91 year old Skegness railway enthusiast Brian Shaw has finally had a ride in one of the historic carriages from the long-closed Ashover Light Railway – fulfilling at Skegness a 55 year old ambition from when he started his first job as a teacher in Clay Cross in Derbyshire.
Two of the carriages are now on the Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway in the Skegness Water Leisure Park and Brian, as the line’s VIP guest, sat in the same seat which had been occupied by HRH The Princess Royal, Princess Anne, when she travelled on the line in 2017.
Brian had been shown the carriage a month previously as a birthday treat by his family, but it wasn’t in service that day. He was invited back for the line’s celebration of its 65th anniversary of opening as the world’s first heritage railway to be built by enthusiasts on a greenfield site.
Brian and his family travelled once in the carriage from Walls Lane to Britain’s newest railway station, Seathorne Bank, behind the historic World War Two-era diesel locomotive Wilton; then again, with the LCLR’s 1903-vintage steam engine Jurassic double-heading with visiting 1922-built loco Peter Pan for a second journey.
“It’s wonderful” said Brian. “It’s something I always wanted to do after walking the full length of the Ashover light Railway back in 1955, long after the line had closed and the carriages had been taken away”. They had become sports pavilions in Clay Cross and were sold to the LCLR in 1961 for renovation and use at its then site in North Sea Lane, Humberston, near Cleethorpes.
Now in retirement from his role as a head teacher, Brian lives in the Seacroft area of Skegness, just a mile or two from the Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway. Brian was unaware the historic Ashover carriages were so close to his home until he attended a talk at Skegness Probus Club by one of the volunteers from the Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway.
Richard Shepherd, Chairman of the LCLR’s Historic Vehicles Trust, said: “It was a pleasure and an honour to fulfil Brian’s ambition as part of his 91st birthday celebration. His memories of the old Ashover line help us to understand more of the history of these carriages – and fitting that he should take his place in the seat Princess Anne had used”.
