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

[trash80]

Lots of spotters and the end of platforms. You can go through previous spotting hotspots such as Crewe and not see a single soul at the end of any of the platforms.

Plenty of them around but they have RTT now so know when they can go and have a cup of tea and not miss anything

 

[PR1Berske]

Plenty of them around but they have RTT now so know when they can go and have a cup of tea and not miss anything

Something for another thread: has technology killed spotting?!

 

[Whistler40145]

Who remembers the old 1970s/1980s flip style destination boards at London Euston and no doubt other stations.

 

[Clarence Yard]

Who remembers the old 1970s/1980s flip style destination boards at London Euston and no doubt other stations.

Yes - Solari indicators! In black and white with that reassuring rustle as they changed description and then spotting the occasional sticky flap that showed something bizarre, like restaurant service on a local!

 

[Mike Machin]

I found a BR trolley marked 'not to be moved from Harwich Parkestone Quay' in Gothenburg!

 

[Mike Machin]

The truly eccentric lady station announcer at Reading General station in the early to mid 1970s. 'Faaast train to Paddington - click long pause - now approaching pletfaawm - click long pause - number 4. Ridding - Ridding!'

'Chippenham, Bath Spa, Bristol Temple Meads and Weston Soooooper- mare - click burrrrr - now approaching - Ridding!'

 

[6Gman]

Lots of spotters and the end of platforms. You can go through previous spotting hotspots such as Crewe and not see a single soul at the end of any of the platforms.

They're all at Stafford!

 

[Ianigsy]

Yes - Solari indicators! In black and white with that reassuring rustle as they changed description and then spotting the occasional sticky flap that showed something bizarre, like restaurant service on a local!

Headbolt Lane was always a mysterious phantom destination on the indicator at Moorfields- think there was also an Aintree via Marsh Lane! Ditto (circa 1980) seeing destinations like Barrow and Kilmarnock on the boards at Euston.

The truly eccentric lady station announcer at Reading General station in the early to mid 1970s. 'Faaast train to Paddington - click long pause - now approaching pletfaawm - click long pause - number 4. Ridding - Ridding!'

A running gag on Terry Wogan's breakfast show at the time, I remember.

 

[AY1975]

Rammed full Bensen and Hedges and John Players fag butts .

Which also reminds me of sitting in a mk1 with no lights in a tunnel outside New Street in the 70s with just the glow of my dads ciggy in the darkness.

Smokers smoking illegally in non-smoking compartments (especially when drunk and/or travelling to or from a football match).

Signs on tables in station refreshment rooms saying this table has been set aside for non-smokers (and smokers illegally removing them and smoking).

 

[AY1975]

Gents' toilets with a barber's shop in the same subway/undercroft. I can remember at least two stations where this was the case: Manchester Piccadilly before the early 2000s rebuilding, and London Waterloo.

The sign at the top of the stairs to the Gents' at Waterloo used to say "Gentlemen and Barbers", suggesting that the toilet was for use by gentlemen and by barbers (implying that barbers were not gentlemen!).

Station toilets also often used to have coin-in-the-slot coinboxes on WC cubicle doors. In pre-decimal days they cost 1d to use, then with decimalisation this was more than halved to 1p (as 1d was equivalent to two and a half new pence), then by the late 1970s/early 1980s most stations had increased it to 2p, 4p (i.e. 2x2p) or 5p.

This also meant that men didn't have to pay for a "number 1", only for a "number 2". That was, until BR gradually replaced the coinboxes with entrance turnstiles in the 1980s, so men had to pay for a pee for the first time.

 

[EM2]

Yes - Solari indicators! In black and white with that reassuring rustle as they changed description and then spotting the occasional sticky flap that showed something bizarre, like restaurant service on a local!

There's a guy who has scratchbuilt one for his model railway. It's an awesome piece of kit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDQcpUdeYbY

 

[yorksrob]

Gents' toilets with a barber's shop in the same subway/undercroft. I can remember at least two stations where this was the case: Manchester Piccadilly before the early 2000s rebuilding, and London Waterloo.

The sign at the top of the stairs to the Gents' at Waterloo used to say "Gentlemen and Barbers", suggesting that the toilet was for use by gentlemen and by barbers (implying that barbers were not gentlemen!).

Good job they didn't try that at Leeds - the poor barber would have fallen unconscious from the smell of the gents in the subway !

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Wooden phone boxes with closing doors on Paddington station - soon removed for security reasons.

 

[xotGD]

Gents' toilets with a barber's shop in the same subway/undercroft. I can remember at least two stations where this was the case: Manchester Piccadilly before the early 2000s rebuilding, and London Waterloo.

