What are your fondest memories of the railway?

razourlight962 · 29 Jun 2017

What are your fondest memories of the railway?

For myself, it would be going up to Bo'ness and Kinneil preservation railway when I was younger and getting to ride on the cab of one of the locomotives.

RailUK Forums

swrailuser · 29 Jun 2017

Using the newspaper train from Exeter to Barnstaple with the lights out on a 110 or 101 DMU and seeing the countryside at night between naps on the wide bench seats

AJM580 · 29 Jun 2017

Summer Saturdays when almost any loco could be out. 20s to Skegness, 25s on the Cambrian and NB 31s, 37s and 47s just about anywhere

RichmondCommu · 29 Jun 2017

Bunking loco depots. Old Oak Common (which had a reputation for not letting people round but we would call first from the phone box and ask). Willesden, Reddish, Birkenhead Mollington Street, Barrow Hill, Westhouses and Shirebrook saw regular visits from my friends and I.

Not to mention organised visits to the likes of Toton, Tinsley, and Stratford.

And of course works open days in the 70s and early 1980s. Derby Locomotive Works, Crewe and Doncaster were all very enjoyable even so seeing all those withdrawn Deltics at Doncaster works.

Going to watch shunting take place at various locations in the East Midlands. Not much chance of copping stuff but the local rail staff were always very friendly.

Sitting by the sea wall at Teignmouth and watching trains go by in the summer in the early 1980s.

Finally and most enjoyable were visits to preserved railways with my Dad. Happily this is something that we are still able to do.

PeterC · 29 Jun 2017

1. A romantic encounter between Manchester and Pontypool Road which, I think, forum rules require me to gloss over
2. Travelling overnight from Euston to Trawsfynydd involving changes and Crew and Llandudno Junction and bus from Blaenau Ffestiniog with the morning papers travelling with us all the way, with the last bundle being dropped off the bus outside the newsagent in Traws.

RichmondCommu · 29 Jun 2017

PeterC said:
1. A romantic encounter between Manchester and Pontypool Road which, I think, forum rules require me to gloss over

I'm guessing here that you sex in the toilet. Did that several times when I was a young man

However with my experiences I can't remember much romance

Adlington · 29 Jun 2017

RichmondCommu said:
I'm guessing here that you sex in the toilet.

If you have sex in the airplane toilet you become a member of the Mile High Club. What's the rail equivalent? Mile Long Club?

RichmondCommu · 29 Jun 2017

Adlington said:
If you have sex in the airplane toilet you become a member of the Mile High Club. What's the rail equivalent? Mile Long Club?

Even given the slow pace of Waterloo suburban services I can do a bit better than a mile!

Good question though

fowler9 · 29 Jun 2017

Class 37's from Lime Street to West Allerton as a way of getting home from town.

Tio Terry · 29 Jun 2017

My fondest memory?

Being part of a family with some wonderful characters in it for the past (almost) 53 years. I have so many stories I could tell, my better half tells me I should write a book when I finally decide to retire.

LowLevel · 30 Jun 2017

It's all a rich tapestry of life for me. Each year I reflect and and try and make my experiences into something that improves me as a person - the railway is fantastic for that. Consequently I value them all, from the very good to the very sad. The high point is probably something like helping carry a world war 2 veteran's belongings to a military car at Sleaford where I was relieved of them by a fairly high ranking air force officer. Said gentleman was travelling on railway staff boxes earned when he was demobbed in 1947 to a career on the railway as a hostler for the LMS.

The saddest occurred just a few miles down the line at Heckington as I watched the remains of a 17 year old being removed from the railway after she had thrown herself under the train I was waiting for to clear the single line.

Both events made a massive impact on me as a person and a railwayman. I try to carry the lessons from everything I get involved in with me.

steevp · 30 Jun 2017

PeterC said:
1. A romantic encounter between Manchester and Pontypool Road which, I think, forum rules require me to gloss over

A gentleman never mentions a sheep's name

steevp · 30 Jun 2017

First long distance journey "up north" via Southampton to Birmingham (I know it's not up north, but at that time it was to me) and the soup slopping about from side to side in the bowl as part of a 3 course meal in the silver service dining car

Strat-tastic · 30 Jun 2017

Adlington said:
If you have sex in the airplane toilet you become a member of the Mile High Club. What's the rail equivalent? Mile Long Club?

