I SAW with great interest your Golden Jubilee report (April 22) of the royal visit to York on July 28, 1949 and vainly scanned the crowd photograph in hope of finding my own youthful face. That day marked my first visit to York. I was here with my mother for a day trip during the school holidays.

Neither of us had any idea that more famous visitors were present, but finding a large pavement crowd, we joined it, thinking there must surely be something good to gawp at. Excited onlookers soon told us what was happening.

My mother was thrilled. For my part, the city offered a much more exciting spectacle, namely the numerous magnificent 'Pacific' locomotives to be spotted at York station, especially the A4s such as 'Mallard' (known to us as 'streaks'). I collected ten new trophies on that memorable day.

Little did I imagine then that I would spend my adult life in York.

Some things don't change. More than 50 years later, I am still more interested in public transport than in the royal family. On the other hand, some things do change. Both public transport and the royal family are less reliable now than they were in 1949.

Peter Hollindale,

Grange Garth,

Fulford Road, York.

...CONGRATULATIONS are in order on the production of your supplement: The Queen's Golden Jubilee, Part One (April 22), compiled and designed by two self-confessed Republicans. I think Chris Titley and Julian Cole have been most professional.

Mind you, I could have done without detailed information concerning dachshunds standing on bricks in order to scale the heights of 'colossal corgis' to facilitate the production of 'dorgis.'

Margaret Lawson,

Aldborough House,

Updated: 08:39 Saturday, April 27, 2002