The sign at the top of the stairs to the Gents' at Waterloo used to say "Gentlemen and Barbers", suggesting that the toilet was for use by gentlemen and by barbers (implying that barbers were not gentlemen!).

Station toilets also often used to have coin-in-the-slot coinboxes on WC cubicle doors. In pre-decimal days they cost 1d to use, then with decimalisation this was more than halved to 1p (as 1d was equivalent to two and a half new pence), then by the late 1970s/early 1980s most stations had increased it to 2p, 4p (i.e. 2x2p) or 5p.

This also meant that men didn't have to pay for a "number 1", only for a "number 2". That was, until BR gradually replaced the coinboxes with entrance turnstiles in the 1980s, so men had to pay for a pee for the first time.

I think you've got the conversion factors slightly out - two and a half new pence equates to six old pence.

 

[Taunton]

There's a guy who has scratchbuilt one for his model railway. It's an awesome piece of kit:

I wonder if it gives the same trouble as the real ones did - the larger installations apparently needed a full-time mechanic to keep them going. They operated by a substantial number of bicycle chains behind the scenes, and had access platforms etc to reach all the mechanism.

 

[PeterC]

Departure board at Liverpool Street giving all the major connections for the Harwich -Hook boat trains. It always gave the the feeling that I should have picked up my passport and gone somewhere more interesting than the office.

 

[TUC]

A lack of trains on the ECML on Sunday mornings, drspite passenger demand for travel.

 

[lincolnshire]

Transfesa wagons at Brigg Station goods yard, every year when it was time for Seville oranges were ready they was sent to Brigg. Springs jam and marmalade factory was also in Brigg so they imported the oranges direct via the train ferry and delivered to the station goods yard in front of the station entrance.
Women from the factory unloaded the Transfesa vans on to lorries for the short distance to the factory this used to happen every year at Seville oranges time.
How times have changed, no goods yard and only a passenger train on a Saturday.

Also another once a year was vans been sent to Brigg Sugar Beet sidings and lined out with brown paper before been loaded with sugar in the factory and dispatched by the train load. Gone is the Sugar Beet factory and the sidings along with the signal box to allow thee trains into the sidings. Brigg Sugar Beet sidings was maned as required or else switched out at other times.

 

[swapmeetpete]

Interesting to hear about vans being paper lined for sugar beet. Should anyone require detailed information, my instructions on how to paper a 12T van are preserved for posterity here: http://tioatiboa.co.uk/fearnstation/a-railman-remembers-8-one-potato-two-potato/

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Wagons of Scottish seed potatoes , insulated with straw .....

 

[Taunton]

Interesting to hear about vans being paper lined for sugar beet.

I think this was the outbound refined sugar product, in bags. Inbound beets straight from the field were commonly loaded at wayside stations into convenient empty open coal wagons, which many stations had on hand. The beets were still covered in earth, and would be boiled at the factory, so no such care needed on the inward journey.

 

[mikey9]

Ability to blag round sheds sometimes even with Foreman's permission (York almost daily) - even St Rollox, Haymarket, Grangemouth, Eastfield (with a spare driver as a guide) and many more.....

14:23 (IIRC) York to Plymouth (FO) - used to dispatch ETH refurbed 50s back to the South West (and memorably used to turn up pairs of 25s and other random stuff....

Merrymakers

Mad March and Fabulous February Fares (£4, £8 or £12 maximum fares ANYWHERE - I think 1987/88 - we managed Southampton-Kyle via Penzance - out via and crewe - return down the East on a circular fare ticket....

Overnighters on Crewe and Reading without being considered (too) strange

Extensive RESL (?) shed tours on an organised coach with permits.

Shed Permits!

Sheffield - St Pancras newspaper train (with two compartment coaches - very cosy and empty. Best way to the smoke....

Dringhouses yard hump shunting.

 

[mikey9]

Was Invited into the cab of a very new 59001 at Westbury and driven down the siding - couldn't believe my luck!

 

[Taunton]

Sheffield - St Pancras newspaper train (with two compartment coaches - very cosy and empty. Best way to the smoke....

Presumably the ECS of the London newspapers going the other way, Sheffield not being a notable printing centre.

The down Newspapers to the West of England ran to Cornish Riviera timings, and in steam days was always a King turn. That, too, had a couple of Brake Composites on the back, which always had a few sailors in them. The guard always allowed any naval officers to sit in the Firsts, regardless of ticket, to avoid embarrassing the lads in the Seconds.

