What do you miss from the days of long distance steam travel?

[Matey]

The things I miss are, the lower speed of the trains which generally allowed one to take in the view and seek familiar sights. Glimpses of branch line junctions with their stations. Corridor compartment stock - especially with leather strap drop windows. The easing and pulling of couplings. A glimpse of locomotives of all classes simmering in sidings and all the interesting wagons parked thereon. A walk up the platform at the end of a long journey admire the locomotive, to thank the crew and maybe have a chat.

 

[coppercapped]

Smuts in the eyes...

 

[Snow1964]

Deeply sprung seats, that you could sit on for hours without getting a numb bum

 

[Shimbleshanks]

Not sure I miss it as such, but I have vivid memories of the prickly feeling that the seats made on my short-trousered legs in the compartment stock in the Amlwch branch train, circa 1963. I also have a good memory of a big black steam loco at the head of a train of maroon coaches rushing into the platform at the 'big' station - almost certainly Bangor - on a trip to see my Grannie in Hull.

So that's three forum members with actual memories of steam on British Railways; I suspect we will be in a very small minority...

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Too young to remember steam train operations in BR days. Longest steam journey I've made (on a heritage line) is probably Heywood to/from Rawtenstall on the East Lancs, which is scarcely "long distance" but still allows the opportunity to experience a slowish journey, compartment stock, old wagons parked in sidings, etc.

 

[Bertone]

Standing in the guards/luggage “compartment “ of a peak hour commuter steam service in the late 1950’s up to Euston because the rest of the train was packed to the gunnels.
Not exactly long distance- sorry!

 

[Ostrich]

The sheer excitement, as a youngster, of standing on the platform at Snow Hill on a Summer Saturday (along with half the population of Birmingham, it seemed) awaiting the arrival of our holiday special to North Wales.
The restaurant car for our "silver service" lunch-time meal on that train, usually second sitting, so somewhere north of Shrewsbury.
Running into Chester station, side by side with another train, the fireman laughingly putting his hand out over the cabside number so we couldn't "spot "it!
And the Amlwch branch, possibly a year or so earlier than Shimbleshanks, a BR standard tank from memory; I managed a very shaky Box Brownie photo of it at Gaerwen (?)
All long distant memories now.

 

[Calthrop]

So that's three forum members with actual memories of steam on British Railways; I suspect we will be in a very small minority...

(A "couple" more than three now, since @Shimbleshanks 's post made .)

I suspect that "very small minority", overstates the case somewhat. With BR regular-everyday steam having finished in 1968: anyone aged sixty or over (which is nowadays very far from being in one's dotage) is likely to have coherent memories of said scene -- varying to some extent, according to where in GB they happened to live / visit. Encompassing a minority of members, sure; but I would reckon, not such a tiny one as all that !

I'm 73, so had twenty years of BR "bread-and-butter" steam: family and other circumstances were such that I got plenty of travel behind steam in those two decades; but not that much of it, truly long-distance. My chief experiences in the way of long-distance steam haulage, were in the 1950s, several times, between Spalding and Manchester via Lincoln and Sheffield (the stretch via Woodhead was electrified during the period in which we made those journeys). I'd have problems isolating individual, particularly-missed, elements of the "steam as the norm" scene; would just go on record as having found it overall, utterly delightful.

 

[Harvester]

My longest run with steam was in 1963 from Edinburgh to Newcastle, behind Peppercorn A1 60124. What I remember most is the fast running, behind a loco still in top condition.

 

[Welshman]

Adding to the "small minority" my abiding memory of steam is waiting on a gas-lit platform on a crisp winter's night as the train drew in. The shaft of brilliant light from the footplate piercing the darkness as the engine passed and the great waft of heat, promising warmth restoring life to numbed hands and face once settled into a steam-heated compartment, usually with steam leaking from the pipes between carriages.

 

[Cheshire Scot]

The small minority is growing!

Happy memories of sitting near the front of the train (and not forgetting 'the prickly feeling that the seats made' (@Shimbleshanks)) and hearing the steady rhythm of an A4 at speed on the Strathmore line with steam drifting past the (open) window, or working hard accelerating out of station stops (with the occasional slip) or climbing Cumbernauld Glen or towards Kinbuck.

I also recall a trip from Gleneagles to Crieff and back with a Black 5 with a second black 5 sighted arriving in Crieff with the trip freight from Perth- hardly long distance but this event made more of an impression than the trip from and back to Glasgow (Buchanan Street) which probably featured haulage by an A2 or A3 or A4 or maybe a Caprotti Class 5.

Earlier in the 60's being hugely impressed by the sight of 'City of Salford' arriving in Stirling one afternoon on what was probably the Birmingham or Crewe to Perth (or sometimes Aberdeen) service.

