Steam memories

Wilfred Nock, "I had 51 years in service, except for one week.

I began when I was thirteen. I used to work 12 or 14 hours a day, 365 days a year with only a half-day on Wednesday and I remember I was paid £3 a week.

"We also worked Christmas Day, Boxing Day and bank holidays, but we were paid double time then.'

Owen (Ashley) Davies, a conductor remembered that, "I worked on the train for 47 years until its closure in 1960. I started in 1913 on the steam trains and the wages were 4/3d because of all the tickets you had to carry.

"Some of the drivers then were Henry Davies, Bill Andrews, Arthur Richards and Frank and Ernie Dunkin.

"The firemen were Jack Winston, Alf Williams, Jim Davies, Philip Williams, Raymond Loaring and William Zeale.

Auld Lang Syne and the last steam train

"The uniform staff were Bill Shaddick, Carl Mock, Roy South, Gordon Griffiths and Harry Bailey.

"At the end of September, what we called the toast rack, which had brass rails along it and was an open carriage, was taken off for the winter as the weather was beginning to decline.

"Many people loved it and travelled in it year by year. I can see them now, some talking, some knitting.

"We would sometimes have eight coaches in winter and on a bank holiday, fourteen coaches could carry up to 2,500 passengers and six open cattle coaches, with 200 children in each, would be taken for an outing to Clyne valley.

"The train would be packed but there was no queuing and everyone would get home. I brought up the last steam train before the days of electricity.

"People were singing Auld Lang Syne on Oystermouth Station and there were tears in the senior guards' eyes."