What is your earliest memory of travelling on a train?

pdq · 26 Mar 2020

First specific memory, though not first journey, was in 1982/3 when I was in year 5 as it's now known (age 9-10). We had a school trip from Tenby to Pembroke and we went by train rather than coach as part of the experience.

We were allowed in the cab one or two at a time and a few got to sound the horn as we approached the level crossings. Coming back it was absolutely pouring, and we were allowed on the train at Pembroke on its outward journey to Pembroke Dock rather than having to wait for it to come back.

So much of that wouldn't (and couldn't) happen today.

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Struner · 26 Mar 2020

davyp said:
As a four year old (probably December 1952) being taken by my mum to see Father Christmas at Lewis's in Manchester. I remember a very cold, dull day, waiting for the train from Davenport Station to Manchester London Road. At this distance in time, I cannot remember the locomotive, but very probably a Fowler 2-6-4T, but I can clearly remember the carriages, dull maroon, and a door to each compartment, no corridor. Once on the train, I started pulling on a long leather strap under the door window until told to "come here and sit still!"

But your mother’s advice would have been quite a regular occurrence I hope?

Calthrop · 26 Mar 2020

Bill EWS said:
If there had been two railway companies then there may well have been two stations in Peterhead. However the GNSR was in competition with itself over the two sections between Maud and Ellon to Boddam and Maude to Peterhead in that improving one route would have seriously affected the other, so nothing got done.

I understand that there are people who think that the function of railways ought to be to serve the population of the areas which they traverse, rather than to make money for their proprietors. What poor naive babes-in-the-wood these folks must be

...

This still applies today! When it comes to reopening the Maude-Peterhead route and/or the Ellon- Boddam route one will affect the other with the same issue. Two ideas for the Peterhead route is to possibly build a junction to Fraserburgh from Mintlaw as was the original idea in the 1800's when the route was planned. The junction was not initially planned to be at Maude. Likewise, today a new station at Peterhead is possibly to be at Inverugie. Two miles from the centre of Peterhead. Yet, if the Boddam- Ellon route was chosen a new station to the south but much closer to the town centre at Peterhead would be possible and make the Inverugie site rather pointless. I believe even the Maude Museum people have given thought to making the junction at Mintlaw in their present day thinking.

And again, if the Boddam route is chosen would there be need to run back to Ellon! The population between Loghave, Pitlurg and Auchmacoy is still quit thin. Yet there is a lot of potential in building a new line from Cruden Bay to Aberdeen taking in the larger population between Newburgh, Bridge Of Don and Aberdeen. The mistake for Peterhead has always been that it went via Dyce and Ellon almost doubling the mileage to Peterhead compared to the coastal road. It could be interesting times when serious thought is put on reopening these routes.

Of interest, the routeing might-have-beens and might-imaginably-in-the-future-be's, in these parts -- thanks. As mentioned, this area intrigues me; though I have in real life made it to there only once, and that very fleetingly -- a run (arranged and permitted) on a freight train, Dyce -- Fraserburgh, at the turn of the year 1968 / 69 (everything under thick snow): a very long and largely dark day-trip from Dundee -- my only visit to date, to Aberdeen.

Masborough · 26 Mar 2020

_toommm_ said:
Rotherham to York on the few direct services a day:
- The awful smell emanating from Rotherham station pre-refurbishment as we went down the spiral ramps to access the platform.
- The deafening squeal of a Pacer's brakes as it pulled in.
- Occasionally missing the service and having to travel via Doncaster, and subsequently having to stand in the vestibule of a very packed train (probably would've been a Voyager )
- The Grand Central HSTs at York with the silver and golden?? doors. Also the droplight windows - they intrigued me a lot as people would be seemingly 'hanging' out of the train as it pulled into a station.

Some of my earliest memories were also days out from Rotherham to York but a bit earlier in the early 90s still in BR days.

On the way there we'd go via Sheffield and the train was a Class 47 hauled cross country service in Intercity livery. I remember being in a worn out brake coach and the windows being almost too dirty to see out of but still being really excited. Whenever the train slowed the brakes made a loud 'whirring' noise. I recall standing at one of the doors with the window down going through a station between Leeds and York at speed and a child on the platform running to take cover due to the noise!

On the way back we'd get the direct service via Pontefract. I remember this being the only time I travelled on a class 141 in red and white(ish) metro livery. I remember thinking it was going too fast was going to derail. I remember it going non stop a few stations (would have been Thurnscoe, Bolton on Dearne and Goldthorpe I think) and thinking it should have stopped as Pacers stopped everywhere!

