What train encapulates your childhood?

[UP13]

Don't get me wrong. I'd much prefer a 707, 450 or even a 458 if I actually wanted to go somewhere. But 455, the sounds, the liveries of the 1990s and vague memories of the stock at Strawberry Hill Depot (i.e. the 419 pet depots etc) take me back.

I always thought as a child that I hallucinated seeing London Underground trains and Networkers (like we saw near my Nan's) at Strawberry Hill. Only recently did I learn that that 465s were tested there and the 483s on the Isle of Wight briefly went there before going there. Very nice to know that I wasn't make it up.

Shame that Strawberry Hill is now just a driver depot - it had a rich history as an R&D site for British Rail I believe.

 

[Journeyman]

Don't get me wrong. I'd much prefer a 707, 450 or even a 458 if I actually wanted to go somewhere. But 455, the sounds, the liveries of the 1990s and vague memories of the stock at Strawberry Hill Depot (i.e. the 419 pet depots etc) take me back.

I always thought as a child that I hallucinated seeing London Underground trains and Networkers (like we saw near my Nan's) at Strawberry Hill. Only recently did I learn that that 465s were tested there and the 483s on the Isle of Wight briefly went there before going there. Very nice to know that I wasn't make it up.

Shame that Strawberry Hill is now just a driver depot - it had a rich history as an R&D site for British Rail I believe.

Yeah, I managed a fair bit of shed-bunking at Strawberry Hill in the early 80s. Best result was getting inside a 4-PEP! What I'd have given for a camera.

The place was always full of departmental vehicles and odd one-offs as well, like the spare 4-TC driving vehicle that was fitted with Mark 2 seats.

 

[R Martin]

AL6'sAnglia Railways Class 86/Mark 2 formations, along with Class 170s, going past my school.

I remember the 86's when they were AL6's. Saw my first parked at Rugby when I was a very junior engineer on the Electric Traction Section at Euston . About 1964ish maybe 1965. I met them later on the Great Eastern 50 years later. They always had a lot of dig.

 

[Neptune]

Bradford Exchange in the early 80’s when platforms 1&2 both contained HST’s. We were getting the Swansea train from platform 2 to either Bristol or Cardiff and we watched the Kings Cross train burst out of the station.

The DMU’s knocking about would be 101’s and 110’s mainly with the odd 104 or 108 and there was a guarantee to see an 03 (either 03060 or 03371) in the station with parcels stock.

Heading out of Bradford past Hammerton Street depot and glimpsing whatever was on there (the departmental class 100 along with both serviceable and condemned DMU’s and possibly the class 08 pilot).

Oh to have a time machine for just one day.

 

[Cricketer8for9]

66, 77 and 99 - all the numbers on the blinds you ever needed to worry about (99 was the one I had to avoid - the Thumpers didn't stop at Upper Warlingham!)

There was one 77 that ran fast East Croydon to Oxted. Just the one, to confuse.

 

[LRV3004]

A Merseyrail 507/508 in blue and grey, I guess. Or a bit later, lots of Sprinters and Pacers. I used to love going on a 150 as a kid because I could pretend to be the guard with the door controls

I used to watch the guards on the 150/2 units in my childhood by sitting in the seats nearest the door from the saloon to the guards area and looking through the glass! I was only 7 at the time and knew how to operate the doors on these units!!
I also used to enjoy watching the original four-leaf style doors on the 142 units as well!

 

[Matlock Man]

In Handsworth Park, Birmingham in the mid-1950s the time approaches a quarter to eleven. Boys stand on the footbridge that spans the loop line connecting the triangular junctions at Perry Barr and Soho. The boys look toward the nearby tunnel. The approaching train can be heard before it can be seen. Then the slight curve of the short tunnel allows a momentary glimpse of the leading engine as it approaches the far tunnel entrance - long enough to confirm the characteristic smoke deflectors of a Royal Scot engine. Which one will it be today? The engine emerges from the tunnel in a cloud of smoke, trailing perhaps twelve coaches which will form the late morning departure from Birmingham New Street station to Glasgow and Edinburgh. The noise increases as the train climbs the gradient and passes below the footbridge. A second attack of noise and smoke arrives from the banking engine, invariably an Ivatt class 2, either 46427 or 46492. The train is soon out of sight. Most of the boys run from the park, down the hill to the nearby parish church: just in time to form the choir at an eleven o’clock wedding ceremony. Two shillings earned.

