Railway charm

[Pacific231G]

Arriving on the Eurostar at Gare du Nord and walking off the end of the platform just as I might at Paddington or Victoria but being in Paris.

 

A couple of months ago standing on the open end platform of a steam hauled train looking out over the gorgeous Baie de Somme marshes and being very happy to reflect on the great good fortune that my favourite preserved railway in the world is so completely restored and only an hour from Calais. 

 

When I was a child and the wind was in the right direction, lying in bed and hearing the distant sound of locomotive whistles and goods wagon clanking and rumbling in the yards a mile or so away. 

 

I think the best of all, being invited onto the footplate of the steam loco that appeared in Murder on the Orient Express as it chuffed slowly around the closed Petite Ceinture, the amazed looks on the faces of people in cafés below as we crossed a Paris boulevard were priceless. 

[Guest CLARENCE]

Two things that stick in my memory from the 1950's; the sounds and smells of my Dad's signal box whilst I sat watching him do his stuff; and the sound of the pick-up goods shunting the goods yard outside my bedroom window.

 

Cheers, David

 

Oh, and shepherding an entire class of ten year olds through the tender corridor of Flying Scotsman one day while she stood simmering at Carnforth; mustn't forget that!

[pointstaken]

The ancient station at Merton Park in London, with the clang of shunting at the Lines Bros factory on a summer night. Now no longer extant, a tramway long replacing it. On that same line, an afternoon freight from Norwood Junction headed by a C2X 0-6-0 leaking steam like a sieve.

 

Dennis

[APOLLO]

Going to bed on a cold, cold winter night (no C/H or heat in bedrooms back then - just multiple blankets) around 10-00pm  listening for the Britannia whistle as a northbound train departed Wigan North Western, 3/4 mile away.

 

Brit15

[w124bob]

The messroom on nights, the smell of tea, fags, a game of cards going on. Outside the noise of vans bringing in the papers from the printers, platform 11 a buzz with activity, the whistling of 16cylinders of English Electrics finest as the vans arrive for the 02.15 Leeds papers. The clanking of siderods as an 08 scurries about GUV's in tow through the smoke of the last DMU departing for the depot. But where am I?

[coachmann]

The messroom on nights, the smell of tea, fags, a game of cards going on. Outside the noise of vans bringing in the papers from the printers, platform 11 a buzz with activity, the whistling of 16cylinders of English Electrics finest as the vans arrive for the 02.15 Leeds papers. The clanking of siderods as an 08 scurries about GUV's in tow through the smoke of the last DMU departing for the depot. But where am I?

Man Vic....?

[w124bob]

Yes, Manchester Victoria a truly evocative place in it's hayday and one I'm proud to have been apart of.

[APOLLO]

Man Vic - Full of atmosphere and workaday charm.

 

 

Brit15

[coachmann]

Yes, Manchester Victoria a truly evocative place in it's hayday and one I'm proud to have been apart of.

40076 making ready to leave Man Vic platform 11 with the 12.00 to Holyhead on Sunday 4th October 1981 (diverted via Wigan). Mail trains loaded on this platform hence the concrete 'cushions'  protecting the base of the canopy supports from wayward platform barrows and road vehicles.... 

 

 

This was shot on medium format but the scanner produces crap images.

[Poggy1165]

The sound, smell and quiet activity of a major station in the late evening/early morning.

 

Anyone who watches the film Billy Liar can get a bit of a feel of it from the scene near the end when Billy goes down to get the train to London - and ultimately lets it go without him. The modern scene has nothing like it - if it isn't closed down at that time at night, it's quiet and efficient and there's no loading of parcels or newspapers, and certainly no simmering steam engines. Preservation hasn't the means to reproduce the setting, let alone the inclination. It's something that's gone for ever. Manchester Victoria was indeed just such a location, back in the day. 

[Colin_McLeod]

That could be reproduced at a major station with cooperation but I'm not sure how it would be funded.

[w124bob]

The messroom entrance was about opposite the punters on the platform, the paper vans would come in via a gate by the brute trolleys, wobetide anyone in the way! The photographer has his back to the footbridge which took you to the exchange island platform, used as staff parking. Class 56's had an exhaust pitched at just the right level to set of car alarms as we powered out of the station towards Salford and Ordsall Lane, not that I would do it deliberately.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/28630680@N06/3323203095/in/album-72157614636472883/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/28630680@N06/3325900778/in/album-72157614636472883/

[LH&JC]

Standing on the veranda of a brake van on a narrow gauge line watching how the loaded open wagons ride on the undulating track, listening to the rumble of the wagons, the wheels passing over the joints on the track and the elderly open cabbed 0-4-0 hauling the train.

