1960s station Announcements

[Wickham Green too]

I remember an announcement for - presumably - a Gilingham service at Waterloo East : "Calling at ...... Northfleet, Gravesend, Higgum, Strood, Rochester ....."

[Wheatley]

8 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

If you want a flavour for classic announcing at a big terminus, watch the 1961(?) film “Terminus”, in which the announcer at Waterloo gets major billing.

 

Directed by John Schlesinger, I wonder whatever happened to him ? 

 

I think that's the one where the aforementioned announcer has her cup of tea (complete with saucer) discretely hidden in the top drawer of her desk, to where it is returned in between announcements.

[billy_anorak59]

If we're talking about on-train annoucements:

 

From the BBC Kent website - commuters who have written in to complain about Connex .... (2003)

Andy, Gillingham

"It just gets better and better. Having shortformed peak time units on the Kent Coast routes yesterday (one of the busiest days of the year as most of the UK returned to work) I arrived at Gillingham Station this morning to witness a sea of commuters. Apparently all London bound services were subject to unspecified delays due to 'adverse weather conditions' i.e. approx 1" of snow and a broken down train blocking the London line atTeynham. Fortunately there was a rather ramshackle eight-car slam door unit standing at platform one which the station announcer informed us would constitute to 7:07am slow service to Victoria. We were all advised to board it as Connex could give no undertaking as to when  another service would be available. The train ground through Rochester before seizing up completely and catching fire at Cuxton. As the acrid smell of burning filled the carriages a 'Corporal Jones' sound-alike advised us several times over the tannoy 'not to panic'. There followed an interval of several minutes before Corporal Jones announced that we were to 'de-train'into the Kent countryside. I didn't have my Connexspeak to English translation guide with me but I took this to mean we all had to disembark.
An interesting situation this. They only managed to run one service this morning and it spontaneously combusted. After several more minutes Corporal Jones announced that they had to remove a fence for us to walk over a footbridge and away from the line and, oh did anyone on the train have a bolt-cutter? I work for a Bank and the only reason that I would have a bolt-cutter in my briefcase would be if I were weeks from retirement and decided to have a go at the vault. However, I made a mental note in future to carry bolt cutters, a fire extinguisher, bottled water and copious amounts of Kendal Mint cake on all Connex journeys. All were then amused for some 20 minutes watching Laurel and Hardy through the train windows trying to demolish a fence with what looked like a rusty knife and a lump of wood. The confused milling of several hundred freezing passengers on the pavement adjacent to the A289 soon attracted the attention of the Kent Constabulary who arrived in force, 'Excuse me sir but you can't park that train 'ere'. We were subsequently directed to the local Sports Centre away from rubber necking motorists and another potential transport disaster. Corporal Jones announced that buses had been arranged to take us back to Medway until some wag pointed out that the whole point of boarding the train in the first place was to travel to London (if that was alright with Connex). This was followed by much muttering into a mobile phone before Corporal Jones announced that a bus would be provided to get us to Dartford after which we were on our own. My day would have been complete had 'revenue protection staff' demanded to see our tickets as we scrambled along the snow lined embankment."

 

Edited August 3, 2021 by billy_anorak59

[The Johnster]

I’ve told this one before, and got the story second hand in the first place (!); Paddington a hot summer evening in the early 70s, ‘British Rail apologise for the late arrival of the xxxx from Plymouth.  This was caused by unloading a fat passenger at Taunton’.  
 

The story behind it, so I was told, was that a lady of the large and particularly Devon or Somerset type, jolly and rosy of cheek, probably described a ‘buxom wench, oo arrr’ in her glory days but a little past that now, had boarded at Exeter for the hop over Wellington summit home to Taunton.  What with the heat, and the shaking about, and so on, the goods had sort of settled in transit a bit, and the mk1 door she’d boarded by at Exeter would not allow her to disembark at Taunton. 
 

