Things you like about the railways (or, favourite moments)

[Peter C]

Evening all.

I know there can be a lot of negativity surrounding the railways at the moment, so I was wondering what people's favourite things are about them there train things (and the stuff they run on and around).

This isn't the first thread on this sort of theme, I know, but I thought it could be nice to have a railway-specific one.

Your favourite thing could be anything nice, really. I'll start: it really made my day, after a stressful journey from Bristol back home one evening the other week, when a member of staff at Oxford made the effort, upon seeing me sitting on a bench down the platform, to stroll over and let me know that my train was in fact not leaving from the platform I was on, and was going from the opposite one - that little act of helping someone out meant I got home on time and got to the train with plenty of time to spare.

Over to you.

-Peter

 

[signed]

I was running late for a Bavarian regional train, I arrived a few seconds late as the doors locked, the train started very slowly to accelerate out. I pulled back, thinking that I missed it and had to wait an hour (which was fine as I buffered my next connection), but to my absolute amazement, the driver actually stopped the train and unlocked the doors. Kudos to that driver, I had never seen anything like that.

 

[Peter C]

Oh that's brilliant! It's amazing when something like that happens - I remember one occasion when the guard of a train to Oxford held the train for a few seconds as they saw me and my relatives dashing over the footbridge to board the train. It meant a lot at the time because we weren't delayed and it didn't hold up the service either.

I'd add another thing - not something I've experienced directly, but it's Quite Nice when a branch line service - especially at the end of the day - is held for a late-running mainline train. One of those moments where the human side of the railway is at its best.

-Peter

 

[43066]

Evening all.

I know there can be a lot of negativity surrounding the railways at the moment, so I was wondering what people's favourite things are about them there train things (and the stuff they run on and around). This isn't the first thread on this sort of theme, I know, but I thought it could be nice to have a railway-specific one. Your favourite thing could be anything nice, really. I'll start: it really made my day, after a stressful journey from Bristol back home one evening the other week, when a member of staff at Oxford made the effort, upon seeing me sitting on a bench down the platform, to stroll over and let me know that my train was in fact not leaving from the platform I was on, and was going from the opposite one - that little act of helping someone out meant I got home on time and got to the train with plenty of time to spare.

Over to you.

-Peter

For me at the moment it’s still probably last month’s bumper pay check, if I’m being honest.

The view from the cab at this time of year is a close second as the leaves turn, as are the excellent bunch of colleagues I work with (even @baz962 ).

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Despite my deep apprecitiation of the NY subway , I got it wrong somewhere in Brooklyn , there was a train in the station and I asked the conducter what the headways were for a certain route as he was "closing up the train" (been there for about 20 mins) - does not run on Saturdays and Sundays he said , so he opened up again and let me on. Once on the move , I went and thanked him , to receive the comments that he did not want to leave a greenhorn+ on the platform. A kind gesture and appreciated.

I learnt to pay more attention to the route information boards , which tell you when certain runs , or whether they are local or express etc.

(+ greenhorn being a new arrival to the city)

 

[GordonT]

I quite like the fact that there are still some opportunities in the UK to travel on scheduled services on the main line which are worked by a loco and coaches as God intended!

 

[Bald Rick]

Favourite moments as a passenger:

A trip Rickmansworth (Chiltern) - Harrow (Met Line) - Finchley Road (Jubilee) - West Hampstead (change to Thameslink) to St Albans in under 45 minutes; every connection dropping perfectly.

Any time going through Rugby at 125. Still can’t get over that.

 

[Travelmonkey]

I quite like the fact that there are still some opportunities in the UK to travel on scheduled services on the main line which are worked by a loco and coaches as God intended!

Doing Chiltern loco hauled to Marleybone from Snow Hill soon, actually a little excited, definitely much better than a 350/2 all the way,

For me it's the guard I had on the North Staffs line last Wednesday, he was a absolute delight ready with the ramp for me at Kidsgrove & peartree, a very bubbly man with a smile on his face, positivity rubbing off on the whole of the turbostar,

 

[LittleRedTrain]

Trips up the Cambrian Coast in good weather:
Clattering along the shore and over the bridges, with blue skies, blue sea and lots of wonderful scenery.
The misery of commuting into London or fighting for a seat on CrossCountry into Birmingham seems a million miles away.
The staff are usually cheerful, friendly and helpful, other passengers are generally happy, and there's always a cute dog or two onboard.
I know it's not perfect, but it seems a lot closer to how the rest of our rail network should be.

