What train encapulates your childhood?

[Journeyman]

Definitely not 508s, which I remember being new when I was somewhat older (when you're 9, being 4 or 5 seems a long time ago). According to https://www.bloodandcustard.com/BR-4PEP.html, the 4-PEPs 'remained in passenger service until 1977, though not diagrammed after 2‑Aug‑76'; that might fit with my guess at how old I might have been at the time of my memory.

Right, fair enough. The PEPs were somewhat different to the 508s internally, although you might be too young to remember that if you ever rode on one.

 

[Mag_seven]

The 50s were just so synonymous with where I grew up though, you could hear them on both the Waterloo and Plymouth lines on a still night thudding away in the distance, plus whenever you walked through the entrance onto platform 1 at St David’s there was usually one ticking over waiting to head up to Central, poisoning unsuspecting people that were crossing the footbridge...

When I was a kid I lived near the WCML in Glasgow and double headed fifties would have been very much in evidence up to 1974 although I probably didn't appreciate it or even realise it at the time as my railway memories were more focussed on our local station which was on the Cathcart Circle (hence the class 303 / 311s I described in post #27)

 

[takno]

Class 50s all the way for me (although Peaks, 31s, 33s, 47s and DMUs were also always around).
The 50s were just so synonymous with where I grew up though, you could hear them on both the Waterloo and Plymouth lines on a still night thudding away in the distance, plus whenever you walked through the entrance onto platform 1 at St David’s there was usually one ticking over waiting to head up to Central, poisoning unsuspecting people that were crossing the footbridge...

50s when I was a bit older. The odd evening at the station when the cathedrals express came through, or even sometimes pulling the three pathetic little mail coaches up from Gloucester and marshalling them into the bays

 

[Cowley]

When I was a kid I lived near the WCML in Glasgow and double headed fifties would have been very much in evidence up to 1974 although I probably didn't appreciate it or even realise it at the time as my railway memories were more focussed on our local station which was on the Cathcart Circle (hence the class 303 / 311s I described in post #27)

They would have been I refurbished at that point obviously and although I remember them pre refurbishment I can’t really remember what they sounded like (apparently they were quite different).
We were honked at when I was with my parents at a foot crossing in Cornwall by one in the 1970s (probably about 1978).
It made me cry.
I’m over it now though so don’t worry.

50s when I was a bit older. The odd evening at the station when the cathedrals express came through, or even sometimes pulling the three pathetic little mail coaches up from Gloucester and marshalling them into the bays

I need a time machine!

 

[Journeyman]

I need a time machine!

If I ever get one, it's going to be used entirely for trainspotting purposes.

 

[takno]

I need a time machine!

It would need to make me younger as well. I don't fancy legging it up and down the platform at the rate I used to now. Not with my knees.

 

[Cowley]

If I ever get one, it's going to be used entirely for trainspotting purposes.

Definitely. I feel a thread coming on (we’ve probably done this before but I’ll try and think of a twist ).

It would need to make me younger as well. I don't fancy legging it up and down the platform at the rate I used to now. Not with my knees.

 

[Journeyman]

It would need to make me younger as well. I don't fancy legging it up and down the platform at the rate I used to now. Not with my knees.

You need a time machine and the Holy Grail, then. But don't choose poorly.

 

[takno]

You need a time machine and the Holy Grail, then. But don't choose poorly.

The holy grail would probably be a mk1 DMU being banked up the Lickey by a 50. I guess if it did it with a flux capacitor in then maybe we'd be in business

 

[Peter0124]

When I was a kid I lived near the WCML in Glasgow and double headed fifties would have been very much in evidence up to 1974 although I probably didn't appreciate it or even realise it at the time as my railway memories were more focussed on our local station which was on the Cathcart Circle (hence the class 303 / 311s I described in post #27)

Newton by any chance? My local station too and on WCML

 

[Journeyman]

The holy grail would probably be a mk1 DMU being banked up the Lickey by a 50. I guess if it did it with a flux capacitor in then maybe we'd be in business

I don't rate the chances of that ensemble reaching the required 88mph though!