There followed a comedy routine of porters pushing and pulling accompanied by her shrieks of hysterical laughter until some bright spark had the idea of borrowing a fork lift from the builders’ merchants over the road.  With sacks and towels draped over the fork, she was gently and carefully raised from beneath the armpits and deposited on the platform; the door was immediately shut and the train, Western hauled, sent on it’s way about half an hour late.  
 

A cup of tea and a general calming down session had a by now very red faced Big Bertha happily on her way as well.  All in a day’s work…

[jonny777]

It all sounds good, but wouldn't have been easier to escort her along to the BG or BSK where wider doors are available? 

 

 

[pH]

10 hours ago, The Border Reiver said:

As a Carlisle lad, very few trains used the goods lines through Carlisle as nearly every train had an engine change in the station. In the 8 years I was on the Station spotting on the Glasgow Fair  Saturdays, we only saw 2 trains use the goods lines. We spent the Glasgow Fair Saturdays running from one end of the station to the other so not to miss anything. One Saturday, trains were stacked up as far as Rockcliffe a few miles north of the station waiting for free platforms in the station. Great days indeed!

Carlisle Citadel as your local station - lucky you!

 

I understand that most trains going south in steam days changed engines in Citadel, but I don’t think that was the case going north. Plus, with extras meant only for moving people from English resorts to the Glasgow area, there would be no need to stop in Citadel. If an engine change was needed, it could always be done outside Kingmoor. I was in Glasgow Central and St Enoch’s on the corresponding Saturday at the end of the Glasgow Fair in 1963, and trains carrying returning holidaymakers had engines from sheds further south than Carlisle which had presumably worked through  - from at least Crewe North, Warrington Dallam, Newton Heath, Bank Hall, Blackpool and Carnforth from a quick check. And Holbeck engines worked through to Glasgow on a daily basis via Dumfries and Kilmarnock.

 

On that Saturday in 1964, we spent some time at the bridge (St Nicholas street?) south of the station and saw at least one passenger train avoid Citadel and go round the goods lines. And that controller obviously wanted the option of sending trains that way!

[Wickham Green too]

5 hours ago, billy_anorak59 said:

...... I arrived at Gillingham Station....... The train ground through Rochester before seizing up completely and catching fire at Cuxton. ........

Interesting route to Victoria ...... and he doesn't mention reversing at Strood, which he must have done to get on the Medway Valley Line !

[br2975]

21 hours ago, Steamport Southport said:

Not sixties as I wasn't there.

 

But in the 1970s and '80s it was just the big mainline stations and it was usually a woman like on Hi De Hi (I know that's a holiday camp).

 

 

You could never understand a word they were saying though....

 

Drowning our sorrows in the Edinburgh Police Club following Scotland v Wales in 1995, the stewardess asked "as you're Welsh, will you keep my friend company when she finishes work later, she's Welsh too."

.

Around 10:30pm we were joined by Miss Glady Pugh herself, she was appearing locally in the Pickwick Papers with Harry Secombe; but Harry had been taken ill.

.

I can safely say, Miss Pugh was very amiable, and damned good company.

.

Brian R

[Rivercider]

9 hours ago, The Johnster said:

The there was the legendary (it made the local news) override from a harassed member of staff at Cardiff Queen Street back in the 80s; ‘the xxxx Merthyr is delayed due to a c@ck-up at Cardiff Central’. 
 

I mean, fair enough, he was telling it like it was…

Many years ago I recall hearing reports of an announcement made at Bristol Parkway to the effect that trains were delayed due to 'management incompetence', which did not go down well

 

cheers

[MidlandRed]

1 hour ago, Wickham Green too said:

Interesting route to Victoria ...... and he doesn't mention reversing at Strood, which he must have done to get on the Medway Valley Line !

The Victoria line passes by the north side of the village of Cuxton, shortly after passing under the M2 and HS1 bridges and the A228. It’s all uphill from crossing the Medway Valley line near Strood towards Sole Street, so any arcing caused by snow or ice would have a good chance of causing problems on that length. 

