Favourite Childhood Railway Memories

[Pyreneenguy]

I guess this has already been done to death, but here goes :

I was lucky, my nan was a closet railway enthusist and used to take me all over the place on RunAboutRovers.I could spend all night reminiscing. However my best memory is a local one, running along the platform with the driver of a 502 electric at Meols Cop on the Southport-Crossens shuttle when he and the guard changed ends. This must have been 1963/64. I was 5.

In 1966 my adventurous grandmother took me to Butlin's at Filey instead of the usual Pwllheli. We went from Southport to Manchester on a DMU to catch the 09.00 Saturdays only to Filey Holiday Camp, departing from Manchester Exchanges famous platform 3. I still remember my disappointment that we were not on the Trans-Pennine DMU that left a little earlier but had a "old fashioned" steam train and carriages ! The steam locomotive was changed for a diesel at Leeds ! I know the exact times as I have a copy of the London-Midland June 1965- August 1966 timetable !

I just checked, the preceeding DMU was the 08.43 ex Liverpool Lime Street Trans Penine service to Hull !

 

[Cowley]

I guess this has already been done to death, but here goes :

I was lucky, my nan was a closet railway enthusist and used to take me all over the place on RunAboutRovers.I could spend all night reminiscing. However my best memory is a local one, running along the platform with the driver of a 502 electric at Meols Cop on the Southport-Crossens shuttle when he and the guard changed ends. This must have been 1963/64. I was 5.

In 1966 my adventurous grandmother took me to Butlin's at Filey instead of the usual Pwllheli. We went from Southport to Manchester on a DMU to catch the 09.00 Saturdays only to Filey Holiday Camp, departing from Manchester Exchanges famous platform 3. I still remember my disappointment that we were not on the Trans-Pennine DMU that left a little earlier but had a "old fashioned" steam train and carriages ! The steam locomotive was changed for a diesel at Leeds ! I know the exact times as I have a copy of the London-Midland June 1965- August 1966 timetable !

I just checked, the preceeding DMU was the 08.43 ex Liverpool Lime Street Trans Penine service to Hull !

You were lucky to experience such things Pyreneenguy, I wish I'd experienced steam... My earliest memories are of trains in Cornwall, my father has always been interested in railways and he passed that on to me. We still spend time reminiscing about things we've seen and I love hearing about his memories.
Maybe this has been done before but it's always fun to have a bit of nostalgia.
I don't remember much from before about 1978, but I can still picture blue Peaks and 50s at Redruth and also our moving to Cornwall in about 1977/78 - going along the sea wall near Dawlish as waves broke over the train and the passengers in the carriage gasped.
We were in a (fairly new) HST on our move to Cornwall, the furniture was going by removals van and we had our two cats in baskets on the table between us. They were meowing constantly for the entire journey from Reading. I was about 5.
Another vivid memory from back then is of us waiting at a foot crossing near Scorrier when a 50 came thundering around the corner and blasted its horn. It made me jump and burst into tears.
I also remember sitting in the tunnels outside New Street in mk1 open stock with no lights on, probably on our way to Nottingham from Cornwall. There were no lights in the carriage, just the glow of my Dads cigarette in the darkness. Different times eh?

 

[RichmondCommu]

A visit to the Woodhead route when I was aged 10 in the summer of 1976.

 

[Flying Phil]

Being a "bit" older I can remember steam and a visit to Leicester London Road Station (Yes - there were two others then!)...anyway we went across the tracks by the footbridge and down to the platform on the staircase. The train was in the platform with the engine - very big, black and dirty, hissing just by the stairs. As we went by it, the safety valves suddenly lifted! I was about five years old and petrified......Still love steam though.

 

[Scouseinmanc]

Liverpool Street station in the early 80's, before redevelopment.
A cathedral of sorts, with the old tea room on stilts & the iron lattice bridges going in every direction. Oh & the old flapper destinations board.
Then onto the train to Southend Victoria, to stay at my grandmas for a weeks holiday.
Happy days!!

 

[GusB]

Most childhood holidays involved visiting grandparents in the Glasgow area, which meant travelling from Elgin and either changing in Inverness or Aberdeen. Haulage on the first leg would have been class 27 and although I can't remember seeing them, I certainly remember hearing them. I preferred the Inverness route because there was always plenty to see at the depot, and it usually meant getting on the Clansman for the second leg of the journey. I wouldn't have known how to explain the difference then, but I definitely had a preference for aircon stock! Going via Aberdeen usually meant an extra journey out to Coatbridge on the "Blue Train".

We would normally have packed sandwiches for the journey, but we'd get crisps and drinks from the "proper" buffet car. It was a rare treat to get a can of Pepsi, and I remember the enormous packs of Golden Wonder. I also remember the Max-Pax tea and coffee and my dad grumbling that he couldn't wait to get a decent cup of tea at the other end!

We were in a (fairly new) HST on our move to Cornwall, the furniture was going by removals van and we had our two cats in baskets on the table between us. They were meowing constantly for the entire journey from Reading. I was about 5.

