Seaton Station

As a youngster living in Great Easton along the Welland valley, my school holidays in the early 1960s were largely spent at Seaton Junction station in Rutland. My friend Colin and I would cycle there with a bottle of orange squash and a bag of sandwiches and spend our days watching the trains on the Rugby to Peterborough line and also the Kettering to Nottingham trains over the viaduct nearby. We were allowed to open and close the hand operated level crossing gates and pull off the locking levers on the ground frame. I wonder what Health & Safety would make of 11- and 12-year-olds doing that these days? A special treat was to ride on the footplate of the tank loco that was used on the Stamford push and pull, great days that are never forgotton. We would also play cricket with the station master on the platform between trains. 6/6/1966 is a day I will never forget, when the line closed in its entirety.