Hindsight is an impossible place to visit until after the event. If only we were blessed with hindsight in advance, then future mistakes would be a thing of the past. In hindsight, I wish I had visited the scrapyard at Cashmore’s, Great Bridge in the Black Country during the 1960’s. Then, they were butchering steam locomotives by the score and I could have recorded not only their passing, but as a future reference for my ‘What Happened to Steam’ series in the 1980’s. The seeds of this were not sown in my mind until the 1970’s and it was only recently that I discovered that records of steam disposals were still available from Cashmore’s into the eighties. But yet again, that is the big pitfall of hindsight, it is never there when you need it!
This sounds easy in theory, does it not, to visit Great Bridge at the height of the carnage. Hop on a bus, arrive, utter the magic word … trainspotter … and you would have been welcomed with open arms … as if! A friend of mine travelled all the way from White Rose territory with the specific aim of visiting the yard, but no sooner had he set foot in the place when he was unceremoniously thrown out on his ear. ‘B … but ay’ve come all t’ way from’t Yorksheer’ – ‘Oy dain’t care if yow’m from Outer Mongoliashire, clear off,’ or words to that effect.
In the autumn 2014 edition of the Severn Valley Railway News I made a request for the verifications of a number of former GWR locomotives, based on the LMR when withdrawn, which I had listed as disposed by Cashmore’s, Great Bridge and the response was tremendous. I would like to repeat the exercise on my website but this time the verifications required are ex. LMS and a handful of BR locomotives.
CASHMORE’S, GREAT BRIDGE – verifications required
40108, 40129. 40635, 40646, 40673, 40678, 40692. 41231, 41239. 42062, 42070, 42075, 42097, 42187, 42226, 42350, 42430, 42470, 42488, 42582, 42609, 42611, 42667. 42764, 42823, 42965, 42971. 43024, 43115. 43618, 43784, 43854, 43933, 43949, 43982, 44030, 44035, 44043, 44047, 44151, 44155, 44179, 44202, 44205, 44210, 44219, 44223, 44259, 44289, 44409, 44413, 44499, 44506, 44542, 44580, 44583. 44712, 44714, 44865, 44945, 44948, 45021, 45031, 45051, 45193, 45264, 45272, 45283, 45322, 45410, 45422, 45434. 45704, 45735. 46420, 46430, 46456, 46459, 46503, 46511, 46524. 47235, 47296, 47338, 47363, 47371, 47382, 47385, 47433, 47467, 47474, 47476, 47488, 47504, 47524, 47551, 47596, 47622, 47664. 48007, 48055, 48073, 48084, 48093, 48110, 48128, 48136, 48176, 48222, 48251, 48320, 48352, 48354, 48357, 48358, 48405, 48449, 48458, 48460, 48474, 48477, 48621, 48628, 48645, 48680, 48726, 48733, 48753, 48754. 49357, 49446. 58116, 58119, 58135, 58204, 58215, 58218, 58283.
73090. 75054. 78008.
If you can be of any assistance in positive verification that any of the above locos met their fate at Great Bridge please contact: peter@whts.co.uk – Thanks!
In conclusion, I would love a pound for each and every occasion that customers, whilst visiting the 2857 Locomotive Sales Stand at Bewdley (SVR) over a thirty year period, informed me that they deeply regretted discarding their spotting notes, invariably commencing their tale of woe with: ‘In hindsight…’
