Strangest Places you have come across trains

[306024]

There's a gift shop in Old Leigh that has a withdrawn car from the Southend Pier Railway that's used as a store room. Not sure what you do with that piece of information though

 

[Class 170101]

Just watch Chris Tarrant's Extreme Railway journeys

 

[randyrippley]

Strangest sight I've seen was when Dr Beet moved his foreign locos out of Carnforth by road
Because of the loco size and the angles of the road junctions they could only be got onto the M6 at junction 33 - which meant a slow journey through Lancaster. Not every day you see what was locally known as "Hitler's engine" being hauled through the city. The French loco had to go the same way as well. For anyone confused by this, the link from J35 to Kellet Rd hadn't been built, and the locos had to be hauled wrong way up one-way Haws Hill in Carnforth as the crossroads in Carnforth were too tight. The angle on the J34 southbound slip from Caton Rd was also too tight.

Anyone know where those two giants are - did they get repatriated?

 

[Cowley]

I just remembered this one.
Not my photo, but I remember driving past this a couple of times in 1992.
50019 on a truck that broke down in Exeter. It was stuck there for a couple of days from what I recall.



They’ll never tow it back up the hill with that Maestro...

 

[Steve Harris]

Didn't Wicksteed Park have a Pannier tank in the middle of it years ago?
Not the little train that currently runs.

Dunno if it was a pannier (not into steam) but deffo had a kettle of some sort there.

Seen quite a few loco's on low loaders parked up near the M6 / A500 roundabout on there way to or from Crewe (at a guess). 08 and 37 spring to mind.

 

[Fireless]

Anyone know where those two giants are - did they get repatriated?

The german pacific (012 104) was repatriated and is approaching its return to service.
The french pacific also ended up in Germany but as a static exhibit at the Bahnpark Augsburg.

 

[TRAX]

My dreams.

 

[zuriblue]

Not really that strange - but running down the street in Palma. It was of course the Ferrocarril de Sóller, but it was the first street-running train I had seen and I wasn't expecting it!

Similarly the first time I went to Chur I was walking through the City Centre and was passed by the Arosa train. I’d never seen a street running railway before and it came as a bit of a surprise.

 

[hexagon789]

Similarly the first time I went to Chur I was walking through the City Centre and was passed by the Arosa train. I’d never seen a street running railway before and it came as a bit of a surprise.

The Abula line at a guess?

 

[TRAX]

The Arosa line and the Albula line are two different lines.

 

[johnnychips]

Hasn’t someone got a class 50 cab in their front garden?

 

[ANDREW_D_WEBB]

There used to be a Deltic cab in a front garden in the Cholsey area.

Once came across some LT1962 heading along the M3 for scrapping at Eastleigh

 

[Yindee8191]

I was once driving up the M5 just South of Bristol and saw a Mark 3 in GWR livery on the back of a flatbed truck. Honestly, I was more surprised to see it in GWR livery than to be going down the M5

 

[bnsf734]

Seeing the 2 ex London Underground coaches on the channel island of Alderney.

 

[eastwestdivide]

An old Austrian railbus as a derelict dining room in the back garden of Cafe Edelweiss in Semmering village, about 300 feet above rail level at the station. With 'Speisewaggon' (dining car) in the window:

 

[61653 HTAFC]

An old steam locomotive stuffed and mounted on a quayside somewhere on Crete: an island which as far as I'm aware never had any railways.

 

[STEVIEBOY1]

Similarly the first time I went to Chur I was walking through the City Centre and was passed by the Arosa train. I’d never seen a street running railway before and it came as a bit of a surprise.

That also happens when you go on the Swiss trains as they are getting near Tirano adn I think outside Brig Main station too.

 

[trebor79]

There's a MK1 in the garden of a house at Sutton Bridge, near the green hydraulic accumulator tower. You can only get a glimpse of it in winter when there are no leaves on the trees, but even then it's difficult to spot. Looks to be in good nick.