There was a standard "initiative test" for navy officers in training, which comprised them being taken from Plymouth by sealed lorry, dumped somewhere like the Brecon Beacons, in civvy clothes with no money, and told to get back to base pronto without being detected. The guards all knew about this, would identify them hiding ticketless in the train, give them a sly wink, maybe even share their tea in the van, and tell them how to get out of North Road without the station foreman seeing them. I think that's yet another aspect to have vanished.

 

[D Foster]

A world class management training scheme , covering all functions

Station Managers (proper ones - with idenifiable gold braid caps - on the platforms in the peaks - not hidden away around 150 miles away in a bland office block)

These have got to be tongue-in-cheek!!!

Management Trainees were a joke! Their common specialities were putting point clips on over the top of the rail and scotches in stood upright. Arriving for a night shift with a PWay Possession in high heals and "inappropriate" clothing was a nightmare for PWay Inspectors. (Back then that was only the lady management trainees).

Visible Station Managers???????? Really???? I only ever knew one - but at least he was superb - would stay back, see that all was being sorted out smoothly and then make everyone a tea or coffee. He would also be on the barriers for really bad rush hours and back us up against the stroppy passengers...
That's something we don't see any more - passengers - they're all customers now.

 

[D Foster]

Peter Parker, Chris Green, Bob Reid and a few others who actually knew about running train services.

 

[341o2]

Was Invited into the cab of a very new 59001 at Westbury and driven down the siding - couldn't believe my luck!

I can just about remember being invited into the cab of a steam loco at either Holsworthy or Bude and when you stood by the lineside and waved at the crew of a steamer, they would wave back.

Just reminded of a freight train stopped at a signal. Wedding taking place and the fireman disappeared for about five minutes. He came back grinning from ear to ear, having gone and kissed the bride. "Well," he said, "I'm as dirty as any chimney sweep and made her day!"

 

[D Foster]

One thing definitely not missed - the stench of tobacco and browned (deep brown) cream paintwork - maybe that was once even white paintwork - in smoking compartments and carriages - and the filthy/disgusting debris on the floor... The mess had to be swept out at least twice a day on commuter services. This was all part of the "filth" - more the responsibility of policies about smoking and passenger behaviour than the staff. Fag mess also had to be removed from platforms and waiting rooms at regular intervals... And littered the ballast between platforms.
Fags seem to have been replaced by gobs of chewing gum...

Live chicks in cardboard boxes (mentioned before) were "fun". A few thousand of them chirping made a dreadful noise.

Has anyone mentioned Red Star parcels offices or British Transport Services lorries. Come to that - what about Scammel 3 wheeled "mechanical horses" - I can recall those collecting "luggage in advance".

Another definitely not missed - half-dead mixey rabbits stumbling all over the track. Then again - there could also be undermined embankments and arable fields shorn flat for yards in from the railway boundary by the bunnies.

 

[D Foster]

As well as the green finger boards (I think some other railways/regions used them?) I recall the wooden departure indicators at Waterloo and Victoria (BTW, is there anything online about how exactly they worked?) - did Brighton and London Bridge have them too?
Glasgow Central's was different but lasted years longer. And various others (eg roller-blind type) whose location I forget.

I don't know about "on line" info - but when starting I used the individual destination boards that were kept in a rack below the slot-bracket that they were put in to display the next train - or the one that had last left if someone forgot to change it. They were quite high up so that most people didn't bash their heads on them - with the result that changing the board could be a challenge for some very short staff.
Posh stations had sets of destination boards already at the high position which pivoted in or out of their rack - something like a slotted post signal arm with multi arms. The boards in these were linked to levers at waist height.

 

[D Foster]

Thank you for this response.
My fuzzy recollection of my sighting is from the early 1960's so could be wrong but I don't think the stock was of continental origin as illustrated in your link. I'm pretty sure the coaches were in Southern Green of pre-war vintage. I recall seeing patients in beds, but Southern, I don't think, ever had sleeper stock. I'm sure there were Red Cross markings. Other than that - a mystery.

Very unlikely to be any kind of European stock because we have a smaller loading gauge (except the GCR) - unless the Germans had built special small stock that could work through on the ferry.

A different military traffic was various armour being carried on warflats or later similar flats. On some routes or parts of routes these had to be run as Out of Gauge Loads. Fortunately they did this Right Line and we didn't have to mess about with the horror of sending the OOG Wrong Line. In some places we did have to block the opposite line while they worked through. The curves between Reigate and Redhill were one example. These days it all goes by raod as far as I know. then again - rail vehicles regularly get shifted by road...