 

[Mag_seven]

Newton by any chance? My local station too and on WCML

No not there - close to Glasgow city centre.

 

[Halish Railway]

What comes to mind, in addition to being my earliest memory would probably be the GNER 225s, what an elegant livery.

Slightly off topic, but what also stood out as a childhood memory would be getting off of the train at Leeds, only to have to wait in a line to go through the ticket checking booths where the ticket barrier line currently is.

 

[yorksrob]

What comes to mind, in addition to being my earliest memory would probably be the GNER 225s, what an elegant livery.

Slightly off topic, but what also stood out as a childhood memory would be getting off of the train at Leeds, only to have to wait in a line to go through the ticket checking booths where the ticket barrier line currently is.

Ah, the ticket sheds with their illuminated green tick and red cross !

 

[DerekC]

I am torn. It's either a smartly turned out N7 with shiny smokebox ring on the front of a Hertford East service at Cheshunt or (when I got go on the bus) an A3 at full chat on the down fast between Potters Bar and Brookmans Park. In the latter case it's the sound I remember fondly as much as the sight.

 

[32475]

This is such a good topic! Whilst many of us are envious of those who's chosen memories at 8 or 9 years of age encapsulate steam, people's memories here demonstrate a broad spectrum of time (half a century) and therefore shows that nostalgia is never ending. I distinctly remember thinking as a schoolboy in the 60s/70s that I could never ever consider that a 4-VEP would ever become something to be nostalgic about and yet over the passage of time it jolly well is. The present is the history of the future so let's all savour what we have now.

 

[Sad Sprinter]

This is such a good topic! Whilst many of us are envious of those who's chosen memories at 8 or 9 years of age encapsulate steam, people's memories here demonstrate a broad spectrum of time (half a century) and therefore shows that nostalgia is never ending. I distinctly remember thinking as a schoolboy in the 60s/70s that I could never ever consider that a 4-VEP would ever become something to be nostalgic about and yet over the passage of time it jolly well is. The present is the history of the future so let's all savour what we have now.

I remember my last journey in a 4-CIG in 2005 and thinking I had better make the most of it because they were soon to be history-was only 10 but can't help feeling sorry for my Gen Z cousins who never got to experience a slam door train!

 

[D5645]

For me it was Class 45/1's with air-conditioned Mark 2 stock and a Mark 1 buffet car on the Sheffield - St Pancras via Nottingham services.

Occasional Class 47/4 substitute.

 

[Iskra]

This is such a good topic! Whilst many of us are envious of those who's chosen memories at 8 or 9 years of age encapsulate steam, people's memories here demonstrate a broad spectrum of time (half a century) and therefore shows that nostalgia is never ending. I distinctly remember thinking as a schoolboy in the 60s/70s that I could never ever consider that a 4-VEP would ever become something to be nostalgic about and yet over the passage of time it jolly well is. The present is the history of the future so let's all savour what we have now.

Yes I agree, it's interesting how many choices on here are the mundane, rather than what is normally considered more exciting.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Yes I agree, it's interesting how many choices on here are the mundane, rather than what is normally considered more exciting.

Probably because "the everyday" (with apologies to a certain Ryanair-coloured furniture store) is what builds most memories?

 

[yorksrob]

Yes I agree, it's interesting how many choices on here are the mundane, rather than what is normally considered more exciting.

8 - 9 year olds tend to lead quite a mundane existance anyway. Certainly in the early 1980's !

Compared to the other highlights - going to school, going shopping, watching Button Moon, going to the hairdressers etc, a trip to see gran on a 4VEP was the height of excitement !

 

[Journeyman]

Probably because "the everyday" (with apologies to a certain Ryanair-coloured furniture store) is what builds most memories?

