What made you interested?

[YorkshireBear]

Just out pure curriosity what made you interested in the railways or an enthusaist whichever term you want you use.

For me, my mum used to work nights and when my gran looked after us she took us to sit on meadowhall station ( talking 95-2002 here ) that was a treat for me and i was always excited so thats why it happened. And dad used to take me on random train journeys to where ever he felt like.

so anyone got something they remember exciting them or words to that effect?

 

[yorksrob]

I always enjoyed travelling by train, but I think what got me really interested was when I first visited Rye (from Ashford) with my Dad. Not only was it a revelation to me that a line to Rye even existed, but being in the heart of third rail territory it hadn't occurred to me that we might get diesel trains - particularly ones which looked and smelt very different from the electrics. (An unrefurbished Hampshire DEMU had a very different ambience from a refurbed CEP!). The railway was suddenly a more interesting place to be and needless to say I was hooked.

 

[mrcheek]

Merrymakers.
Also, car sickness.

I have many memories from when I was a child. I have memories of days out in the car. When I was always sick. Then I have memories of days out on the train (on Merrymaker, cheap day return holiday special tickets!). And I never got sick on a train. So from an early age, I hated cars and loved trains.

Also, living right next to the railway for the first 23 years of my life may have contributed.

 

[yorksrob]

Merrymakers.
Also, car sickness.

I have many memories from when I was a child. I have memories of days out in the car. When I was always sick. Then I have memories of days out on the train (on Merrymaker, cheap day return holiday special tickets!). And I never got sick on a train. So from an early age, I hated cars and loved trains.

Also, living right next to the railway for the first 23 years of my life may have contributed.

Yes, it was the same with me regarding the car sickness!

 

[At_traction]

First, childhood's UndergrounD memories.

Later living far, far away near a railway line with diesel traction for passenger and cargo trains. Also nearby was a dumping ground for old steam locos, freely accessible - ie. not fenced in, although strictly not public space either - with stuff like boilers, girder bridges and an odd handcar strewn around.

Thirdly older brother's interest in the subject; I remember an illustrated loco book he had from the library that first introduced me in side view colour plates to (for example) the then new HST and APT prototypes, harbingers of Bright New Future. That book would have to be found again somewhere, dammit... He soon regained his wits and took more to the music and arts whereas I continued to slide into my present rail-wayed state...

 

[asylumxl]

I've got many memories of the first few years of my life (0-6) of sitting on the northbound platform at Esltree and Borehamwood, watching HSTs shoot by while waiting for a Thameslink train heading north.

 

[Ostrich]

Very few cars around in the late 50's, my parents certainly didn't have one. So it was off on holiday from Birmingham Snow Hill to the North Wales coast, spending my days locospotting at Llandudno Junction or Rhyl ..... Black 5's, Jubilees, Brits, the odd B1 on excursion, the (DMU-rostered) "Welsh Dragon" and many, many more ......

 

[Oliver]

Looking out of my bedroom window:

http://nick301.photos.us.com/p39252666.html

 

[TGV]

I was thinking this very thing earlier today. I grew up next to a railway (WCML in southern scotland just north of Carstairs Junction) so that was the main factor. When I were a lad, it was 87's and MK3s and the HST's that dominated the scene along with the ScotRail electrics. Then came (and went) the APT and left the area shortly after that. I defected to England and the ECML in cambridgeshire for many years - again, I lived right next to the railway.

I took many trips as a lad into Glasgow with my parents - I remember those vividly. The train journey was the thing I looked forward to most, but I was most interested in how they worked. I was never a "spotter" - I have never once stood near a railway and noted down names or numbers or whatever else they do, but I was fascinated by how they worked.

Now, I earn my living as a rolling stock engineer. So it's true to say that from my earlies memories to now, the one common theme has been railways. Oh and my grandfather was a railwayman too.

 

[90019]

I find the engineering and mechanics of it all fascinating, as well as the sheer scale of it all.
I also find it interesting the way it all fits together and the way all services are planned to work around each other.