Pre overhaul Rotherham Central was always pretty grim, the little shelter on platform one was particularly bad

. I also remember seeing a tramp's bed actually under the spiral walkway to platform two. Fond memories though!

brad465 · 26 Mar 2020

Riding on Networkers at the start of the century when I was around 5, I remember being able to distinguish the different designs and traction motor noises between the BREL (465/0/1) and Met-Cam (465/2 and 466; 9s were not re-branded at this point) versions even then. As I had and still have a strong preference for the Met-Cam noise (although the BREL was good too), I would always be very pleased if a unit with the respective door buttons turned up.

However I wasn't aware of class numbers and identification, which meant I was very confused when seeing certain units with fancier interiors and a BREL exterior turn up making Met-Cam like noises. I wasn't until my teen years, not long before I joined this forum, that I realised the latter were of course the 365s SE once operated before their departure by 2004.

DerekC · 26 Mar 2020

My granddad used to come and see us - he worked in London and came out on the Piccadilly Line to Oakwood, near where we lived. I recall as a special treat being allowed to travel with him (with my dad as well, of course) one stop to Southgate, where we got off and waved goodbye. Southgate is in tunnel, so the train to go back to Oakwood arrived with the usual roar and rush of air which (at the age of three or four) scared the whatsit out of me! I am afraid I don't recall any of the railway details other than the roar and rush of the train entering the platform and that it was red and had lights inside! I guess that in 1950 it would have been the 1934-ish build of Standard Stock. I certainly recall from journeys a few years later that the trains had a big louvred section behind the cab.

ABB125 · 27 Mar 2020

Cheltenham to Birmingham and back for my 10th birthday. I think it was a class 170 on the way out, and a voyager on the way back.
For my 11th birthday it was a trip to London from Evesham with my dad. This was February, and there was snow in the Malverns, so the train was nearly an hour late (I think). Eventually, the biggest train I'd ever seen arrived (FGW HST) and off we went. On the return we had a class 165/166.

rogercov · 27 Mar 2020

DelW said:
Although it's unlikely you saw a Blue Pullman there, it's not impossible, see this photo of such a set standing in Coventry station post electrification. I suspect it's early rather than late 1960s though.
https://www.warwickshirerailways.com/lms/lnwrcov218.htm

Thanks for the link. I didn't think there were any scheduled services through Coventry for the Blue Pullman, unless someone knows different, so maybe it was an excursion or a promotion. Very interesting anyway.

AndyB28 said:
Many thanks DelW. That shot brings back memories. If I've got my orientation correct there's a footpath behind the hoardings on the left leading from the station entrance along the back of platform 1 and up to Warwick Road bridge. Spent many a happy Saturday morning there.

Yes, the footpath is currently closed while they build the new station.

JohnW1 · 27 Mar 2020

Summer 1960 - Nottingham - Yarmouth. I was four years old and all I really remember is getting on the train at Nottingham.

Probably the second and the first I really remember was for my eleventh birthday in 1967 when my parents paid for me and my twelve year old friend to go from Nottingham to Crewe for the day. Things that stick in my memory:
We were routed into Derby from Spondon via Chaddesden and passed my first Class 40 on a freight entering the yard.
Two Ivatt Class 4 2-6-0's in steam pottering about at Uttoxeter, one of the few times I have seen a locomotive there.
Crewe South MPD full of steam with a number of Britannia's and a lot of rare/odd diesel shunters that would soon disappear as fast as steam
Missing 70038 Robin Hood due to being in the wrong spot.
First time on the West Coast so "coped" virtually everything.

Gareth · 27 Mar 2020

Merseyrail as a 3/4 year old in the mid-80s. Visiting relatives in Chester.

Hated it.

The darkness of the tunnels and the loud clattering. Couldn't wait for the train to get out onto the overground section. Then changing onto a real antwacky train with wooden interior; a much more serene experience. Then having the sense of foreboding of having to do the journey in reverse.

1955LR · 27 Mar 2020

Travelling on the Talyllyn in the 1950's, must have only just started running in preservation. I know my mother complained the wheels on the carriages must be shaped like thruppenny bits, to the uninitiated a 3d ,12 sided coin which was not a constant dia.

Calthrop · 27 Mar 2020

1955LR said:
Travelling on the Talyllyn in the 1950's, must have only just started running in preservation. I know my mother complained the wheels on the carriages must be shaped like thruppenny bits, to the uninitiated a 3d ,12 sided coin which was not a constant dia.

