reminded me of this, from the pages of The Grantham Journal, 7th August 1962 (front page, including a photo):strang steel wrote: ... Them were the days when cycling from Manchester to York was seen as nothing too unusual. ...
Boys cycled over 1,000 miles to Scotland on a train spotting holiday
Three pupils of Grantham Boys’ Central School, who set out on their cycles for a train-spotting holiday, covered over 1,000 miles in the 28 days they were away, journeying as far afield as Aberdeen. They were Paul Reed (15½), of 10 Gladstone Terrace, Peter Thomson (15½) of Belton Park Golf Club and William Hull (14½) of the Railway Tavern.
Stopping at Youth Hostels along the way, the lads passed through Ewden, near Sheffield, Shipton-in-Craven, Yorkshire, where they stopped for a couple of days with some of Peter’s relatives, Kendal in Westmorland; and then to Carlisle, where they stayed two nights.
Then they went on to Broad Meadow, near Selkirk, but, nearing Selkirk itself a spoke snapped in Paul’s rear wheel. Luckily they were able to get a spare in the town, and on they went to Edinburgh, where they stayed for three nights.
After passing through Dundee and Perth they arrived at Aberdeen, to spend another three days before the start of their homeward journey, this time crossing the Tay to Edinburgh. Here the former good spell of weather broke, and it rained all day so they travelled to Glasgow by train, and, to their dismay, found that, because they were late, they were locked out from the hostel. They had to spend the rest of the night in the open!
Following much the same route back to York, the lads then passed through Bawtry and on to the Great North Road, and this part of the journey proved to be the most hazardous – they faced a gale nearly all the way back, but arrived home safely, a little tired perhaps, but with plenty to tell their parents.
Although Paul is a member of Witham Wheelers’ Cycling Club and has been to Carlisle by himself on a cycling tour, and with Peter to Bristol and South Wales at Easter, none of the lads had had any training for the trip.
Counting it a success, they are planning another for next summer, when they hope to transfer their train-spotting activities to the South of England.
The lads certainly enjoyed the experience, but when a “Journal” reporter called to see William – the youngest member of the trio – he was too late – William had cycled off again by himself, this time for an eight-day tour of the London area!