Distant Memories

[Darandio]

Gizzy's latest thread has given me a nostalgic throwback as well as reviving a memory that I can vaguely recall.

According to my mam and dad, there was once a conductor who generally operated on the ECML between Newcastle an Edinburgh who was quite an entertainer. He used to sing songs and do other things for entertainment. This was in 1981.

Can anyone remember this guy and if so, was it on a deltic hauled service that you saw him. If so, and my dad swears blind on this, it was a deltic hauled service and I can safely assume that I actually did travel on one of these services before withdrawal. I certainly hope so.

Sorry about the vagueness but I live in hope.

 

[Gizmogle]

8)

Like I said in my thread, the earliest thing I can remember on the railways is travelling to Stockport on FNW 156s.

Also remember going to Oxford on a Voyager.

No mega hellfire loco haulage

 

[AlexS]

Remember the Clacton 309s on FNW trains out of Birmingham, as well as the 37s and then the 47s from Brum to the NWC. Had regular travels behind the 37s from Wolverhampton to Chester for the zoo in the summer months!

Also Intercity 47s, 86s, 87s, 90s, Dinosaur 304 units and class 310s rattling around.

20s, 47s, 56s, 58s on Ironbridge coal trains were regular past my house (still are only with 66s and the occasional 60 these days).

Local trains from Shrewsbury going to random places like Cleethorpes, Norwich, Stansted, Lincoln, Skegness, Nottingham, Leicester, Beeston, Grimsby and so on, they all finish at Birmingham now.

Having one of the remaining boggos up to Telford in the very early 1990s and sitting in the guards van in my push chair because the train was full.

 

[Phoenix]

I remember travelling into Birmingham new street on the class 310 when they carried that kinda blueish purple WMPTE lievry and when you got through the tunnel into BNS being met by the sight of 86's 87's 90's 47's 43's 150's 156's 158's 310's and finally 321's.

 

[Bayum]

I remember most... Whenever you saw a train, it was always in One Livery, unless they were regional trains such as the Metro Variations around Leeds etc.

I also remember being at New Street, and seeing my HST service being shunted from the front, to the rear for some reason!!

 

[delt1c]

To many memories to list, but here are a few
Clayton shunting vans in Bathgate Yard
26/24 combination on the far North and Highland lines.
The 1st refurbed 101 working the 08.35 (asummer only) Queen St to Oban, that had 1st class seating of the type in the Mk2c's
33's on the Waterloo = Exeter.
26/24 double header on Queen St to Oban, the 24 was on test and a 26 on the West Highland was very rare, so a double headed combination was almost unique
Last Gresley Buffet car working a mystery tour from Edinburgh to Scarborough.
47's at Liverpool St with Union Jacks for the Silver Jubilee.
All these were seen personally .

 

[Jord]

My memories are when my dad used to take me to Marston Green years ago and used to see Intercity Vals/47s blast through and the 323s with green doors!

Back then all trains was the same to me though

I have got some pics from back then which I should dig out and scan in if anyone is interested.

 

[Royston Vasey]

Top thread already! Would be good to hear more of peoples' memories.

For me, I remember travelling on Class 101s on local services around the north east, 37s and Mk2's on Transpennine services, both in BR Blue and Regional Railways liveries. Intercity liveried 47s on cross country services - I remember seeing at Newcastle what would either have been 47406 or 47488, named Rail Riders, which was some BR-sponsored kids' club we were part of!

Whenever we travelled to the West for holidays we used to stop overlooking a cutting in the Pennines not far off the M62 by the WCML. Remember Network Southeast and Intercity 86s flashing by. Also distantly remember seeing the APT at Crewe Railway Age (free entry with Rail Riders membership!! lol)

Fond memories of sitting on the end of platform 1 at Durham being deafened by the rear PCs of Intercity-liveried HSTs. The drivers seemed to thrash them more in those days...

My dad took us down to Leeds when the 91s had just been introduced on London-Leeds only and we went down to Doncaster and back, just to try them. I remember thinking how hard the seats were!!

