School Days and Steam Days : The Trainspotting Adventures of Paul Carr

The pastime of train spotting holds a very dear place in the hearts and souls such as myself who, having achieved the status of "Senior Citizen", look back with fond memories to our early youth and that magic decade of the 1950s when engine numbers and names were our meat and drink.

Though lambasted and satirised by the media - the train spotter was a unique being. Barry Allen, Liverpool born and bred, has created a splendid group of fictional youngsters, all bonded together by their common interest - trains.

Reading through Barry's manuscript, I felt an almost immediate empathy with Paul Carr, Tubby, Badger, Philip, and Pearson.

Mr. Barlow ("old Barlow") -- the stern teacher - became to me, Mr. Peers, Mr. Avery and Mr. Berry, fierce martinets at my old secondary school in Ardwick, here in Manchester.

To the teenagers on the 1950s the world was a much bigger place than it appears today.

To Philip and his friends, Waterloo and Victoria must have seemed like the far side of the moon.

What strange monsters the Bullied Pacifics must have looked to lads weaned on LMS Pacifics and "Jubilees"!