Early Railway Memories

[Ivo]

Traveling along the Leigh-on-Sea section of the LTS route on a Class 312, sticking my head out whilst passing along the sea wall.

Going all the time on a un-refurbished D-stock (the train I've used the most in my life)

These two sound awfully familiar (well, maybe not the head-out-of-window bit!). I have a bit of a soft spot for the D-stock, and as a result for Emma Clarke as well. (But let's not get into weird celebrity crushes and what-have-you.) Anyway, mine is probably travelling on the Swanage down the Watercress Line, and standing in its cab briefly. At least, I think it was the Swanage.

 

[Buttons]

My first firing turn to Witney (1965) with a 3700PT with driver Gordon Bennett of Oxford depot.

 

[SouthEastern-465]

My earliest memory of the railway goes back to 1998 when I was three at the time, I was standing at Waterloo East, and various 4xx 'Slammers coming and going I can remeber NSE Livery CIGs, CEPs, VEPs 'Slammers and Un-refurbished Class 365 while still on the SE division with that yellow and blue Connex SouthEastern livery, ah they were the good days.

I also remeber Grove Park EMU depot with all the 'Slammers there in there life-expired NSE livery just stabling there with the odd movement of one coming out, I also remeber seeing a Class 375 "Electrostar" in just plain white livery showing no sense of ownership.

 

[yorksrob]

The earliest I remember was a family holiday to Pontins in either Yarmouth or Lowestoft when I was about five which involved travelling by train either side of London. I can distinctly remember the journey back involved an unrefurbished CEP from Charing Cross(which I guess would have been quite rare as this was in 1982), and a 1st gen DMU of some sort North of the Thames.

Numerous journeys to visit my gran in Tonbridge - usually by VEP, and being round a schoolfriends house which backed onto the railway line for a birthday party and looking over the back fence waiting to catch a glimpse of the new trains (The "new" trains in question actually being 25 year old CEP's newly painted into Jaffa Cake livery lol).

And of course the "old" Ashford station, complete with footbridge.

 

[theblackwatch]

A Western coming to York on a railtour (D1023) - the reason I remember it is bacause it was late due to having hit a herd of cows on the way north, I'm sure that's what fascinated me the most about it! They loco parked up in the yard/sidings at York depot (which is where the FTPE depot is now), I'm pretty sure my Dad has a picture of me stood in front of the loco there.

Another memory from York, cabbing (brand new?) 56022 which was one of the locos on display in the Scarborough bays for some event. The memorable thing was the discovery of a ring for the crew to be able to heat up food in a pan!

Railtour to Toton and Derby in 1978, no platform to get off at Toton - having to use steps to alight from the train was quite exciting for a 7 year old. Equally as memorable was the 24 parked on its side!

 

[4SRKT]

Travelling by train to Heysham to get the boat to Belfast. My parents used to get us into our pyjamas under our clothes, and I remember the warm, steam heated Mk I compos, and at Heysham going up a proper gangplank to get to the boat and its cabins.

A green livered class 46 pulling into Belper station in about 1974 on the only NESW working that stopped there. This is probably my earliest railway memory.

My first trip on an HST from Paddington to Cardiff in 1977, and thinking how incredible this was. Especially crossing the lawn and seeing several of them lined up. The excitement at the internal doors that opened without having to touch them! I also remember being even more excited when my dad told me they were to be introduced on our line (ECML), but then having very mixed feelings when he added this would be the end of the deltics.

 

[Mojo]

Remember meeting my Mum coming home from work once at Aylesbury station, whilst TRM was in full swing but the old slamdoor DMUs were still in operation (so still in BR days). One sounded its horn which scared the hell out of me.

Also remember going up to Manchester from Milton Keynes once on the West Coast - don't know if Virgin or BR, but there was a broken window in one coach and the lights were all out in another. Not a very good advert!

 

[37401]

another one to add to my long list is going to the airport once with my mom, we got on a DMU (cant remember the one) and i remember getting in and the door was inbetween the seats I remember thinking how odd it was.

I also remember a trip to Felixstowe, we stayed in a caravan site right next to the train line, id stand there for ages watching them go by and counting the wagons on the back with my dad at the level crossing.

