Early Railway Memories

[43021HST]

What your earliest Railway memories?

I can remember when My Mum used to take me to Reading Station to watch the trains for a little while. I can disinctly remember a Great Western HST (Before FGW taking it over) pulling into Reading, I was putting my fingures in my ears because the valenta engine was to loud.

I also remember The Ladbroke Crash in the newspaper and my Mum showing me the pictures.

 

[37401]

Being on an Intercity swallow HST to Glasgow, Flying past the Lake district
Class 303 to Ayr
Seeing all kinds of classic traction at Sterling in `95
A VXC HST screaming past me at Aston station
Being in a pitch black Mk2f in 2001-03
All kinds of GNER rail crashes
Ladbrook grove disaster
Class 37`s at crewe
The Super Sprinter sprinter
Class 86`s and 87`s on Virgin West Coast
Loads of virgin machines at new street (86`s 87`s 90`s 43`s 47`s)
the introduction of vomiters and bendi-dildos
The units that we had on the cross city before 323`s
Sector livery Class 56 screaming past Preston
British Rail

A time when the railways were good

 

[EM2]

Getting smoke in my eyes at the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch.
My uncle trying demonstrate how Underground doors open if there's an obstruction by putting an orange in there as they closed. It didn't work and he got covered in bits of pulped orange!
Clacton units from Ilford to Liverpool Street.

 

[90019]

Vague memory of taking a DMU over the Forth Bridge (a 156 I think), back in the mid 90s.

Since then, errm, not a lot...
Seeing a GNER HST in Waverley in late 2007 (a couple of weeks before GNER's demise).
Going to Dalmeny on a 170 a couple of years back.

Basically nothing before then, and little since.

 

[Bigjop]

Spending a lot of the summer school holidays sat on the old sleepers in the yard opposite Wigan Springs Branch depot.Watching all the regular locos go past and never thinking about seeing one in preservation-25,40,47,81-87.

Being allowed to walk around most of the local depots after a polite please and thank you to the foreman-Longsight,Newton Heath,Wigan Springs.I even got in Tinsley once.

Crewe and Toton open days.

One of the engineers at Wigan letting me drive 40122 from the front of the shed up to Taylor Rd bridge.

50's at Dawlish.

55's at York.

Flying bananas taking over loco runs.Bad times.Now I love them.

Happy new year to all.

 

[43021HST]

Intercity HST to Glasgow, Flying past the Lake district

the introduction of vomiters and bendi-dildos


A time when the railways were good

Bendi-dildos

 

[37401]

Bendi-dildos

and ying-ying-yong-yangs

 

[Darandio]

Mid eighties at Durham station, maybe 4 years old and absolutely screaming the station down because the HST that had arrived for our journey to Newcastle was still in blue livery. Absolutely screamed the place down to get my own way, wanting the new fangled "executive" livery and despite my dad saying the next one would be exactly the same, he was wrong, I was right an we travelled to Newcastle on an HST with different paint. Happy days.

 

[37401]

Absolutely screamed the place down to get my own way,

Bet your dad was glad to get some peace and quiet till the screaming started again from the HST

 

[Darandio]

Quite possibly. The poor bloke had been working on the railways for around 34 years by then so was possibly sick of the sight of them anyway!

 

[Aictos]

Remembering how the booking office at Peterborough used to look before the GNER refurb.
The InterCity Class 91 in Swallow livery mural on the wall of the booking office where the TVMs are now.
Leeds Subway
Postal trains being loaded and unloaded at Peterborough station, couldn't see much other then the trains.
Having my ticket checked by the very happy ticket inspector who used to be based in a little red hut towards the right hand side of the doors leading onto the platforms at Peterborough where the photo booth now is.
Sprinters, unrefurb 91s and HSTs
Being shown around a cab of a DVT as a thank you from British Rail due to my quick thinking at a time when the IRA was busy bombing places
Seeing a 90 stabled in the bay at Grantham
Being told off by the guard for being cheeky when I said the driver was in charge of the train and not him, I think I was about 6 at the time
Oh yeah and these fold down seats in the unrefurbished 91s which got lost under the Mallard refurb and replaced with them awful bench seating

 

[royaloak]

1982 doing a freedom of Scotland and seeing 20s, 27, 37s and 47/7s at Glasgow Queens st, 303s and 311s at Central, going to Thurso behind a 26 that just chugged along without any real rush, still ontime everywhere though. And meeting up with a second man at Edinburgh, going to Haymarket with all the stored 20s there and driving 55019 round the back of the shed (using a 27 as a stop block )

 

[Oswyntail]

8Fs on the Fleetwood fishes - stale fish and coal smoke, a "Man's clag". Getting up to Lightfoot Lane by 6am, and being rewarded by seeing Duchess of Gloucester and Duchess of Buccleuch before anyone else turned up. Seeing Mallard on a special to Blackpool, with the lineside heaving with ordinary folk just wanting to see. Sheer joy when Britannia appeared on a Blackpool special.
And, just for the weirdos, seeing my first brush 4 in bright pink paint job.
[Am I the only one here born before the 70s?]