 

[red cuillen]

Trainspotting at Cheltenham Spa station in the 70s so anything other than Peaks and Brush 4s! I would go to the bus depot lane to look at the Western in the siding that was on the Cheltenham Spa Express. Would stare up past Alstone lane crossing to try and guess what was approaching.
Would get the train to Swindon to see more hydraulics, even had a cab ride in a Warship from the London platform to, I guess, nearby sidings?
Summer holidays and we'd get a Midland rover for a week and feast on Cl 20s and 40s, go to Crewe and Derby/Nottingham/Toton. also take in Grantham to watch deltics storming in on the curve from the north. BR Blue basically I suppose!

 

[davews]

Had no clue of what types of train they were but when I was 3 or 4 in the 1950s, steam train Goxhill to New Holland. Then ogling at the engine room on the Humber Ferry. I was definitely a budding engineer...

 

[4COR]

There was one 77 that ran fast East Croydon to Oxted. Just the one, to confuse.

Used to be the 17:44 from ECR plat 6 if I remember, followed by the 17:48 stopper... (I may have succumbed to that one trick as well - referenced in other thread on "carried past destination" )

 

[Cricketer8for9]

I think it was.

 

[class321]

The class 321 encapsulates my early childhood and late teenage years

 

[scosutsut]

For me it's class 320, which I encountered in my early teens when they were more or less brand new. For that reason they always seem modern to me, even though they are fair getting on a bit now and the interiors are dated despite refurbs.

 

[Baz37]

Class 37's pulling 16t coal wagons to & from the local mine in South Wales in the 70's

 

[GW4117]

Hazy memories of the last days of the "Westerns".
Class 117s in BR blue on the locals.
47s and 50s on the expresses to the South West.
Summer motorail trains as well... All a long time ago!!

 

[SurreyCommuter]

For me it would have to be slammers (CEPs, CIGs and VEPs) wearing South West Trains' adapted NSE livery.

That's what I remember. I can remember starting secondary school in the mid 90s at the age of 11 and getting to go to school on the train. I was only just over 4ft tall when I started so leaning out the window to open the door could be an adventure. I remember travelling with my mates and holding the door open so if someone was running late they could still get the train. I can also remember the odd half day when I could get a Cl442 which stopped at my station and thinking how 'nice' they were. How times have changed.

 

[gamerouche2020]

I grew up in the late 1950's in an old tenament block which overlooked the main line half way between Waterloo & Vauxhall stations. I remember climbing up to the top landing for a panoramic view towards Waterloo & witnessing the all green suburban & Bulleid coaches hauled by Merchant Navy, West Country & Battle of Britain Pacifics among others, the 4-Cor units, the Pullman coaches & the smell of steam. Happy days which gave me a lifelong interest in all things Southern.

 

[AntoniC]

Class 502/503`s that I used to catch to get to/from school.
1978 until withdrawl , travelling from Birkdale to Blundellsands & Crosby.
They had very springy & enveloping seats !

 

[75A]

Aged 8 or 9 seeing 4 Cors (Nelsons) @ my home town - Bognor, thinking wow these have come all the way from London, which to me seemed to be a mystical place in the far distance.

 

[SouthEastBuses]

Southern Class 377
First Capital Connet Class 319

 

[asw22]

142 143 144 with the occasional 141 and "comfortable" 156
Later we got 308s following electrification of the Airedale / Wharfedale lines which although slower top speed felt quicker end to end as their multiple slam doors seemed to reduce station dwell times

Vaguely remember the smoothness of the then young intercity 225s

 

[Class360/1]

Class 360/1 down the Sunshine Coast line for me!

 

[contrex]

From a baby to age 19 I lived in a house backing on to the Herne Hill-Tulse Hill spur, and from an early age saw Southern Railway 1925 type SUBs running up and down. Occasionally Hornbys running light or pulling wagons. Later were SUBs and when I was about 7 or 8, very shiny and new looking green EPBs. In the summer were inter-regional steam trains now and then, sometimes double-headed, that might (great excitement!) slip to a stand and need a push from an EMU. Sometimes sparks from the locos would set the vegetation on the embankment alight. We went to Auntie's in Orpington from Herne Hill in those SUBs and later EPBs, also from West Norwood to Granny in Balham (SUBs). Even though we went in the summer to other Granny in Derby in ex-LMS coaches hauled by Black 5s, proper trains to me were always green and ran off a third rail. When I go to Youtube to see those 'End of Southern Steam' home movies I am waiting for the kettles to get out of the way so I can see the EMUs.

