THE gathering of the six great A4 Pacifics at Shildon (Echo, Feb 15) brought many memories back for me.

I come from a railway family.

My great grandfather worked on laying tracks in the 1890s, my grandad worked his way up to an express driver on the East Coast Main Line and my dad was a fireman on the railway before joining the Coldstream Guards during the Second World War.

I can remember when I was young the talk in our house was always about railways.

Maybe it was about grandad off to London from the Bank Top sheds, in Darlington, or dad talking about his days on the railway (he never mentioned the war) something always seemed to happen that made his day interesting. Still those were the days of steam.

G Wright, Sadberge.