[Nearholmer]

2 hours ago, Wickham Green too said:

Interesting route to Victoria ...... and he doesn't mention reversing at Strood, which he must have done to get on the Medway Valley Line !

 

Teynham, and Gillingham, both of which he mentions, aren't on the Medway Valley line. The route he describes is the normal ex-LC&DR main-line run, which does a hard left after crossing over the Medway Valley Line, and The Medway itself, at the foot of sole Street Bank. The sharp corner was a notorious impedance to fast running in steam days.

 

 

Edited August 3, 2021 by Nearholmer

[melmerby]

23 hours ago, MidlandRed said:

I recall at Birmingham New Street they had a number of ‘live’ announcers rather than electronic announcements. I recall particularly that one of them used the announce the ex Western Region Snow Hill trains as calling at Kidderminister, in a very regional accent!! (As opposed to Kidderminster).

Did BNS have announcements before rebuild?

I suppose it must have, but trains always went from the correct platforms () and there were those manual clock thingys with destination pointers sticking out of them.

[Wickham Green too]

55 minutes ago, MidlandRed said:

The Victoria line passes by the north side of the village of Cuxton, ....

Apologies, I was thinking he was somewhere near Cuxton Station ( on the Medway Valley Line ) rather than the lower reaches of Sole Street Bank,

[The Johnster]

6 hours ago, jonny777 said:

It all sounds good, but wouldn't have been easier to escort her along to the BG or BSK where wider doors are available? 

 

 

Not really.  If she  was having trouble with a mk1 slam door, she'd have had no chance of managing a gangway connection!

[PerthBox]

I once worked with someone who’d been a signalman at Glasgow Central (well I’ve worked with quite a few ex Central men in my time). He told me a story about a particularly boring nightshift in the late 80s after all the possessions and isolations were on and there was nothing happening and nothing moving. He and a similarly bored colleague were mooching round the box in the early hours with nothing to do when our hero spies the vacant announcer’s desk and decides to have some fun.  “Watch this, I’ll show you how it’s done” he said as he sat behind the desk and started to fiddle with the equipment; the announcers were totally seperate from the signalmen so he had no idea how to work the equipment, but it can’t be that hard can it? So he turns the various knobs and sliders up right up as high as they’ll go, pushes the big green power button and starts tapping and blowing into the microphone. 
 

In the quiet of the closed Central station an ominous loud buzz suddenly starts and is quickly replaced by a series of apparent explosions from the speakers, then the voice of god booms out over the sleeping city “PASSENGERS WHO’VE JUST ARRIVED FROM LONDON 20 YEARS LATE, BRITISH RAIL WOULD LIKE TO APOLOGISE FOR BEING SHITE” before expanding on the same general theme in ever more colourful language.

 

Apparently the entertainment only stopped when the police phoned up the box!

[DY444]

10 hours ago, Rivercider said:

Many years ago I recall hearing reports of an announcement made at Bristol Parkway to the effect that trains were delayed due to 'management incompetence', which did not go down well

 

cheers

 

Gerry Fiennes did that at Kings Cross.  It is mentioned in "I tried to run a railway".

[SM42]

Worcester Foregate St in the 80s has a special place in my memory for the announcer ( who rumour had it was of Italian heritage) who would announce Wuster Fore gayyyte in a style not unlike a Harry Enfield character of the same vintage. 

Then of course the 90s at Snow Hill when you knew a train was coming as it was announced. Anything else about it was impossible to hear due to the acoustics and the announcers unique style of pronunciation.

It wasn't the PA system that distorted it. It sounded the same before any electronics were involved.