Absolutely. A lot of railtour operators and heritage railways go for the premium dining/Pullman market, but I've never been interested in that, and I much prefer the more everyday end of the rail system.

 

[nlogax]

The Liv St to Chingford line at the back of my garden, 305s clattering up and down all day long on jointed track. On a quiet day you could hear them approaching from miles away. I was about four or five at the time.

 

[Mat17]

Blue/Grey first gen DMUs, notably 101, 111, 114 classes.

Intercity 125s (when they were still branded as such), with a muddle of blue/grey coaches and swallow executive liveries - and that wonderful valenta scream, at once expectant and enticing, beckoning you to step closer and feel the fully glory and power of a magnificent class 43, but also slightly terrifying with the noise and blast of air that would come with it.

And then there were the pacers, a mixture of Provincial blue 142s and red/cream 144s, and the growing collection of sprinters which were decimating the old 'real trains' I'd known up until that point.

I guess I never really got over the loss caused by Sprinterisation.

I really loved the old first gen units with their buffers, droplights, quarter-light ventilators, bouncy seats, the odour of oil, the clunk of the doors slamming shut and the polished handles, even the dirt/dust lined seats, in their blue/green striped moquette s and the long disused ashtrays filled with discarded gum and sweet wrappers. It spoke of the old real railways, an echo of the days of steam perhaps.

The sprinters were just walls of sterile off-white plastic and windows that were too high to see from, and a few buttons to press. They felt like a train with all the fun taken out of it.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Class 115 Derby 4-car DMUs​

Before I began spotting at age 10, I'd watched the trains passing through Padgate station from the road bridge over the railway.

Guessing these would have continued on towards Manchester Oxford Road via Urmston, so possibly me too.

Would they have been class 115 or some other similar first generation DMU?

 

[adamskiodp]

Bit of a whimsical thread, but do you have a train that takes you back to being 8 or 9 years old on the station platform again? For me, its an NSE livered class 455/1-ambling miserably through South London.

The Class 115’s had a great bouncy ride and tropical heating. Also, many fond memories of the slammers out of Charing Cross to Blackheath to visit family, back in the days when an 11yr old was allowed to travel to London on their own

 

[brstd4260]

A N7 tank on the Liverpool Street - Enfield train chugging through Bush Hill Park station before the station was (partially and horribly) rebuilt. Travelling in the guards compartment of the same trains even earlier whilst still in a pushchair. Later catching a class 305 (in green) on the way to school. I also remember when the 305's were first introduced, they were mixed in with Class 302/6/7's (My memory is not good enough to remember the type exactly except they were flat fronted). Gosh, that's a long time ago...

 

[Galvanize]

Class 465/466 Networkers. Growing up in South East London in the 1990s it was kinda difficult for Networkers to not be a big part of my life. Always loved the sound the units made as they pulled away from a Station or Signal, especially on the MetroCammell/GEC units. Would travel on them into London at the weekend; usually to Charing Cross to head into the West End with my Mum, occasionally we’d go to Victoria if we were visiting one of the Museums in Kensington. Even though their now almost 30 years old, they still look and feel like almost new trains.

 

[AM9]

Probably because "the everyday" (with apologies to a certain Ryanair-coloured furniture store) is what builds most memories?

... and posters are being true to the title of the thread: "What train encap(s)ulates your childhood". I remember on the way to/from swimming standing at the end of the 'iron bridge' that crosses the middle of the Ilford car sheds watching Britannias on Norwich trains, B17s (we knew them as Sandringhams and Footballs) on (ISTR) Clactons, and plenty of WD 2-8-0s on goods duties. But interesting as it was, I didn't do that every week/month so it didn't encapsulate my childhood.

 

[trebor79]

Class 101 in grubby all over blue or orange SPTE livery, the push-pull sets on the Glasgow-Edinburgh route (I think they were in the hands of Class 47's in the late 80's). Class 8x on a rare trip from south from Glasgow and the 125 we took from Edinburgh to London one time.