Somewhat akin, is John Snell's description of his journey on the TR in 1947: "...often we crashed down into a pothole and bounced out again, coach and occupants alike sore and creaking. All the time, we rattled and shook as the flat spots in the tired old wheels slapped round and round. The seats were bare boards, there was no leg-room... It was all rather enjoyable."

DelW · 27 Mar 2020

rogercov said:
Thanks for the link. I didn't think there were any scheduled services through Coventry for the Blue Pullman, unless someone knows different, so maybe it was an excursion or a promotion. Very interesting anyway.

I must admit I was surprised when I found that photo, and particularly the caption stating that it was "... on an up Birmingham to Euston express service". Like you, I was unaware of any Blue Pullman services to or from Brum other than via the GWR route. Had it been a one-off special I'd have expected it to have attracted more attention on the platform, but of course that's just speculation on my part.

Cowley · 28 Mar 2020

Calthrop said:
Somewhat akin, is John Snell's description of his journey on the TR in 1947: "...often we crashed down into a pothole and bounced out again, coach and occupants alike sore and creaking. All the time, we rattled and shook as the flat spots in the tired old wheels slapped round and round. The seats were bare boards, there was no leg-room... It was all rather enjoyable."

A modern era version @Calthrop - Me with the family on holiday in the area (a long long way from Devon) with my eldest stepdaughter sitting on the floor of their beautifully restored Corris Railway coach wondering how on Earth she’d found herself in this situation (yep, my fault

), in complete disgust at how the day had worked out.
The phrase ‘character building’ didn’t seem to help for some reason...

malc-c · 28 Mar 2020

Apparently I was taken on one of the last steam hauled trains when I was young, but don't remember it. My first recollection was a short hop between Welwyn Garden City and Hitchin and back on a local DMU service when I was about 6 or 7 (Late 1960's)

Bungle158 · 28 Mar 2020

In 1955 at age 3, l waited excitedly on the up platform at Wokingham station. Across the line, the hiss of an arriving, air braked HAL or BIL unnerved me, but that was nothing compared to the monster of a Q1, deputising on a Guildford service, which erupted into the station and scared me so badly that l wet myself. My father was not amused at the time, but later saw the funny side. I never lived the incident down.

Lord knows why l always loved trains from that day onwards. No amateur psychologists please.

rogercov · 28 Mar 2020

DelW said:
I must admit I was surprised when I found that photo, and particularly the caption stating that it was "... on an up Birmingham to Euston express service". Like you, I was unaware of any Blue Pullman services to or from Brum other than via the GWR route. Had it been a one-off special I'd have expected it to have attracted more attention on the platform, but of course that's just speculation on my part.

I've done a bit of digging and it seems that it was often used on charters. I even found a picture of one at Liverpool Lime Street.

It went to Coventry on the Farewell Tour on 5th May 1973, as described in the following:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Classes_251_and_261
(Withdrawal section)

and more fully documented here
https://www.railcar.co.uk/type/blue-pullman/rundown-withdrawal

However, this doesn't tie up with the picture, which states that it was going to Euston. The Farewell Tour would most probably not have used Platform 2.
I guess it probably was a charter sometime in the 60s.

70014IronDuke · 28 Mar 2020

1960 - probably September or October. Bedford Midland Rd platform 5 to Northampton Castle. In a 2-car DMU (M509xx +M562xx - don't know the TOPs code). There were lots of condemned waggons around Ravensdon Wood Jcn - I think some were wreckage of an 8F derailment a year or two earlier. There was an ED loco near the power station where the junction with the Wellingboro line was situated. I think it was ED3. I think there were some LNWR 0-8-0s on Northampton shed.

The Beano had a freebie little metal thing in the issue at that time which you could click. I spent a lot of the journey going clickity-click with it. Must have been highly irritating to other passengers, I suspect with hindsight!

Calthrop · 28 Mar 2020

Cowley said:
A modern era version @Calthrop - Me with the family on holiday in the area (a long long way from Devon) with my eldest stepdaughter sitting on the floor of their beautifully restored Corris Railway coach wondering how on Earth she’d found herself in this situation (yep, my fault ), in complete disgust at how the day had worked out.
The phrase ‘character building’ didn’t seem to help for some reason...

A la the immortal Geoffrey Willans / Ronald Searle "Molesworth" books: gurls think trains are dirty and smelly and they don't "get" them...

hexagon789 · 28 Mar 2020

rogercov said:
Thanks for the link. I didn't think there were any scheduled services through Coventry for the Blue Pullman, unless someone knows different, so maybe it was an excursion or a promotion. Very interesting anyway.

It's a WR set, I suspect it's a diversion or special working of some kind. No scheduled workings that way for the sets that I'm aware of.