I'd completely forgotten about the cat! We had a wicker basket that we used to carry Sooty with us. Normally she would sit with us on one of the seats, but occasionally she would have to go on the luggage rack.

In later years the Clansman no longer stopped at Coatbridge Central, so we mainly went via Aberdeen. This would have been round about the time when the Scotrail Express services were introduced. (Dad, why is the loco at the back?)

Happy days!

 

[exile]

Waiting at Forres for a train to Aviemore..... must have been 1965 or earlier!

 

[oldman]

Age about 10 in the late 1950s, being thrown from side to side (and slightly scared) in the vestibule of the front coach of the morning up FW train (black 5) clattering down from Arrochar to Craigendoran. Then back on the push-and-pull (67460).

For this wee trip we got the MacBrayne's bus (a Maudsley) about 7am and got home around 9pm.

 

[Signalmans Eye]

My dad carrying me shoulder high at night and a train passing class 5 with express glare from firebox highlighting the driver and fireman and the glare dancing in the steam as it roared past.Late 50s sight of LNWR Super Ds at speed with freight trains,rockin n' rollin what a sight and sound.
Early memories of diesels in the steam age WCML 10000/1 10201/02/03 mid 50s,Prototype DELTIC arriving Lpool lime st 1957 , of course these sightings did us spotters out of Duchess or Princess Royal., sight of first Deltic passing through Eccles D9001 and taking a trial dip in water troughs Feb 61.
Higham ferrers-Wellingborough instead of the usual Ivatt tank Push Pull set a DMU of the early 50s did trials mid 50s I guess my first trip on a DMU cant recall type I know it was an odd set.

 

[brstd4260]

Watching trains at Worcester Shed from Railway walk, in about 1965, seeing from what I recall, some Black 5's, assorted Halls, Prairies and a couple of Jinty's.

Or earlier (around about 1959/60) travelling in the guards van (in my push chair), from Bush Hill Park to Enfield on the Enfield-Liverpool Street line behind an N7, and later, I'm guessing about 1966 seeing the last steam train, some sort of excursion, leaving Enfield Town, behind an unidentified tender engine.

 

[Mr Fizz]

Days during school holidays when me and a friend would spend hours sitting on his grandad's shed roof to watch the freight traffic on the old South Staffs line through Wednesbury. Early 80's. I was gutted when his grandad moved house!

 

[AlterEgo]

My earliest memory of the railway is being on a A-stock Met train to see my newborn sister in 1989. I'd have been nearly three at the time.

 

[Spartacus]

Going to my Auntie and Uncle's on the edge of South Milford and crossing the field at the end of their garden to watch the locos passing and shunting at Milford Jn: learned about a year ago they never realised I was wandering off! lol

 

[JBuchananGB]

Here I am in 1964 at Heathfield and Cross-in-Hand station on the "Cuckoo" line with my three sisters.

 

[AndrewE]

Apart from steam still running "under the wires" and under the temporary scaffolding footbridge at Tring when it was being electrified, I remember the steam-hauled down Torbay Express having to draw up at Castle Cary (I think it was) because of the train length, possibly double-headed from Paddington.

 

[Cowley]

Lots of interesting steam memories on here. I'd have loved to have experienced that era.

 

[Pyreneenguy]

Lots of interesting steam memories on here. I'd have loved to have experienced that era.

Sadly I was a little too young to fully appreciate the end of steam. Although steam had disappeared from Southport I often saw them, right up to the end, at Liverpool Exchange.

I lived right next to a station on the electrified Liverpool Exchange to Southport line but even this saw regular steam workings in the form of a daily coal train and the twice daily Southport- London Euston through carriages ( attached at Edge Hill to the liverpool Lime Street- Euston express). I knew the times of these and would be waiting at the bottom of the garden to see them pass. The through carriages ended in 1965 and were replaced by a more frequent DMU to Liverpool Lime Street. I think the last coal trains ran in 1967.

 

[47271]

I think that I've posted this before, but from what I overheard at the time I believe that I accidentally travelled on the very first HST to use the Aberdeen-Inverness line, the northbound Chieftain on a Sunday diversion in May 1984.

That, and being on a broken down Waverley-Queen Street push pull at Newbridge in the same era. 'This is due to a fault in the locomotive' is the first railway phrase I learned.

 

[Strathclyder]

Being a late 90s-born 'Millennial', my railway memories are all relatively recent (circa 2001/2002 onward), but what the hey...

One of my fondest railway memories was catching a Class 303 from Balloch to Singer after a day out on Lomond Shores in 2001/2002. The one thing that sticks out now more than anything else (nearly 17 years later!) is the tatty Strathclyde Red/Black livery the unit was carrying. The current 'Saltire' livery, as good and effective as it is, just doesn't resonate with me on the level the old Strathclyde liveries did. Perhaps it's just a nostalgia thing, I dunno lol