Always there as a backdrop to Allandale was the railway, the London Midland Scottish Railway.
Some of the houses at the west end of the south side were, and still are, only 20 yards from the embankment. In the 1940s and 1950s, the trains were a bit different from today.
The engines were all steam driven and this is still seen as the romantic era of the railways.
Many of us at that time collected engine numbers and there were books you could buy with all the LMS engine numbers which you could tick off when you saw them.
The goods trains were usually all open wagons with the names of the various companies along the sides and there was the guard’s van at the end of the train.
I always thought that would be a great job with your own little house on wheels with a fire and a verandah at each end.
To the people of the village, especially on the railway side, there was an added bonus with the steam engines. During the war when coal was in short supply, the engine driver or fireman would be coaxed into pushing some coal off the tender. When this was successful there would be a mad rush with pails to collect as much as possible of this free fuel. It was usually women and children who were involved in this enterprise. At other times there would be a speculative trip along the lines looking for any accidental spillage and, if you were friendly with the linesmen, a supply of used wooden keys which held the rails in place would be forthcoming. The dangers of walking along the lines were not really thought about and there were at least three shortcuts across the tracks. Mrs. Mary Stewart was fined for trespassing on the railway. Her brother-in-law was killed walking along the railway while on demob leave. One of the prisoners-of-war working in the brickworks killed himself on the railway when he learned he was being sent home. The other POWs knew he was going to do it as he had given all his possessions away the previous evening.
One of the highlights of the year was when the Royal Family were passing on the railway on their way to their annual holiday at Balmoral. We would know when they were coming as a policeman was stationed at each bridge as a security precaution. The children would all get to stay up late until the train passed. I don’t know if we ever saw the King or Queen but, if there was a face at a window, it was one of them or so we imagined and we would all wave and cheer. The train would go onto a siding near Larbert for the passengers to sleep before going on the next day.
There was another railway line a short distance away at Woodend, the London North Eastern Railway, but we didn’t take much notice of that one, ours was the LMS. Once when we were at Greenhill School, a local farmer was moving his entire stock by rail to another farm and we all went along to Greenhill Station to watch all the animals being loaded up. The big farm horses in particular were exciting to watch as they had all to be blindfolded before they would walk into the special cattle trucks. But the bus came to take us home and we had to leave.