 

[crewmeal]

For me being at boarding school in Hatch End (between Watford & Harrow) was the best time for trains. The WCML went through the grounds and had some brilliant sights for train spotting. The early 60's saw famous trains such as The Royal Scot, The Mid-day Scot,The Irish Mail The Lakes Express, The Mancunian, plus all the sleeper trains, all hauled by steam engines. These in turn gave way to Class 40's. Then we had sleepless nights when they electrified the WCML. There were 6 tracks 2 for the tube and local Watford services plus 2 fast and 2 slow lines. Trains went by every few minutes.

 

[Crompton Karl]

My Earliest memory was back in 1980, my Nan and Grandad lived in Mablethorpe in Lincs, and Dad decided to not drive up but to use our Staff passes to get to Skeggy.

We were on the semi fast services (still Hauled by a Deltic) and i got to visit the Cab. I don't remember the Deltic run much but what really sticks in my memory was the massive 6 or 8 car DMU service from Grantham to Skeggy, Dad made sure we got to sit behind the driver and see out the front of the train all the way to Skeggy - from that moment i was hooked.

The next memory was with my dad as he was Driving the Sunday service on our local line (Medway Valley line) in a 2-EPB. I stood on the second mans seat as i was too short to see out the window, holding onto the parking brake (which used to look like a ships steering wheel). An amazing experience for someone so very young and i got to do this quite a few times with my dad and his mates for years to come till the mid 90's when the railway tightened up on cab rides.

If only i had a tardis - i'd go back to 1980 again.

Karl

 

[driver9000]

Earliest memories for me are -

1st generation DMUs operating to and from the original Morecambe Promenade station

Edinburgh/Glasgow trains splitting and joining at Carstairs and the locomotives stabled in the yard there awaiting their next turns

Being taken to the footbridges the spanned the railway in Princes St gardens pre-electrification to wave at the train drivers or going to Waverley to see the trains

SPTE Class 101s going past the end of the playing field of my primary school

I remember travelling on these trains very frequently and if we ever went anywhere long distance it was usually in aircon MK2 coaches being hauled by a 47 (or occasionally a 26) to Carstairs and the bump as the Glasgow portion joined up and then an electric down the WCML. I clearly remember the interior of the MK2 as the seats were huge and they had a blue moquette and I remember them having a very 70s looking wood panelling and a heavy sliding door between the saloon & vestibule - I think these were the MK2D as the later MK2E and MK2F all seemed to have the pressure pad sliding door, even the characterisitic rumbling sound MK2s made when braking is still a vivid memory, its a shame that all these are just memories but I suppose thats progress.....

Can anyone describe how the splitting & joining of the trains was carried out at Carstairs as I was too young to take any notice in those days, especially when the trains were joined.

 

[P156KWJ]

I can remember going on 2 Regional Railways 101s on the Hope Valley Line (it's mostly 142s and 150s now ) and I can remember Intercity liveried HSTs at Nottingham, Regional Railways Express liveried 156s and 158s, and I can very well remember the introduction of class 170s! I can remember frothing over them when I first saw one come past the house

 

[delt1c]

The Edinburgh portion would arrive 1st at carstairs , comming of the triangle with the loco heading north. The portion would then pull out north and stable in a siding with the shunter in the rear coach. The ganway doors at this point were usually open and when the Glasgow portion passed the loco would propel the coaches onto the rear of the Glasgow portion where they would join in the station. Loco from Edinburgh portion would then stable in the yard and the train would head south with the Electric loco on the Glasgow portion. North bound was simpler as the train would arrive in the station from the south, diesel would couple onto the rear for the Edinburgh portion. Train would be split with Glasgow portion continuing North with the electric and the Edinburgh taking the triangle to the south of the station.
I spent many days sitting on the station at carstairs watching the splitting and dividing of the trains, they could produce anything from a 20 to a 50. Stock in the early 70,s (circa 74) would be Mk1's on Liverpool / Manchester services and 2B's and C's on the Birmingham services. Electric locos whilst mainly 86's were often 81;s or 85's with 82 - 84 not unknown.