Whistler40145 · 28 Mar 2020

hexagon789 said:
It's a WR set, I suspect it's a diversion or special working of some kind. No scheduled workings that way for the sets that I'm aware of.

Was a special that started at Paddington and was routed via Reading, Oxford, Leamington Spa and Coventry

hexagon789 · 28 Mar 2020

Whistler40145 said:
Was a special that started at Paddington and was routed via Reading, Oxford, Leamington Spa and Coventry

No idea, it's the first I'd seen of either the website and that photo.

It's possible the caption is wrong, it happens, but I've never heard of one working a scheduled service out of Euston.

Taunton · 28 Mar 2020

rogercov said:
Thanks for the link. I didn't think there were any scheduled services through Coventry for the Blue Pullman, unless someone knows different, so maybe it was an excursion or a promotion. Very interesting anyway.

That train has a 1Z66 reporting number stuck in the front window, which is the series for a Special. It's an 8-car Western Region unit, there are photos on the web of the same-numbered train running on the GWR main line south of Birmingham, back on its home territory.

1955LR said:
Travelling on the Talyllyn in the 1950's, must have only just started running in preservation. I know my mother complained the wheels on the carriages must be shaped like thruppenny bits, to the uninitiated a 3d ,12 sided coin which was not a constant dia.

Possibly your mother was an enthusiast of Ahrons, who wrote classic railway books more than 100 years ago with some amusing arch asides. He said the GNR London suburban stock must have been built with octagonal wheels

Given that the pioneer Talyllyn carriages were unbraked (only loco brake plus guards van handbrake) I wonder how they managed to get flats on them.

rogercov · 28 Mar 2020

hexagon789 said:
No idea, it's the first I'd seen of either the website and that photo.

It's possible the caption is wrong, it happens, but I've never heard of one working a scheduled service out of Euston.

See my post #77. It's on Platform 2, which is normally used for Southbound services, so I suspect that the caption is correct. I don't think the current signalling allows trains to reach platform 2 from the Leamington Spa direction, but it might have done then.
I suspect therefore that the picture is showing the rear of the train. It is interesting that the headcode sticker is at the back. Was it standard pracitce to put one on each end? The giveaway is the headcode 1Z66. This indicates that it was a special working.

DelW · 28 Mar 2020

rogercov said:
I suspect therefore that the picture is showing the rear of the train. It is interesting that the headcode sticker is at the back. Was it standard pracitce to put one on each end? The giveaway is the headcode 1Z66. This indicates that it was a special working.

If the routing involved one or more reversals, as a lot of rare-track charters do now, I'd think that having the headcode on both ends would be easiest.
Thanks to all who've clarified what that picture shows.

jmh59 · 28 Mar 2020

My earliest memory (probably at least two memories haphazardly joined in my mind) was Leeds to London, probably 1963-64, to visit my great grandmum. The bits I remember are my mum having to evict people from our reserved seats, a diesel hauled train rescued by a steam engine (which itself may be my mind going daft but something rescued it after a long wait), and the size of Kings Cross station. I have only very vague memories of the Underground but then memories of a green electric train with compartments with separate doors to get onto the train that made a load of noise under the floor (compressor?) before setting off quietly. The far end was either Grove Park or Green Park and the city end was Charring Cross, again memories of a 4 year old and at least two separate trips so probably naff!

30907 · 28 Mar 2020

jmh59 said:
The far end was either Grove Park or Green Park and the city end was Charring Cross, again memories of a 4 year old and at least two separate trips so probably naff!

Grove Park on a 4EPB, definitely.

jmh59 · 28 Mar 2020

30907 said:
Grove Park on a 4EPB, definitely.

Thanks that's really useful. Since my mum died 12 years ago there's no living memory left.

hexagon789 · 28 Mar 2020

rogercov said:
See my post #77. It's on Platform 2, which is normally used for Southbound services, so I suspect that the caption is correct. I don't think the current signalling allows trains to reach platform 2 from the Leamington Spa direction, but it might have done then.
I suspect therefore that the picture is showing the rear of the train. It is interesting that the headcode sticker is at the back. Was it standard pracitce to put one on each end? The giveaway is the headcode 1Z66. This indicates that it was a special working.

I think I misinterpreted the caption as meaning a regular working

Polarbear · 28 Mar 2020

I lived in Melbourne, Australia for the first 5 years of my life, and my earliest memories of being on a train was being taken on Puffing Billy, probably in 1970. It's probably that which got me hooked on trains.

What is your earliest memory of travelling on a train?

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