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Early Railway Memories
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Madge Wildfire
Member
My earliest recollections of trains are being told to look out of the window and count telegraph poles (in the days before anyone thought of bringing travel enertainment). I was amazed at the way the wires sagged to different heights between the poles some of which seemed to lean at a strange angle.
This was on the old M&GN between Bourne and Kings Lynn. Our primary school playground also had the railway running by it (as some other contributor mentioned earlier) but sadly it was only the Bourne to Sleaford line which in those days had been closed north of Billingborough and was freight only, and that was just one pick up freight a day if we were lucky.
Also, running to the bottom of my gran's garden to watch the occasional ex-LMS Flying Pig 2-6-0 with a stopping train to Spalding pass by.
The memory I couldnt quite work out as a boy was being taken to the station and there were lots of other people there, but we (or no one else that we knew) caught the train.
I realised after mentioning it to my Dad one day that he had taken me to see the last through passenger train to leave Bourne station on Feb 28th 1959.
This was on the old M&GN between Bourne and Kings Lynn. Our primary school playground also had the railway running by it (as some other contributor mentioned earlier) but sadly it was only the Bourne to Sleaford line which in those days had been closed north of Billingborough and was freight only, and that was just one pick up freight a day if we were lucky.
Also, running to the bottom of my gran's garden to watch the occasional ex-LMS Flying Pig 2-6-0 with a stopping train to Spalding pass by.
The memory I couldnt quite work out as a boy was being taken to the station and there were lots of other people there, but we (or no one else that we knew) caught the train.
I realised after mentioning it to my Dad one day that he had taken me to see the last through passenger train to leave Bourne station on Feb 28th 1959.
bus man
Member
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- 21 Oct 2010
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- 155
I can vagely remember going to London when I was about 5 and seeing Brush 4s and Peaks ( Class 46 & 47s for the whipper snappers on here).
I also remember been on a bus and seeing a double headed steam engine heading towards dore from sheffield on the Sheffield - St Pancras Line - I learnt it was a Black V double header.
I also remember been on a bus and seeing a double headed steam engine heading towards dore from sheffield on the Sheffield - St Pancras Line - I learnt it was a Black V double header.
DiscoStu
Member
Doing an overnight from Kings Cross to Edinburgh when I was about ten. Me and my old man went down to look at the 47 on the front before departure and got chatting to the driver. He told us to come back to the front of the train when we got to Peterborough and he gave us a cab ride up the ECML as far as Grantham!
Not a chance in hell of that happening these days.
Not a chance in hell of that happening these days.
Sadly not. Nor a chance of getting into the aeroplane cockpits. Used to love doing that!
Peter Mugridge
Veteran Member
Sadly not. Nor a chance of getting into the aeroplane cockpits. Used to love doing that!
Well, you can.... but only after the flight has landed and the aircraft has been shut down at the terminal. Not so much fun though is it?
I know what you mean - I used to ride in the observer's seat quite a lot.
I'd never bother going into the terminal to see a shut down plane!
As far as getting into cabs and cockpits go nowadays when there's actually something going on, Microsoft Flight Sim and Railworks will have to keep us entertained!
Wyvern
Established Member
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Reminds me of catching the budgie (Fokker Friendship) and seeing the pilot lashing about with an ARAMCO rifle (fly-swatter) in mid-air over the desert.
43106
Member
Memories...
1) My mum fell ill with something (never found out what) and I stayed at Eastham in the Wirral. I vaguely remember standing in my cot looking out the window, and there was a line outside. On occasion a Fowler 4F (or something similar - it had a tender) used to trundle along the line on a freight train.
2) I lived in Seascale (W. Cumbria) and from my bedroom window, I could JUST see the Cumbrian Coast line. I remember Princess Royals (e.g. 46201) on Workington - Euston services. I remember the distinctive trailing wheel of the loco.
3) I can remember the INSTANT I started being a train enthusiast. It was August 1962. Again, it was at Seascale and friends of the family turned up from Stourport. The son (Brian) was 4 years older than me, and he was a trainspotter. Everybody wanted to swim in the sea, but Brian went to the station and I went with him. The very first train I spotted was a Fowler (again!) 3F or 4F - 44447 to be exact.
