Yes Togo, happy days indeed.
I still have my 1961 Ian Allan "Combined" volume, complete with all my "cops" (including 60103) underlined. I still use it to crib the answers to the crossword in Railway Magazine but have to be a bit careful as it is becoming a little fragile.
I never made it to Crewe in those days. I lived in North London and Liverpool Street and Kings Cross were my main patches. "Top Shed" (34A) at Kings Cross was bunked into so many times we got to know the staff there and, as you say, so long as you behaved yourself they turned a blind eye (up to a point!). I often wandered along to Euston so I did see plenty of stuff, including many of the "Royal Scot" and "Coronation" classes that had come down from the North on the WCML