Tracking down Oswestry railway memories

But half a century ago the Shropshire town was at the very heart of a huge railway network, with hundreds of men employed in the locomotive sheds, engineering works and on the trains that carried passengers across Wales, Shropshire and beyond.

It was 50 years ago, January 1965, when the very last passenger steam train from Oswestry to Whitchurch left the station.

It was part of the demise of the railways in Oswestry led by Dr Richard Beeching who closed the town's station as part of his national railway cuts.

For three Oswestry brothers employed on the railways it was a sad time that saw them lose jobs – but certainly not their interest in the Cambrian Railways line.

Tony, Brian and Mike Rowe live in the Oswestry area today with Brian and Mike active in the Cambrian Railways group that is working to see more of the line reopened as a visitor attraction.

Tony, 75, had just turned 15 when he started working on the railway in Oswestry in 1952.

"It was my 15th birthday and I told my dad I was going back to school for another term. He looked at me and said 'No you're not lad, I've got you a job on the railway, you start work on Monday'.

"I started in the telegraph office at the Oswestry works. The building is still there.

"I can remember my first wage packet, £2 and 19 shillings. I had to give my mother the £2 for my keep and I could have the 19 shillings for myself.

"But my older brother, Brian, was on the footplate of an engine and I was jealous.

"So I put in for a transfer and I started on the engines, first on the footplate then as a driver. There were 60 sets of drivers and firemen working out of Oswestry at the time along with all the other workers, from guards to labourers. The railway employed hundreds of people in the town."

Mr Rowe worked on the Aberystwyth-Oswestry-Whitchurch-Crewe line.

"In the summer the Aberystwyth trains would be packed with holidaymakers and day trippers," he said. "There would be special holiday trains running out of Manchester to the Welsh coast. No-one had their own car and everyone travelled by train.

"We also had special trains running from 'Tinkers Green', the halt by Park Hall army camp, for the soldiers.

"It was a sad day for Oswestry when the last passenger train ran."

Youngest brother Mike was also a fireman but later became a policeman.

Older brother Brian started in the Oswestry north signal box as a 'booking boy' but soon transferred to the locomotive department as a cleaner then did 11 and a half years as a locomotive fireman on the Aberystwyth line. He left when the line closed.

He said: "I suppose Dr Beeching did me a good turn and I ended up working all over the world. But for Oswestry it was catastrophic. Hundreds of people lost their jobs at about the same time that Park Hall camp began its demise and Ifton Colliery also closed down."

The Rowe brothers now support the Cambrian Heritage Railways which is gradually restoring the railway line and has ensured the future of the Victorian railway station building, built in 1866, with the help of benefactor and local businessman, Roland Pickstock.

"If not for his generosity and foresight we would not have such a marvellous headquarters for the heritage railway.

"The building is the jewel in the crown of our railway."