 

[DerekC]

One of my most memorable childhood trips was my first journey on a real express and I was allowed to go on my own - I was about 13. my dad took me from home (Berkhamsted) to Watford Junction and put me on board the "Irish Mail" - sadly hauled by a diesel - might have been a Class 40 but I am not sure about that! Non-stop (I think) to Crewe where I had to change - and wow! The wires were up and there was a shiny, new, blue electric loco making a lot of fan noise (I thought electric trains were quiet). EMU to Wilmslow where my uncle met me on the platform.

 

[Qwerty133]

My earliest memory of using the trains is of a Central Trains sprinter (I think 156) which was delayed leaving the origin due to a problem with the engines and eventually left extremely slowly with one working engine before completely giving up at my destination 2 stations down the line causing the adjacent level crossing to remain down for some time due to the train being stuck in the platform and the final signal before the level crossing being on the approach to the station. Another early memory during CT days was of a class 153 operating the first off peak service between Leicester and Birmingham during half term week with passengers ending up crowding in the toilets, several children sitting on the floor underneath the luggage rack and a few more on top of the rack, and which ended up skipping stops and leaving people behind due to being at the maximum possible capacity. A couple of years later (when I would have been about 7 or 8) the services on my local line were replaced with a 170s, both units which were new to CT and those which had come across from MML with the former units having (in my opinion) a much more attractive interior and paint job which made me prefer them over the ex MML units, which they remain to this day although for at least one summer (I think 2006) there was a regular class 150 working on an early evening service which I caught on a number of occasions and thought was highly inferior to the 170s particularly in terms of the levels of engine noise heard within the train being excessive and at times loud enough to block out the mumblings of the conductor over the PA system. On occasion I would also use the longer distance Midland Mainline services which were a mixture of HSTs which I remember thinking were in need of interior refurbishment and newly introduced Meridians which were a much nicer environment to travel in thanks to the brand new seating and bright but not garish internal colour scheme (as opposed to the dull and dusty appearance of the MML HSTs) as well as being much more visually appealing thanks to the much newer front end.

 

[Bikeman78]

From a baby to age 19 I lived in a house backing on to the Herne Hill-Tulse Hill spur, and from an early age saw Southern Railway 1925 type SUBs running up and down. Occasionally Hornbys running light or pulling wagons. Later were SUBs and when I was about 7 or 8, very shiny and new looking green EPBs. In the summer were inter-regional steam trains now and then, sometimes double-headed, that might (great excitement!) slip to a stand and need a push from an EMU. Sometimes sparks from the locos would set the vegetation on the embankment alight. We went to Auntie's in Orpington from Herne Hill in those SUBs and later EPBs, also from West Norwood to Granny in Balham (SUBs). Even though we went in the summer to other Granny in Derby in ex-LMS coaches hauled by Black 5s, proper trains to me were always green and ran off a third rail. When I go to Youtube to see those 'End of Southern Steam' home movies I am waiting for the kettles to get out of the way so I can see the EMUs.

I've always liked Southern EMUs too. If you type EPB trains into Youtube there's a few decent videos including Charing Cross to London Bridge on the last service train. All four cabs were full of crew blasting the horns out of every station all the way to Dartford. Can't imagine that happening now. I travelled in 5001 for that last run. It's still one of the best send offs I've attended, probably only beaten by the Great Western HST finale.

 

[duffers2324]

For me my childhood memories of trains are Class 303's, 101's 107's and 156's, well pretty much anything that moved around in Strathclyde Red, as well as listening to the sound of the 91's as they powered in and out of Central on the every 2Hrs runs to the cross, as well as the 86's and 87's for the same reason, always thought the 91's, 86's and 87's looked so futuristic.

 

[contrex]

If you type EPB trains into Youtube there's a few decent videos.

One of my favourites was done out of a window in the front coach of a BR Standard EPB using a camcorder. Search 'Cannon Street to Ladywell by EPB 3-3-95'. Excellent motor sounds. 15 minutes of heaven!

​

 

[WesternLancer]

I grew up in the late 1950's in an old tenament block which overlooked the main line half way between Waterloo & Vauxhall stations. I remember climbing up to the top landing for a panoramic view towards Waterloo & witnessing the all green suburban & Bulleid coaches hauled by Merchant Navy, West Country & Battle of Britain Pacifics among others, the 4-Cor units, the Pullman coaches & the smell of steam. Happy days which gave me a lifelong interest in all things Southern.

That location, time machine plus airbnb....quids in

 

[Bikeman78]

One of my favourites was done out of a window in the front coach of a BR Standard EPB using a camcorder. Search 'Cannon Street to Ladywell by EPB 3-3-95'. Excellent motor sounds. 15 minutes of heaven!

​

I've watched all of the EPB videos. I like the one with the Bulleid 2EPB out of Hayes.