 

[Lampshade]

I'm more interested in the architecture of stations rather than the trains themselves.

 

[43067]

My early memories gowing up on tees-side when ICI was at it's peak and the MGR's bombing through billingham being hauld by 56's the steel pipe train from h'pool pipe mill. the line going up to haverton hill was always good for double headed 20's, 31,37,47,56 then the 60's. i remember my first HST being the one a day going north along the durham coast it normally passed through billingham at around 8pm i never did find out where it went to (possibly the forerunner to the GC service?). nowadays being in the Navy it's HST's which are my fave as it's what took me down to plymouth almost 20 years ago. so when i leave in 4 years i'd love a job on the rail's it's what i would say is a natural progression for my next career.

 

[Zamracene749]

Being taken by my dad for a trip from Darlington to Peterborough started it for me.

There was a dirt cheap rail travel offer on for some royal event (Diana and Charles wedding I think?) so as a treat I was promised a ride on an 'Intercity 125' to York .

Being 9 or 10 at the time, i was thrilled to be taken on a High Speed Train, the noise of the engines, the comfy blue seats, the whole railway atmosphere i can even remember the tangy metallic brake smell wafting around the coaches on the approach to York!

And of course in those days, sustained 125mph was something special, average cars would struggle to hold 80!

Better was to come however, cos the guard told my dad that if i had enjoyed my journey that much, to travel further down the line on one of the stopping services as far as Peterborough.

My first, last and never forgotten journey by Deltic!!!

Leading coach, open windows, and to top it all a guided tour of the cab before the journey

One of the happiest days I ever had- if only we had time machines lol

 

[ANorthernGuard]

grew up following my Grandfather around railway stations, trains to me are boring as heck (with the exception of steam trains) but the architecture etc I find fascinatimg

 

[noddy1878]

My dad certainly had an influence on me. I suppose my earliest memory was when my sister was born (I was 3) and my dad took me to see her but we went by train from Falmouth docks to Truro in the cab. I remember loving it. Was a 1st gen dmu. Was obviously easier 30 odd years ago!

But when I was 15 I kind of lost interest (must have been girls around!) but for some reason this year I have got right back into it and since may done 10000+ miles on a train and loving it!

 

[12CSVT]

My dad (now an enthusiast for over 60 years) got me interseted at a very early age, when I was about 3 years old and since then I have progressed from spotter, to haulage basher, and in more recent years have become member of several loco and rolling stock preservation societies.
Likewise, my dad has been interested in railways since he was very young, his grandparents lived across the road from a large steam depot and when he was about 2 or 3 he was forever getting told off by his grandad for standing on the sofa so that he could watch the trains.

 

[Dai.]

I can't really pin it, I really got into the railways around 2006 when I regularly started travelling long distances, I saw different trains as I was travelling and started to think about them more and more as I travelled more frequently, eventually came on here and started asking questions!

 

[LE Greys]

It might go back to before I was born. My mother used to commute to London while she was pregnant, and back then the ECML still had a lot of jointed track on the slow lines. To this day, I love the sound of jointed track, still can't get enough of it. Perhaps everything else developed from there, right down to me almost going into engineering when I left school.

My parents also used to take me to preserved lines a lot when I was very young, places like Embsay and Oakworth. I don't remember much, just sounds, smells, and the fact that the engines (even Hunslet shunters) seemed very big. I took my first photographs there, on an old 110 camera, when I was three years old. That's where I got it, what I call "coaldust under the skin". I'll pursue main line steam for hundreds of miles today, but it seemed to spread to other traction as well, especially if it was noisy, fast and charismatic.

Finally, there was my time at boarding school in the West Country. Every Friday afternoon, I was taken to the station, and got to go home. This was by Great Western HST, complete with Valenta power units and all the sound effects. They will always remain "the train that took me home", and I'll never forget that.

This might sound a bit strange, but that's just the way it is.

