Earliest Memories

[br0llz]

What's the earliest or first time you remember finding yourself interested, fascinated, curious or inquisitive as to the operation of railways?

I remember as a school kid I would have to get the train to and from home, and I noticed the very slight differences in the trains that served my station, back in the days when southern rail services had purple seat covers rather than green, and first great western operated these amazingly comfortable DMU's.

I would note down how markedly different certain trains were, and would go away and research as to why they were different.

That's when the snowball started rolling for me, when did it start for you?

 

[Wivenswold]

Standing on a platform at Barking and seeing so many trains coming and going. The smell and sounds remain with me. Would have been around 1975, blue class 302s and 308s and a steady procession of R and CO/CP District Line trains.

Then I would have been taken on an RT on the 62 back home.

If only I could relive that!

 

[Master29]

The Chingford to Liverpool Street line on the class 305`s. My mother used to take us to our great Nan's which was a short walk from James Street station. I never went as far as Liverpool Street until I was a bit older. It was always mysterious where the train went after James Street. Seeing the class 302 which were stabled at Chingford was mysterious too. Why did these strange trains never stop.

 

[Jona26]

At Thames Ditton station in the late 70's. My mum got me from the train onto the platform and then went to get my brother who was still in a push chair at the time. However the guard closed the doors and the train started to move off leaving me and my mum on the platform. Luckily she got the guard's attention and he stopped the train and re-released the doors.

Also round about the same time when changing trains at Reading a gust of wind caught the train door as my brother was being put on the train trapping his hand in the door and breaking his finger! I can still remember the trail of blood along the platform to the Station Manager's office!

 

[TheEdge]

Late 1990s, must have been very tail end of BR in 1997 or very early privatisation in 1998 in Shrewsbury watching the Marches.

My mum, if she was only dashing in, would leave me in the car and I would watch trains going along the viaduct alone Potts Way heading towards Hereford. The memory that stick in my head is a pair of grey 37s heading southbound making lots of noise on a steel train.

 

[neilb62]

Mid 60's in a local park with my mum I remember seeing a black steam loco trundling along the Southern route into Reading and the 'old green trains' at Reading Southern Station. I was taken to see Winston Churchill's funeral train pass Reading but have no memory of that.

 

[AM9]

I remember regularly crossing the GEML on the way to Ilford Swimming Baths in the '50s. The long footbridge crossed between the two original car sheds so there were views of parked 'Shenfield' and 'Southend' EMUs (when they were 1500VDC).
At the southern end of the bridge it crossed the four mainline tracks plus a couple of sidings that served the Ilford United Dairies depot. Apart form EMUs on the 'electric' (slow) lines, the 'main' (fast) lines had a variety of goods and passenger trains, mostly steam in my earliest memories becomoing mostly diesel-electric by the early '60s. Those that I remember were:
'Britannias' - quite a few went by pulling the Norwich and Yarmouth expresses.
'Footballs' - The B17s notably West Ham United and 'Tottenham Hotspur'. These would usually pull the Clacton trains.
'WDs' - they were the ex WD 2-8-0 freight locos which regularly cugeed up the line. I didn't know where they went but they had fairly long mixed freight loads.

As the '50s rolled on, they were gradually replaced, - the Britannias with D200s (class 40), the B17s with Brush type twos (class 31) and later EE type 3s (class 37). The class 47s eventually replaced most of the class 40s. At the time, I was as interested in the diesels as the steam, but nostalgia is a powerful force in later years.

The footbridge from Ley St. to Ilford High Road is still there. It used to be called the 'Plessey Bridge' as it was used by many workers there to cross the railway. When the Plessey works was demolished, it was known as the 'Iron Bridge'. It is still there but I havent been over it since the '70s.
The footbridge can be seen in the centre of the map here:
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.563244,0.0840235,17z

 

[30907]

Standing on a bench at our temporary church by Shortlands station and watching a steam (boat?) train pass on the Up Local. Probably my sister's Baptism summer 54 , definitely no later than autumn 55 when the new church was concerted.