 

[Drsatan]

Riding on an NSE liveried 421 (4CIG) from Porchester to Portsmouth Harbour circa 1993-4 and watching two 37s and a rake of petroleum tankers go in the opposite direction (they probably originated from a now-closed oil terminal near Chichester)
Watching an NSE liveried 319 arrive at Eastleigh on bizarrely enough, a scheduled service
Traveling on a 159 from Salisbury to Paignton in 1999 and being upgraded to first class because standard class was standing room only
My first journey on a 483 (previously known as 1938 standard stock) from Ryde Pier Head to Lake in 1998.
Riding in another NSE 421 from Porchester to Southampton and eating an apple
Riding in a Regional Railways liveried 158 from Southampton Central to Romsey at the time when the current PIS screens were installed there.
Watching an IC Swallow liveried HST travel through Romsey in about 1994, presumably on an XC service diverted via the Laverstock Loop
Riding in a first class compartment of a 442 on an early morning service from Southampton Central to Waterloo in May 2000 while drinking a carton of apple juice and reading the "Mega" supplement for kids in the Times (I was about 9 at the time so don't worry)
Getting on board a Virgin West Coast service for the first (and only) time, which was an 86 plus several Mk2s

 

[Wyvern]

Derby station before it was rebuilt with the glass missing from the trainshed roof.

The bells ringing and the crash of the levers in the signal box on the centre platform

Travelling overnight from Derby to Penzance for a holiday with my aunt on a packed troop train.

 

[krus_aragon]

My early memories are all of family trips on the Great Little Trains of Wales rather than mainline, as Beeching induced my dad to drive us everywhere, even Anglesey to Chester for a day out.

The first mainline train I can remember was in December 2002 as a teenager, catching the ~0220 Bangor-Birmingham NS, and waiting for about 45 mins for our connection to London for ~0830. As it was so very dark at the time, I didn't realise BHM was so dreary until I travelled Cardiff-Derby in daylight some five years later!

 

[43021HST]

I have another one, I remember when I was about 5 standing in my Dads signal box at Farnham, watching a 4-cig go by. I then later under his instruction, pulled the signal levers. I wonder what the drivers would have said if they knew a five year old was controlling their movements.

 

[EM2]

I forgot one.
We moved to a village near Nottingham and the nearest rail line was a colliery line (what is now part of the Robin Hood Line). Anyway, whenever we'd pass the yard, the only loco we'd ever see was a 47, until one day we saw an ex-works 'funny-looking 47' and it turned out to be 56 001.

 

[CCF23]

Some of mine are : Going on slammers down to the Bluebell Railway (East Grinstead) from Victoria and seeing an going on the footplate of Stepney.

Going from Waterloo to Portsmouth on a 421 many times when going to the Isle of Wight and using the yellow fastcat catamaran, which were taken out of service in September, to Ryde Pier Head then taking a NSE liveried, later the dinosaur liveried class 483 (1938 stock).

Others include going from Waterloo to Axminster on NSE liveried 159

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)

 

[Daimler]

My earliest memory is probably looking at the Bulleid 'Q1' at the Bluebell down at Sheffield Park - I distinctly remember thinking how unattractive it was! I also remember 'Port Line' in the shed down there, and wanting it to be in steam next time we went (it never was, due to it being rather heavy on coal for the line - it's at the Swanage now, I think).

I can also remember - vaguely - going on the footplate of 'Duchess of Hamilton' at an open day somewhere, while it was in steam, and dad telling me that Dick Hardy was the man talking to people on the footplate (at the time, I had no idea who he was!).

In terms of modern traction, some years ago a Class 56 was a regular late evening train through our local station, and I remember going down there to watch it go past with my dad from time to time - a 56 seemed very exotic to me!

 

[RochdalePioneers]

My first trip out on my own - aged 11 on the train to Manchester Victoria from Smithy Bridge (a different era!). August 88 with 31s and 47s stabled in the bays and on Wall Side. 47s on TransPennines, various DMUs on the Oldham Loop, some Pacers and Sprinters that hadn't succumbed to being rubbish.

