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

[Clip]

That beautiful blue star when you crossed the tyne back into the homeland :cry::cry:

 

[Hornet]

I saw a great video of early BR days where track work was being undertaken. Workers wore wellies, overcoats and flat caps, supervisors a brimmed hat and managers a suit and bowler hat. Not a high viz in sight!

The only safety equipment I had when on the track, as an S&T Tech in the 70's was BR issue blue overalls, BR issue donkey jacket, (if cold), BR issue trawlerman type bright yellow sou'wester and trousers (if wet, although the amount you sweated off in them meant that you would be drier not wearing them at all. I never wore them), a hi-vis vest (often covered in oil and grease, and with a propensity to fade after a while), and steel toecap boots, (plus look out mans card). I indeed wore a flat cap when out on the track.

 

[Taunton]

Being able to rock up at a station and (in 30 seconds) buy a cheap ticket, valid on just about any long distance service apart from before 0930 Mon-Fri, and just go on the next train. Is it sunny? Are the kids looked after? Right, let's go.

I still can't see the purpose of near-Metro frequency long distance services where for any reasonable fare you have to nominate a specific train, even a specific, confounded, face-wrong-way no window seat. Board the previous or the subsequent one, all of which have plenty of room, and you are asked to pay a huge fare all over again.

Yes I think sliding door stock always had high speed compressors, not those slow trundling ones fitted to the majority of slammers

The Wirral 1938/56 units certainly had the good old thump-thump-thump reciprocating compressors. Press the button to open just one door when standing at say West Kirby terminus and the pressure would fall just sufficiently to start it.

 

[Hellzapoppin]

The only safety equipment I had when on the track, as an S&T Tech in the 70's was BR issue blue overalls, BR issue donkey jacket, (if cold), BR issue trawlerman type bright yellow sou'wester and trousers (if wet, although the amount you sweated off in them meant that you would be drier not wearing them at all. I never wore them), a hi-vis vest (often covered in oil and grease, and with a propensity to fade after a while), and steel toecap boots, (plus look out mans card). I indeed wore a flat cap when out on the track.

The boots were a fiver and that came out of your wages. We had a pay card which we presented to the pay clerk every Thursday and they would hand over your weeks earnings. I think it was every 7 years that we were issued with either a P jacket or a long overcoat, far too nice to wear at work so you changed the buttons and wore them as civvies.
Going into the stores and asking for 2ba nuts and washers (it's an S&T thing) being asked how many you wanted and the storeman would count them out. No more and no less.

 

[Cowley]

The boots were a fiver and that came out of your wages. We had a pay card which we presented to the pay clerk every Thursday and they would hand over your weeks earnings. I think it was every 7 years that we were issued with either a P jacket or a long overcoat, far too nice to wear at work so you changed the buttons and wore them as civvies.
Going into the stores and asking for 2ba nuts and washers (it's an S&T thing) being asked how many you wanted and the storeman would count them out. No more and no less.

There always seemed to be huge stacks of wooden sleepered track sitting around in the late 70s/early 80s from various track rationing schemes.
I thought it was interesting when I was little and didn't understand why.

 

[AY1975]

Anybody fancy an ale, 1979 style (see attached)?

Can you scan the other side as well, so we can see how many (if any) of those station buffets (or comparable establishments at the same stations) still exist today?

 

[westv]

Is it still the "age of the train"?

 

[pitdiver]

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.

I can remember an occasion when I turned up at Milton Keynes Central to catch a train to work. Unfortunately it was running ECS. I asked the Driver when the next one was. His reply was as I was in LUL uniform. " Have you got a union card". I was still a Booking Clerk so I was member of the TSSA. So I said yes. His response was jump in and you can ride in the cab with me until we get to Euston approach. It was quite an experience on the front of a 321.

 

[AY1975]

BR-appointed travel agents - you used to see them in towns and cities all over Britain, with the BR double-arrow logo in the window. I remember in the late 1980s and early '90s seeing people with rail tickets that were in a little booklet with a pale grey cover bearing the InterCity Swallow logo, and I suspect that they had been issued at these outlets.

They weren't dedicated BR ticket outlets as such - they also offered coach and air tickets, package holidays, and everything else that you can usually get from a travel agent, but they had an agreement with BR to sell rail tickets.

Not sure if rail-appointed travel agents still exist today - if they do, I suspect that they are very few and far between. They were probably killed off both by rail privatisation and by the internet.

 

[xotGD]

Enthusiasts taking rubbings of nameplates.

You would always see a couple of folk with rolls of wallpaper sticking out of their bag down the end of the platform.

I remember someone once fudging a rubbing of 'Hood' from the nameplate of 'Robin Hood'.