 

[theageofthetra]

Odd one for me. Can remember being allowed to wander round an abandoned Mallet tank in some railway yard in Britanny aged about 3 or 4 in the early 70's, also getting shown inside the engine compartment of a Tadpole at Tonbridge a year or so later. Inevitable really I was going to end up working on the railway!

 

[matchmaker]

Going on holiday to the seaside in the early 1960's. Putting the window down on its leather strap (non corridor stock) so I could look out at the engine. This resulted in numerous smuts in the eyes...

I expect that the train was from Glasgow Central, but I also remember departing from St Enoch - not sure where to.

Arriving at Wemyss Bay Pier to get the "Talisman" to Millport. It wasn't until I was a lot older that I discovered that the "Talisman" was the first diesel-electric paddle vessel in the world.

 

[Cowley]

Probably my fathers train set which took up the spare room at our house (what chance did I stand). I think my earliest memory of a real train was standing at a foot crossing near Scorrior in Cornwall in about 1977 as a non headlight fitted 50 stormed past horn blaring going north. Made me cry actually. I was only 4 though.

 

[chorleyjeff]

What's the earliest or first time you remember finding yourself interested, fascinated, curious or inquisitive as to the operation of railways?

I remember as a school kid I would have to get the train to and from home, and I noticed the very slight differences in the trains that served my station, back in the days when southern rail services had purple seat covers rather than green, and first great western operated these amazingly comfortable DMU's.

I would note down how markedly different certain trains were, and would go away and research as to why they were different.

That's when the snowball started rolling for me, when did it start for you?

Early 1950s
L&Y saddletank up and down the headshunt between Avenham and Miller Parks in Preston.
Big bros. taking me to Skew Bridge near Preston to see big engines on the fast lines and Coffee Pots shuffling around.
Coffee Pot storming up the Preston Dock line.
L&Y 0-6-0 simmering at the West Lancs terminal in Preston having been taken for a walk along the river from Avenham Park.
And lots of others.

 

[Harbornite]

Some of my older memories include centro class 323s and seeing the "ginster express" at A Aberdovey, basically it was a ginster- branded 158.

 

[507021]

My oldest memories of trains include MTL operated Merseyrail, travelling between Rugby and Liverpool on the InterCity 125 and also Network South East services between Northampton and Birmingham/Rugby between 1996 and 1998. I can't remember what units I travelled on with NSE, although if anybody does know what was used on that route, I'd be really grateful.

I also remember travelling on the Isle of Man Railway and Manx Electric Railway, as well as the Douglas Bay Tramway, although I think that was a bit later than the ones I've listed above but I'm not 100% sure.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Being at Huddersfield platform 8 as a 3 year old, seeing the train come in that was to take us to Scarborough for the day. A few years later as I began to learn what was what on the railway, I instantly recognised from a photograph that it was a class 45/46 that took us to the seaside.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

My oldest memories of trains include MTL operated Merseyrail, travelling between Rugby and Liverpool on the InterCity 125 and also Network South East services between Northampton and Birmingham/Rugby between 1996 and 1998. I can't remember what units I travelled on with NSE, although if anybody does know what was used on that route, I'd be really grateful.

I also remember travelling on the Isle of Man Railway and Manx Electric Railway, as well as the Douglas Bay Tramway, although I think that was a bit later than the ones I've listed above but I'm not 100% sure.

Im pretty sure your NSE units will have been 321s. Never thought of tourist railways, but my earliest memory of those would be the little miniature railway in Thornes Park, Wakefield.

 

[Russonomics]

My earliest memories were of the weekly trips from Gillingham-Maidstone West via Strood. I was around three years old and I was given (very supervised) permission by my parents to open the door on the magical toothpaste train. I felt so grown up.

What kick started my interest in trains however was the rapid Networkerisation that was happening at the time. The sounds of those traction motors fascinated me. They still do to this day.

