What about creating a 1980s style preserved railway?

[12C]

The Midland Railway Centre seems to be doing a pretty good job of the late 80s branch line look with the WYPTE 141 and Blue/Grey 108 out this week.

 

[Bevan Price]

If you mean a January 1980 railway, the time of Sir Peter Parker's "crumbling edge of quality", then you are thinking of the (at best) corporate image of blue or blue/grey with unionised sloppy (younger) staff and grumpy older ones who remembered the blitz.

If you mean a December 1989 railway, the time of Sir Robert Reid I, a proper railwayman, then you are thinking of sectors, with IC, NSE and OPS/PSS. There are rakes about, of IC mark 3's both with class 43's and a class 87. There is also an NSE Society showing how good the state-owned railway could be, when well run, without privatisation.

WAO

Despite limited funds, it was the Sir Peter Parker era when they replaced inadequate dmus with 3+2 seating by loco-hauled stock, on services such as Birmingham / East Anglia, and Liverpool/ Manchester to Sheffield, Cleethorpes & Hull.

 

[bishdunster]

id forgotten about the brake dust, as a kid i seem to remember everything being covered in an orangey brown dust, trains. buildings, platforms all sorts, was almost romantic how it glistened in the early morning summer sunshine

some rarely used stations like beaulieu road still have concrete platform edging covered in a brown film, very nostalgic

Ah, X mover will get rid of that. A forgot it wes probably banned under the prevention of terrorism act or some similar legislation !

 

[Flying Phil]

Another candidate for the 1980's is the GCR(N) with its resident HST rake. There are also the Blue/grey and Blue/red coaches at Quorn from the rail testing programmes.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

The Midland Railway Centre seems to be doing a pretty good job of the late 80s branch line look with the WYPTE 141 and Blue/Grey 108 out this week.

The WYPTE red (and the slightly-less hideous front end after the refurbishment) is something I always associate with the 90s rather than the 80s- though not entirely accurately, as the refurb and repaint did indeed take place in the 80s.

 

[WAO]

Despite limited funds, it was the Sir Peter Parker era when they replaced inadequate dmus with 3+2 seating by loco-hauled stock, on services such as Birmingham / East Anglia, and Liverpool/ Manchester to Sheffield, Cleethorpes & Hull.

Yes. Sir Peter was a good guy. His misfortune was that a lot of staff didn't know when they were on to a good thing, such as the wrecking ASLEF blacking of the 317's. After prolonged disuse the blacking was lifted and they became very popular with drivers. It was at the height of the cold war with much left-wing union sympathy for....

I think that loco hauled services were also put on Manchester's Southports and Blackpools, which those towns richly deserved, as they had in L&Y days.

Nostalgia,

WAO

 

[nw1]

Exactly. I think of Blue/Grey as classically 80s. In reality it was 60s and 70s. The 80s was sectorisation and new liveries, but somehow that all feels more 90s to me than anything. I think it all depends where you were at the time, in an area at the front end of the modernisation wedge, or in the catch-up eventually zone. I guess I was in the latter.

Same with me as I did not use the railways in the 60s or 70s (well, technically, I did travel on what I later discovered to be 304s in the 70s, but at the time was very young and had no interest in the railways).

So I think of blue-grey as classically early-mid 80s, and NSE as classically late 80s-early 90s.

Kind-of similarly, I think of CIGs and VEPs as archetypal '80s' units, not because they were built in the 80s, but because that's when they were mid-life and some time from either introduction or withdrawal.

 

[davetheguard]

I remember the Swanage Railway doing some fun Network SouthEast signage during a diesel gala in 2014.

 

[XAM2175]

I remember the Swanage Railway doing some fun Network SouthEast signage during a diesel gala in 2014.

Pure class

 

[DJ_K666]

Surely Hedge End in Hampshire is a typical 80s station as its extremely minimalist and lacks most facilities. Done on the cheap like most stuff in the 80s.

 

[D6968]

I remember the Swanage Railway doing some fun Network SouthEast signage during a diesel gala in 2014.