 

[WirralLine]

I remember in the olden days on the 507/8s if you arrived after the doors had closed, if the guard hadn't given the bell to the driver yet they'd often let you in through the back cab. Gone are those days although I did witness it once a couple of months ago.

My overall favorite part of rail travel is the scenery- so many beautiful parts of the Network.

 

[exbrel]

for me at the moment its if my train is still running, and arrives on time...

 

[HaxbyTraveller]

For me at the moment it’s still probably last month’s bumper pay check, if I’m being honest.

The view from the cab at this time of year is a close second as the leaves turn, as are the excellent bunch of colleagues I work with (even @baz962 ).

That comment (the second one) cheered me up for the day ... so nice to read how someone likes their job for the simple fact of seeing the leaves turn for autumn. We don't appreciate the little things around us enough.

I was on an LNER train a few weeks ago, and the man serving drinks made a girl (eleven?) a 'cocktail' - orange juice, can of soda and ice - it made her journey and brought a smile to people around us.

 

[Peter C]

That comment (the second one) cheered me up for the day ... so nice to read how someone likes their job for the simple fact of seeing the leaves turn for autumn. We don't appreciate the little things around us enough.

Yes I love that one. It's the reason I made the thread really - it's often just the little things in life isn't it? Lovely stuff.

-Peter

 

[sh24]

Having my preferred Pullman Dining seat held for me on GWR. Feels very cool.

 

[Steve4031]

My favorite train memory from the UK was riding a slam-door train from Waterloo to Aldershot, IIRC, to ride the Watercress line. It was my first train ride in the UK, and it was in 1988. In the United States, it has been absolutely forbidden to open windows on the train when it was moving, so I was ecstatic to have a compartment and an open window. Yes, I stuck my head out of the window at speed and enjoyed the ride. I'm probably lucky to live to tell you about it, too. I recall doing this only on curves where I could see what was coming.

Japan has some fantastic memories. I enjoyed riding the bullet trains. In Tokyo, the employees bow before letting you onboard. My favorite memory was riding on a local train on the last night of my trip. I was the only foreigner on the train enjoying the ride and listening to music on my headphones. We stopped at a station and sat. I could see huge thunderstorms in the distance, and my weather app predicted severe storms. So, I assumed the delay was related to the weather.

After about 10 minutes, the conductor arrived, and she had a Japanese person with whom she could speak English. This person explained the delay would be about an hour and apologized profusely. The conductor even bowed. I was astounded because you are lucky to get an announcement on Amtrak. If you ask, you may get a snarky remark.

Then, one lady came over, gave me a water bottle, and patted me on the shoulder. Another brought me some candy. I was 50-plus years old and completely humbled by their kindness.

I used Google Translate to thank the conductor and explained that an hour delay was not a big deal when I had experienced 10-hour delays on Amtrak. The expression on her face was priceless.

A favorite memory from Europe was my trip on the night train from Paris to Copenhagen. I had a room to myself. The attendant handed me a wooden handle and showed me how to use it to open and shut the window. In the US, I know every mile of every route. I had a Thomas Cook schedule on this trip, but it only showed the major stops. So, I did not know where I was for most of the trip. We stopped in Namur, and I had to search the map to trace the route. Then we stopped in Cologne. I woke up the following day when we were loaded onto the boat train. The entire operation was fascinating.

 

[class350desiro]

The staff - the comfort - being able to get up and wander about - the sheer scale of it - I daresay the fact that a lot is unchanged from before the turn of the century!

 

[43096]

Favourite moments...
- Full breakfast on the up Highland Chieftain over the Highland Line on a glorious sunny morning, with a pair of Valentas powering.
- 43080 Edinburgh to Carlisle in September 2008 on a GNER diversion. Empty TGS, and a power car performing to the max.
- 41001 at Mid-Norfolk gala on the evening train back to Dereham on 02/04/2016.