Sadly a relocation to Pembrokeshire a year or so later took away all the cool toothpaste trains with the amazing sounds and left me with some two hourly unloved Sprinters instead. (which were upgraded to two hourly unloved 175's.) Still, whenever I do find myself in the south east, I always make time to hang about and take in the sights and sounds of the railways I knew as a sprog. Makes me feel young.

 

[507021]

Im pretty sure your NSE units will have been 321s. Never thought of tourist railways, but my earliest memory of those would be the little miniature railway in Thornes Park, Wakefield.

Thanks very much. Now I know that the Class 321 was the first EMU class I ever travelled on, although I can't remember what the first DMU class I travelled on (between Liverpool and Blackpool in 1998) was unfortunately. My first thought based on the route I travelled on is that it was something from either the Pacer or Sprinter families. I think it was a Sprinter, although I'm really not sure.

 

[Calthrop]

Some of my older memories include centro class 323s and seeing the "ginster express" at A Aberdovey, basically it was a ginster- branded 158.

Please -- could you explain the "ginster" references? The word's only meaning for me is a proprietary brand-name, capitalised, of the makers of horrid gristle-laden Cornish pasties.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

Please -- could you explain the "ginster" references? The word's only meaning for me is a proprietary brand-name, capitalised, of the makers of horrid gristle-laden Cornish pasties.

Ginster had an all over advert on a 158 once.

 

[Russonomics]

Please -- could you explain the "ginster" references? The word's only meaning for me is a proprietary brand-name, capitalised, of the makers of horrid gristle-laden Cornish pasties.

The makers of horrid gristle-laden Cornish pasties paid a franchise (W+B maybe? Unsure.) some money to vinyl a couple of 158's in all over black Ginster branding.

Edit: Here's the ugly bugger.

 

[Calthrop]

Was born and spent the first years of my life in Spalding, Lincolnshire: became aware of things, in the early 1950s. A location which, then, was the intersecting point of three secondary main lines running in different directions: with dead-flat country thereabouts, absolutely enormous numbers of level crossings (all gated and manned) in the town of Spalding and the surrounding countryside. And in the 50s hereabouts, all traction was steam. We lived in Spalding until I was nearly nine years old – all that time, within sight of one or another railway line – for the first years of my life, this was the Spalding – March section. I just happened to fall in love with the whole thing.

Can’t be very informative about loco classes involved: classes have always been a rather weak area for me – by temperament I’m a vague, moony sentimentalist, not a “techie” – the same in this, as my hero Bryan Morgan. I’d take it that there was a good deal of B1 action taking place; and know from reading, that passenger services on the ex-Midland & Great Northern Joint route were mostly in the hands of Ivatt Class 4 2-6-0s.

Our family did some travelling by rail, to get where we wished to go – thus introducing me to rail passenger travel, which I found delightful. I recall, at age four or five, a trip Spalding – Hunstanton and return, on a special excursion train run for the purpose. This was on a Sunday, when there were no regular passenger workings on the M & GN route: between Spalding and Kings Lynn, ours was virtually the only train – but I remember interesting messing-about at intermediate stations between Spalding and Sutton Bridge, involving the single-line tablets.

 

[Harbornite]

Please -- could you explain the "ginster" references? The word's only meaning for me is a proprietary brand-name, capitalised, of the makers of horrid gristle-laden Cornish pasties.

I love a good ginsters. Each to their own.

I kinda wish this livery still existed, it would make a change to the staple diet of two tone blues that the Cambrian sees.

 

[Calthrop]

Ginster had an all over advert on a 158 once.

The makers of horrid gristle-laden Cornish pasties paid a franchise (W+B maybe? Unsure.) some money to vinyl a couple of 185's in all over black Ginster branding.

It's the same scene, then. Thanks -- I had no idea. I carry on a vendetta against Ginsters, because of their vile pasties: unless in extremis, I refuse to buy any of their wares -- maybe their non-pasty stuff is very nice, but for me that's irrelevant. I would for sure, if around at the time, have refrained from travelling in the described stock.

