UIC

Back to Index

Richard's train riding page

7-31 August 1962: Plumley - Middelburg and back

This one took a little bit of detective work and digging. I am sure I would have been on numerous trains prior to this, not least because we didn't have a car, but this was almost certainly my first proper train riding experience.

Here's the journey:

Plumley - Manchester Central
Manchester Central - Harwich Parkeston Quay
Harwich Parkeston Quay - Hoek van Holland (ship)
Hoek van Holland - Rotterdam CS
Rotterdam CS - Middelburg - and v.v.

	The detective work begins with a Hoek van Holland stamp in my passport dated 8 August 1962.
	I was 9 months old at the time so the records are limited. Given my mam and dad are no longer around to ask, I have worked on the assumption that this was my first trip to Holland and it followed the same pattern of later years.
	The reserved seat tickets show we were booked on the boat train from Harwich. I am curious why these are from Harwich Town as opposed to Parkeston Quay. I will have a read through Modern Railways and see if I can find a reason that might make this legitimate as opposed to a Booking Office error.
	I don't have a 1962 timetable (or if I do, it's somewhere in a box). This is the timetable for the boat train to and from Harwich from the following year, August 1963. So much has changed since then.
	It's nearly 10 years later, Easter 1972, and the train for Rotterdam is arriving at Middelburg.
	Middelburg. Me, my mam and my sister.
	Harwich the following morning. 1M72, the boat train awaits departure for Manchester.
	A treat for the rolling stock connoisseur. The boat train included a Gresley buffet car in those days.