Different traction types as a child

[matchmaker]

I'm now 61 and as a child lived in the west of Glasgow. My local station was on the North Clyde lines so my first experience of a train was an electric "Blue Train". However, if we visited my aunts and uncles in Carnoustie and Aberdeen, or went on holiday down the Clyde coast, the trains were steam hauled. If we went through to Edinburgh the train was a dmu.

Anyone with similar experience? The wheel has sort of come full circle for me as I now live in Stirling and have electric local trains. 58 years after I had them in Glasgow!

 

[d9009alycidon]

I am from the same era (perhaps slightly later), I just remember steam services on the North Clyde from Coatdyke going into Glasgow (I would have been about 4) then the Blue trains taking over, DMUs to Saltcoats, initially from St Enoch, then from Central. My dad was an early petrol head so all family holidays were by car, but I do remember going to Fort William in 1966 by train, D7612 in charge on a day I have never forgotten.

 

[Mikey C]

Grew up with 3rd rail electric trains (EPBs generally), other than coming to London and using 4th rail tube trains!

Diesels of any sort would have been a real rarity, ditto OHLE, especially as until I left home I don't recall taking any Inter City trains out of London

 

[farci]

Same era, grew up on Clydeside.
There's a number of videos I can recommend including:

- rare video of Glasgows lost railway termini

- 1961 video of steam and electric experiences in Strathclyde
Hope you're watching the new BBC Scotland series 'Inside Central Station' avalable on iPlayer: https://goo.gl/DQ56Nb

 

[xotGD]

We had a family holiday in Cornwall in 1976. I definitely saw Westerns, but I can't be certain whether I had any for haulage.

 

[Mag_seven]

I'm now 61 and as a child lived in the west of Glasgow. My local station was on the North Clyde lines so my first experience of a train was an electric "Blue Train".

I also grew up in Glasgow so it was the Blue Trains (Class 303/311) that I remember first. I then remember the first locos that I saw being the "Electric Scots" which is why I have always generally preferred electric locos over diesel locos.

 

[Bevan Price]

Everything I saw was steam - passenger - freight - shunting. They had some ex-LMSR diesel shunters at Speke Junction & Crewe, but I never went near either for most of the time when I was young**, and day trips to New Brighton used the (now gone) ferry from Liverpool, until my teens, probably never saw any of the Mersey Railway emus.

** Just a single return (holiday) trip from Liverpool to Pwllheli when we must have passed Speke Jn circa 1949 or 1950. I wrote numbers down at that time, but don't remember much about what I saw -- however one number in the list indicates that I must have seen the (then) last GWR Saint 4-6-0 in the Chester area (not that I would then have comprehended its significance.)

 

[gazthomas]

As someone from North Wales born in the mid 70s my early life is defined.mostly defined by 47s and a change to electric traction at Crewe. Happy days

 

[delt1c]

I am same Era and was brought up in West Lothian. My earliest memories are traveling on a 101 from Edinburgh to Dunfermline. Also watching the steam Pugs at Polkemet. 2 other memories are a steam PW train at Stevenson when I was about 5 years old ( memory says either an 8F or a Black 5), also a clayton departing Bathgate on a freight around 1970 fiving more exhaust than a steam engine. many other memories of the time in central Scotland

 

[61653 HTAFC]

In the 80s as a kid, I remember being excited by new trains coming to our local lines rather than the old DMUs... though as the new trains were 141s the novelty wore off quite quickly! Heritage units were universally referred to as DMUs by my brother and I, we didn't distinguish between types. The express services were almost all 45 or 47-hauled, though we also had Trans-pennine 124 units which I unfortunately have no memory of. Day-rover days saw HSTs between Wakefield and Leeds, with the occasional 31 up to Keighley. With the electrification of the ECML we had the novelty of declassified first on the 307s, one of which was even in NSE colours so reminded us of the trains we used when visiting our uncle down south (though those units were actually VEPs and CIGs).

Funny how 30+ years later, loco-hauled (or pushed) trains are coming back to our local line!