Harbornite -- just seen yours. Each to their own, truly -- as I think you're aware, I enjoy nursing a grudge.

 

[neilmc]

Until I was nine years old we lived in East End Park, Leeds. I recall being taken down to the footpath adjoining the railway line and seeing an A4 pacific come on the adjacent line towards the coaling stage at Neville Hill, I recall the unusual appearance of this loco.

 

[Mvann]

Mine would be either the ex London Underground stock at ryde on a holiday in 1974 or the track maintenance equipment coming past the house about the same year

 

[fowler9]

I'm not sure which the first would be but these are my earliest. The Festiniog Railway, getting 304's or some variety of old gen DMU from West Allerton/ Mossley Hill to Lime Street. Watching trains from the playground of my Primary School which was right next to the Liverpool branch of the WCML by Mossley Hill station. Also 87004 hauling us from Lime Street to Euston then what I think was a 4 VEP out of Victoria (I can't remember where to). All in all I was around 4.

 

[scarby]

My earliest interest stemmed from a simple Hornby set.

My earliest memory is looking at the Scarborough engine shed roundhouse eith my grandmother, viewing it from a distance from Queen Margaret's Road. It was demolished in June 1971, so that must have been either the summer of 1970 or perhaps spring 1971.

My first memory of a working railway is the visit of Bittern and Sir Nigel Gresley to Scarborough on 21 April 1973. Remarkably, I still have a 'Special Platform Ticket' issued for that day.

I also remember visting a ruined Scalby station before it was demolished in 1974.

If only I had the foresight to use a camera!

 

[sprinterguy]

Ginster had an all over advert on a 158 once.

There were, in fact, a few units so treated: 158819, 821, 825, 827 and 841.

My interest in the railways stems from growing up in a house overlooking the Durham Coast line in Sunderland. From an early age I could observe the day to day operations of the varied Regional Railways Pacer and Sprinter fleet that traversed the route, and gaze in awe at the grubby, grumbling Trainload Coal liveried class 56s that made the doors rattle and the floor shake as they rolled past at the head of long strings of HAA coal hoppers bound to and from the likes of Wearmouth Colliery, Wardley opencast and Tyne Dock, amongst others no doubt.

Slightly later on, my Gran or sometimes my Mam would take me through to Newcastle to watch the trains for a couple of hours at what seemed like a distant railway mecca to a young, burgeoning enthusiast, sitting on the seats at the west end of platform 2 where I remember watching still nearly new class 91s buzz past, almost spotless swallow livery glinting in the sun. The Intercity 125 and 225 trains, travelling to far flung and exotic destinations, seemed so glamorous compared to the regular staple of work stained Pacers and Sprinters which worked my local line.

I also remember being taken to see "Bittern" masquerading as "Silver Link" while it was resident at the North Tyneside Railway in the early nineties, and being lifted onto the footplate of "Sir Nigel Gresley" as it stood at the head of a railtour at Newcastle in around 1994 and being terrified of both the big step up from the platform and the roaring flames visible in the firebox! A couple of years later, as a family we made a special trip out to the nearby Monkwearmouth Station Museum to stand on the platform as "Blue Peter" came through at the head of another tour.

 

[Strathclyder]

A 'Strathclyde Orange' 303 pulling into my local station (Singer) one hot summers' day, accompanied by my grandmother. That was all it took to trigger my interest in the railways. The photography side of things didn't come around until much later in life, though.

 

[Johnnie2Sheds]

Didnt really stand a chance. My dad bought a R052 Jinty (with the solid wheels) in about 1963 with three wagons and a circle of track. He worked shifts so when he was on nights, my old Ma would take me to watch the trains, so I remember 9Fs on freight. I learnt to count with the Stewart & Lloyds wagons en route to Corby and back, hauled by ghost like 9Fs. The only other steam loco I remember in service was the Jinty from Leicester on the pick up goods. Plenty of green 45s 20s and 25s too. Dont regret a second.