My escape from home

When I was nine years old, my parents decided to send me to visit my Granny and Grandad in South Benfleet England. We lived in Newport-on-Tay, in Fife in Scotland. My parents bought me a train ticket from Dundee to London Kings Cross. This was the days of the steam train. I caught the local train from Newport East to Dundee going over the Tay Railway Bridge. Then my dad put me on the train direct from Dundee to London Kings Cross. This was a huge adventure for me, travelling over five hundred miles by train.

I found myself a seat on the train in one of these compartments with six seats. I made friends with a lady who was going to London as well. We left Dundee and waved goodbye to my hometown of Newport-on-Tay as we crossed over the Tay Railway bridge. Soon we were zooming through Fife and then over the Forth Railway Bridge. On to our first stop Edinburgh. We stayed there for a while the engine got watered and more coal was taken on board. Eventually, we left Edinburgh at ten o’clock on the dot and headed towards the borders. The engine pulling the train was the Flying Scotsman. The speed of the train was amazing, the countryside just flew by. My parents had given me enough money to purchase my lunch on the train. One of the restaurant staff knocked on the compartment door and announced that lunch was served. I followed the man to the restaurant carriage and eagerly waited to be served.

The first course was delicious tomato soup, then roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. Something I had never tried before, but it tasted good, and since I was young, I was being offered a few more potatoes and another Yorkshire pudding. The pudding was apple crumble and custard which was great. After my lunch, I made my way back to my compartment. By this time, we were approaching Newcastle the only station the Flying Scotsman stops at. The train stopped at Newcastle; it amazed me how busy it was. I had never seen crowds of people like this before, I come from a tiny village in Fife, with a population of just about 6,000.

The train left Newcastle and crossed the Tyne Bridge, it looked very spectacular. Once we left the Newcastle area, we got back up to speed again. With the good lunch and having been up for a while I fell asleep and woke up to see York station. It is a very classical station with a huge curved arched roof. Once we left York, I saw Doncaster and Peterborough. We now had sixty miles to get to Kings Cross. The speed of the train over the last sixty miles was incredible, houses flew by, and we shot across level crossings with lots of cars waiting to cross the railway. I watched as the countryside flashed by at great speed.

Then we started to slow down as we approached London. We entered the tunnels to get to Kings Cross, and the platforms appeared. At last, I arrived at Kings Cross station, which is a magnificent piece of architecture. It was full of steam engines waiting to go to different destinations. I saw lots of different steam engines some gleaming and others covered in soot.

Walking down the platform towards the ticket gate I was amazed at how big the train was. At the front of the train sat the Flying Scotsman steam engine, it looked hardly out of breath. I was amazed at the rate the train had been going. Not only that but we arrived on time. The ticket inspector took my ticket from me. Walking into the station, the realisation that I was in this huge metropolis of London and still had a distance to go to get to where my grandparents lived. Then my grandfather appeared in the crowds and gave me a huge hug. After relating my experiences of my journey, we made our way to the underground to get to Tower Bridge Station. It was my first experience of the underground. The moving star cases were amazing, but they were so dirty, and wooden. I was still getting used to the crowds. Having never been in such a busy place before. Then on reaching the underground platform and waiting for the train to arrive, it was strange to feel the wind as the train pushed a mass of air out of the tunnel. The train arrived at the station. We got on the packed carriages and held on for grim life as the train weaved its way under the streets of London.

We caught the train from Tower Bridge and got off at South Benfleet. My grandmother welcomed me with open arms. Showed to my room that I was going to sleep in for the next two weeks. That night I slept very well after my adventure travelling from Scotland to England.

The next morning, I started on the task I had been sent to do, paint my grandparents’ house. It was enjoyable being able to do things as I wanted to do them. I started painting, the house was very high and the ladder I climbed since to reach the stars. After making sure the ladder was stable I climbed up to the top of the ladder to paint the house. After making good progress for two days the next day it rained. That meant sitting in the house waiting for the rain to stop. Gradually timely I got used to being away from home and adapted to the lifestyle of my grandparents.

My granddad took me to visit Southend and went for a ride on the train to the end of Southend Pier. Bering a great fisherman my Grandad took his fishing rods with us and we spent a few hours fishing off of the pier. Caught plenty of small fish but the big one I wanted eluded me.

The following day it was back to painting again. The rain kept off for most of the second week. I got the painting finished. My grandmother was delighted with my efforts. After two weeks Grandfather and I went back up to Kings Cross and I caught the train back to Dundee. It was not such an adventure this time, but my time away gave me the taste of being on my own. A few years later I left home for the Royal Air Force, in Buckinghamshire. But that is another story. Only the train journey north was not such an adventure to someone who had done it before.