 

[kevjs]

When I was a kid travelling by the train was nearly all Pacers and Sprinters in Regional Railways livery (IIRC the Sprinters were nearly always on services heading to Blackpool North, and the Pacers to Blackpool South) - and you'd often see the Class 87s/90s about. Starting Uni it was the Pacers, Pendalinos, Voygers and Turbostars I'd be travelling on. Visiting the family down south it was the Network South East Turbos.

So Imagine my confusion well over a decade after I'd left home and got a train to London with work (as I'd already done a few times before on the Meridians) and couldn't find the button to open the doors, until I notice a tatty sticker saying you needed to open the window and then open the door from the outside - for the first 25 years of my life I'd not encountered that bizarre practice.

 

[yorksrob]

CEP's, VEP's and thumpers

 

[Springs Branch]

Class 502 and 503 EMUs.

As a young child, our local line near Wigan had a monotonous diet of low-density DMUs (mostly classes 104, 105 & 108).

During summer school holidays, my dad would book time off work and our family would have a day out to Blackpool or Southport.

At Blackpool I saw pretty much the same types of DMU as home (we went midweek to avoid the crowds, so no rare haulage to be seen on excursions). Southport, on the other hand, was more interesting because you got to see Class 502 EMUs as you arrived from the Wigan line - both in the carriage sidings and parked on the adjacent platform. In fact, spotting the first electric unit as you approached from St Luke's was quite exciting because it meant we were "nearly there".

The 502s always looked quite odd to me – squat and wide, with curved sides, sliding doors (when every other train I’d seen had slam doors) and those odd resistor cowlings above the cabs of the motor coaches. My dad explained these were electric trains from Liverpool, quite old (even then) and powered from a third rail alongside the track. Initially I didn’t quite believe him because I could never see this mythical third rail alongside the platform below the train (not realizing this is always located on the non-platform side at stations).

One summer we went “long haul” for our day out. This was to New Brighton via the original Liverpool Central Low Level, before construction of the Loop and Link. The trip out included one of my dad’s short-cuts via the basement of Lewis’s department store - guaranteed to annoy my mother since, as usual with his "short-cuts", we got lost and spent ages finding the station entrance.

The highlight of the day was the long, noisy, exciting underground ride beneath the Mersey on an LMS-vintage Class 503 – varnished wood, warm yellow light bulbs, which went dimmer then brighter as traction power was applied then cut off, and generous bouncy seats (I think we were in declassified First Class).

The lowlight of the day was the grotty, run-down environment at early-1970s New Brighton, resulting in an early return back under the Mersey to James Street and the novelty of a ride up to street level in a giant wooden lift, then on to Liverpool Exchange for the train home.

 

[Journeyman]

I lived on the suburban lines out of Waterloo, from my birth in the mid-seventies up to my late teens in the early 90s. It was mainly EPBs in my early childhood, although I may well have been on a few SUBs too, but can't remember for sure. I'm pretty certain I got a trip or two on a Southern-designed 2-HAP during the period they were declassified and used on inner-suburban services. I saw the PEPs once or twice, but long after they were withdrawn from passenger service.

I remember the 508s coming into service, and being taken on my first ever trip on one by some family friends (I was hugely excited by this). Longer trips were VEPs and CIGs down to the coast, occasional trips on a North Downs line 119, and sometimes trips on the District line - can just about remember the CO/CP and R stocks, and the introduction of the D stock. I did one or two short trips from Richmond to Kew Gardens on 501s too.

 

[hexagon789]

My first local line had a diet of pretty much exclusively 314s, plus the odd 334. My grandparents line was all 156s.

Having since moved my closest line is all 156s, but there are 5 stations within a 10 mins walk which are served by 314s, 320s, 380s and now 385s

I can remember going down to York and Darlington as a child in InterCity 225s in the glorious blue GNER livery - emblazoned with the words: "Route of the Flying Scotsman", seemed so impressive to me back then!

 

[Journeyman]

I can remember going down to York and Darlington as a child in InterCity 225s in the glorious blue GNER livery - emblazoned with the words: "Route of the Flying Scotsman", seemed so impressive to me back then!