 

[Techniquest]

Got lots of memories but none too clear since I wasn't overly into trains at the time.

The earliest I remember at all often is sitting on an all-stations 2nd-gen DMU (most likely a 150), leaving a station en-route to Retford (I think this might have been between Nottingham and Grantham) going over a level crossing with a delicious Sara Lee Chocolate Gateau with me for my eldest sister who we were visiting. I wish I could remember the journey better.

Other journies that I remember are things like going from Hereford to Birmingham via Kidderminster on 150s, trips to the SVR, a trip once to the NEC which I'm sure involved getting a VWC service from New Street but without any sort of idea of the loco on the train (I personally would love to know if it was an 86 as I have no lines under the 86s in my book) and much more.

One of my favourites that I remember much about is when we once had to get a Thames Turbo (I assume it was a 166) to Reading with Goodness knows what onto Slough and Windsor, but I could swear we had some slam-door unit on the Windsor branch. This is going back some years mind. My favourite part of that though was when we were back at Slough on the westbound mainline platform. Back then Fag Packet-liveried HSTs were about and of course there was no such thing as MTUs. Anyway, soon enough a HST came screaming through at what I'd say was the full 125mph (none of this poncy dead power car on one end, idling through, braking to next to nothing on its way through or whatever that you get these days) with both power cars screaming their guts out. I recall everyone else next to me had hands over their ears, whereas I couldn't get enough of it. I'd pay to be able to relive that few seconds again...

My other favourite memory would be some years back when Intercity was still branded over seemingly everything. We were on holiday in Paignton and had just drove near by the station. We looked out of the windows (now stopped) to look at what I found out in later years to be a HST that must have recently arrived from London or something. I still remember that it was clagging away nicely on idle, but after a few minutes we moved on since it wasn't going anywhere. I have no idea which one it was, but I still class it as a favourite memory since I loved that livery. One can only imagine what it clagged like and sounded like when it left...

No doubt I've got other memories, but the above are some of my best ones.

 

[Craig]

My earliest memories are of trains passing the back of my house in the last 80s - 37s, 47s, 56s, HSTs, etc. It's not quite the same these days with the pretty much constant stream of plastic.

As for actually travelling on trains I think my earlier memories are of the summer Saturday additional services (overnight trains to the south coast - Paignton IIRC). I can also remember getting an HST at Newcastle that had come from Edinburgh and went direct to Scarborough (reversing at York), but that might have been a staff special.

 

[Techniquest]

There were direct Edinburgh to Scarborough HSTs (certainly in the summers) until the mid 1990s, a fact I only found out today in issue 82 of OTF. I don't have any other details on that one.

 

[Craig]

Yeah, that could have been a service train.

I also remember going to some sort of BR staff family event somewhere up here around the time of the introduction of the 91s. Not sure where that was though.

 

[driver9000]

Thanks for the speedy reply Delt1c, I thought it would it would happen with one portion being propelled, although I cant actually remember going on a shunting jaunt (probably too young to notcie at the time) we lived in Edinburgh and always used that service

 

[delt1c]

The shunter I refer to isnt a loco , its the chap who coupled and uncoupled the stock.
Always was an interesting service. 1st time I travelled from haymarket to Preston I was shocked when the train pulled in hauled by a 24, at the time I didnt know that it joined the glasgow portion at carstairs and thought that the 24 was going to work throughout. saying that it may as well have as this was pre electric and the loco from carstairs was a 50 which expiered climbing Shap, 35 years later and I still recall that long wait stuck on shap with the failure. it was nearly 2 hours before help arrived in the form of a 47 from the rear.

 

[Darandio]

There were direct Edinburgh to Scarborough HSTs (certainly in the summers) until the mid 1990s, a fact I only found out today in issue 82 of OTF. I don't have any other details on that one.

Wasn't that the spa express? Definetely a summer train. Seem to remember seeing it once when we arrived for our hols. Seem to recall it being in a single track platform where you could get off on either side?

