TRIVIA - Things you saw travelling on BR that you don't see today

[Lucan]

Blackboards and chalk used for special traffic notices, and information about delays and disruption

Even better - wooden finger boards - much battered - in place on (mainly) Southern stations , put in place by the platform staff.

Best of both worlds, there were fingerboards which were blackboards on which staff wrote announcements, or destinations possibly to replace the stolen boards that someone else mentioned.

 

[Greetlander]

Not sure if it's been mentioned (& CBA to trawl through 24+ pages), but I nominate Rail Riders vouchers, etc.

Sorry for the late reply but I hadn’t thought about RailRiders vouchers since my parents last used one. Were they the ones with the stretched APT along the top?
Whilst we’re on it, you don’t see groups of kids down the end of the platform praying that 47406 is about to turn up.

 

[krus_aragon]

Foot pedal operated toilets on trains. I think all Mark 3 coaches and most Mark 2s (or at least Mark 2 air-conditioned coaches) had them when built, but now I think only Mark 3 sleeping cars still have them.

Arriva's loco-hauled Mk3s also have them.

 

[Greetlander]

I remember waiting on Halifax station for a Blackpool train in holiday week (wakes?). Ended up on the very front seat of a cobbled together lengthy white liveried Calder valley DMU. Front seat joy and the driver let me use the horn as we went into a tunnel. Blackpool North was a very unfriendly place with jailhouse barriers slammed up and down so some things haven’t changed I guess.

 

[Bertiethebobby]

Wheel tappers
Runabout tickets

 

[quarella]

Sorry for the late reply but I hadn’t thought about RailRiders vouchers since my parents last used one. Were they the ones with the stretched APT along the top?
Whilst we’re on it, you don’t see groups of kids down the end of the platform praying that 47406 is about to turn up.

You mean like this...

 

[Greetlander]

You mean like this...

Exactly like that. Happy days.

 

[bastien]

Exactly like that. Happy days.

Do you remember the Rail Riders history poster, it was about 8 feet long and finished with the APT.

 

[Greetlander]

Yes I do now you mention it. And that poster with what was probably 47406 coming out of a roofed station...York maybe. Were there stickers too? Round ones? I’m not sure if I’m confusing them with the memory of my boys brigade badges.

 

[davsarg]

Oh, that's very easy to answer - sitting at the very front of a 10x or 11x DMU in the 1908s and being able to get the same view of the track ahead as the driver - assuming he didn't have the blinds down of course. Did anyone else here do the same thing? And was it just me or when you were watching the track ahead, did it look to you like the train was still moving forwards even though it was stopped at a station.

 

[30907]

Oh, that's very easy to answer - sitting at the very front of a 10x or 11x DMU in the 1908s and being able to get the same view of the track ahead as the driver - assuming he didn't have the blinds down of course. Did anyone else here do the same thing? And was it just me or when you were watching the track ahead, did it look to you like the train was still moving forwards even though it was stopped at a station.

1. Yes, of course, expect everyone old enough who ventured off the SR made a beeline for those front seats.
2. Yes, and from side windows too. There's a boring explanation somewhere.

 

[Class465fan]

Network southeast toothpaste livery.

 

[7ftBroad]

We had free pases (Swindon Works) Weymouth Wizard but we could not use it. Travelled a lot between Swindon and Belfast night time was Euston to Stranrar 2 adults 3 kids in a compartment. Day time via Gloucester and Birmingham.Head out of window most of time.
Coming back from Belfast once just with my mum on a cold night. The guard at Stranrar moved us nearer to the engine.

Having to pay port tax on the boat.

Remember you could buy a flask and there will fill it up for you.

Swindon station had damp dark tunnel

Trainspooting at Swindon station for 50 class 1pm train

 

[Cowley]

Oh, that's very easy to answer - sitting at the very front of a 10x or 11x DMU in the 1908s and being able to get the same view of the track ahead as the driver - assuming he didn't have the blinds down of course. Did anyone else here do the same thing? And was it just me or when you were watching the track ahead, did it look to you like the train was still moving forwards even though it was stopped at a station.

I used to shut my eyes for a while and try to convince my brain that we were actually going in the opposite direction, so that when I sleepily opened them again my mind would take a few seconds to work out which way we were actually travelling.
People sometimes wonder what we did for entertainment before we had mobile phones. Well it was this sort of thing...

 

[fairysdad]

And was it just me or when you were watching the track ahead, did it look to you like the train was still moving forwards even though it was stopped at a station.