I miss GNER! That livery was very attractive, and had a great traditional railway look to it. They seemed to adopt an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" approach that kept a lot of the best features of InterCity.

 

[hexagon789]

I miss GNER! That livery was very attractive, and had a great traditional railway look to it. They seemed to adopt an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" approach that kept a lot of the best features of InterCity.

Well for a while they kept the Pullman services, Silver Standard, proper Restaurant Cars where anyone was served an at-seat meal subject to availability and until their later years the service generally seemed pretty good from what I can remember.

I miss GNER too!

 

[big all]

early to late 60s[10-16y] excited by seeing peaks at slateford on train to edinburgh from i assume the south
north british 29s mostly glasgow
j36 around 11 saturday morning waiting at saughton jctn to cross from the down glasgow to down fife
gloucester twin one coach br blue one green lined
unusual sightings off the new bleep bleeps [50s]at wester hails between kingsknow and currie
the smog off leith central as a dmmu depot

 

[AJM580]

Being born late 60s means that in east Anglia I grew up with Cravens dmus and Class 47s on rakes of Mk2s to London and in trips to visit family in Wales there were plenty of 37s kicking around. Also got a look at Barry Scrapyard when pretty much full.

 

[Lucan]

I was lucky to see and travel on the last few years of steam on the South Western main line. The SR was never a fan of diesels so AFAIR everything that went beyond Woking on the main line was steam right up to about 1968.

I was often at Wimbledon Station which is partly covered at the country end by a very wide road bridge (the High Steet is over it). The Waterloo bound expresses, maybe hauled by a Merchant Navy, would emerge at speed from under the bridge with an explosion of smoke and a noise like thunder. The entire station, and the High Street above, would shake like a minor earthquake. It was awsome. The bland green EPBs and the red or silver LT trains crawling around seemed pathetic things by comparison, although the Portsmouth corridor EMUs (4-CORs ?) that passed without stopping were a bit more impressive. Rarely saw any freight.

Occasionally I would travel to Basingstoke to visit an aunt, changing from an EMU at Woking onto a semi-fast, which had come that far non-stop from Waterloo, hauled by a 2-6-0 (I guess a U or U1 class) or 4-6-0. The acceleration from the country station stops was slow and dignified compared with EMUs. I liked the smell of the steam locos, and the carriages actually had corridors and compartments with lots of polished wood decor and what seemed like broad picture windows to me, a different world from the suburban EMUs I was familiar with. I have also seen the all-Pullman chocolate-and-cream Brighton Belle passing through Croydon, and remember certain EMUs that oddly had a single Pullman within an otherwise green rake of coaches.

 

[big all]

puls and pans had odd pulman coaches

http://www.semgonline.com/gallery/6pul_2.html

 

[Ken H]

very young (<5) watched a shunter in the yard at Scunthorpe when I was in pram going into town over the long concrete footbridge you can see in this google maps satellite view here:- https://goo.gl/maps/Xy8JQ7VCwv52. My big sister was at the school at the south end of the bridge. Think I saw class 08's shunting. Would I have seen Dowty retarders in 1959-1960?

Might have ridden a DMU to Doncaster - dunno

Then we moved to Leeds in 1961 when I was 5
This was before they rebuilt Leeds station and i remember meeting grandparents off a london train at the old central station. memories of Central are hazy

But I also remember bradford portions coming into Leeds behind a steam loco, and being shunted to make the longer train.
I assume the leeds-London run was class 40,44,45 or 46

A few DMU trips then too

Then we went to Folkestone to see my Grandparents who had retired there. I was fascinated with trains with no locomotive, just carriages! All green! Grandad had an old Southern region timetable which I used to enjoy looking at. I assume Grandad showed me how it worked.
I think the SR timetable changed so little that using an out of date one was OK!
Grandma knew all the stations by heart, and would tell me the next one. I would look out and she was always right! Maybe she cheated with a crib sheet. Westenhanger, Sandling for Hythe, Folkestone West, then Folkestone Central where we got off.

