TRIVIA - Things you saw travelling on BR that you don't see today

[DarloRich]

To stop this thread: http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=151941

Getting cluttered with trivia i thought we should have a new thread about memories of travelling with BR and things we saw then that we don't see now.

I will start with one: No journey was complete without a gang of jocks seeing how much export/best they could drink between London & Scotland ( WCML seemed bad for it!) . Some of the empty can piles resembled modern art!

(BTW when i was a kid i thought you only got four types of beer: McEwans/Broon/Vaux/Exhibition)

You don't see that these days.

 

[Gareth Marston]

To stop this thread: http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=151941

Getting cluttered with trivia i thought we should have a new thread about memories of travelling with BR and things we saw then that we don't see now.

I will start with one: No journey was complete without a gang of jocks seeing how much export/best they could drink between London & Scotland ( WCML seemed bad for it!) . Some of the empty can piles resembled modern art!

(BTW when i was a kid i thought you only got four types of beer: McEwans/Broon/Vaux/Exhibition)

You don't see that these days.

Consistent Uniforms across the UK for rail staff!

 

[eastdyke]

Elephants (yes and I did see them at Ipswich)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/staticarchive/c60c6a5fbfce206f98a36a67142dd7914a7787df.jpg

 

[pdeaves]

I've mentioned previously, but the thing I remember most that we don't see any more was the hundreds and hundreds of BRUTE trolleys on all stations of any size. Related to that, parcels being lobbed into them (or from them into a guard's compartment).

 

[Moonshot]

Elephants (yes and I did see them at Ipswich)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/staticarchive/c60c6a5fbfce206f98a36a67142dd7914a7787df.jpg

Normally found today on trunk routes !!

 

[Moonshot]

Football specials - which usually ended up with the train vandalised

 

[SGS]

BGs and GUVs in sidings or in platforms, at any station of reasonable size.

 

[trainophile]

Normally found today on trunk routes !!

Blimey! I'm sat in Lime Street now. Never knew anything about that pic. Could someone please enlighten me?

 

[Cheshire Rover]

Smoking and non-smoking carriages.
Specials. There always seemed to be specials off to the coast or for holidays, even seasonal ones.

 

[BestWestern]

Excellent displays of truly obscene clag from proper locomotives?

And on a similar note, completely random loco hauled train formations cobbled together out of whatever was sitting about on the depot!

 

[TimboM]

Motorail in York (and many other places)

 

[Bletchleyite]

Parcels.

A generally muckier and more run-down environment.

Uniform hats.

 

[PaulLothian]

Coachloads of passengers in DMUs all rocking violently and simultaneously from side to side as the train negotiated pointwork (or in some cases, simply travelled along jointed track)!

 

[eastdyke]

Blimey! I'm sat in Lime Street now. Never knew anything about that pic. Could someone please enlighten me?

Circus animals were routinely moved by rail, there is a similar picture of Elephants coming out of Ipswich Station in the 1950's (scroll down to about the 9th picture).

http://www.ipswichstar.co.uk/news/d...look-like-when-it-originally-opened-1-4861329

 

[BestWestern]

Blokes in fibreglass huts on platforms collecting tickets.

Silly hats (on the staff; passenger use of said items appeared to escape the privatisation axe )

 

[Moonshot]

Parcels.

A generally muckier and more run-down environment.

Uniform hats.

This is actually lost on a lot of forum members.....some of the bigger staions years ago were dire to say the least.

 

[telstarbox]

Slam door EMUs and compartments.

 

[Mag_seven]

1. Relief Trains - often these would run on inter-city routes. They would inevitably be formed of rakes of Mark I coaches with compartments and any 1st class vehicles in the rake more often than not declassified. Classic traction (such as a "roarer" on the WCML) would often be found on these services making them a magnet for enthusiasts.

2. Trains being diverted via alternative routes during engineering works rather than just being bustituted like they are today.

 

[coupwotcoup]

Slam door EMUs and compartments.

There you go..more animals on trains....

 

[westv]

Mail bags being loaded onto empty passenger trains at London Bridge.

 

[pemma]

Non-regular ECS moves running as additional passenger services not shown in the timetables.

Trains until midnight on 24th December.

 

[ainsworth74]

2. Trains being diverted via alternative routes during engineering works rather than just being bustituted like they are today.

I must be imaging all those diverted services I've been on during engineering works...

 

[sarahj]

To stop this thread: http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=151941

Getting cluttered with trivia i thought we should have a new thread about memories of travelling with BR and things we saw then that we don't see now.

I will start with one: No journey was complete without a gang of jocks seeing how much export/best they could drink between London & Scotland ( WCML seemed bad for it!) . Some of the empty can piles resembled modern art!

(BTW when i was a kid i thought you only got four types of beer: McEwans/Broon/Vaux/Exhibition)

You don't see that these days.

Every east coast train to Scotland had to have, by law, some drunk scots guy with his can of tennants singing away, tho' it was impossible to guess the song.


Other BR memories: Queuing in the buffet car for an iffy cheeseburger. Now it's either a pannini or a odd filled sandwich from the trolley. Travellers Fare and Casey Jones. Holiday specials. Once caught a direct non stop train from Newcastle to Blackpool (went via leeds and manchester). Mk1&2 corridoor stock that were a tad dusty. Buffet was a guy in the guards van selling max pax and cans of coke and crisps. Intercty Executive tickets. Came in a wallet and held your rail ticket, reservation, 1 day travel card, food vouchers and car park pass. Main stations having a euro section where in 1989 I bough inter rail passes and made reservations for sleeper trains. (newcastle). and an odd one and not BR's fault. WH Smiths in stations having a good rail section. Lots of books.

 

[SWTCommuter]

Wicker baskets full of racing pigeons

 

[Springs Branch]

- Red and yellow signs for the Travellers Fare buffet on station platforms (red double-arrow logo inside a yellow circle IIRC)

- Nestle chocolate machines bolted to the wall which, half the time, took your money but didn't deliver a chocolate bar.

- And something you'd usually only see when passing through a ticket barrier or looking inside your wallet...... those Handiprinter tickets with the orangey-brown paper stock and purple print of varying degrees of smudginess


Handiprinter Ticket by Roger Marks, on Flickr

 

[nlogax]

A place on EMUs to put your bike that didn't block / annoy other passengers.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Fly shunting

Mixed freight trains with a brakevan on the rear

 

[Bletchleyite]

This is actually lost on a lot of forum members.....some of the bigger staions years ago were dire to say the least.

As with many things about latter-day BR, it's worth watching the Victoria Wood Great Railway Journey to see just how rough and depressing it was. In the 1990s it felt like half of it was about to be closed down. Nothing like the present-day growth franchises and the impeccable presentation of stations etc particularly by the likes of LM (even their smallest ones).

 

[Bletchleyite]

Non-regular ECS moves running as additional passenger services not shown in the timetables.

Unusual but not completely unknown these days. I've certainly seen LM do it, it caused confusion because it had Not In Service on the displays, the platform displays had "Stand clear", but the guard was standing at the back of it shouting "Wolverton and Northampton" and waving at it! I suspect he'd only just been told to run in service because of a very long gap.

 

[Bletchleyite]

1. Relief Trains - often these would run on inter-city routes. They would inevitably be formed of rakes of Mark I coaches with compartments and any 1st class vehicles in the rake more often than not declassified. Classic traction (such as a "roarer" on the WCML) would often be found on these services making them a magnet for enthusiasts.

VT operate a few reliefs, but they use Pendolinos and/or Voyagers.