A warning to trainspotters (part 2) – National Railway Museum blog
Just a quick follow-up to my post of a couple of weeks ago on the trainspotters warning sign from Nine Elms locomotive depot. I have since managed to track down a series of photographs showing the state of the depot just before it closed in 1967.
Nine Elms was the main Motive Power Depot for Waterloo Station, but with the end of steam-hauled trains travelling to and from the terminus, the sheds rapidly became obsolete and were demolished soon after closure. The album of official British Rail photographs shows Nine Elms in a fairly dilapidated state. Unfortunately, there isn’t a photograph showing the sign in question – but the image above, showing one of the main entrances, does feature similar examples of the everyday, hand painted, made-on-site signs which adorned the depot.
To date, we have had one confession from a trainspotter who was apprehended by a British Transport Police constable in the late 1950s, whilst carrying out some covert copping. Let’s hear your reminiscences of spotting at Nine Elms shed! Any information will of course be treated in the strictest confidence.
