EDITOR'S CHOICE RACE FOR LIFE The human race... A-LIST NEIGHBOURS Who’d live in a circulation area like this? ADD YOUR REVIEW Aloud and clear BARBECUE BEAUTIES Thrills and grills GET OUR NEWS BY E-MAIL Just register

Most read Comments 1 Man has ear tips bitten off in fight 2 Reborn Skornicki downs the Eagles 3 Angry residents pack traveller site meeting 4 Big Brother fear over data-share pact 5 Milestone for our two tiny miracles 6 Red tape row ends Lymington carnival 7 BAYWATCH BOURNEMOUTH 8 Krzys: I just wasn't quick enough 9 THIRST DAN 10 Josh looking at his future Today | 7 Days 1 THE SUPER 14 2 Josh looking at his future 3 Caught on camera 4 Trio top Mostyn's contract list 5 JO AND CO 6 CHERRIES STARS RELEASED 7 BIG RUSS: I HAD TO CALL IT A DAY 8 Beach ‘jobsworth’ is a barrier to disabled OAP 9 FLETCH'S HOME HOPE 10 The Red Army would not be silenced

THE ONLY WAY TO TRAVEL: Poole Park Miniature Railway in the early 1950s

WHERE were the Health and Safety Police back in the early 1950s?

That boy standing up at the back of the Poole Park Miniature Railway when this picture was taken would surely have been put in his place today.

It was sent in by Bill Thurlow, who is the third passenger back and was about four or five years old at the time.

"Father took the picture," he said.

"He was a butcher and had his business in the High Street in Poole, next to the old Regent Cinema."

"My father moved here with his parents in 1939, living in Joliffe Road, which was called Lester Road then but had to be renamed because of the other Lester Road, I imagine."

Bill himself later went to Poole Grammar School on the old Seldown Site.

"Like all boys I was interested in steam engines," he said.

"I even travelled in the cab of one from The Quay to the Station up West Quay Road."

After the school he studied Geography and Oceanography before becoming a geography teacher at Henry Harbin, as Poole High School was then called.

"I finished teaching 10 years ago, but carried on working on the computers there until I finished work this time last year to spend more time looking after my mother, who is coming up to her 88th year this August.

"A number of your readers may remember my father's shop and my mother working in the office taking the money," added Bill, who is a life member of the Society of Poole Men and chairman of his local Ratepayers and Residents group.

"The engine in the photo was called Vanguard and was a proper steam engine beautifully maintained by the man who is driving it in the photo."

Today the Poole Park engine is a diesel rather than a steam one. "It was always an attraction - as it is now," added Bill.

9:17am Tuesday 15th April 2008

Print

Email this