 

[atomicdanny]

I was mainly interested in trains from a young age since i first caught one when I was probably about 3 years old (although I probably went on them before that). It was most likely a 411, 421 or 423 in BR Blue / Grey at the time. Although while i did like them I wasn't that interested in them until I was about 14 - 15 (late 90s!) and liked the sound of the 365s and 411s when I went to school every day at Dover (yes they were 365s )

I was mainly brought up in the Network South East / Intercity era which is probably the reason why I like these more than the modern plastic rubbish (Electrostars, Desiros, Voyagers) Although I like the engine of the Voyager and the livery of the London Midland 350 however even though I don't really like the trains that much!

As for photography I mainly started in 2004 with a cheap camera and carried on although, even though most proffessional photographers would probably look at the as well rubbish I have improved slightly since then but not good enough

While I don't hate 37s, 47s and 55s, they look like good trains but I just don't get why people only want to preserve these and none of the early multiple units since there are more locomotives preserved that mus, I mean how many 1st generation multiple units have been preserved compared to the locos?

(I would never preserve a pacer, give those to top gear to burn!!)

 

[mumrar]

Well, if you take it back to basics, and when I was a very small child, it's doubtless the same for us all. Large machine moves, while making loud sounds and in the case of steam, interesting visible moving bits too! From that point, a visit to the Lickey summit at Blackwell for a Deltic railtour aged 4, and countless visits to Saltley did it. That and probably a small desire as a kid to please my Dad and make him proud, and my Grandad too. As a child I was lucky to be afforded many weekend visits to the SVR, aswell as lots of picnics at Blackwell when the land was the railways and left habitable.

 

[GospelOak117]

My parents didn't (and still dont drive) so we always made a point of travelling out to somewhere of a saturday and going down to see the family on a sunday. This got me on many types of train, but my heart was always with the elderly BR Mk1 multiple units around NSE in the 90's and I always made them choose places where such interesting units as operated to:

Class 117 (Gospel Oak-Barking)
Class 302/310/312 to Southend and Shoeburyness
Class 312 to Clacton
Class 305 (a few were left on my line in the early 90's so we waited to let a 315 go in the hope a scruffy, run-down 305 would wheeze in next)
Class 411/421/423 on the Portsmouth Line to see the family.

Happy Memories all these classes are greatly missed, by me if not by the average commuter. You don't get such proper train sounds, smells and bouncy seat rides anymore, you can't stand at a fully open window or slam doors anymore on average commuter trains, but I still love all trains and as the classes that I used to avoid because they were modern and thus boring when I was young become aged they start to get more interesting. And so the pattern continues, I'm sure I will even long for a 444 in 40 years once they have all been ousted themselves.

 

[Fred26]

My interest started when I started working on the railway. I'm not interested in trains though.

 

[scooner8]

Mine interest started back in the days of Thomas The Tank Engine. I then started collecting hornby models and had a nice collection.

My interest changed over the years to football, Girls, beer... you know it is!!

I moved out of home and my Mum had a clear out, and my collection went with it, gutted!

Iam getting on for thirty now and thought my 2 year old son may be interested in Thomas, thats now all we watch!

I know have a ever growing collection of 00 gauge and have replaced some of my original collection I lost all those years ago.

But bnow we both go out with the camera to galas, rail tours or just go and sit on the station for a while.

Its good to be back in the game I have to be honest!

 

[dviner]

It's a fairly recent thing in my case - when I was growing up, we would rarely go anywhere by rail, and when I left school and started work this carried on. However, about four years ago I changed jobs and started working in London and I was no longer living near an Underground station for the commute, but almost right next to a FGW station.

Using it every day made me look into the most efficient way to get to work, alternate routes, what was sitting in Old Oak Common. Becomes fascinating after a while.

Becomes even more interesting when you start working in the industry.

