This time 25 years ago

I was getting ready to start work with British Rail at London Paddington. My knowledge of the BR timetable and of the UK's geography meant that I had no problem getting the job. To a trainspotter the free travel and working with trains was a dream job and more than made up for leaving home for the first time to work 200 miles away. Still, the free travel meant I was home whenever possible to get my washing done.

Twelve years later I was privatised and fell out of the railway world and into the IT world - where I still am today.

This is a photo of a page in my spotting notebook from a month after I started. Not sure what happened to the notes from my first month in the job but I'm sure they'll turn up one day. It's a list of the engines I'd see on my commute to/from Paddington, plus a few other things in between, as I made the most of my new freedom. Most of these engines will be no more and I probably wouldn't recognise Paddington or its trains these days.

The old telephone enquiry office above platform 1 will probably still be there, but the people and the phones will be long gone and replaced by a call centre in who knows where. Happy days and I do keep in irregular contact with one of my ex-colleagues - the one that somehow managed to lose the hot business end of his cigarette inside my ear on one never to be forgotten day in the office.