View attachment 110776View attachment 110777

The North Norfolk did something similar in 2016, Chris Green was there doing a book signing too at Weybourne, myself and some friends asked for photos and he marched us all outside as he said ‘it’s such a lovely day for photos out there’
Lovely bloke, seemed to have time for everyone.
Dare I say, possibly the best Chairman BR never had?

 

[davetheguard]

Dare I say, possibly the best Chairman BR never had?

I'll very much second that!

 

[birchesgreen]

Hampton Loade also joins Network South East during Diesel Galas.

 

[VEP3417]

Surely Hedge End in Hampshire is a typical 80s station as its extremely minimalist and lacks most facilities. Done on the cheap like most stuff in the 80s.

ive only ever been there once a long time ago by accident as i caught the wrong train from eastleigh, i mean to go in the southamption direction

but yes your description is accurate

 

[DJ_K666]

ive only ever been there once a long time ago by accident as i caught the wrong train from eastleigh, i mean to go in the southamption direction

but yes your description is accurate

Oops! Easily done at Eastleigh hehe. You do get to see some interesting things in the workshop when you do that though. I got the Swanage DMU when I went along there.

 

[VEP3417]

it was at a time when slam door trains where slowly being removed so i caught one of them instead of a desiro...was still worth it

theres always interesting stuff in eastleigh almost on a daily basis

i think we might have to draw a line at serving 80s food at the heritage line though, might get a few complaints about a soggy br plain cheese sandwich

 

[nw1]

I remember the Swanage Railway doing some fun Network SouthEast signage during a diesel gala in 2014.

View attachment 110776View attachment 110777

A sign of what could have been had the closure not taken place in the early 70s.

 

[D6968]

A sign of what could have been had the closure not taken place in the early 70s.

You could argue the same for Sheringham and Holt maybe? Didn’t NSE go as far north as Kings Lynn?

 

[D6130]

You could argue the same for Sheringham and Holt maybe? Didn’t NSE go as far north as Kings Lynn?

Yes, but no further than Manningtree on the Norwich line, IIRC, as that was operated by the InterCity sector.

 

[D365]

How about creating a class 210 using some of the redundant class 317 vehicles?
Could run in multiple with a class 317as well.
That would be fantastic on a heritage 80s railway.

As it happens, there's a "Class 210" group on Facebook which intends to recreate a unit "210 003" in exactly that manner.

 

[nw1]

As it happens, there's a "Class 210" group on Facebook which intends to recreate a unit "210 003" in exactly that manner.

210s, they were really rare. Never actually saw one for-real but apparently the two units did a couple of Thames Valley diagrams out of Paddington in 1985/6. (However they did not in 1983/4, 1984/5 or 1986/7 - in the latter three years I made several day-trips to Reading and never saw one at all).

 

[Mike Machin]

I'm pretty sure I saw a class 210 at Reading in the summer of 1982, but I could be wrong. A class 210 also appeared in the video for Bronski Beat's 1984 hit 'Small Town Boy'.

 

[nw1]

I'm pretty sure I saw a class 210 at Reading in the summer of 1982, but I could be wrong. A class 210 also appeared in the video for Bronski Beat's 1984 hit 'Small Town Boy'.

Perfectly possible - I never spent any time at Reading during the 1982/3 timetable so they may have ran then. Perhaps they did run in 1983/4, 1984/5 and 1986/7 however they did not appear at Reading during core daytime hours - conceivable they may have worked Paddington-Slough local services for instance or appeared at Reading before 0930 or after 1800. (I mostly arrived on the 0940-ish hauled service from Guildford, the famous 0805 from Portsmouth, so never saw the morning rush-hour)

I do remember seeing a CWN for Reading in 1985 which showed one or two mid-day Oxford stoppers allocated 210s.

 

[Irascible]

I'm pretty sure I saw a class 210 at Reading in the summer of 1982, but I could be wrong. A class 210 also appeared in the video for Bronski Beat's 1984 hit 'Small Town Boy'.

Yes, I went through Reading around then & there was one idling in one of the west bays. I can't be sure of the year coz it was far too long ago now, but definitely early 80s rather than mid.