 

[YorkshireBear]

Santa specials was another thing at KWVR which i now work for as part of civil maintenance. Ive followed it into my career which im glad about, im currently training as a civil engineer.

i'm interested in how the hole system fits together. Dont particularly like to spot, ill occasionally sit on a platform for a while and watch them go by, but i dont take numbers i just sit with a book and watch listen and smell

 

[PaulLothian]

I blame the parents (and grandparents)! My grandfather spent his entire working life with the railways, starting on the GNR, although it was a source of sadness to me that he was a finance man rather than operations! My maternal great-grandfather drove locos on the North Staffordshire.

Having parents who were very pro-railway, despite the fact that I was brought up daily seeing only 1950s Southern Region electric, I had lots of exciting early memories: Liverpool Street as a small boy in steam days; steam-hauled heavy freight still very much there when my g-parents moved to live in York (300 yds from the York-Selby line); a couple of years in the Cotswolds during the last gasp of steam; living within biking distance of the East Coast Main Line when Deltics ruled; and, as a student, passing every day that amazing view of the maze of lines that used to exist at the east end of Waverley Station.

 

[96tommy]

It was my grandfather what got me interested!! He worked for Intercity, GNER, Grand Central and some more which I can't remember. He would always take me where he went it it was in the holidays or weekends and I loved it!!

 

[SouthEastern-465]

I was mainly interested in trains from a young age since i first caught one when I was probably about 3 years old (although I probably went on them before that). It was most likely a 411, 421 or 423 in BR Blue / Grey at the time. Although while i did like them I wasn't that interested in them until I was about 14 - 15 (late 90s!) and liked the sound of the 365s and 411s when I went to school every day at Dover (yes they were 365s )

I was mainly brought up in the Network South East / Intercity era which is probably the reason why I like these more than the modern plastic rubbish (Electrostars, Desiros, Voyagers) Although I like the engine of the Voyager and the livery of the London Midland 350 however even though I don't really like the trains that much!

As for photography I mainly started in 2004 with a cheap camera and carried on although, even though most proffessional photographers would probably look at the as well rubbish I have improved slightly since then but not good enough

While I don't hate 37s, 47s and 55s, they look like good trains but I just don't get why people only want to preserve these and none of the early multiple units since there are more locomotives preserved that mus, I mean how many 1st generation multiple units have been preserved compared to the locos?

(I would never preserve a pacer, give those to top gear to burn!!)

I totally agree with most of your post.

I can remeber the 'Slammers very good too as a toddler and remeber watching CIGs, VEPs, & CEPs (These are what started my interest) and remeber the smell of there MK1 interior. I also remeber the Class 365s whilst they were on the SE division whilst coming back from the Kent Coast in the late 1990s.

The odd thing people tend to find with me is I prefer EMUs over everything else!

 

[LE Greys]

I totally agree with most of your post.

I can remeber the 'Slammers very good too as a toddler and remeber watching CIGs, VEPs, & CEPs (These are what started my interest) and remeber the smell of there MK1 interior. I also remeber the Class 365s whilst they were on the SE division whilst coming back from the Kent Coast in the late 1990s.

The odd thing people tend to find with me is I prefer EMUs over everything else!

I remember the 365s appearing on the Great Northern routes, and the weird noises that they made compared with the 317s that I had always known (just remembering them in blue/grey as well as NSE). Suppose I'm used to it now. Anyway, to me MkIs were steam coaches, although I remember coming home on 47-hauled commuter trains sometimes which were made up of them. It was surprising to see them all over the place when I started exploring the Southern later on. Still wish I'd gone on the 309s that passed over the Thorrington level crossing near my grandparents' house, but we can't have everything.

 

[kentuckytony]

Several things:
1) Lack of many trains here in the US except for 100-car long freight (goods) trains.

2) When I lived in Kent back in the 1950s, I had a relative who was a crossing gatesman up near Carstairs somewhere. When we visited up that way, he let me and my brother hang on the gates when he closed them (don't tell H&S!).

3) When I lived in Spain in the early 1960s, always rode the trams, trolleybuses, metro, and ocassionally the trains up to the ski areas in winter.

3) Got hooked on train DVDs from V125 and then other vendors. Keeps me off the streets. Then got into several forums like this one. And have developed some long-distance friends this way.