 

 

Andy

[MidlandRed]

18 hours ago, Wickham Green too said:

Apologies, I was thinking he was somewhere near Cuxton Station ( on the Medway Valley Line ) rather than the lower reaches of Sole Street Bank,

No problem - it did me initially, as did A289 which is Wainscott Northern Bypass, Medway Tunnel and Gillingham Northern link - apart from Ito Way (Gillingham) which passes under the Victoria-Ramsgate/Dover line the route doesn’t get close to any other railway! 
 

However the A228 is a field (on a gradient) away from the Victoria-Rochester for some distance near the M2 and HS1 over bridges. 

Edited August 4, 2021 by MidlandRed

[MidlandRed]

Whilst we are talking of the Victoria/Ramsgate/Dover line, in these days of automated announcements, it is amusing sometimes at Bromley South, on the fairly regular occasions a pair of the four platforms (serving in order from the south side, up stopping + Thameslink; down stopping + Thameslink; up fast and down fast) is taken out of use - usually owing to points issues or signalling issues at Bickey/St Mary Cray or Shortlands junctions, either side of Bromley South. This means that all trains use one platform in the up and one down direction - and in the morning peak trains have to be shuttled through the one up platform etc. The station control office takes over the announcements, and attempts to make people aware of the first and second trains to arrive - only to find that a 66 hauled freight appears instead, or the signallers have put a fast through in front of the Orpington/Victoria stopper or the next Thameslink!! The contradiction of the announcements and the guys shouting out on the platform is a scene to behold. 
 

In these circumstances I’ve got on a Thameslink towards London Bridge which firmly showed on its interior PIS (visible in duplicate in each carriage in front of you) that it is out of service…… 

 

The fun is only increased when the changes are intermittent, seeing hordes of people rushing over the footbridges, only to have to come back when the signallers change their mind at the last minute and the Dover arrives at platform 4 as normal!!! I guess the difference between Bromley South, which is a very busy station, and say East Croydon (busier but larger) is that all this confusion can be seen going on from one vantage point!!

 

There are instances when the wrong destination has been input into the automated system - a fairly recent example was a new semi fast service placed in the schedule at 0905 at Bromley South - starting from Swanley, it stopped at St Mary Cray, Bromley S, Beckenham Junction, Penge East, Herne Hill and Victoria - however the announcement stated Beckenham Hill (on a completely different line), and continued the whole time I used the train!!

 

There are still occasions when driver announcements (on driver only trains) can be very amusing - one evening peak journey in a packed Networker 8 car unit stopped at Shortlands and disgorged, amongst the regular clientele, several gentlemen dressed in rather flamboyant drag outfits including sparkly sequinned leather shorts - whilst these people tottered down the platform on high heels, amongst the regular commuters, the driver announced to the train passengers that the fashion theme for this evening is tiaras, leather and sparkles!!! 

Edited August 4, 2021 by MidlandRed

[Wickham Green too]

Beckenham North ? .......... that's a new on on me !                 maybe Bromley North - or even New Beckenham ?? - both on different lines ( though NB is accessible )

[MidlandRed]

49 minutes ago, Wickham Green too said:

Beckenham North ? .......... that's a new on on me !                 maybe Bromley North - or even New Beckenham ?? - both on different lines ( though NB is accessible )

Beckenham Hill - sorry (and corrected)! Hilarious because it’s a stop on Thameslink, also served from Bromley S!

[MidlandRed]

17 hours ago, melmerby said:

Did BNS have announcements before rebuild?

I suppose it must have, but trains always went from the correct platforms () and there were those manual clock thingys with destination pointers sticking out of them.

I don’t recall (too young before it started to be demolished) but clearly having Queens Drive running down the middle of it, with normal traffic including bus services using it in the late 50s, would have made matters more difficult. I would imagine it had announcements. I think Snow Hill had announcements also and also those pointer destination signs? Amazing the amount of mundane everyday one forgets (in my case even the interior decor of a standard WCML early mk 2 coach - which I experienced on numerous occasions in the 60s). 

Edited August 4, 2021 by MidlandRed