Now that's just bragging

gordonthemoron · 30 Jun 2017

Cardiff or somewhere else in South Wales to Newcastle overnight service with my mum having visited my dad who was in the Merchant Navy, train broke down somewhere near Derby. It was probably 1964

sk688 · 30 Jun 2017

Cab ride on a 165 between Banbury and Moor Street , back in 2010 when the 165s ran all the way to Birmingham

neilmc · 30 Jun 2017

Carnforth, July 1968, just out of school for summer break. Roasting hot day. "My Name Is Jack" by Manfred Mann playing on the radio. The last 9Fs parked up in the long siding near the track going down to the sea. Metro-Vick diesel coming in from Barrow (I only ever saw three of the 20). "Oliver Cromwell" gleaming like it was going to run forever. Last look from the window of the DMU to Leeds at a grubby Black Five still in steam, knowing I would never see such a sight again.

Sad Sprinter · 30 Jun 2017

(warning-boring post privatisation memories ahead)

I think my most treasured memory is being very young, about three years old on a train to Victoria, just before Battersea Park and seeing a Eurostar turn off the Chatham Lines onto the old flyover in the distance. As a child I was obsessed with the Eurostar, and considering it might have been the first time I saw one in the flesh, I remember I hit the roof of the carriage with excitement.

30907 · 30 Jun 2017

My last BR steam run in August 1966 from Swanage to Waterloo behind 34040 (with 12 on from Wareham - the added Weymouth portion was presumably why this train remained steam). Seated in the front BSK if memory doesn't deceive.
Best visual memory of steam is of an up boat train seen from out of the church hall window at Shortlands one Sunday.

DerekC · 2 Jul 2017

The driving wheels of 60055 "Woolwinder" going round just outside the window as my N2-hauled suburban train cheekily overtook the northbound Talisman, somewhere in Gasworks or Copenhagen Tunnels. (I was about six at the time)

47403 · 3 Jul 2017

Summer Saturdays, bashing freight loco's from all over the country to various Seaside Towns or holiday resorts in Devon and Cornwall on top of local turns. Sheer heaven, NB locos everywhere, head out the windows, coming home stinking of diesel fumes.

One of my fondest memories, was the day these unexpectedly turned up on the Scarborough Newcastle Summer Saturday turn, Class 20 haulage in the North East was as rare as hens teeth.

I still remember the multitude of audible gasps, swear words and the mad dash to get a decent window from the crank fest already on board. Still remains the biggest shock I've ever had on a North East Platform, whilst out bashing.

20013 and 20047 at Newcastle Central, This is not my picture but that of a Mr Steve Curry.

Another fond memory was when the 143s got pulled out of service due to a fault and Heaton had a DMU crisis, NB and ETH 31s and 47's, NB 37s too, filling in on the Boro-Carlisle turns, my Nana and Grandad who lived in Sunderland saw a helluva lot of me and my friends, normally feeding and watering us, during the 6 weeks hols that year.

Johnnie2Sheds · 3 Jul 2017

One early Sunday morning, trying to couple a pair of class 20s to a shark van and 10 sealions. The class 20s were fitted with snow ploughs and the shark obviously had one too. The road had a slight bend and I was getting between on the pinched side. It was raining hard, dark and I was having to do all sorts of contortions to get in. Rain running down the back of my neck, trying to screw these damn locos on the train, vac bags not cooperating, driver/guard sniggering, me practicing my anglo saxon at them, all laughing, tea brewed in the cab. I wish I was there!

Railops · 3 Jul 2017

Johnnie2Sheds said:
One early Sunday morning, trying to couple a pair of class 20s to a shark van and 10 sealions. The class 20s were fitted with snow ploughs and the shark obviously had one too. The road had a slight bend and I was getting between on the pinched side. It was raining hard, dark and I was having to do all sorts of contortions to get in. Rain running down the back of my neck, trying to screw these damn locos on the train, vac bags not cooperating, driver/guard sniggering, me practicing my anglo saxon at them, all laughing, tea brewed in the cab. I wish I was there!

Brilliant, laughed at that.

alex17595 · 3 Jul 2017

Mine is taking a Central trains 158 to Uttoxeter with my Grandma. Probably my first railway memory.

