First rolling stock you can remember travelling on?

[Oxfordblues]

Steam-hauled non-corridor stock to Amlwch.

A Derby Lightweight DMU from Bangor to Menai Bridge in about 1958. We lived in Beaumaris, which of course never had a railway*, and my Mum would take me on the bus (usually a Bristol Lodekker) into Bangor for shopping most Saturdays. For weeks I begged her to take me for a train ride and one day she finally relented. I was hugely excited, as from Beamaris all you could see of steam trains was a distant speck on the other side of the Straits. Imagine my disappointment then when we crossed the footbridge at Bangor and emerged to find one of the new diesel sets on an Amlwch service. I was singularly unimpressed of course but we got a front-view going through the smoke-filled Belmont Tunnel. Happy days!

(* except for the Beamaris Pier luggage tramway and Saunders-Roe slipways)

 

[TheWalrus]

Class 321 EMU in 2000.

 

[NSE]

One of the slamdoor stock that used to operate from East Croydon to Victoria. I think 421 or 423? I remember using them as NSE finished and the livery remained and then watching as they all got Connex livery. I always loved standing at the end of the platform at Victoria and seeing those two faces looking down at you. Mind you, I love the 377, so I still love doing that at Victoria haha.

 

[Southsider]

Class 303 /Class 311 wrap round windows and all.

Whatever preceded the 303s on the Springburn branch. No idea what they were, perhaps someone can enlighten me?

 

[markindurham]

Class 502s on the Liverpool Exchange to Southport line

 

[MCSHF007]

Calder Valley Class 110

 

[317666]

A newly refurbished 317/6 from Cambridge to King's Cross (non-stop) in 1999 or so when I would've been about 3 - my love for the 317s has never died since!

 

[Mag_seven]

Whatever preceded the 303s on the Springburn branch. No idea what they were, perhaps someone can enlighten me?

Probably steam! See these images from the Railscot website:

https://www.railscot.co.uk/img/49/128/

https://www.railscot.co.uk/img/23/61/

 

[Southsider]

Probably steam! See these images from the Railscot website:

https://www.railscot.co.uk/img/49/128/

https://www.railscot.co.uk/img/23/61/

That's the ones - many thanks. I recall getting similar from St Enoch to the Clyde coast, Largs I think then the Talisman to Cumbrae.

 

[Andrewh32]

All I can remember which Dad confirmed, it was from Kettering to St Pancras and it failed before we got to Wellingborough, summer 1976 we absolutely baked whilst we awaited rescue

 

[Peter Mugridge]

All I can remember which Dad confirmed, it was from Kettering to St Pancras and it failed before we got to Wellingborough, summer 1976 we absolutely baked whilst we awaited rescue

Midland Main Line in the 1970s would pretty much have been a 45 with Mk1 stock, I think.

 

[Andrewh32]

Midland Main Line in the 1970s would pretty much have been a 45 with Mk1 stock, I think.

Thank you that would make sense

 

[Nammer]

Class 205 (3H) from my local station, Cosham for Rail Riders trips to Portsmouth Harbour

 

[Ash Bridge]

Midland Main Line in the 1970s would pretty much have been a 45 with Mk1 stock, I think.

That just got me thinking, whilst down for a visit to the GCR during 1976 I recall photographing a class 45 somewhere between Loughborough and Leicester on the MML on the way there. Until I can locate this shot I can't 100% confirm it but I'm rather certain it was a rake of Mk2 aircon's behind it. Having just dug out my copy of 'British Rail Mark 2 Coaches' it does indeed confirm that by the 1976/77 timetable there were 13 sets of Mk2ds in service on the Midland Mainline, as the OP mentioned being absolutely baked and remembering the exceptionally hot summer of 76 it seems like a mk2 with failed A/C would definitely fit the bill?

 

[Dr Strider]

My very earliest memories are from the earliest 1980s of travelling on Mk2 InterCity stock on the WCML and the MML. Lots of blue / aquamarine seats I seem to recall.

When I started to travelling in 1988 - from Wolverhampton to New Street and environs - my main memories are of (very bouncy) 304s with weird motor noises, and the 117s with their terrific cab views (but which had nothing else going for them).

On longer InterCity (IC) routes we mainly had Mk2 with a few Mk1s thrown in as well. I think I remember seeing a few services where the first class still had compartments. Some of the IC stock had dining cars with plastic orange seats, but these didn't last long after I started travelling. Almost every other IC service seemed to have a loco change at Wolverhampton or New Street.

Not long after I started the 304s started being replaced by smart-looking, refurbished 310s (which actually had a PA system, the 304s and 117s certainly didn't). As the OP said, nothing compared with the excitement of when the 323s arrived.

I don't miss the daily layers of tobacco smoke and oily grime on my clothes though!

Dr Strider

 

[class303]

Another vote for the 303s here. great old beasts.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

That just got me thinking, whilst down for a visit to the GCR during 1976 I recall photographing a class 45 somewhere between Loughborough and Leicester on the MML on the way there. Until I can locate this shot I can't 100% confirm it but I'm rather certain it was a rake of Mk2 aircon's behind it. Having just dug out my copy of 'British Rail Mark 2 Coaches' it does indeed confirm that by the 1976/77 timetable there were 13 sets of Mk2ds in service on the Midland Mainline, as the OP mentioned being absolutely baked and remembering the exceptionally hot summer of 76 it seems like a mk2 with failed A/C would definitely fit the bill?

