Issue Six Preview
This is how the stories will look.
Lost & Found
Engines, railways and stories that vanished and have come back to light. Our longest issue yet.
In this issue
Lost & Found: John Fletcher on firing the Hogwarts Express to Glenfinnan, the New Zealand locomotive found in the sand, Kevin Patience on Zanzibar's Bububu Railway, and a teacher's plan to bring steam back to Doncaster.
Lost & Found
Hello fellow wanderers, and welcome to Issue Six.
We've resumed our regular programming after a special edition month with Issue Cymru in September, and what a month it was. The special edition proved extremely popular and led to a record-breaking month for Whistle & Wander in issues sold. Not only that, but the magazine reached a huge milestone, breaking 10,000 followers across platforms, and more than 1,000 people have now read our magazine. This is really positive for the future of this platform. Need I remind you, we only started in April, and we now have railways and creators alike looking to work with us, a growing fan base, and we're carving out our space within the rail niche, which is super exciting.
We refuse to rest on our laurels, though. We have to keep putting out great magazines with interesting stories each month, and equally good content online to bring in more readers. But as a reader, there's something you can do too: tell people about us. If you enjoyed an issue or a story, tell your friends and family. The more people who hear about us, the further this magazine will spread and the more people will have the chance to enjoy it.
Speaking of stories, this issue is full of them. This month's theme is Lost & Found: engines, railways and stories that vanished and have come back to light. It's the longest issue in word count we have ever produced. With the hype building around the new Harry Potter series, I thought it prudent to dust off my grandad's book and give you the story of how he crewed the Hogwarts Express in the original films. We have the story, all the way from New Zealand, of Skunk, an urban legend found on a beach, and how she was saved. Kevin Patience is back with an excellent historical piece on Zanzibar and the Bububu Railway, and we spoke to James, a college teacher looking to save Doncaster's heritage and start a new, old railway. If you've got a story of your own, get in touch. It could be in a future issue.
Lastly, I want to say thank you. In purchasing this magazine, you are helping to support this endeavour and helping Whistle & Wander tell the stories of the everyday people who are keeping the love of steam alive. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed putting it together, and as always...
Keep on track.
Alex Fletcher · Editor and Founder
A Hogwarts Express Adventure
How John Fletcher fired Olton Hall to Glenfinnan for Chamber of Secrets, in his own words.
Hogwarts Castle in steam. Photo: @robdoestrains
The buzz around the new Harry Potter series is building. The new Hogwarts Express has been spotted out and about this year, and plenty of content creators have been covering 6989 Wightwick Hall in her crimson livery. So it felt like the right moment to step back to when my grandfather, John Fletcher, was on the footplate of Olton Hall for Chamber of Secrets, and to tell the story behind it in his own words.
What follows is taken from his book, Tales of the Rails. It has been trimmed, but not rewritten. Every word is his.
Back on the shovel
Kevin Gould and his cousin Sean Bowler had travelled extensively in the railway world, and it was they who unwittingly became responsible for introducing me to the next and final part of my footplate career. Both of them worked for the North Yorkshire Moors Railway, Kevin as an experienced driver and part-owner of 'Standard 4' No 75014, while Sean was an engineer, having previously served with the RAF.
During a conversation with them one spring morning the subject of holidays came up - well, railway holidays to be precise. It came as a surprise to be told that they were off to Scotland as part of the support crew working 'The Jacobite' steam train service from Fort William to Mallaig. They explained that the accommodation for the week was not in a four-star hotel, but just a converted Mark 1 coach with bunk beds. It was an early morning start, lighting up and preparing the engine, and a late finish after the 84-mile round trip, followed by engine disposal duties. Remuneration was nil apart from an allowance for some essential foodstuffs. Was I still interested?
Well, I must have been to have spent some four separate weeks up there that year alone on support crew work. This brought me to the attention of the train operating company, West Coast Railways, and the following year I was invited to join the footplate staff subject to a medical, a rules test and a firing exam. So I became a fireman again after the third exam of my career, but this time I was resuming my duties as a main-line fireman after a 30-year break!
The star of the show
Another driver with whom I worked on a regular basis was John McCabe, or 'Paddy' to his mates. He was good company, having had a long footplate career at the Carlisle sheds Kingmoor and Upperby. After one memorable trip with him I gained a new nickname, 'Buzby', so do read on.
The fleet of locos owned by West Coast Railways have featured in many films, but the star of the show has to be ex-GWR No 5972 Olton Hall, better known of course as the loco that features in the 'Harry Potter' films as Hogwarts Castle. The West Highland line's iconic Glenfinnan Viaduct was selected by the producers for some railway scenes to feature in four of the films. Paddy and myself were rostered to work the six-coach empty stock train, with John Dooley as the guard and Brian Caldwell as the travelling fitter, on the two-day 300-mile journey to Fort William for the inaugural filming, which would take about a week to complete.
The rest of Grandad's trip to Glenfinnan with Hogwarts Castle, Skunk's rescue from the sand, Zanzibar's Bububu Railway, Doncaster's new old railway and Through the Lens. All of it, on any device, the moment you pay.
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