DarloRich · 6 Jul 2017

As a very young child standing up in my bed, holding on to the windowsill peering out of the window at trains on the main line near our house in Durham. I was tiny and all the trains were massive blue beasts. I think they were all Deltics but they cant have been

A second one was my first train trip I can remember. I was with my dad ( and i must have been quite small) and we were going from Durham to York to see a relative. I remember this MASSIVE blue machine coming towards us (it was a deltic) making an incredible noise and then travelling really fast for what seemed like ages.

My dad died in January so it makes me both happy and sad to think about it.

DerekC · 6 Jul 2017

DarloRich said:
As a very young child standing up in my bed, holding on to the windowsill peering out of the window at trains on the main line near our house in Durham. I was tiny and all the trains were massive blue beasts. I think they were all Deltics but they cant have been

A second one was my first train trip I can remember. I was with my dad ( and i must have been quite small) and we were going from Durham to York to see a relative. I remember this MASSIVE blue machine coming towards us (it was a deltic) making an incredible noise and then travelling really fast for what seemed like ages.

My dad died in January so it makes me both happy and sad to think about it.

I know the feeling.

PS - makes me feel old when everyone else has diesels as their first railway memory!

muddythefish · 6 Jul 2017

Shed trips to Manchester, Liverpool, Crewe, Derby, Bournemouth in the steam era, coming back filthy but happy and tired and books full of hundreds of numbers.

A trip to Carlisle in 1967. Never seen a Britannia before and came back having seen 40 !!!

The line up of every Crosti boilered 9F at Speke junction, and the sadness of seeing locos in the scrapline at sheds that I'd seen working only days earlier (Ayrshire Yeomanry wherefore art thou)?

The last day of steam on the Blackburn - Hellifield line and steam hauled freights climbing up Wilpshire bank with a banker from Clitheroe.

The sheer business of the railway - freight trains every few minutes (or so it seemed) - and so much to see and do. The fascination of trips to other areas when even a trip 50 miles away seemed like another world.

The changeover to diesel and BR's early diesels which in hindsight had an allure of their own which I miss now.

In the 1980s, working shifts in London and returning to the north east from KX in coaches tacked on to the back of newspaper trains through the wilds of Lincolnshire.

It's all so boring now

fowler9 · 7 Jul 2017

86's and 87's from West Allerton to Lime Street and back when the stopping service down the Cheshire Lines was replaced by the London to Liverpool service when a bridge was being removed by the Edge Hill carriage sidings where the Pendolinos park up now. The trains went through said sidings.

Class 31's on all of the Liverpool to Manchester Victoria services for a while. Loads of none ETH ones.

56015 dropping on a cross country service when I was on a Network Northwest day ranger heading from Runcorn to Crewe, didn't have a clue it was on it till I saw it appearing over the Mersey. Loads of people got the gen and where waiting at Crewe where it was removed. Schadenfreude a plenty I am ashamed to say. Ha ha.

A pair of 20's on a service from the Wigan direction I caught at Huyton in to Lime Street.

May none ETH 37's on the Liverpool-Cardiffs.

Messing around behind 50's out of Waterloo and Paddington.

Spoons and Peaks on trans pennine services out on Lime Street.

tsr · 8 Jul 2017

I once accidentally managed to get two separate trains simultaneously given stop orders to pick me up - just me - at the same station in the middle of the night, because my staff train to work got cancelled. I think it was 13 coaches' worth in all. The look on my manager's face when I walked in, early, was quite something...

That's one way to make sure you have enough staff for the Sussex route...

Senex · 8 Jul 2017

Many really good memories! I'm no traction enthusiast, but I shall never forget Clun Castle on an Ian Allan special in May 1964 with speed sustained in the upper 90s on level track towards Bristol, or the run a year later with 2 x 37 and the XP64 train-set. Another memorable run was Union of South Africa working really hard on the Waverley route. From abroad, lunch between Basel and Paris in one of the former Mistral restaurant cars -- a real olf-fashioned French railways lunch taking up most of the journey! Or something completely different. An early-morning train from East German to West Germany and the 132 failing in open country on the main line between Stendal and Oebisfelde. A brilliantly sunny early morning, cornflowers in the adjacent fields, and just birdsong -- no road-noise or anything else. I was almost disappointed when the 120 rescue-loco turned up!

What are your fondest memories of the railway?

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