It was shortly after arriving at the City School that I made my first grave mistake on the slippery path towards railway addiction. I bought the 1970 Locoshed book, which gave a listing of every locomotive on British Rail, and where it was based. I suddenly realised that there were far more locomotives to see than would ever pass through Lincoln. I needed to travel. I needed money. I needed a paper round.
The local Newsagent at the time was very pleased to see me. Here was a boy who not only wanted a paper round, but was also prepared to take over the longest, most arduous route going. He thought I was a bit soft, but I knew the route followed the railway for a fair way. So followed the second mistake. I started delivering morning papers to Sykes Lane and Church Lane, a job I did for several years afterwards. Looking back, I was more than a 'bit soft'. I was paid for the papers I delivered, not the distance I travelled. Although my bundle of papers was no bigger on a week day than that of the others, between the last house on Sykes lane and the first house on Church lane was over a mile of fields. On the Sabbath the homes I delivered to nearly all took great fat papers with supplements that they could not possibly have read in a month of Sundays. I didn't earn any more than the other boys but I did see more than the other interested boys in the village, who were still in bed when the loco hauled 'workers train' stopped at Saxilby each morning. I was now earning a couple of pounds each week, and was ready to travel. I was also getting fit, although I didn't realise it at the time. My birthday present, a Raleigh ten speed racer, was starting to earn it's keep.
About the same time, I started riding out to Markham Moor crossing at weekends. The A57 crossed the East Coast Main Line here, and naturally enough it was a very busy crossing indeed. I will never forget the sound of the Deltics accelerating at full power out of the curve as they charged off towards London. Today, the crossing has been replaced by a bridge, the Deltic's have been replaced by HST's, which have been replaced by IC225's, and the A57 is definately not a good place to ride a bike!
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