Favouite things and places on the railway...
- Eating a proper meal on a train. When done well, such a civilised way to travel. Now unavailable on service trains in the UK, but still a fabulous experience with the likes of CD, ZSSK and ÖBB.
- The Hudson line in New York state.
- Big freight. Still a source of amazement at the sheer scale of North American freights.

 

[ian1944]

A small memory from many years ago which has stayed with me. Alighting at Lockerbie southbound after dark to be met by family en route to a stay in Peebles, I found the lights on (naturally), the coal fire blazing, the staff welcoming. Apart from the lack of churns, porter and cat on a seat, everything wanted at a small country station.

 

[mrcheek]

Favourite moment: every single journey I have made along the coast at Dawlish. Forget Settle to Carlisle, forget the West Highland Line. There is no journey in Britain more beautiful than this one

 

[Trainguy34]

For me it's either getting a cheap first class upgrade and speeding to London at 125mph as the sun set in a comfy seat, or being allowed on an earlier train home to save an hour's wait at a dodgy station. Both happened on the same night!

 

[BazingaTribe]

A few incidents spring to mind. In no particular order:

I'm the little autistic girl who had a Tube map on her bedroom wall. It was the 80s, and our local leisure centre had a Tube map with Trafalgar Square still marked as a station. I had a very calm meltdown when my mum tried to drag me away from analysing it, saying (ironically enough) I had a map at home already.

When I was undergoing severe mental health problems and lost an expensive return ticket on Reading station. The excess fares desk charged me £50, but some kind soul paid it for me when I started getting anxious and panicky.

The really kind staff at Basingstoke and Reading. I lamed myself in an accident during the pandemic and have unfortunately had to see the side of life that involves mobility impairment and pain. I use a walking stick, and therefore it's obvious that I have a disability -- and while nothing in the UK comes close to the kindness I was shown being allowed to skip to the front of a long queue at American customs on my way to Disneyworld a couple of years ago, people are willing to hold doors, lifts and even trains in order for me to catch them.

The time on my interrail summer trip in 2000 to Poland where I almost ended up on the Belarusian border and actually did end up in a backwater town, Bialystok (briefly part of the Belarusian SSR under Stalin before being handed back to Poland; the nearby 'Suwalki gap' is a thin strip of Polish land between Kaliningrad and Belarus which is as vulnerable as the old Danzig corridor was before WW2), with no real tourist facilities (as before, I'd heard it was the town to go to to see more of the old Russian empire, but hadn't bargained on it being quite so unspoilt). The route, from Gdańsk, snaked through the lakeland area of Mazuria and so I tracked my progress along the lakes all the way to Bialystok.

I bumped into two students after asking around if anyone knew a good hostel or budget hotel, but they invited me back to their house and we spent it doing, you know, the kind of things students get up to on a non-school night.

Favourite moment: every single journey I have made along the coast at Dawlish. Forget Settle to Carlisle, forget the West Highland Line. There is no journey in Britain more beautiful than this one

OMG same. Just came back from my annual jaunt to a sci-fi convention in Plymouth. It's the part of the line that I try and have a window seat for, and looking out both there and back this time at the infinite sea just underscored how insignificant we North Atlantic rock-dwellers are! The estuaries and mudflats further on near Teignmouth before the line curves inland are also quite dramatic backdrops, although I only really see them in November so they're always 'dramatic' rather than 'spectacular'. Like with the Mazuria trip, I tracked our progress on Google Maps. It's always a temptation to be so busy fiddling with the map that you miss the scenery, but that area of the country is also where I get all my topographic ideas for fictional landscapes -- it's much easier to visualise what's going on if you have a 3D model for it...

I'm sat on a train to Slough eating a massive Cornish pasty. I'm away for work and then going back via my mum and dad's, and it's just the best way to travel.

 

[Ken H]

Scoffing on train stations. The platform end one at Worcester Foregate St, Lady Foleys at Great Malvern (sadly gone I think), Brief Encounter at Carnforth, Costa at Man Vic (yeah, I know you watch trams, not trains). And now the cafe at Hellifield and the summer only one at Ribblehead.
I even like getting a takeaway on the footbridge at Leeds and watch the western approach through the big windows.

