To dream of steam

It is with great feeling that John Wall recalls the days when, as a child, he would sit alongside the East Coast mainline near his home in Darlington.

John would even sit beside the track in the dark with a torch which he would shine on the cab sides of the locomotives as they clattered and snorted past. Anyone bewitched by the glory of the steam age will recognise such devotion - a love of steam engines has always transcended a mere hobby.

Those enthusiasts will also doubtless hear chords striking thunderously when John likens the steam engine to a human being. "It has sounds, it has smells, it's a living thing," he says.

"It has a life of its own and it has a soul - it certainly has a soul," he adds quietly, but with utter conviction.

A matter of just a mile-and-a-half away from where John would spend those wonderful days and nights watching the steam trains go by was the line where it all began. On Tuesday, September 27, 1825, a 400-foot long train, headed by the engine Locomotion, with the legendary George Stephenson as driver, set off on the inaugural run from New Shildon to Darlington. The eight-mile journey took two hours and marked the opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR) - the first in the world.

John, who is aged 73, had always felt that there was no book which gave a comprehensive history of the S&DR - his regular abbreviation for the railway. Already the author of many published articles on the railways, the native north-easterner, who now lives at Kirkbymoorside, "rather immodestly" set himself the task of filling that gap. His work had to be fitted around his unstinting and devoted care for his disabled wife. The volume took a year and a half to research and the same amount of time to get published. During that period, John walked just about every inch of the disused Stockton and Darlington line.

Finally, his labour of love, which he entitled First in the World, hit the shelves. As John is happy to admit, it is a book for the aficionado. Indeed, the publishers had to convince him to cut his work by a third as it was just too academic. But as well as being a record of a remarkable railway, the book provides great insight into the culture and conditions of the time, while it also investigates the lives of the great fathers of the railways, such as Edward Pease and, of course, George Stephenson.

Among the book's many colour reproductions of paintings pertinent to the text is a magnificent depiction of that inaugural run by 19th century artist John Dobbin, who painted the scene 50 years after witnessing that landmark train pass over Skerne Bridge. Part of the same scene appears on our current £5 note next to the head of George Stephenson.

It is strange that John Wall's career path did not take him into the world of railways. He is a Methodist parson, but no longer practices, and he also taught for many years in teaching training colleges all over the country. He recalls the time he spent working at a college in Darlington, which was fortuitously located right next to the old S&DR.

"It was nice when I was feeling under stress to walk across the lawn and stand by the side of the original Stockton and Darlington Railway," remembered John.

Something of that teaching background seems to persist in his manner when he speaks to you. There are people in this world who will look away while talking and will only look at you when coming to the crux of their point or at the end of a sentence. John is not like that. He holds your gaze relentlessly whether it is you or he who is speaking, while an endearing, amused half-smile plays on his lips.

John and his wife moved to Kirkbymoorside 13 years ago. The decision was based around the fact that they wanted to live close to an operational steam railway. The North Yorkshire Moors Railway was the one chosen and Kirkbymoorside settled upon. John, who had recently retired, took a job on the moors railway, dressing in Victorian garb as a ticket inspector. He took that role for nine years.

"It was great fun," he says. "It brought you into contact with people. You were the railway's smiling interface with the public."

Every year, John has two weeks away as respite holiday, so he is able to have a little time off from caring for his wife. Of course, his destinations never fail to be associated with the railways. John will take in the likes of the mountain railways in Switzerland and take three or four different train journeys a day.

And it is the joys of the overseas railway system which, to John, emphasise so strongly the modern failings in this country.

"It's not just sad for the railway enthusiast, it's distressing," he says of the current situation on the railways in Britain. "When you compare it with the Swiss system, it brings tears to one's eyes."

John is convinced that he could run the railways in a far better manner and has written to transport minister Stephen Byers setting out his ideas. But he has only ever received polite acknowledgements for his trouble.

More happily though, John is glad to report that his love of the railways is being taken on by his son Michael and his grandchildren. But he was not so successful in getting his daughter Ruth to follow in his trainspotting footsteps.

"I bought a train set for my daughter Ruth when she was two," he says, before adding with a wry smile: "But, of course, it was really for me."

First in the World, by John Wall,is published by Sutton Publishing, priced £19.99.

Updated: 11:58 Thursday, February 14, 2002