I also remember getting on the wrong train from International, we jumped on a 321 to cov by accident but it was worth it when that 87 came into the platform

 

[yorksrob]

Also remember going up to Manchester from Milton Keynes once on the West Coast - don't know if Virgin or BR, but there was a broken window in one coach and the lights were all out in another. Not a very good advert!

I was on a train from Manchester to Reading once (Mk 2's probably) and the lights were out in one coach. I was on the way back from the buffet car and it was pitch black in the carriage and the train swayed (and to be honest I was swaying a bit by this time of night) so I tried to grab a seat back to steady myself and ended up grabbing someones head instead

 

[37401]

I was on a train from Manchester to Reading once (Mk 2's probably) and the lights were out in one coach. I was on the way back from the buffet car and it was pitch black in the carriage and the train swayed (and to be honest I was swaying a bit by this time of night) so I tried to grab a seat back to steady myself and ended up grabbing someones head instead

, may have been me as I remember being in a Mk2 with no lights

 

[yorksrob]

, may have been me as I remember being in a Mk2 with no lights

Sorry mate

 

[4SRKT]

I remember being in a Mk II overnight from Edinburgh to Bristol, and although there were lights, something was wrong with the ETH. As this was February, it was quite a big problem! Luckily it was dual heat stock and a steam heat peak was waiting at Birmingham New St to take us on to Bristol, so by the time we got there we were just beginning to thaw out.

It wasn't often I was glad to see a peak, I can tell you, but this was definitely one of those times!

 

[43021HST]

On a school trip sometime we was going over a bridge in Basingstoke, that went over the railway line, and I remember seeing a class 73 pulling some cigs for scrap, I didnt know what type of trains they were then, but I told my Dad.

 

[krus_aragon]

I also remember a trip to Felixstowe, we stayed in a caravan site right next to the train line, id stand there for ages watching them go by and counting the wagons on the back with my dad at the level crossing.

When my Nan moved to an eleventh floor condominium block, my brother and I could look out the window and see freight trains of containerised goods go past in the distance: rarely less than 40 carriages, and many were 'double decker'. This was in Richmond Hill, Ontario, and were the first freight trains I ever saw.

 

[33056]

Reminds me of my Aunt who used to live right next door to the line not far from Bath Spa station. There was a shop at pavement level so the living accommodation was above and below this with the result that her lounge had a "worm's eye view" of the railway with a good selection of stuff passing (mainly hydraulics ).

Other memories include regular trips to relatives which involved going via the A48 before the Severn Bridge was open, always hoping to get stopped at the level crossing in Lydney (now on the DFR) - but we never did.

Primary school right next to a railway line - never got much done one year whilst in the classroom with a view of the line

Regular trips to Pontypridd when there were loads of coal trains, four tracks (used as well!) between Radyr and Maesmawr, the line between Walnut Tree and Aber Junctions was still in use and 9 car DMUs to Barry Island on summer Saturdays.

A trip to London (haulage sadly not recorded ) where we were playing leap-frog with a fitted freight hauled by a green class 47 on the relief lines somewhere between Reading and Acton.

 

[pinkpanther]

Being evacuated from a train at Edinburgh after it caught fire. One of the coaches was maroon, which dates me I guess!

(I was 3 at the time. My parents didn't believe me when I told them I could remember it).

 

[Rugd1022]

Earliest one I can think of.... it's December 1970, there's snow on the ground and I'm looking over the wall at the bottom of Railway Terrace in Rugby watching AC Electrics flashing past with shiny E-prefix numbers on.

Another is from a little later on.....me, Mum, Dad and my two year old sister are travelling on the Met-Line tube from Euston Square to Hammersmith to visit my Nan, we arrive at Paddington and as the carriage doors open I can hear an almighty roar coming from the mainline platforms, our tube train departs then catches up and runs parallel to a blue liveried Warship hauled express, we stop at Royal Oak and I watch the Warship blasting up the slight incline to Westbourne Park.... I've loved them ever since (and all the other hydraulics!).

Nidge ;O)

 

[LE Greys]

Rattling along between Royston and Cambridge in a DMU, or occasionally going to York to see Mallard on a yellow/blue/grey HST (big, noisy and scary - I love 'em now). I just remember 317s in blue/grey, the odd 312 appearing and the dawn of 'executive'. My first decent photo, when they let me play with an old 110 camera and put a film in it, was of a brand new 91001 arriving at Stevenage with MkIIIs and a power car. I was four, and this was the amazing new Electra. On reflection, a picture of two Railfreight grey 31s at Hitchin was just a historic.