I've noticed a similar illusion when watching cab-ride videos or playing Train Sim - although it doesn't look like it's moving forwards, but moving backwards. There will be some sort of scientific explanation for this which somebody more intelligent than I will be able to provide!

The odd thing about BR days that I remember (although I was still a preteen when privatisation happened) was that you could get rail advice and - I recall - tickets from places other than railway stations. Wasn't always accurate - I remember one occasion where we got some advice from the travel centre at Fareham Bus Station to travel back from my grandparents' to Devon (either Barnstaple or Tiverton, can't remember!) and they suggested we change at Salisbury. My mum was very annoyed when we got to Salisbury and the train we were advised to catch wasn't one that actually existed anymore.

(Being around 7 or 8 at the time, I remember thinking that the physical train no longer existed, not just that it had been removed from the timetable! But then again, I also remember during the 'wrong kind of snow' winter, trying to get back from London to Fareham and having caught one of the last trains out of Waterloo before 'the station closed', and imagining Waterloo station close by all the tracks being raised up like a huge drawbridge! No idea where that idea came from, and given that I now commute daily into Waterloo often think of this, especially a few weeks back!)

 

[Bald Rick]

I've noticed a similar illusion when watching cab-ride videos or playing Train Sim - although it doesn't look like it's moving forwards, but moving backwards. There will be some sort of scientific explanation for this which somebody more intelligent than I will be able to provide!

I first experienced the effect after spending 2 hours looking out of the window at the back of a train from Stockholm to Luleå, watching nothing but pine trees receding into the distance. When I looked at the interior of the coach, it seemed to be moving towards me.

When I got back, I asked an optician friend what caused it. It’s because when you look out of cab (forward or back) your eyes are constantly refocusing on to a number of fixed points. If you do this for a while, your eye muscles fall into a rhythm, and if you suddenly break by looking at a fixed point closer to you, your eyes take a little while to break the refocusing. Hence the illusion.

This doesn’t happen when you are driving as (usually) you will be breaking the rhythm by looking at the dash, or controls, consciously or not.

 

[DenmarkRail]

Seats.

 

[Steddenm]

I first experienced the effect after spending 2 hours looking out of the window at the back of a train from Stockholm to Luleå, watching nothing but pine trees receding into the distance. When I looked at the interior of the coach, it seemed to be moving towards me.

When I got back, I asked an optician friend what caused it. It’s because when you look out of cab (forward or back) your eyes are constantly refocusing on to a number of fixed points. If you do this for a while, your eye muscles fall into a rhythm, and if you suddenly break by looking at a fixed point closer to you, your eyes take a little while to break the refocusing. Hence the illusion.

This doesn’t happen when you are driving as (usually) you will be breaking the rhythm by looking at the dash, or controls, consciously or not.

It happens on the opening credits to EastEnders too. Because they spin at a quite high speed when they stop and form the logo at the end of the titles, it looks as though they are going anti clockwise slowly.

 

[gaymale]

Steam engines, steam sheds, coaling stages, water cranes on platforms with
coal braziers to stop them freezing in winter. Trains cancelled due to an inch of snow or leaves.
Train spotters at the end of every major station platform. Spotters with cine cameras and tape recorders. Semaphore signal gantries (well maybe the odd one somewhere?)

 

[Cowley]

Steam engines, steam sheds, coaling stages, water cranes on platforms with
coal braziers to stop them freezing in winter. Trains cancelled due to an inch of snow or leaves.
Train spotters at the end of every major station platform. Spotters with cine cameras and tape recorders. Semaphore signal gantries (well maybe the odd one somewhere?)

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Great photos

 

[Dr_Paul]

There are a couple of things I've not seen for some years.

1. Metal strips, about six feet long and two inches wide, alongside the rail that were depressed by the flange of a wheel when the locomotive or carriage passed over them. I have some idea that they were something to do with signalling, perhaps someone here knows for sure what they were.

2. Short lengths of flat-bottom rail, about two feet long, fixed lengthwise to half a sleeper. They had a flap on the top which, if lifted, showed a slot about half an inch wide and several inches long cut into the rail-head. There used to be several of these around Clapham Junction on the trackside. I have absolutely no idea what they were for. Any ideas?

 

[bishdunster]

1. Depression bars , when depressed by the flange it prevented the facing point lock bolt being withdrawn, or in some instances would operate track circuits as well.
2. The milled out slot would have contained a thermometer to monitor the rail temperature.