Two trips from the 1970s from Rheine to respectively Emden and Norddeich behind class 012 pacifics although without the sound effects of jointed track, and seeing the Norddeich to Munich sleeping car train swap from steam to electric traction at Rheine.

 

[DerekC]

One I recall very vividly is a trip behind a "Black 5" on the WCML, heading north out of Euston on a crisp, cold, snowy night in the early sixties - I think the wires were up but I am not sure about that. Leaning out of the first window in the leading carriage, hearing the bark of he exhaust and seeing the glow from the firebox shoot across the tracks as the firedoor was opened.

 

[Lloyds siding]

The smell! (and smuts in tunnels!)
The 18, 20 or even 22 coach 'Butlin's Specials' from Birkenhead Woodside or Liverpool Lime Street. Double headed.
I never made it to Pwllheli or Pen-y-Chain on these but alighted at stations in North Wales, especially after we got a caravan there (Penmaenmawr).

 

[RT4038]

(A "couple" more than three now, since @Shimbleshanks 's post made .)

I suspect that "very small minority", overstates the case somewhat. With BR regular-everyday steam having finished in 1968: anyone aged sixty or over (which is nowadays very far from being in one's dotage) is likely to have coherent memories of said scene -- varying to some extent, according to where in GB they happened to live / visit. Encompassing a minority of members, sure; but I would reckon, not such a tiny one as all that !

I'm 73, so had twenty years of BR "bread-and-butter" steam: family and other circumstances were such that I got plenty of travel behind steam in those two decades; but not that much of it, truly long-distance. My chief experiences in the way of long-distance steam haulage, were in the 1950s, several times, between Spalding and Manchester via Lincoln and Sheffield (the stretch via Woodhead was electrified during the period in which we made those journeys). I'd have problems isolating individual, particularly-missed, elements of the "steam as the norm" scene; would just go on record as having found it overall, utterly delightful.

And of course any of a younger age who have been lucky enough to experience long distance steam travel in Southern Africa (and a few other places around the world), which was fairly commonplace well into the 80s.

I certainly remember travelling behind steam on the Waterloo-Weymouth line (and intermediately), Swanage branch, trips on the GC line out to Harrow and Aylesbury, the Aberdeen-Glasgow trains, Birkenhead-Chester, Leeds-Carlisle, a steam hauled local from Carlisle to Hawick and steam hauled throughout on a Perth-Euston train, amongst others. I am also fortunate to have experienced main line steam haulage on the Bethlehem-Bloemfontein, De Aar-Kimberley, Warrenton-Mafeking and Bulawayo-Victoria Falls lines, and various branches. Main thing I miss of steam itself is the smells, but I think, as other posters have pointed out, the whole railway scene has changed almost out of recognition since then, not necessarily solely to do with steam traction.

Of course first generation DMUs were already well established in my childhood and I retain a particular affinity to them too, shocking as it might seem!

 

[PeterC]

Steam had just vanished from the GEML when I started using trains regularly. What I do miss from that era though is views of private sidings and, on longer journeys, a decent breakfast in a restaurant car.

 

[John Webb]

Born in 1946 I have numerous memories of steam-hauled long-distance travel. My father refused to own a car - he thought the roads were 'too busy' compared to his pre-WW2 driving experiences! So visits to relatives in Royal Leamington Spa involved a taxi to the nearest SE London station, an EMU to Charing Cross, taxi across to Paddington and then a WR train with a very different loco to the SR ones to get to Leamington. Holiday trips were likewise by train, except one occasion when we tried using a coach down to, I think, Herne Bay and I was terribly travel-sick. Back to the trains next year! Hooray!

Longest journey was to Falmouth in Cornwall. I was around twelve or thirteen and by then an ardent train-spotter. I knew of the 'Devon Banks' but at that time had no access to any of the Gradient publications, so wrote to BR (WR) asking for information and was invited up to Paddington where I spent an hour or two copying their gradient diagram in one of their drawing offices. Main memory of that trip was having lunch in the dining car while flying down the bank from Whiteball summit towards Exeter at 80+mph. Shame I lost my record of that run.

But yes, I suffered several times from smuts in the eye but loved the sound of a loco hard at work on a climb when I had my head stuck out of the carriage window.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Deeply sprung seats, that you could sit on for hours without getting a numb bum

Not in WR/SR 4-a-side compartments with no arm rests! (The others had 3-a-side compartments with moveable armrests which could be raised if needed).
Journeys were often very noisy with the sliding ventilation windows open, no double-glazing/aircon (steamed up windows in the wet) and very little welded rail (more clickety-clack and "roaring rails").
Could be very atmospheric at night with the lights dimmed (except for the one passenger who insisted on keeping his reading lamp on!).

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Just a few memories of a school excursion from Neath to Clifton Down for Bristol Zoo , loco unknown but fascinating evidence of passing steam hauled freights enroute.

