Many of you will be aware, Roger Taylor and Brian Anderson wrote a book about the Hatfield to St Albans GNR branch line, called “The Hatfield and St Albans Branch of the Great Northern Railway” (published in 1988 by Oakwood Press, ISBN 9780853613732).
Due to that project, Roger took many photographs of the branch line and collected many more from various sources. With his kind permission, the Smallford Residents’ Association and Smallford.org has been allowed to digitise the collection and display it here on our website.
The following two links provided are to the first two parts of the collection, one gallery concentrates on photos between Hatfield and St Albans, the other on photos taken of the London Road Station to the St Albans Abbey station (the end of the line), including some photos taken along Herts Railtours. There are two more collections currently being digitised, so please watch this space for future updates!
A special word of thanks is due to Roger Gray who kindly took the time to digitise the collection, a painstaking amount of patience and perseverance, we’re sure, was in order to complete the task. Click the buttons below to see the collection.
Fantastic collection of photographs by Roger Taylor, brings back so many memories !!
The pictures shown in the Hatfield to St Albans section that originate from 1968, and include a young boy with a striped top and white trousers is me – Neill Kingdon. My dad (Ron Kingdon) used to take me with him on many of his photographic travels, and I’ve appeared in many publications over the years.
I would have been six at the time and can recall getting the bus from Welham Green, number 343 I believe, that used to go to St Albans. As a bribe, my dad would always buy me a small toy in the ‘corner shop’ (owned by the Cooper family) in Welham Green to make the day less boring for a six year old !
Ron is still alive, he’s 93 now but retains a good memory for the days out we made back in the 1960’s.
Somewhat ironically, I now work for Network Rail and cannot get this level of access to the current network. Even if I could, then I would be dressed from head to toe in bright orange and require a lookout !
Thanks for sharing these photo’s with a wider audience, I will always remember these sunny days out with fondness and a privilege that sadly can not be experienced by the six year old boys of today.