 

[AndrewE]

I can remember an occasion when I turned up at Milton Keynes Central to catch a train to work. Unfortunately it was running ECS. I asked the Driver when the next one was. His reply was as I was in LUL uniform. " Have you got a union card". I was still a Booking Clerk so I was member of the TSSA. So I said yes. His response was jump in and you can ride in the cab with me until we get to Euston approach. It was quite an experience on the front of a 321.

I remember when I was a booking-on clerk and being stuck at New St at about 3am after disruption of some sort during a long day out. I recognised a secondman from "my depot" and he offered me and a friend a lift home... in the back cab of a class 47 on a parcels train. Half-way down the Lickey the brakes were slammed on and I can still picture the fountain of fire streaming past the cab windows! He asked me later whether I had heard the detonators marking the unprotected facing crossover at Bromsgove. I hadn't, but the brakes certainly woke me up!

 

[AndrewE]

Those little electric tractor units pulling a great big rake of BRUTEs around the platforms, they'd go down the platform ramp, over the barrow crossing, up another platform ramp, around a corner and snake past any obstacle in their path perfectly even with the whole thing rattling along in an S shape.

BRUTEs were a menace when you had made a sleeper trip to Euston and they thundered past your coach parked in platform 16 - just to ensure that you couldn't rest until a sensible time to get up! Trains of Post Office trolleys were different altogether, quiet and civilised!

 

[Mag_seven]

Casey Jones burgers - BR's own in house burger joint at stations. The "Great Casey with Cheese" was a burger to die for (more often than not it did kill you due to its massive content of fat and grease!)

 

[BestWestern]

Purple, wall-mounted Cadbury's vending machines. Straying probably into early privatisation territory here as well, but they were far nicer than the awful 'Selecta' bohemoths we've got now!

 

[Cowley]

Enthusiasts taking rubbings of nameplates.

You would always see a couple of folk with rolls of wallpaper sticking out of their bag down the end of the platform.

I remember someone once fudging a rubbing of 'Hood' from the nameplate of 'Robin Hood'.

I remember people taking rubbings of the original western region named 47s like 'ORION', on rolls of the old (computer?) paper which was bluey-green and had all the holes up the side. Probably nicked from school...

 

[Poolie]

To quote from my loco log book.......On the 23/03/1963 I went on a shed tour. In 9 hours we did 6 sheds. Kings Cross, Nine Elms, Stuarts Lane, Willesden, Old Oak Common and Cricklewood.......I've got the numbers. The variety is mind boggling and I was 8 years old!!!

 

[Marklund]

The boots were a fiver and that came out of your wages. We had a pay card which we presented to the pay clerk every Thursday and they would hand over your weeks earnings. I think it was every 7 years that we were issued with either a P jacket or a long overcoat, far too nice to wear at work so you changed the buttons and wore them as civvies.
Going into the stores and asking for 2ba nuts and washers (it's an S&T thing) being asked how many you wanted and the storeman would count them out. No more and no less.

Both yours and Hornet's post. Bang on!
The holes you got in your overalls from moving about old accumulators, only appearing after you'd washed them.

Had a few of the hi-viz flat caps from the early 90s too.

 

[Cowley]

BRUTEs were a menace when you had made a sleeper trip to Euston and they thundered past your coach parked in platform 16 - just to ensure that you couldn't rest until a sensible time to get up! Trains of Post Office trolleys were different altogether, quiet and civilised!

Yes definitely, we had the post office ones too but I think they had pneumatic tyres and like you say were a lot quieter. God they looked like fun to drive around.
I know it's already been mentioned, but those BRUTEs were just perfect for a couple of young lads to sit in, eating crisps and wondering what locomotive was going to turn up next on a sunny Saturday lunchtime.
A pair of 31s? A Peak? Who knows.
Other things I remember are the two holiday trains that ran non stop through St David's on summer Saturdays in 1987. I can't remember where they were from but it was strange seeing a non stop passenger train through St David's.

Stepping into a loco hauled train and watching with anticipation as the whistling for the train leaving stopped, then Bill on platform 4 pulling the lever that lit up the 'RA' under the green signal, the driver sounding his horn and opening up the power handle for a burst of power to get the train underway. All watched from a droplight window right behind the engine (no scrum to get it and nothing to record the moment on either). Once he gets the train moving beyond the greasy section at the end of the platform he gives it the lot, and this was happening many times an hour with twelve coach trains on Saturdays in summer, as well as the HSTs with original noisy engines and smokey old DMUs everywhere.

 

[Bevan Price]

A few first thoughts:

1. Long journeys where I only saw steam locos.
2. Non-corridor compartment stock
3. Freight trains at least daily on almost every line.
4. Shed passes obtained easily from area (or district) manager office.
5. Staff and proper waiting room on every staffed station.
6. Free - but often "basic" gents urinal on almost every station.
7. No peak hour ticket restrictions in many areas outside London.
8. Horse-hair seat filling that made your skin itch (in the days before getting long trousers)

 

[Cowley]

To quote from my loco log book.......On the 23/03/1963 I went on a shed tour. In 9 hours we did 6 sheds. Kings Cross, Nine Elms, Stuarts Lane, Willesden, Old Oak Common and Cricklewood.......I've got the numbers. The variety is mind boggling and I was 8 years old!!!

