What train encapulates your childhood?

[Cheshire Scot]

A green class 27 (or as they were then known Birmingham Type 2) on maroon Mark 1 coaches, supplemented a few times each year by an A4 on maroon Mark 1s.

 

[UP13]

455 and 165/166 in Network South East livery. To a lesser degree the likes of 421s and 423s in that livery.

Might not be in the spirit of the thread, but nothing make me feel more like a little boy again than the sight, sound and smell or the RHDR locomotives as we went on several holidays to Dymchurch when I was little.

 

[Kremlin Stooge]

That's a great noise isn't it

Indeed it was, though unfortunately not everyone appreciated it. My memory was jogged and recalled a journey when a droplight was partly-opened and was just within reach of the 8-year-old me, who promptly opened it to its fullest extent , whereupon my little sister burst into tears at the increased racket! I got a parental “Sit down and stop being so silly” or something like that, followed by a parental slamming of the droplight shut accompanied by a “Don’t touch it again!”

The carefree times of childhood...

 

[yorksrob]

Indeed it was, though unfortunately not everyone appreciated it. My memory was jogged and recalled a journey when a droplight was partly-opened and was just within reach of the 8-year-old me, who promptly opened it to its fullest extent , whereupon my little sister burst into tears at the increased racket! I got a parental “Sit down and stop being so silly” or something like that, followed by a parental slamming of the droplight shut accompanied by a “Don’t touch it again!”

The carefree times of childhood...

Your sister was a young proponent of electrification perhaps !

 

[Peter C]

For me, it's the HST; particularly in FGW 'Dynamic Lines'. I remember going to Oxford and London on them and always had a good time - I was genuinely a bit sad when they left the GWML and other routes.

-Peter

 

[Kremlin Stooge]

Your sister was a young proponent of electrification perhaps !

Hmm.. don’t know about that, I probably hadn’t helped matters by telling her on a previous trip that the noise was roaring monsters, looking to eat us all up!

(there should be a ‘little b*gg*r’ smilie!)

 

[swt_passenger]

Local trains on the ECML between Heaton and Alnwick, they were in the transition towards 1st gen DMUs. No idea what the steam engine classes were, or the coach types.

There were also occasional trips to Tynemouth or Cullercoats on the Tyneside EMUs well before they were lost when the third rail was binned.

 

[GusB]

For me it has to be Mk1 compartment or early Mk2 stock, hauled by something powered by a Sulzer engine; 27s for local trains and 47s when we went further afield.

"Luxury" was the Mk2 aircon stock on the Clansma and, slightly later, Scotrail express push-pull services.

 

[D6130]

Very early childhood memories of a trip from Helensburgh Central to Dumbarton Central in a filthy non-corridor coach with half the seat cushions missing behind a clapped-out ex-LNER class V1 2-6-2 tank loco (during the 1961 "Blue Train" hiatus)......then a few years later, Saturday morning "Blue Train" trips from Helensburgh Central to Glasgow Queen Street on the 08 29 "Express" (non-stop Craigendoran to Charing Cross); sitting behind the driver and hoping to see the two-tone green North British class 29 on the morning Glasgow-Oban train before we dived down onto the Yoker line at Dalmuir Park. (Extra thrill if it turned out to be my favourite....D6130. That would have become 29 011 under TOPS renumbering, but sadly it wasn't to be!)

 

[madjack]

Another vote for Hastings DEMUs which were the most exciting trains in Southeast London in the 70s. My little brother and I (ok, more me than him) used to call them poo-poo trains!

 

[Sad Sprinter]

For me, it's the HST; particularly in FGW 'Dynamic Lines'. I remember going to Oxford and London on them and always had a good time - I was genuinely a bit sad when they left the GWML and other routes.

-Peter

The "fag packet" livery takes me back to being 6 years old on Cardiff Central station watching the "Alphaline" train idling in the platform.

 

[Peter C]

The "fag packet" livery takes me back to being 6 years old on Cardiff Central station watching the "Alphaline" train idling in the platform.

Brilliant The HSTs are always going to be one of my favourite trains - for the liveries if nothing else!

-Peter

 

[beardedbrit]

For me, travelling from West Norwood to London Bridge in the early '50s en route to visit grandparents. I remember travelling both via Tulse Hill or going the long way round through Crystal Palace and north on the main Brighton line.

A few years later we would travel from Waterloo to Surbiton to visit family there. On the way back in the late evening there were a few steam hauled trains which stopped there - I quite often managed to persuade my parents to take one.. Splendid to be hauled by a Merchant Navy for the 12 mile trip.

And the one that I wish had encapsulated my childhood but didn't- at the beginning of 1954 we moved across London to Muswell Hill - I think I got a single trip on the Northern Heights line before it was closed later that year.

 

[Wagonshop]

Not sure of date mid to late 50's put on train at Grimsby changed at Peterbotough for Kings Cross and a blue Deltic came in , had never been on a train that went so fast. And the sound I remember the sound of real power.

 

[GB&K Joint]

Ingrained memories of frequent visits to grandfather in Newcastle.

