Wish I had been born 20 years earlier
I would happily sacrifice my PC, Smartphone, Xbox and all other modern devices to of been born in 1975 and not 2001.
Either way you look at, anyone born after 1980 has well and truly missed out.
Mate, trust me. There are people who were born in 1980, 1975 and before who are reading your posts and saying to themselves "
I really wish I'd been born in 2001"
Never, ever wish your life away. Especially not for something as trivial as trains. It may seem like your life is stretching away in front of you like an eternity but, even if you are lucky enough to get through it relatively unscathed and reach a ripe old age, it passes
frighteningly quickly.
You may think I'm 'lucky' to be old enough to have witnessed things like the Deltics on ECML expresses, all those 'classic' old diesels in squadron service and have travelled quite a few now long-closed railways on regular passenger trains. But when I was 17/18 I was saying
exactly the same things as you are "I wish I'd been born early enough to see steam, I wish I'd seen BR green livery, I wish I'd been around to have seen so many more branch lines, signalboxes, goods yards..." etc etc etc.
But now I wish I'd been born a lot later!
Forget what you didn't witness. You only get one shot at life so concentrate on the present, get out there and live the best and most fulfilled life you possibly can. Aim for the stars, don't be afraid of good, old-fashioned hard work and live every moment as though it's your last. Then, when you get to be an old fart like quite a few of us are, you'll have the satisfaction of looking back at your achievements and going "I did all that. Nobody else did it for me and I didn't waste a day."
Life is precious. Treasure it.
Class 37s in particular have serious 'presence'.
While I regret missing out on a rail scene of wall to wall workings by dirty great diesel locos and am thoroughly stuck in the eighties myself, I personally feel that there's no better place to be than right here and now.
