (optional) Haworth

You'll have to start using 45569 as your location Mike!

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1959 to 1966

Current location (optional) Shoreham-by-Sea