 

[Dr_Paul]

There used to be a couple of goods wagons by the maltings in Oulton Broad, marooned after the connection was removed to the Lowestoft to Norwich line.

 

[vidal]

There used to be one of the old MSC shunters at Winfields Outdoor shop in Haslingden.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/rossendalewadey/24932134556

James

 

[gtis]

I remember seeing a class 47 in a farmers field at the side of the A1 south of scotch corner
Neil

 

[Higginsafcb]

I was out for a walk near Bodfari in Denbighshire when I came across a DMU that looked pretty much abandoned & forgotten. Turns out there is some slow progress bringing back to life.

http://preserved.railcar.co.uk/56160.html

 

[Harbornite]

Probably seeing an old green diesel shunter called "the flying scrapman" which is the gate guardian for a scrapyard (surprise surprise) in Northern Birmingham.

 

[DaveTM]

A tank engine steam locomotive on a low loader stopped on the hard shoulder of the M3 with a couple of police cars and a somewhat dented car. Funny thing was it was in Thomas the Tank Engine garb, with a 2m high smiling grey face facing backwards down the motorway and the car appeared to have run into the back of it. "It came out of nowhere officer. I never saw it".

 

[johnr57]

I remember seeing a class 47 in a farmers field at the side of the A1 south of scotch corner
Neil

same place had until the A1 re alignment a few years ago a handful of tatty coaches

 

[GW43125]

Best I can manage is a withdrawn D stock carriage on the M25.

 

[gtis]

same place had until the A1 re alignment a few years ago a handful of tatty coaches

Hi yes before the A1 re alignment
Do you know what happened to them
Neil

 

[alexl92]

Old MSC (Manchester ship canal company) loco on the A57 in Cadishead, used to be in a local park until relocated to a more historically acturate location. These ran all the way into the Manchester / Salford docks along the canal.

Steam or diesel? What happened to it?

Not really that strange - but running down the street in Palma. It was of course the Ferrocarril de Sóller, but it was the first street-running train I had seen and I wasn't expecting it!

We travelled on this - there's two types, the longer distance ones that go across the island and the local ones that run through the streets. I knew about the long distance onces but didn't realise the tracks through the streets were still used on regular services until I nearly got myself squished!

 

[sprinterguy]

Hi yes before the A1 re alignment
Do you know what happened to them
Neil

The class 47 that was stored there, on the site of Sinderby station, 47540, was moved to the Wensleydale Railway in 2009 but was subsequently stripped of parts and scrapped by T.J. Thomson's at Stockton in 2016. The carriages were relocated to Dalton airfield, near Thirsk, but I think have mostly been scrapped since then.

Personally, I was most surprised to encounter a Pullman carriage in use as holiday accommodation at the Little Mill Inn (pictured below), tucked away in the tiny Peak District village of Rowarth. The vehicle is in fact a Driving Motor Brake Parlour Third from the Brighton Belle, Car no.89 formerly of set 2051, and has been there for over forty years.

With regard to Pullman cars in unusual places, there were also for many years three Pullman cars, "Rosalind", "Padua" and "Sapphire" formerly used as part of the London - Dover Orient Express, on the seafront at Seaburn in Sunderland as part of the Pullman Lodge Hotel. They were removed in 2017 shortly before the complex was demolished, having been bought by the Folkstone Harbour Company and currently undergoing restoration at Barrow Hill prior to moving to Kent.

There was also a mark 1 carriage on the site, and just up the road you can still find two mark 1s and a BR suburban vehicle (Which houses the kitchen) on the seafront at South Shields, incorporated into the fabric of "The Rattler" bar. They've carried a range of liveries over the years, including a striking giraffe inspired scheme during the late nineties!

 

[Howardh]

Seeing the 2 ex London Underground coaches on the channel island of Alderney.

That's on my to-do list when I finally get health insurance for the CI's! Probably next year now, let's hope they are still running!!