An unrelated, but true, story (according to my Dad). In about 1956, he and I were on a train going between Bournemouth and Birkenhead. He took me to the dining car for dinner. The first thing he ordered was a pint of Bass (beer). When it arrived, he was given the menu, which he perused. Dad then looked at the waiter to make the order, but he was silently laughing like a drain. "What's so funny?" asked Dad. The waiter (still convulsed in laughter) simply nodded his head in my direction. Dad lifted the menu to reveal a little boy with beer froth on his top lip, with about a third of his pint missing. I was only about 2!!!!
1) My mum fell ill with something (never found out what) and I stayed at Eastham in the Wirral. I vaguely remember standing in my cot looking out the window, and there was a line outside. On occasion a Fowler 4F (or something similar - it had a tender) used to trundle along the line on a freight train.
2) I lived in Seascale (W. Cumbria) and from my bedroom window, I could JUST see the Cumbrian Coast line. I remember Princess Royals (e.g. 46201) on Workington - Euston services. I remember the distinctive trailing wheel of the loco.
3) I can remember the INSTANT I started being a train enthusiast. It was August 1962. Again, it was at Seascale and friends of the family turned up from Stourport. The son (Brian) was 4 years older than me, and he was a trainspotter. Everybody wanted to swim in the sea, but Brian went to the station and I went with him. The very first train I spotted was a Fowler (again!) 3F or 4F - 44447 to be exact.
An unrelated, but true, story (according to my Dad). In about 1956, he and I were on a train going between Bournemouth and Birkenhead. He took me to the dining car for dinner. The first thing he ordered was a pint of Bass (beer). When it arrived, he was given the menu, which he perused. Dad then looked at the waiter to make the order, but he was silently laughing like a drain. "What's so funny?" asked Dad. The waiter (still convulsed in laughter) simply nodded his head in my direction. Dad lifted the menu to reveal a little boy with beer froth on his top lip, with about a third of his pint missing. I was only about 2!!!!
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Sun Chariot
Established Member
SNAP! I think it was standard parental instruction. I too used to get mesmerized, as the wires dipped and lifted at speed past my eyes. As each pole whizzed past my train window, I used to try and guess if the wires would sag more or less, than they had between the previous two poles that passed by. It was very therapeutic, wasn't it!
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I was once on a car ride with my fathers sister, when I was about five. We were in the back, and she said 'count the red cars on your side of the window, and I'll count them on mine.' But as it turned out, I was on the hard shoulder side! 
Madge Wildfire
Member
Yes it was, although my fascination was more about the varying length of the poles as the line passed through cuttings and across embankments. Sometimes the poles would retreat far from the line and end up at the top of an embankment, then slowly return to a much closer position again.
I soon realised that the more important the line, the more cross members the poles had because there were more telephone wires, but in those far off days I had no idea why.
Spam Can
Member
65/66 a different "Brit" every other night for about six weeks on the 8.pm parcels out of B-pool north. (& yes one was Britannia)! Others of note included Earl Haig.
So no, your not the only one whos memory goes back to the 60's!
So no, your not the only one whos memory goes back to the 60's!
Scotrail84
Established Member
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- 5 Jul 2010
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- 2,366
Earliest memory is getting on 47/7 pushpull from HYM to go to QST with my dad for a model rail exhibition at the SECC in the 80s. 88 IIRC. Also getting on a P/P from ABD - STN probably the same year. My gran taking me to EDB HYM and princes st gardens to watch the trains when the metal latice bridges were still there (pre OHL?). Seeing all kinds of traction. 101s 117s 150s156s dont think 158s were around yet also 125s 85s 86s 87s 305s and 37s47s.
Getting into the cabs of several of the above trains. Getting to push the TRTS at wav for an hst waiting to depart and the platform staff member giving me his British Rail hat which i still have.
Being at Dunfermline Stn when visiting family, watching the local passenger trains go by also the countless number of MGRs passing on their way to/from Longannet PS. Usually double headed by 20s and 37s. Into the early 1990s 56s were most common though.
The fife line ran past the bottom of my parents house garden near saughton so i had a great time watching the trains go by between 93 and around 5 years ago when i moved. 117s (can remember seeing 9 car 117 go by,i think one was a failure and had been rescued) 150s 156s 158s 125s before GNER and Virgin liveries.Then onto boring traction nowadays like 170s.
Can remember hearing the double headed 37s comming of the Sub line at Haymarket west Jn and powering up heading to fife with HAAs and going to the window or into the garden to watch them go by. You could hear the scream of 56s from my house too when they were coming off the Sub.