 

[yorksrob]

Getting a nice train ride through the countryside that's not too crowded, not extortionate and the connections work.

That's rail travel at its best.

 

[Peter C]

I've just seen this on the BBC News website and thought of this thread. Sounds excellent to me:

Trains to carry hundreds of poppy wreaths to Paddington memorial

The wreaths will be laid on trains heading to London Paddington on Monday morning.

www.bbc.co.uk

Trains carry hundreds of poppy wreaths to memorial​

Trains heading to London Paddington on Monday will be carrying hundreds of poppy wreaths to the station's war memorial ahead of a Remembrance Day service.
The wreaths will be placed on early morning and overnight GWR services at 90 stations along the route, including parts of Bristol, Somerset, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Devon and Cornwall.
Upon arrival at Paddington, they will be laid at the memorial on Platform 1 ahead of a service at 10:45 GMT.
The station will also be hosting a display of 22,442 cascading poppy petals recycled from wreaths collected during previous ceremonies.
The poppies will be put on trains by Royal National Lifeboat Institution [RNLI] volunteers, including many former service personnel.
The charity is this year its 200th year.
RNLI military veterans Simon Jeffery, coxswain at Plymouth lifeboat station, and Tony Rendle, mechanic at Penlee lifeboat station, will travel with the wreaths to attend the service at Paddington.
They will be joined by RNLI education and water safety volunteer Gaynor Williams, who organised a knitathon to create a large knitted poppy wreath.

Among those attending the service will be Margot Billinge, daughter of D-Day veteran and Normandy Memorial Trust fundraising hero Harry Billinge MBE, who passed away in 2022.

Ms Billinge will travel from her home in St Austell, Cornwall, to greet the train named in honour of her father as it arrives into Platform 1.

GWR's operations director, Richard Rowland, said "it promises to be another poignant occasion at London Paddington".

The RNLI's chief executive Peter Sparkes said the charity was "deeply honoured" to be involved this year.

"The wreaths placed onboard will represent our RNLI communities who save lives at sea, honouring those crew who have made the ultimate sacrifice over the past 200 years of the RNLI, including World War One and Two", he said.

-Peter

 

[mountainpixel]

Waking up on a night train with good weather and a breakfast. Especially here in the UK, they are always such a joy to ride and unwind.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Waking up on a night train with good weather and a breakfast. Especially here in the UK, they are always such a joy to ride and unwind.

I'd love to do the sleepers the whole way sometime. Only ever done the Night Riviera as far as Taunton (arrival around 0300) so didn't bother with a berth... Oh, if only slip coaches were still a thing, I'd quite happily have kipped in a siding until breakfast time!

 

[BazingaTribe]

Waking up on a night train with good weather and a breakfast. Especially here in the UK, they are always such a joy to ride and unwind.

Hah. I'm normally dead to the world after staying up as long as I can to observe what the world looks like after dark. We first went on one when I was 10 (the French version of Motorail to Milan) and being shunted around on the Swiss border was enough to wake me up.

I've done sleeper trains quite a few times on the continent but not in the UK. Waking up between Belgrade and Budapest while going past a field full of sunflowers was amazing.

Observing the array of different passport controllers is also fun. The Romanians were the most distinct people in Eastern Europe because of the Latin influence. Seeing some smugglers run off into the morning sunshine at Panchevo after crossing from Timisoara was the best bit of that trip.

I'd actually quite like to do the Night Riviera route to Plymouth next year. I go down there for a sci-fi convention every November. The old Interrail hack was to use sleeper trains as rolling hotels and criss-cross Europe back and forwards overnight to save on accommodation. It wasn't my favourite idea -- I like being settled somewhere on holiday, even when touring, and being able to leave my bags behind when I go for a meal etc, but it's certainly an idea for the financially challenged. It's probably not as much of a bargain in the UK I'm guessing, but since it costs as much as a hotel anyway, I'm thinking of it as a real possibility.

 

[trainophile]

Done the Cal Sleeper twice, both times in February. There's nothing to match having breakfast while looking at the stunning snow-covered mountains as you coast along into Fort William.