My first Railtour - The Wigan Wanderer. 16th December 1978

Over thirty years ago I set out with a Friend (last I heard, now a high ranking Bank of England Official) on our first Railfan trip. We had scoured the country on our own by this point, but this was crossing some sort of invisible Rubicon! A Fan trip!

In 1978 if it moved on British Rail it was Blue, BLUE or BLUE! Then something happened, no idea what, and the "powers" allowed an old class 40 to be painted in BR green. The first most of us heard about it was when she backed down onto the train in St Pancras (the old grubby one)! People went crazy, it was water after a drought. 40 106 in shiny 1960's green. With the crazy rainbow schemes you get today its hard to imagine the slightest interest, but this was big news in 78.

The trip was such an eye opener. The fans were a great bunch and we swapped to a 37, 107 I think to go over the now long closed Woodhead route. I remember just running down towards Manchester past row upon row of lakes, quite beautiful. All gone now of course.... Madness!