Trains you regret that you did not catch when you were at the station

[65477]

In the early 1970's I did shift work in the City of London. As the was no handover from the night to day shift we were allowed to leave when work as cleared. Sometimes this found me at Liverpool Street waiting for the 04:00 newspaper train on the Cambridge line. The train I regret not catching was the single public train each morning to Epping. Surprisingly this was available on the old mechanical signs at the platform ends.

The rule for this thread is that you must have been at a station while a train available to purchase a ticket for at the time departed within a reasonable time of you being there.

 

[pdeaves]

Basingstoke rail day, 1987. BR was running a 'service charter' [1] shuttle to Ludgershall. I could have caught it but decided not to do so. I regretted that decision for over 30 further years before I finally got to Ludgershall (on the Andover Fist tour, and even that needed two attempts!).

[1] Not a service train as such but open to anyone to board on the day and pay the fare.

 

[Sad Sprinter]

In the early 1970's I did shift work in the City of London. As the was no handover from the night to day shift we were allowed to leave when work as cleared. Sometimes this found me at Liverpool Street waiting for the 04:00 newspaper train on the Cambridge line. The train I regret not catching was the single public train each morning to Epping. Surprisingly this was available on the old mechanical signs at the platform ends.

The rule for this thread is that you must have been at a station while a train available to purchase a ticket for at the time departed within a reasonable time of you being there.

You mean you could catch a BR train from Liverpool Street terminus to Epping? Interesting. When did this service end?

Interesting rules. I think what comes close was a journey I made from Woking to Farnborough. I remember we could catch a new class 450 or wait a short while for a Wessex Electric. I chose the class 450 because it was new. Little did I know the Wessex Electrics would be scrapped in two years and that was my last chance to get one one under SWT. Always regretted that, who would choose a Desiro over a Wessex?!

 

[WesternLancer]

The Night Ferry

As a child in the 1970s there would have been times when I'd have been at Victoria with my mum in the evenings returning from London, so it would have been possible to have got a ticket and used it (had I shown enough initiative to have nagged my parents enough...). Living in Sussex it was always easiest to go direct to the port, usually Newhaven, and the higher costs of the Night Ferry would have probably put my parents off using it, sadly.

 

[65477]

Basingstoke rail day, 1987. BR was running a 'service charter' [1] shuttle to Ludgershall. I could have caught it but decided not to do so. I regretted that decision for over 30 further years before I finally got to Ludgershall (on the Andover Fist tour, and even that needed two attempts!).

[1] Not a service train as such but open to anyone to board on the day and pay the fare.

Certainly meets the criteria in fact it reminds me of my 2nd example. Open day at Cambridge with a couple of specials to St Ives. Did not ride on them as at that time there was talk of the line re-opening, As it turned out it became the guided busway and I have not even travelled on that.

You mean you could catch a BR train from Liverpool Street terminus to Epping? Interesting. When did this service end?

At the time there were two early morning DMU's the first was for staff only, I presume to open up the stations, and this was followed by the second. I don't have access to the WTT's for this period so don't know when the service ended.

 

[Gloster]

In Manchester around 1980 I failed to twig that the Sheffield’s were diverted via Woodhead. I only realised when I took a trip out to Hadfield and saw one racing through on the Down line in the dusk.

I also regret missing the chance to travel Athlone-Mullingar in daylight: I only ever did it on the Night Mail.

EDIT: I did get to Ludgershall: early 1979 I was working at Andover and scrounged a trip in the back cab of the 33 on the goods. Didn’t see much as there was a van first in the make-up each way.

 

[delt1c]

I always regret not using the Thames Clyde Express, travelled from Glasgow to London in the 70's always used the WCML as it was faster.

 

[RT4038]

At the time there were two early morning DMU's the first was for staff only, I presume to open up the stations, and this was followed by the second. I don't have access to the WTT's for this period so don't know when the service ended.

Round about 1971 I believe.

 

[Logan Carroll]

Class 314 Farewell Tour - It passed by my local station and i would have loved to have got a photo of it but i had fell out of interest with trains at that time.

 

[30907]

At the time there were two early morning DMU's the first was for staff only, I presume to open up the stations, and this was followed by the second. I don't have access to the WTT's for this period so don't know when the service ended.