I was looking through a friend's books from that era recently and I just couldn't get my head around how many thousands of locomotives there were back then and how many he'd actually seen (about 80 percent, he was quite prolific).
I think he said that there were about 8000 locos when he started.
There were nothing like that amount of diesel and electric locos when I started in the 80s, would there have even been 2000 in 1986 I wonder?
Still a lot compared to now though I guess.

 

[Hellzapoppin]

Telegraph poles and Stop orders, although stop orders had just about finished when I joined.
I remember buying 8 way pole arms which we had in the stores and using them as garden fencing, not sure how much they cost but they were classed as firewood which you were allowed to buy.

 

[Ash Bridge]

Other things I remember are the two holiday trains that ran non stop through St David's on summer Saturdays in 1987. I can't remember where they were from but it was a bit strange seeing a non stop passenger train through St Davids.

I remember there was a HST from Manchester to Newquay on summer Sats. around this time, picking up at Stockport & all the the usual places down to Birmingham, after this it ran non stop to Bristol TM then to Plymouth possibly only calling at Newton Abbot? it also skipped a few on the Cornish mainline also, it would be interesting to compare its journey time to today's 07:07 XC Voyager equivalent.

 

[BestWestern]

Telegraph poles and Stop orders, although stop orders had just about finished when I joined.
I remember buying 8 way pole arms which we had in the stores and using them as garden fencing, not sure how much they cost but they were classed as firewood which you were allowed to buy.

Stop Orders are definitely still a thing!

 

[Taunton]

I was looking through a friend's books from that era recently and I just couldn't get my head around how many thousands of locomotives there were back then and how many he'd actually seen (about 80 percent, he was quite prolific).
I think he said that there were about 8000 locos when he started.
There were nothing like that amount of diesel and electric locos when I started in the 80s, would there have even been 2000 in 1986 I wonder?

Even more. There were just about 20,000 BR locomotives in 1950, not counting any of the electric multiple units.

 

[Taunton]

wondering what locomotive was going to turn up next on a sunny Saturday lunchtime.
A pair of 31s? A Peak? Who knows.
Other things I remember are the two holiday trains that ran non stop through St David's on summer Saturdays in 1987. I can't remember where they were from but it was strange seeing a non stop passenger train through St David's.

Up the line from you at Taunton, and somewhat earlier, we too were wondering what oddballs might turn up on summer Saturdays.

In steam days, a Southern Class N 2-6-0 coming in from Yeovil, then continuing, so no turning needed, to Barnstaple, whereupon the Southern got it back.

Into diesel days, and by early afternoon the foreman at Laira might be down to the dregs, before the day's inbound locos were available (and given the limited fuel tanks on the hydraulics, they would generally need to go on depot for refuelling before a return trip). Two D63xx in multiple on a Bristol direction express was a sign that the bottom had been reached.

For nonstops, Taunton on those Saturdays moved on from a couple a day to loads of them. The greatest spectacle, just happened once, was to have FOUR nonstops come through the station absolutely simultaneously, two each way. Three Hymeks and a Warship. All had eased down to about 30-40mph on approach, and applied power as they came through. The noise was tremendous.

If it was a hot day the signalmen in the West Station box, right at the west end of the centre island platform, used to work with the big windows wide open, and the crashing over of the levers and block bells were very audible to the small audience down below.

 

[Cowley]

Thinking about the above posts on through trains, another thing that I used to like was that in the big BR timetable it would say at the top of each service whether it was a 125 in a little box, thus you'd know which trains were loco hauled. It also had the mileages next to each table so that you knew the distances travelled.

Also back then you'd often see a dilapidated 'Big 4' carriage painted in that drab olive green rotting away in a siding near a big station where it was used as a tool store or mess room in the past.

 

[3141]

Happy passengers cheerfully paying their fares, saying what good value they were, and how they liked the sparkling clean trains which always ran on time. Also the staff who never went on strike or worked to rule.

(It must have been like that because everything was different and better in those days.)

 

[Ron Hale]

My connection (often the last) being held for us as we pulled in late.

 

[pitdiver]

I don't know if the following has been mentioned but what about "Camping Coaches" If I remember these were located adjacent to remote country stations.

 

[Hornet]

Both yours and Hornet's post. Bang on!
The holes you got in your overalls from moving about old accumulators, only appearing after you'd washed them.

Had a few of the hi-viz flat caps from the early 90s too.

Hand crank megger testing an unsuspecting workmate always led to a Clyburn (adjustable spanner) headiing your way. Wouldn't be tolerated today.