In 1959, British Rail introduced a large type of diesel-electric locomotive called the 'Peak' class. There were 173 of these huge sixteen-wheel engines in the class, and I had ticked 145 of them by 1967.
Of course, trainspotting is a far more skilled hobby than Marilyn bagging, as trains move about so much and you have to use knowledge of where you might find a particular loco. Also in time they disappear: only a handful of Peak diesels are preserved and the rest were scrapped, so now I'm more likely to climb all 1551 Marilyns than see all 173 Peak diesels. BR chose to name only the first ten of the class after some of the biggest, best and busiest English and Welsh peaks. I don't think these engines saw much service in Scotland. Engine numbers D1 to D10 were named Scafell Pike, Helvellyn, Skiddaw, Great Gable, Cross Fell, Whernside, Ingleborough, Penyghent, Snowdon and Tryfan.
I had just finished with trainspotting by the late 1960s, and by 1972 started to take an interest in mountains. What better short-list to start with in England and Wales than the D1 to D10 peaks? So between August 72 and August 73 I visited all ten (plus others) as my apprenticeship training, and thus completed my first tick list.
Many of these early excursions taught me valuable lessons such as: always carry proper mountain kit. Snowdon was my first big mountain walk and my fourth Marilyn after three very small ones. My pal and I had no compass or decent map to navigate through the summer cloud, and he had forgotten his boots. We got lost off the Pyg track and went up interminable scree to the top of Crib y Ddysgl before realising our mistake and asking another tourist how to get to Snowdon's summit. On the descent, uncertain of how to locate the top of the Pyg track in the mist, we wisely decided to follow the Llanberis track off the mountain, then to try to hitch back up the vale to Pen-y-Pass. At the time, Snowdon seemed to be the beginning and the end of my Welsh hillwalking career. But I was back the following summer to tackle Tryfan.
Phil Cooper (left) reaches 800 Marilyns on Cacra Hill (28B), in parallel with Alan Dawson on 900: an unplanned coincidence (photo: Mary Cox)