That has started reminding me of unusual sightings of HST's over the years. I saw a photo a while back of a one passing through Dinsdale when they were reversing at Darlington and going north via there instead of the usual Northallerton diversion.

 

[Techniquest]

Wasn't that the spa express? Definetely a summer train. Seem to remember seeing it once when we arrived for our hols. Seem to recall it being in a single track platform where you could get off on either side?

That has started reminding me of unusual sightings of HST's over the years. I saw a photo a while back of a one passing through Dinsdale when they were reversing at Darlington and going north via there instead of the usual Northallerton diversion.

I think the most unusual to date has to be one at Bridgnorth. Only ever happened once so far. Ta again to OTF.

 

[mrcheek]

I remember travelling on "Merrymakers", holiday special trains that ran as cheap day returns to major seaside resorts, and a few other places. Leave at around 7 in the morning, get home at midnight, a family of 4 could travel for about £30. Over the years we visited Aberystwyth, Southport, York, Scarborough, Llandudno, Great Yarmouth, Margate, Brighton, Bridlington. Great fun. Usually pulled by class 47s. and plenty of good trainspotting on the way too.
what I loved most was that if I travelled 20 miles or more by car, bus or coach, I would be sick, but felt fine on trains. Guess thats why I have always loved rail travel so much.

 

[Pumbaa]

When I first arrived in the UK, we were told to go to Milton Keynes for the shopping. On the way up on the train, as we didn't have a car, I got a cab ride with the guard in the front cab of the second unit 321 in 8 car formation.

Other best memory includes visiting a relative in Chesterfield, and the scream the Valentas made as we departed. Hooked ever since me thinks.

 

[AlexS]

Standing at Cockwood Harbour on holiday on a day trip to Dawlish having got off the bus at Dawlish Warren by mistake and watching Intercity HSTs streaking along the sea wall.

Riding RR 150s out of Exmouth

Sitting on a RR 153 at Newton Abbott at night waiting to return to same.

 

[37427]

My earliest rail memory was catching a 312 unit from Benfleet to Southend Central, at the time I hated the things and wanted them replaced, I wish I had kept my mouth shut. :mad:

Also I remember watching 'Yeo' running around at the estuary station on the Fairbourne Railway, and some sort of unit crossing Barmouth Bridge in 1997 while I was on holiday, hence my username. :grin:

 

[D306]

watching thomas the tank engine

going to the Bucks Railway Centre, watching trains at MKC station, 87 haulage xD

 

[33056]

Visiting an Aunt who used to live in a house backing onto the mainline in Bath, you had a grandstand view of the trains (lots of diesel hydraulics ) from the living room.

My junior school was also next to a railway, good fun when the South Wales mainline was shut and we had diversions to make a change from the local DMUs and 37s on coal trains.

 

[mbonwick]

Pacers to Morecambe and standing at Lancaster watching the swansong of the 56s and 58s

 

[driver9000]

I also remember the Pacers to Morecambe, in original condition with 4 leaf doors and the TL11 engines

Still prefered the 101s & 108s though

 

[142001]

Excellent thread. I can clearly remember Castleton station when it's old Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway buildings and footbridge, and my dad taking me down one wet evening to stand on the footbridge, and as I saw a Regional Railways liveried 101 coming, I quickly dashed to the other side of the bridge to watch it continue it's journey through the station. Gosh, I must have been, what, 3, possibly 4 years old, maybe a bit older. Not sure when Castleton lost it's footbridge.
Traction I can remember includes aforementioned 101s, Provincial, RR and GMPTE 142s, Provincial, RR, GMPTE and Sprinter 150s, Super Sprinter, RR and Metrotrain 155s, Super Sprinter and RR 156s, Express, RR and Metrotrain 158s, 37s in Railfreight Distribution livery taking heavy loads through the station, and the odd one in IC Swallow if I was lucky. 60s were also a common sight, and perhaps the odd 47.
Certainly not the best days for the railways, but amongst my fondest childhood memories...