A few weeks later and out with my Dad, in a Mk1 Compo behind a 47/3 round the loop....

 

[TGVDUDE]

My first sighting of a 37 when i was probably 5, my grandad would take me after school and see the beast open up when they were clearing the coal out of the Garw Valley

 

[317666]

Having to stand up on an ex-express livery CT sprinter (can't remember if it was 156 or 158 ), Rugby when it had its overall roof, being on a VT Mk2 or Mk3 thinking that diesel trains were Mk2 and electric were Mk3! (I was about 5!), refreshment trolleys on the Cambridge - Kings X express.

 

[Vulcan]

It suprises me how young people are on here.

Some of my earliest memories are of York museum, back in the day. A dutch liveried 37 at Shipley, RES 47s running through Cardiff with parcels trains on a family holiday, the ex-SR electric units that preceeded the 333s in West Yorkshire, travelling Birmingham for some reason in a virgin XC Mk2 with a 47 at the front, and a working out of leeds in Virgin XC days with a 47 at each end for some reason.

Apparently the first time I ever went on a train was at about 6 weeks old, riding on the Abbey Light Railway. 21 years later and I drive that very same train!

 

[43021HST]

My first vist to Mid Hants was when I was four and I can remember looking up at a steam engine and thinking about how massive it looked.

 

[Waddon]

It suprises me how young people are on here.

Not me! I distinctly remember seeing a class 71 at Sutton station, so you can work out how old I must be.

Also, regularly travelling on 4 EPB's on the Sutton to Wimbledon line, back when the southern style station buildings were still standing, and seeing rusty milk tank wagons in the siding at Morden South, with old Northern Line tube stock parked in the depot beyond.

A bit later on in life, I remember taking the night sleeper to Edinburgh just before Christmas in nationalised British Rail times, having the berth to myself, and staying awake all night. Somewhere around the Scottish border it was snowing heavily and the train slowed to a crawl - the reason was an overturned DMU, which I had a panoramic view of as it had happened literally only a few feet away on the other line. Good times!

 

[Vulcan]

well, some people then.

 

[37401]

another bit to add to my list is when I went to my nans seeing 58`s 37`s and what not going on the bridge near the Wamley Industrial estate

 

[Wyvern]

In the fifties I had to go to London oneSunday for an exam.

I decided to treat myself to a meal in the Dining Car. The train was diverted through Manton and Corby, coming to a stand.

So there I was eating my dinner on the Harringworth Viaduct with the sun shining and the birds singing all around.

 

[321446]

Appropriately enough, considering my new career, my earliest memories are very EMU biased.

Class 307s taking me to Southend for a days shopping wiv me Mum. The slam-slam-slam-slam of the doors.

Prittlewell station 4 car platform. So if in an 8 car, you could lean out of the window & write on the wall of the bridge when it stopped & your portion of train was hanging out the back. Nothing to stop you from opening the door & jumping down on the track. But you didn't do it because it was wrong!

Class 306s - Sliding Door Train as it was known to me, on trips to relatives in Ilford.

Going to Clacton on Class 309s. Corridor coaches seemed so different! Standing looking in the middle cabs when not leaning out the window!

Class 312s. Looking over the driver's shoulder if he hadn't pulled the blinds down twixt cab & carriage. Being facinated by the way the OHL zig-zagged!

Southend Vic Coal Handling Depot with the two diesel shunters I have never seen a picture of since.

Wickford station DMUs chuntering off to Southminster in a blue haze.

Catching an excursion from Southend Central going off to Farnborough Airshow in something like 1976. Class 37 - a BIG change for me. Hanging out the window as it growled it's way round the North London Line. All very exotic for a sheltered 8 year old!

Tube trains with the guard's door controls in the carriage. Sectioned off behind a single bar across the aisle. Being facinated by the big black buttons & what I now know as the blue interlock light. But it seemed so weird and technical!

Liverpool Street before the remodling. Light and airy but still grimy. The diesel fumes from the Norwich Expresses hitting the shafts of light. The long walk round the longer platforms at the western end to get to the tube.

Ah, memories.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

I can also remember - vaguely - going on the footplate of 'Duchess of Hamilton' at an open day somewhere, while it was in steam, and dad telling me that Dick Hardy was the man talking to people on the footplate (at the time, I had no idea who he was!).QUOTE]

Would that have been at Bressingham? I've done the same thing, totally forgotten about that until now. Remember the heat radiating from the back-plate, thinking "wow, that's hot" then they opened the fire-box!!! Happy days.