 

[AY1975]

Sorry for the late reply but I hadn’t thought about RailRiders vouchers since my parents last used one. Were they the ones with the stretched APT along the top?
Whilst we’re on it, you don’t see groups of kids down the end of the platform praying that 47406 is about to turn up.

Yes, or latterly 47488. In the late 1980s the Rail Riders nameplates were transferred from 47406 to 47488. From what I recall I think 47406 used to go all over the country and could be seen anywhere (I saw it at Waterloo on an Exeter train during a Network SouthEast go anywhere for £3 "Network Day" in 1986), whereas 47488 was mainly used on the Liverpool-Newcastle Trans-Pennine service when it carried the name "Rail Riders". I think 47406 was scrapped, but 47488 survives in preservation - currently stored at Barrow Hill, I believe. In the early 2000s it was a regular on the short-lived Midland Mainline loco-hauled turn, but by then it had lost its Rail Riders name and been repainted into BR green.

There is a separate thread on the Rail Riders club at www.railforums.co.uk/threads/railriders.42981/

 

[iantherev]

Yes, or latterly 47488. In the late 1980s the Rail Riders nameplates were transferred from 47406 to 47488. From what I recall I think 47406 used to go all over the country and could be seen anywhere (I saw it at Waterloo on an Exeter train during a Network SouthEast go anywhere for £3 "Network Day" in 1986), whereas 47488 was mainly used on the Liverpool-Newcastle Trans-Pennine service when it carried the name "Rail Riders". I think 47406 was scrapped, but 47488 survives in preservation - currently stored at Barrow Hill, I believe. In the early 2000s it was a regular on the short-lived Midland Mainline loco-hauled turn, but by then it had lost its Rail Riders name and been repainted into BR green.

I’ve got a slide of it at Waterloo that very day.

 

[Dr_Paul]

1. Depression bars , when depressed by the flange it prevented the facing point lock bolt being withdrawn, or in some instances would operate track circuits as well.
2. The milled out slot would have contained a thermometer to monitor the rail temperature.

Thanks for the answers. I did think that the first were something like that but wasn't sure; the second were a complete mystery to me.

 

[DavidGrain]

I was in Austria these past few days and the sight of cigarette vending machines on the streets over there reminded me that you do not see them on railway platforms or anywhere in the UK these days

 

[AY1975]

I was in Austria these past few days and the sight of cigarette vending machines on the streets over there reminded me that you do not see them on railway platforms or anywhere in the UK these days

They still have them on the streets in Germany too, although I believe that they now have a scanner where you have to swipe your "Personalausweis" (national ID card) to prove that you are over 18. I don't know whether it will work with a foreign passport, though - not that it matters to me as I've never smoked.

I remember seeing a cigarette vending machine outside Putney station when I was a young child in the late 1970s/early '80s. Not sure if it was still in use by then, though. I think we outlawed them on the streets many years ago, presumably because there was nothing to stop children from using them. More recently we have banned them completely, even on licensed premises.

I think you used to see them in station refreshment rooms back in the day. Several people have mentioned earlier on this thread that trains used to have smoking carriages. I also believe that until some time in the 1970s or '80s you actually used to be able to buy a limited range of cigarettes and cigars from train restaurant and buffet cars.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

They still have them on the streets in Germany too, although I believe that they now have a scanner where you have to swipe your "Personalausweis" (national ID card) to prove that you are over 18. I don't know whether it will work with a foreign passport, though - not that it matters to me as I've never smoked.

I remember seeing a cigarette vending machine outside Putney station when I was a young child in the late 1970s/early '80s. Not sure if it was still in use by then, though. I think we outlawed them on the streets many years ago, presumably because there was nothing to stop children from using them. More recently we have banned them completely, even on licensed premises.

I think you used to see them in station refreshment rooms back in the day. Several people have mentioned earlier on this thread that trains used to have smoking carriages. I also believe that until some time in the 1970s or '80s you actually used to be able to buy a limited range of cigarettes and cigars from train restaurant and buffet cars.

Uxbridge on the Met / Picc line has a listed "art deco" fag machine on the station concourse - price about 10p for 10 !

 

[RPM]

Uxbridge on the Met / Picc line has a listed "art deco" fag machine on the station concourse - price about 10p for 10 !

I noticed the cigarette machine last year but didn't know it was listed;

 

[Robin Edwards]

Overhead trunk telephone wires alongside the railway - they would seemingly rise and fall as you stared out of the window.