On track with a Sunday walk

The reason? It's a Sunday.

We published the picture loaned by Mrs Dilys Martin, of Pool Rise, Shrewsbury, in Pictures From The Past. On the back is written "Granddad Clayton and friends, 1926-1930" - her grandfather was William Clayton and worked on the railways in Shrewsbury.

And it turns out that Mr Jones, who also lives in Pool Rise but does not know Dilys, may as a teenager have known him, although he doesn't specifically recognise him from the picture.

"I was on the footplate at the Great Western sheds when I was a young man and I knew a Bill Clayton. It could be the same man," he said.

Dilys was certain they are walking over the Potts line at Shrewsbury - that is, the old Shropshire & Montgomeryshire Railway - and Mr Jones agrees.

"It was a usual thing on a Sunday morning to take the dogs for a walk up the line. There were no trains going down to Abbey Foregate in those days on a Sunday. On the picture, behind these gentlemen is where the old bridge was over Scott Street. It was what we called the Flat Top Bridge as there were no side pieces to it."

As a young railway fireman at the beginning of the war there were occasions when the drivers were switched, for instance if a driver had time off, and it was in those circumstances that he worked with Bill Clayton.

"I remember working with Bill Clayton on the shunting engine in Coton Hill. I worked with him the odd shifts.

"Bill Clayton was a very quiet person. He was not my regular driver. They used to change shifts now and again. I was fireman to a very good driver by the name of Phil Taylor. He was a wonderful man."

Mr Jones' railway career started in 1940 at the age of 17 at the Shrewsbury sheds.

"They made me up to fireman and sent me to Birmingham during the Blitz. I came back from there, thank the lord, after about nine months and worked at Shrewsbury sheds.

"I went to GKN Sankey in 1951 or 1952 and stayed there and retired in charge of the wheel division."