I thought they were intended for staff heading to London, running before Tube opening hours. The connections at Leyton (used for goods and excursions as wellwell even after Ongar went electric) had long gone by the time I lived in Buckhurst Hill in the mid 80s

My own biggest regret is from Germany: I was in Erfurt in November 1996 with half a day to spare at short notice and a regional multi-day pass. I chose to do a circle via Oberhof and Wernshausen and visit Eisenach; I could, had I planned it properly, have done the Rennsteig line with its fearsome gradients behind a DR 219/228 - by the time I next visited it had closed.

 

[Cowley]

I regret not doing the Cambrian Coast in a loco hauled train. I did a few all line rovers in the early 90s and didn’t want to tie up a Saturday doing it, but looking back on it I should have.

 

[CW2]

For me it's Weymouth Quay. I was on an All Line Rover and joined the 09:40 Waterloo to Weymouth Quay with 73123. I had intended on doing it all the way through, to do the track, and for the novelty value. Word reached me that there was a Eurochildren Charter running from Dover Western Docks to Stranraer that evening, booked for 40122 forward from Carlisle. Going all the way through to Weymouth Quay would jeopardise my chance of getting all the way to Dover to pick up the charter, so I baled out and Basingstoke., thinking I'd pick up Weymouth Quay some other time. I never did, and now it's being lifted.
[Edit: I'm slightly off the original topic I realise, in that I did actually catch the train, but then got off it short of destination].

 

[Flange Squeal]

I remember as a kid we had the Anglia Crosslink service serving my local station, which ran from their main area onto the North London Line then SWT metals to Basingstoke. On trips to London I always wanted to catch the Anglia train somewhere like Stratford, and then go into London that way, but it was always case of "maybe next time", instead catching the next SWT service.

 

[WesternLancer]

For me it's Weymouth Quay. I was on an All Line Rover and joined the 09:40 Waterloo to Weymouth Quay with 73123. I had intended on doing it all the way through, to do the track, and for the novelty value. Word reached me that there was a Eurochildren Charter running from Dover Western Docks to Stranraer that evening, booked for 40122 forward from Carlisle. Going all the way through to Weymouth Quay would jeopardise my chance of getting all the way to Dover to pick up the charter, so I baled out and Basingstoke., thinking I'd pick up Weymouth Quay some other time. I never did, and now it's being lifted.
[Edit: I'm slightly off the original topic I realise, in that I did actually catch the train, but then got off it short of destination].

Def a tough call to make there!

 

[andythebrave]

I remember as a kid we had the Anglia Crosslink service serving my local station, which ran from their main area onto the North London Line then SWT metals to Basingstoke. On trips to London I always wanted to catch the Anglia train somewhere like Stratford, and then go into London that way, but it was always case of "maybe next time", instead catching the next SWT service.

At that time I lived in east London and worked in Westminster and my morning commute was Leyton - Stratford - Highbury & Islington - Pimlico.
Once, just for laughs, I went Stratford - Feltham - Waterloo.
It took rather a long time.

 

[David Burrows]

In the early 1970's I did shift work in the City of London. As the was no handover from the night to day shift we were allowed to leave when work as cleared. Sometimes this found me at Liverpool Street waiting for the 04:00 newspaper train on the Cambridge line. The train I regret not catching was the single public train each morning to Epping. Surprisingly this was available on the old mechanical signs at the platform ends.

The rule for this thread is that you must have been at a station while a train available to purchase a ticket for at the time departed within a reasonable time of you being there.

Leyton box closed 1971 and the physical connection was removed., so the DMU service must have at least finished by then. Laterly the two Sunday morning trains ran as far as Loughton, with Central Line connections from there to Epping, having come from Loughton sidings. As far as I remember, both DMUs returned ECS to Stratford. The cab of the DMUs, not being fitted with tripcocks, were double manned. The diesel engines (and the steam engines they replaced) which worked the freight and excursion trains until about 1964, had all been fitted with tripcocks.

 

[peteb]

The night ferry to Paris from Victoria; Rugby to Nottingham GC DMU service; Blaenavon last special train; many loco and Mk1 stock services in the 1990s: you get the picture!

 

[pdeaves]

The night ferry to Paris from Victoria; Rugby to Nottingham GC DMU service; Blaenavon last special train; many loco and Mk1 stock services in the 1990s: you get the picture!

Were those all ones where you were effectively at the station and decided not to board the train (as per thread 'rules'), or services that over the years you thought 'I wish I had gone to XXX'? For the latter, I am sure we all have a long list of missed opportunities!