Neath to Aberavon Town for an afternoon on the "sands" - out by a brand new green DMU , but back on an incredibly filthy non corridor train hauled by an equally filthy tank engine (Treherbert to Swansea ?) , I was roundly told off for spilling sand on the floor.

Hymeks and D1000 classes were so boring by contrast.

 

[Bertone]

Living in North London, most of our family holidays were to south coast resorts which were served by Southern Electric services.
However, one summer we did venture to Newquay, Cornwall by overnight steam service from Paddington trying to sleep sitting up.
I do recall that we had to alight at Par at about 6 o’clock in the morning to wait for the local train to Newquay.
A bonus was that from the caravan we were staying in, had a good view of the line into Newquay station and I was able to watch the comings and going’s.

 

[Springs Branch]

One of my favourite memories of steam-hauled expresses involves watching them, rather than travelling on them.

As a young child, each year I'd spend a week or two of the summer school holiday staying with an aunt & uncle who had a house overlooking the Bolton to Preston line - albeit at a distance across several fields.

Each evening before bed time, I was allowed to sit by the dining room window in pyjamas to watch "the boat train" go past in the distance. After the train had passed, it was off to bed with no arguing allowed.

The "boat train" was the Belfast Boat Express, the 20:55 Manchester Victoria to Heysham, which eventually, IIRC, became BR's last named express to be routinely booked for steam haulage.

Even aged just seven or eight, it was always a magical sight seeing a distant steam loco working hard (it was uphill hereabouts), hauling its string of warmly-lit compartment coaches through the English countryside in the summer twilight. And so long as it didn't rain, you knew you'd see it again tomorrow.

 

[Taunton]

So that's three forum members with actual memories of steam on British Railways; I suspect we will be in a very small minority...

Oh gosh, am I in a very small minority now?

All the activity at Taunton west end prior to an Up main line arrival. First in was the Barnstaple, 43xx and three Hawksworth corridors, into the bay. Then the main line train, never certain if it would be a Warship or a Castle, crossing over to the Up Relief platform (which is actually the principal Up platform at Taunton). Arrival from Minehead, a bit late, 41xx and two B-sets, stopped at the gantry, let in by calling on right to behind the express. Pannier tank comes from the shed, then back right across the layout, and pulls the Minehead across the layout. 41xx to shed, Pannier pushes the coaches into the Minehead departure bay, comes back on its own again, does the same with the Barnstaple train, which because of the layout for the arrival bay needs a double shunt both ways to achieve it.

Always something going on.

Down Bristol line express departing a bit late, Taunton crew have just relieved it, Castle plus about 13. Minehead branch train has been waiting for the connection (a concept younger members may need explaining), sets off from the bay in parallel. Old hands on the Castle, passed fireman and passed cleaner (possibly sons of the Castle crew) on the Minehead alongside giving it full welly to outperform them and show their tail lamp by Fairwater bridge, before shutting off. Thumbed noses and other gestures between the crews as they both pass full regulator under the footbridge. Passing small girls on the bridge scream as they are enveloped in the double steam cloud. But not me ...

 

[Arglwydd Golau]

To add to the memories above....definitely smuts in eyes whilst leaning out of the window, standing by the droplight with notebook and pen poised,
.....coming across seemingly random locos at random locations (of course, they were there for a purpose, but the reasons were way beyond me at the time)
...the excitement of not knowing which loco was to be hauling the train (and when boarding at a terminus the long walk to the front to admire)
...changing locos (in particular I recall leaving Mum and younger siblings in our compartment at Wolverhampton HL in 1966 and watching two grimy 760xx reverse onto our train to Pwllheli)
....watertroughs, I recall the windows receiving a good soaking but for the life of me can't recall where that was
.....the joy of a steam loco backing down onto our train when a diesel was expected (Glasgow on the T-C Express) and the utter disappointment when a diesel turned up when steam was expected (Waterloo 1962 on a train to Southampton and an excursion to Skegness from St. Neot's when a New England B1 was the expected motive power)

Of course I was lucky in that my father was mad keen on steam, yet in some ways his enthusiasm limited our train travel for he enthused about all things steam and was more than happy enough poking around Ironstone Quarries in Northamptonshire or chasing working steam rollers on quiet country lanes, but I'm not complaining about the experiences I had...

Longest journey by steam would have been to Pwllheli from Paddington in the early 1960's (also Pwllheli-Euston), but the longest overall was a weekend railtour from Waterloo to Aberdeen in June 1966, now that was a railway adventure for an eleven year old.....

 

[Jim Jehosofat]

I can remember a family holiday to the Isle of Wight in June 1967. Caught a train from Waterloo to Brockenhurst that was steam hauled and clearly remember lots of photographers at station we passed through. The return journey was hauled by a diesel but I've no idea of the type. I was 10 at the time.