Glasgow Queen Street to Edinburgh, Waverley was Swindon DMU later replaced by the exhilarating class 27s + mk2s, changing onto deltic + mk2s to Newcastle. When Mark 2ds came in initially I found them pesky as the windows were too high to see out properly. We were usually on the 10:00 from Edinburgh so fascinating as a child to see the clock tick onto 10:00 just as the train roared into action. Always supervised by a chap in a bowler hat.

Seems incredible now but by the time l was around 10 years old, and visiting without parents, l was delivered to the train in Edinburgh and did the journey to Newcastle on my own, being met at the platform on arrival. A phone call home to report I had arrived safely was all that was needed.

Not just the trains but on arrival in Newcastle, the tangerine signage, advertisements for Newcastle Brown, Vaux brewery, the voice in the tannoy and even the DMUs struggling on the crumbling coast line added up to the exciting feeling of traveling to an exotic land.

 

[Inversnecky]

I was a little older when I first knew about the different types of loco, but for me it was 26s, 27s and 47s, all BR blue, you’d see in the early 80s on the Aberdeen-Inverness line. MUs weren’t around at that time.

 

[PeterC]

Seems incredible now but by the time l was around 10 years old, and visiting without parents, l was delivered to the train in Edinburgh and did the journey to Newcastle on my own, being met at the platform on arrival. A phone call home to report I had arrived safely was all that was needed.

I was on a train from Paddington to Newport to stay with my cousin when I was about 11. Must have been the summer holiday between primary and secondary school. Don't remember much about the trip.

 

[R Martin]

As a schoolboy in the early 50's at Worthing Central station looking at the Pullman Car of a 6PAN unit wondering if I'd ever be rich enough to travel in one! 10 years later I did on the Brighton Belle with my new girlfriend(now wife of 55years) to visit my mother. Memories!

 

[yorksrob]

As a schoolboy in the early 50's at Worthing Central station looking at the Pullman Car of a 6PAN unit wondering if I'd ever be rich enough to travel in one! 10 years later I did on the Brighton Belle with my new girlfriend(now wife of 55years) to visit my mother. Memories!

Welcome to the forum.

I never got to travel on the PAN's, PUL's or BEL's, but miss the good old CIG's.

 

[randyrippley]

class 119 & 120 on summer weekends to Weymouth

 

[talltim]

317s on the way to school. They were being replaced by the 319s at the time but it’s the 317s that stick in my mind.
Before that, there are a few one offs, HSTs to South Wales, mk3 stock to Glasgow, something with compressors to visit my grandparents in Hampton Court/Molesey.
My local station was Hatfield until I was 7, my parents talk of being able to hear Deltics, but I don’t remember ever even seeing one. I do a have one clear memory of catching a 312 from platform 3

 

[UP13]

You mention 319s so I imagine what you took to Hampton Court where 455s.

 

[32475]

I found my old primary school exercise book from Autumn’67 and Winter ‘68. I think these pages regarding trips to the Bluebell Railway and Clapham Transport Museum say it all!!

 

[UP13]

I found my old primary school exercise book from Autumn’67 and Winter ‘68. I think these pages regarding trips to the Bluebell Railway and Clapham Transport Museum say it all!!

As a teacher, I'm impressed by your handwriting and your drawing of mallard.

How old were you?

I'm also envious of how little marking teachers did back then...

 

[32475]

As a teacher, I'm impressed by your handwriting and your drawing of mallard.

How old were you?

I'm also envious of how little marking teachers did back then...

I was 8 then and that was in the days when there was little or no curriculum to speak of. I must have bought a post card of Mallard to copy because I certainly didn’t sketch it on site. I’ve got several such exercise books and Daleks also feature quite prominently. Happy carefree days!!

 

[alexl92]

For me, it's a category - the pacers and sprinters that operated around West Yorkshire in the late-90s and early 00s.

Two types of trip stand out - New Pudsey to Halifax, usually on a 144 to visit Eureka with the family, and then doing day trips all around West Yorkshire on a mixture of traction with a friend and a reluctact parent!

 

[Inversnecky]

As a teacher, I'm impressed by your handwriting and your drawing of mallard.

How old were you?

I'm also envious of how little marking teachers did back then...

Forgot all about stars, and Good or Very Good!

 

[GRALISTAIR]

Double headed “four hundreders“ known to everyone these days as class 50s. I grew up backing onto the WCML 4 miles north of Preston and these boys took over from steam. Remember them like yesterday then the line was electrified

 

[Cheshire Scot]

Double headed “four hundreders“ known. To everyone these days as class 50s. I grew up backing onto the WCML 4 miles north of Preston and these boys took over from steam. Remember them like yesterday then the line was electrified

Although D400s /class 50s emerged just before the end of steam, for WCML express passenger work it was the older EE Type 4s later known as Class 40 which took over from steam, then some 47s then single class 50s before an accelerated timetable in 1970 required the double heading on many of the daytime expresses which would certainly have made an impression.

Although gone from the main express workings steam did linger on until the end for some reliefs and summer holiday trains, and on some freight and the famed Manchester - Heysham Boat Train and no doubt other passenger workings just as the single class 50s were taking over. You were certainly in right part of the world for the twilight years of steam, and to then soon be impressed by the double headed train roaring past.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

I do remember the 40s and 47s and steam but the double headed 50s really bring the memories back.