 

[Bletchleyite]

Were those all ones where you were effectively at the station and decided not to board the train (as per thread 'rules'), or services that over the years you thought 'I wish I had gone to XXX'? For the latter, I am sure we all have a long list of missed opportunities!

The thread rules are quite limiting!

To be fair, I've often been at Euston when the Highlander was boarding and wished

 

[65477]

Leyton box closed 1971 and the physical connection was removed

If this was the case my regrets would be even greater as it would have been 1971 when I was at Liverpool Street to see the train.

Were those all ones where you were effectively at the station and decided not to board the train (as per thread 'rules'), or services that over the years you thought 'I wish I had gone to XXX'? For the latter, I am sure we all have a long list of missed opportunities!

Thanks for saying this - as the OP I did want to avoid this thread becoming a wish list of regrets but more recollections of close misses.

 

[adamedwards]

Harwich Boat Train from Manchester to Harwich. The one I did get was the Napoli Express from Boulogne to Roma including a shunt round the Petit Ceinture from Gare du Nord to Lyon.

 

[route101]

Class 314 Farewell Tour - It passed by my local station and i would have loved to have got a photo of it but i had fell out of interest with trains at that time.

Was on that, good day out! Always try and do these things.

 

[peteb]

Were those all ones where you were effectively at the station and decided not to board the train (as per thread 'rules'), or services that over the years you thought 'I wish I had gone to XXX'? For the latter, I am sure we all have a long list of missed opportunities!

Ok thread drift apologies but certainly the GCR dmu from Rugby where I was taken by my Dad to watch the trains, and certainly the night ferry as I was in London by then but have to say in all honesty only saw arrivals!!

I also saw the dmu at Lutterworth and wanted a ride to race the cars on the M1, having driven towards Leicester from there and raced the train in the car, but being an Austin 1100 I think the train won!

 

[vlad]

Quite a few years ago Cross Country (or was it Virgin back then) ran through trains between Birmingham and Manchester Victoria one weekend due to engineering works at Piccadilly.

A service that ran far more frequently was the Jubilee Line to London Charing Cross. I genuinely don't understand why I missed this so I later made sure I managed to get to Shoreditch on the East London Line before that closed....

 

[CW2]

If I can have another go ...

In the mid-late 1960s we used to have a family holiday at Westward Ho! in north Devon each August. I remember one year we went to Barnstaple for the day, and I persuaded my parents to let me go to the station. Whilst I was there a through Ilfracombe to Paddington train arrived, hauled by a D800 "Warship". Another train was due shortly towards Ilfracombe, but my parents hustled me away. They didn't want to spend their holidays standing on a station platform.

I never did the Ilfracombe line before it shut, and don't recall ever having a Warship in service.

 

[trainmania100]

I regret not travelling on the 319s more to be honest, on the thameslink.

 

[neilmc]

I started trainspotting in 1967, and for a couple of nights a week hung around on Leeds City station. There was still a bit of steam left, including Fairburn tanks taking out the Bradford portions of the trains coming in from Kings Cross. An evening trip to Bradford wouldn't have cost much in either time or money, but I never thought to do it until the steam had all gone.

 

[xotGD]

I watched 82s and 83s depart from Carlisle when a trip to Penrith would have got them in the book. Never had either class for haulage.

 

[D1537]

As a young spotter my friend asked me if I wanted to go with him and his friend on an Adex to York. However myself and another friend had been on one only a few months before (electric to Stockport, Class 40 to York via Stalybridge) and so we decided to do a different one that was also running that day, to Brighton. We had a good day (and had our first class 33 for haulage, 33061 from Mitre Bridge to Brighton). However when we next saw our friend he informed us that his train had not changed engines at Stockport, but due to a problem somewhere on the normal route had run into Piccadilly and then via Woodhead. I never managed Woodhead. Curses.

 

[Taunton]

I never did the Ilfracombe line before it shut

I got there just once, last year of the Taunton-Barnstaple line, must have been 1966, then on, in a WR Derby suburban dmu. Principal memory is that it was still running to steam times, and we waited time for several minutes at each and every station along the way. Noisy full power climb up to Mortehoe from both directions.

More widely, what do I wish I'd caught? Taking a Moscow suburban train, and having the Trans Siberian running alongside ...