Great memories for me
Getting into the cabs of several of the above trains. Getting to push the TRTS at wav for an hst waiting to depart and the platform staff member giving me his British Rail hat which i still have.
Being at Dunfermline Stn when visiting family, watching the local passenger trains go by also the countless number of MGRs passing on their way to/from Longannet PS. Usually double headed by 20s and 37s. Into the early 1990s 56s were most common though.
The fife line ran past the bottom of my parents house garden near saughton so i had a great time watching the trains go by between 93 and around 5 years ago when i moved. 117s (can remember seeing 9 car 117 go by,i think one was a failure and had been rescued) 150s 156s 158s 125s before GNER and Virgin liveries.Then onto boring traction nowadays like 170s.
Can remember hearing the double headed 37s comming of the Sub line at Haymarket west Jn and powering up heading to fife with HAAs and going to the window or into the garden to watch them go by. You could hear the scream of 56s from my house too when they were coming off the Sub.
Great memories for me
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Going spotting with my dad in the mid to late 80's and early 90's.
Travelling behind Crosscountry 47's from Bournemouth to Reading and either staying there or catching a HST to Paddington.
Slammers and 442's from Bournemouth to Waterloo.
33's attatching and detaching at Bournemouth.
73's at Bournemouth.
Regional Railways class 37's at Weymouth
Getting a cab ride in a class 50 from Tisbury to Salisbury.
Lots of different traction at Cardiff Central around 1991.
Travelling behind class 50's from Salisbury to Exeter.
Many trips to Old Oak Common, Stratford, Stonebridge Park.
Seeing 89001, class 91's and HST's at King's Cross.
Seeing 85003 (I think, remember it had a orange peel in the cab), 86's, 87's, 90's an HST's at Euston.
47's, 50's and HST's at Paddington.
Crewe diesel depot, Eastleigh and Bournemouth open day's in the late 80's and Bristol Bath Road open day around 1990. Think there was one at Cannon Street around 1990/91 which we just stumbled accross.
Prob many more but can't remember at the moment.
Travelling behind Crosscountry 47's from Bournemouth to Reading and either staying there or catching a HST to Paddington.
Slammers and 442's from Bournemouth to Waterloo.
33's attatching and detaching at Bournemouth.
73's at Bournemouth.
Regional Railways class 37's at Weymouth
Getting a cab ride in a class 50 from Tisbury to Salisbury.
Lots of different traction at Cardiff Central around 1991.
Travelling behind class 50's from Salisbury to Exeter.
Many trips to Old Oak Common, Stratford, Stonebridge Park.
Seeing 89001, class 91's and HST's at King's Cross.
Seeing 85003 (I think, remember it had a orange peel in the cab), 86's, 87's, 90's an HST's at Euston.
47's, 50's and HST's at Paddington.
Crewe diesel depot, Eastleigh and Bournemouth open day's in the late 80's and Bristol Bath Road open day around 1990. Think there was one at Cannon Street around 1990/91 which we just stumbled accross.
Prob many more but can't remember at the moment.
Just stumbled accross this site, very interesting
some memories
Watching Kestrel pass throu darlington both n-bound & s-bound in same day, on numerous occasions
Hearing Deltics, from my house, south-bound, powering down , to stop at Darlington
Seeing Deltic 9017, damaged at Darlingon platform 1 due to brake failure
3-day scottish rail rover tickets, edinburgh glasgow the lot
1 weeks 'spotting' camp ( very wet) holiday in WR, ,rem being amazed by the sounds of Westerns, Warships, & Hymeks, so unlike the Brush4's and Peak, & deltics of the ECML.
Kopping Peak 126 for my full set of Peaks, on the 8:10pm Tinsley freight
Ahh!, Good times.,, but so many years ago. :cry:
some memories
Watching Kestrel pass throu darlington both n-bound & s-bound in same day, on numerous occasions
Hearing Deltics, from my house, south-bound, powering down , to stop at Darlington
Seeing Deltic 9017, damaged at Darlingon platform 1 due to brake failure
3-day scottish rail rover tickets, edinburgh glasgow the lot
1 weeks 'spotting' camp ( very wet) holiday in WR, ,rem being amazed by the sounds of Westerns, Warships, & Hymeks, so unlike the Brush4's and Peak, & deltics of the ECML.
Kopping Peak 126 for my full set of Peaks, on the 8:10pm Tinsley freight
Ahh!, Good times.,
, but so many years ago. :cry:- Status