[Reorte]

There's something wonderfully atmospheric in drifting along on some of the more remote lines in really bad weather. A couple of good examples were on the Fort William sleeper, sitting in the lounge car over Rannoch Moor in awful weather was an almost surreal experience, and once on the Settle-Carlisle, after I'd been in the south of France for quite some time. The contrast with the endless sunny weather I'd been having made it all the more dramatic, heading up and in to ever-darkening clouds almost made it feel like an adventure (and certainly a journey). Although maybe that's not quite charm.

[Talltim]

Yes, being on a train in bad weather has a certain charm (as long as it doesn't make it fail)

Being on a toasty 1st gen DMU as a blizzard raged outside was good

[28XX]

Similarly, being on a long distance train, hopelessly late and already creatively diverted due to unknown forces of evil, without any chance of regaining its position in the wtt, in the knowledge that the unseen team of railwaymen are winging it to try to get you to your destination, and the delectable anticipation of further diversions to come.

[Zomboid]

In those situations, knowing that no one else (I.e. Those attempting to drive) is going anywhere.

I'd love to ride The Ocean in Canada in February or something, just to get that feeling...

[Rugd1022]

The rattle of fully loaded milk tanks over the pointwork at Liskeard station, hauled by a typically filthy Laira Thousand, followed swiftly by the sight and sound of lower quad semaphores being restored to danger. The a long silence, save for a breeze or two, until the next Thousand hauled train can be heard climbing up from Bodmin Road...  

[PhilH]

Being on the footplate of a Class 7 or 8 steam locomotive belting through the English countryside, but especially the bit along the seafront through Dawlish and Teignmouth. I've done that bit of coastline quite a few times now and it never gets old, makes up for the hard graft and discomfort of being a support crew member.

[SM42]

There is also something quite charming about being on nights in a signalbox.

 

Just you, the train register and a cup of tea under the low soft light from the lamp above the register desk.

 

You don't need any more lights on. Do the job by feel.

 

Andy

[Mallard60022]

There is also something quite charming about being on nights in a signalbox.

 

Just you, the train register and a cup of tea under the low soft light from the lamp above the register desk.

 

You don't need any more lights on. Do the job by feel.

 

Andy

Only did that by 'invitation' a couple of times in Findon Road Box, Wellingborough circa 1978. Sadly very quiet after 01.45 unlike, I am sure, 20 years earlier. Still brilliant though with full array of Semaphores. happy times.

Phil

[Mikkel]

On the subject of nights, I like the magic of a busy station at night. All those lights, oooh 

 

 

[DonB]

On the subject of nights, I like the magic of a busy station at night. All those lights, oooh 

 

 

I feel a Night Shift at the biscuit factory is called for!

[62613]

1966-67 on the Standedge route at about midnight, lying in bed listening to the double-headed (by 9Fs, I think) Lindsey tanks battering up the valley from Stalybridge; looking out of the bedroom window and seeing the glow from the two open fireholes. A few years later listening to the Deltic on the York Mail doing the same thing; Peanuts should remember that as well.

 

Living in March in the early 1962-3; hearing the engine whistles over the town from Whitemoor Yard in the early evening.

[Mallard60022]

1966-67 on the Standedge route at about midnight, lying in bed listening to the double-headed (by 9Fs, I think) Lindsey tanks battering up the valley from Stalybridge; looking out of the bedroom window and seeing the glow from the two open fireholes. A few years later listening to the Deltic on the York Mail doing the same thing; Peanuts should remember that as well.

 

Living in March in the early 1962-3; hearing the engine whistles over the town from Whitemoor Yard in the early evening.

Blimey, that reminded me about the Laira whistle/horn chorus at midnight on New Year night. Late 50s/early 60s. Navy boats in Devonport sounded their hooters as well I seem to remember.

These days I can hear 66's climbing Clarborough Bank with coal; usually around 03.00/30. Coming back down the empty wagons creak and wail in a strange way.

P