 

[neilmc]

This is easy, I can only recall one steam-hauled journey on BR and that was in the autumn of 1967. During half term week at the end of October we did a shed "bash" around Manchester then came back to Leeds - which had just lost its steam allocation - on the FO Manchester-York which was still steam-hauled, normally by a Black 5. We were in luck and the loco assigned on this occasion was Britannia 70023 Venus. All the last Brits were now based in Carlisle but if one ventured to Manchester on something else it would occasionally be pinched for this train - there was no return working AFAIK so presumably the Brit returned back late in the evening or if it needed fuelling went via Normanton which was still open for LMR-based visitors to West Yorkshire.

This was not the final time I saw "Venus" although it had only two months left in service, after withdrawal at the end of 1967 it was stranded and dumped at Newton Heath until the end of April 1968

 

[matchmaker]

The small minority is growing!

Happy memories of sitting near the front of the train (and not forgetting 'the prickly feeling that the seats made' (@Shimbleshanks)) and hearing the steady rhythm of an A4 at speed on the Strathmore line with steam drifting past the (open) window, or working hard accelerating out of station stops (with the occasional slip) or climbing Cumbernauld Glen or towards Kinbuck.

I also recall a trip from Gleneagles to Crieff and back with a Black 5 with a second black 5 sighted arriving in Crieff with the trip freight from Perth- hardly long distance but this event made more of an impression than the trip from and back to Glasgow (Buchanan Street) which probably featured haulage by an A2 or A3 or A4 or maybe a Caprotti Class 5.

Earlier in the 60's being hugely impressed by the sight of 'City of Salford' arriving in Stirling one afternoon on what was probably the Birmingham or Crewe to Perth (or sometimes Aberdeen) service.

Two trips from the 1970s from Rheine to respectively Emden and Norddeich behind class 012 pacifics although without the sound effects of jointed track, and seeing the Norddeich to Munich sleeping car train swap from steam to electric traction at Rheine.

Similar Scottish memories for me! Hanging out of the window (leather drop straps) on a Clyde Coast service out of St Enoch and ending up with a face full of smuts!

 

[Signalmans Eye]

Experienced many many train journeys, however my first continental journey SEpt 1955 Dieppe to Paris was sitting on wooden slatted seats backrest too, and Paris to Rome walking thro carriages to restauraunt car while train rockin n rollin banging right arm against compartment door handles then returning after meals, you guessed it the left arm got bruised to even things up.

 

[Loppylugs]

I can definitely add to the memory section as I was a fireman at Reading (81D). Did anyone else on the forum work on the footplate? Apologies if any members received smuts in their eyes from my firing!

 

[Cheshire Scot]

sitting on wooden slatted seats backrest too

Not directly steam related (although Italy did still have a few steam workings at the time), but in the mid 70's I suffered wooden slatted seats on overnight trains in Italy!

 

[AM9]

Steam had just vanished from the GEML when I started using trains regularly. What I do miss from that era though is views of private sidings and, on longer journeys, a decent breakfast in a restaurant car.

I remember steam on the GEML, on my way to/from swimming, I used to see many trains in the '50s from mthe steps of the 'iron bridge', - a footbridge from Ilford High Road to Ley Street just by the Plessey Vicarage Lane factory. The bridge went over the main line tracks at the southern end and then across the middle of the Ilford car sheds.
There were several types to see, Britannias on Norwich expresses, Sandringhams on the Clacton trains and quite a few WD 2-8-0 hauled goods trains. The most memorable thing was the smuts and smell of sulphur and hot oil. Unless on a nostalgia trip, I don't miss the aromatic treats now. All the Shenfield and Southend Victoria services were electric by then. I never actually went on a GE line steam hauled train, but did a couple of trips from Barking to Fenchursch St care of BR & ex LMS 2-6-4T locos, and Liverpool St to Chingford behind ex GER 0-6-2T N7s.

 

[Beebman]

Sadly I never rode on any BR steam hauled services even though my family frequently visited Hampshire and Dorset in 1966/67. My Dad was an avid railway modeller but he never seemed to want to travel by train, always preferring to use his car. However I do remember having a picnic in a field in the New Forest close to Beaulieu Road Station in the summer of '66 and seeing a number of Bulleid Pacifics go past. We stayed in Weymouth in July 1967 and my Dad took me to a lineside vantage point to see the last steam Channel Islands Express hauled by 35023 which is a memory I've always kept.

In June 1968 we had a short holiday in the Isle of Wight (my first visit there) and this time we did go by train from Reading via Lymington as my Grandad was providing transport on the Island. If only we had made the trip just two years earlier (and caught the last year of IoW steam).

Anyway I did experience some 'real' steam haulage in Poland in 1991 which was great fun but I regret so much that I never got the opportunity to ride behind steam on the SWML in its last months.