 

[Bittern]

My earliest memory of the railways is seeing a 303 at Hamilton West and crying cause it looked scary. lol

My Grandpa used to take me to Motherwell to see the trains and my Gran and Grandpa also took me to Glasgow Central often. Once at Central, an InterCity swallow-liveried train (I can't remember if it was a 125 or a 225 nor if it was before or after Privatisation), but we were on Platform 1/2 and the driver took me into the cab and told me how to set the train up for departure (he told me what to do and I did it). I then got to watch the train leave.

He also agreed with me that buses suck.

Good times.

Not so good times;

A man jumped under a 314 at Motherwell's Platform 2 as it arrived from Lanark in Summer 1996/1997. My grandpa jumped down and saved the guy.

Coming home from Glasgow, and we just missed a train home and had to wait. Good thing as well because the train we missed was a 303 which caught fire at Blantyre. I was on the train stuck behind at Newton. I remember I was at the front of the train because the Driver came out and told us that "A train's on fire at Blantyre! We're going to arrive in Motherwell on the main line". We then crossed from the slow lines at Newton to the fast and galloped to Motherwell on the fastest 303 I'd ever been on. We thundered through Uddingston onto the WCML over the level crossing and arrived in Platform 3 at Motherwell. Buses awaited us above at the station entrace/exit.

 

[sykarost]

My memories started in 1951 when living alongside the Midland (LNWR) line between Birmingham & Rugby near Marston Green.Only steam power then & I thought it would never end, lot's of local passenger & freight but the most impressive were the named expresses mostly hauled by 'Scot's','Jubilee's' & 'Black 5's' with the odd 'Princess' or 'City' Pacific's.
The Loco carried a headboard on the smokebox & the coaches were adorned with roof boards declaring the train name & destinations.
A few I can recall were:
'The Midlander'- 'The Red Rose'- 'The Mancunian'- ' The Emerald Isle express'-
'The Ulsterman' etc.
I continued to watch them until 1962 when I became a Fireman & the only named train I ever worked was 'The Devonian' as by then the practice was dying out fast.

 

[Wyvern]

I continued to watch them until 1962 when I became a Fireman & the only named train I ever worked was 'The Devonian' as by then the practice was dying out fast.

A couple of years earlier and I might have been riding behind you.

 

[kennethw]

Going to north devon for the family holiday aboard the ACE, spotting at Oakliegh Park (near Barnet)

 

[tivoli]

Irish Mail from Euston to Holyhead in 1959, sadly cannot remember the arch. Then Cambria or Hibernia overnight to Dun Laoghaire, followed by Westland Row (as it was) to Westport. Remember on Irish train my sister and I singing to the rhythm of the train "We'll never get there, we'll never get there" "I think we will, I think we will"

 

[CallySleeperKid]

First Generation DMUs on the Hope Valley line between Sheffield and Manchester Piccadilly.
Travelling overnight from Leeds to Tenby in old 'compartment' coaches for our summer holiday, think they were pulled by class 47s but I may be wrong.
Langley Mill station opening and class 150s coming into service, I used to open and close the doors for passengers when I was an annoying little brat!

Oh the memories!

 

[Mvann]

On holiday in the isle of Wight. I remember watching one of the ex underground stock go by as we were going back to the b&b after watching a hovercraft come in. Bit strange really as the Leicester to London line ran at the back of our house. Remember the tampers when they went by more than the trains at home. (I used to call them track menders)

 

[37401]

In addition to my list, I also remember going to the airport in 2001 and on the way back getting on the wrong train and ending up on a 321 to Coventry, still can't moan as the train back was an 87, 87022 is memory serves me well (I was sitting on the floor so the number passed my head )

 

[FlyingScot]

I remember going in the cab of a class 071 Irish locomotive and being scared out again when the whistle blew. Embarasslingly, the whistle meant that it wasn't ready to go.

 

[adam123]

I have been traveling in train from my childhood period.There are a lots of memories of railway journey.

 

[Bittern]

I have been traveling in train from my childhood period.There are a lots of memories of railway journey.

The point of this thread is to tell us about your railway memories.

 

[CallySleeperKid]

The point of this thread is to tell us about your railway memories.

Superb!