That theory makes sense. It's prior to my own time so I can't confirm anything either way... I have recently tweeted a number of MML pictures from 1983, though, which do have air conditioned vehicles - but also still some Mk1 around at that time.

 

[Ash Bridge]

That theory makes sense. It's prior to my own time so I can't confirm anything either way... I have recently tweeted a number of MML pictures from 1983, though, which do have air conditioned vehicles - but also still some Mk1 around at that time.

That would probably be the first time that I saw a Peak heading a rake of aircon's, and as much as I liked the 45/46s, to me their dated lumbering appearance never really looked quite right on the more modern stock like this compared to say a 47 or 50, just a personal thing of course.

 

[Andrewh32]

That just got me thinking, whilst down for a visit to the GCR during 1976 I recall photographing a class 45 somewhere between Loughborough and Leicester on the MML on the way there. Until I can locate this shot I can't 100% confirm it but I'm rather certain it was a rake of Mk2 aircon's behind it. Having just dug out my copy of 'British Rail Mark 2 Coaches' it does indeed confirm that by the 1976/77 timetable there were 13 sets of Mk2ds in service on the Midland Mainline, as the OP mentioned being absolutely baked and remembering the exceptionally hot summer of 76 it seems like a mk2 with failed A/C would definitely fit the bill?

That theory makes sense. It's prior to my own time so I can't confirm anything either way... I have recently tweeted a number of MML pictures from 1983, though, which do have air conditioned vehicles - but also still some Mk1 around at that time.

Thank you both, I suspect given the explanation that it was a Mk2 set.

 

[Skiptonjohn]

My first rolling stock that I remember travelling on was on LT District Line trains from, Hornchurch, Essex. These were clestory roofed units dating back to pre Second World War. The year was 1953. I also remember travelling on LMS steam carriages that ran on the LTS line to Fenchurch Street and Southend and these were hauled by Stanier tank engines, I lived in a house that backed on to the railway, just outside Hornchurch station.

I travelled on the former DC versions of the class 306 EMU’s from Romford to Southend Victoria or Liverpool Street. THe Romford Upminster service was a steam push-pull service.

 

[Kieran1990]

Remember my first trip out of Guildford on a Class 442 in the early 1990s up
to Waterloo, this Is when they worked on a couple of diagrams on the Pompey Direct . Was a family trip to York, my first by train. I was about 6/7 years old, was fascinated when I got to Kings X and got on 225 to York.

Remember the return and arriving at Waterloo to be greeted by a slam door and not being impressed at all.

 

[CeeJ]

For me would have to be the LU 1996 stock on the Jubilee Line. Definitely has one of the most iconic (probably most iconic on the LU) sound of any train. Will be a shame when they're replaced in the 2040s

 

[USRailFan]

It was probably one of these sometime in the late 70s/around 1980.

 

[50031]

My earliest memories would be class 116 DMUs on the valley lines, still in the distinctive white livery with blue stripe. Pontypridd and Treforest were my local stations. Not sure of exact time, but I would have been 5 years old in 1977.
Also remember the mystery trips that used to run from the valleys on summer Sundays with 47s and old Mk1s. Went to Folkestone in possibly 1982, Blackpool in 1983 and the last one to Clacton in 1984

 

[Roger100]

Most of my early memories are of going to school on the train from Iver on the GWML. The train was usually hauled by a 61xx Large Prairie Tank, and the coaches could be a mixture of types. The non-corridor (type 57?) coaches were our favourites and it must have been an ordeal for anyone sharing a compartment with use schoolchildren. Pastimes included removing the rubber inners from the door seals for nefarious purposes, and opening the doors close to bridges. Sometimes there were corridor coaches in which case we'd occupy the last one in case the final connecting door had not been locked so we could watch the track. Occasionally there would be a different loco - around 1958 'City of Truro', brought out of preservation, turned up to great cheers from the boys. Small Pannier Tanks were sometimes used.
Other memories are going from West Drayton to Uxbridge Vine Street and Staines West in GWR Railcars, and probably also between Slough and Windsor.

 

[FGW_DID]

Most probably a Class 503 on the Wirral Line.

 

[richieb1971]

I can remember as a 5 year old travelling behind a peak 45 in a spartan plasticky looking carriage which was loud and scary at the time. I remember going into the toilet and could hear the wheels against the tracks really loudly. Would have been 1975-1977. Suspect they were the normal carriages of the day from St Pancras to Bedford (probably on a Nottingham service). I recall a lot of trains of the day used to stop at places like Beeston and Melton Mowbray. Strange that 40 years later I do not recall any trains from Bedford stopping there anymore.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

The earliest train I remember going on was a Virgin Super Voyager from Newton Abbot to Dawlish when I was about four or five.

Then we returned on an Arriva Trains Wales 150. It must have been hired to First Great Western. (Wessex Trains had only just packed in at the time)

Obviously I had been on trains many times before but I just cannot seem to remember them...

 

[Wolvercoter]

Earliest memory is 80 Class to Portrush back in mid 1980s.

 

[Cravens]

A Stock on Metropolitan Line back in about 1997/8. My first national rail memory is a SWT 455 in around 2000.