Did a couple of trips on the RH&DR. East Kent bus to Hythe station. And a day out to Dover once. Not sure why.
Sort of railway but loved the cliff lifts. Didnt go often. we had to walk from the East Cliff beach to the Leas up the steep paths.

he explained to me there was a 3rd rail to make the trains electric. I was confused because i thought that would mean the trains had a wider gauge because they worked like a model railway!

Grandparents lived in a flat where we could see the railway between Folkestone East and Central. sometimes a noiser train went past, they explained this was a diesel. may have been a hastings unit, or a loco hauled boat train going to Dover.

We went on the pier and watched the boat trains ease onto the pier to clear the level crossing and the BR packet steamers. One was called Maid of Orleans

We once went to somewhere near Folkestone West Jct and there was a level crossing where the keeper opened and shut the gates by hand. Think it was warren road. This image of Warren Road looks familiar http://www.warrenpress.net/FolkestoneThenNow/images/WarrenRdLevelCrossinga.jpg

Grandad must have walked miles with us kids. Grandma had difficulty walking so didnt come. Didnt stop him dying of a stroke (1976) - but Grandma cooked with lots of butter, jersey milk etc. people did then. they saw it as good food after a long period of rationing. He always wore a tweed suit, tie and trilby. braces too. but the waistband of his trousers was up to his ribs.

I remember the hustle crossing London. Mum with 2 kids getting from Canon St to Kings Cross in the rush hour.

Leeds station was all new but the locals were withering. It was all DMU very soon. We did go to Durham for the day by way of Harrogate and Ripon and had to change at (I think) at Northallerton. Did trans Pennines go that way then? Mum saw a pigeon basket with an egg and wondered what would become of the orphan!

I had a ladybird book of BR trains. it featured deltics, trans pennine units and the 'special' units for the Calder valley with bigger engines. Other kids referred to DMU as 'Bogs', often with an unpleasant adjective, not worth their attention. Think it was short for bogie, but not sure.

I remember the trans Pennine 124's with their buffets cars. I must have been 16-17 then cos I think I was travelling alone then. spent pocket money on day returns to places like Huddersfield or York, just to ride trains! There was a great hoo-ha about introducing 'paytrains' on the Ilkley and harrogate service.

They used to have an exhibition train that they parked in one of the bays on the south side of the station. Used to go and look, because you could get on the platforms without a platform ticket by just saying 'exhibition train' to the ticket bloke. Used to see the sleeper in one of the bays too. think they dropped 1 carriage off at leeds on the way to Scotland which the pilot 08 shunted.

Went on a school trip to Arran. we went by train. through train Leeds-Carlisle-Glasgow via Dumfries. The G&SW stations had blue station signs which I though odd. Bloke went up the outside of the train at Carlisle and tapped the wheels. And they refilled the toilet tanks from hoses. Probably 1970. Corridor Mk 1

Dad had to go to London for work a bit. He was quite excited when the air conditioned trains came.

Then I saw a Deltic. Wow.....

I lived near Settle many years ago. I went to Morecambe by bike with my stepson. we had a go on the roller coaster, then bunged the bikes in the guards van of the DMU and snoozed our way back to Giggleswick (not via lancaster then) where we had to cycle home! 1984 I think. He was 10.

My parents came by train to Settle. The train was a lot longer than the platforms. People wanting to get off stuck their heads out of the door windows. The stationmaster gave hand signals to the driver so he moved the train on so they could get off. There were movable wooden steps because of the low platforms. MK1 and Cl45/46
More signalboxes then. Settle still had shunting signals but the box seemed to be permanently switched out. Horton, Dent and Ais Gill still were block posts.
About that time I did a short course in Scotland, I got a train north from Settle at about 17;00. in Feb. The Settle Carlisle in the dark in a drably lit Mk 1 was an eerie experience. And a massive culture shock when I got on an air con coach with an electric loco for the trip to Glasgow.

Sorry to ramble on but I miss the railway in the old days.....