Favourite Lineside Location

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Sitting on the side of the cutting at the north end of Stoke Tunnel near High Dyke on the ECML.

 

It's a hot June day in 1973. Iron-ore trains are coming off the branch from Colsterworth behind Cl.31s. The still air picks up the drone of a Deltic across the Lincolnshire countryside as it accelerates away from Grantham with its rake of Mk2d coaches. A procession of Cl.47s, a few Cl.40s and 46s, plus the occasional Cl.37. All, of course, in corporate BR blue.

 

Magic.....

[rmnik]

In a similar vein

 

Standing at the end of Kings Cross platform 10 late 70s, always something happening, Deltics in and out of Gasworks Tunnel, 31's shuffling the empty coaches. 47 on the rescue spur. Suburban stock to and from the widened lines.

[LNERGE]

Cadwell just north of Hitchin.. my memories are of Deltics of course, 31's, 47's dmu's and still the occasional freight. There are still flowers growing in the former garden of the crossing keepers house though it has been demolished over forty years. My two year old directs me there when we go cycling though it is a footbridge now. She can stand on her seat on the crossbar and see over the bridge sides now. The signalmen must have liked Daddies sauce. I have found quite a number of empty bottles near the site of the signalbox.

[woodenhead]

West end of Cardiff station at one in the morning in 1979, freight trains on every line waiting for signals to take them to all points on the compass.

 

I'd never seen such a busy station without a passenger train in sight.

 

Failing that, I've sat in the station car park at Warrington Bank Quay a few times in the dark watching the Freightliners pass through.

 

Used to go to Clay Cross a lot as a child, that was quite a good location.

 

But my most common lineside location was hanging out my bedroom window watching trains between Trafford Park and Guide bridge/Ashburys on the Fallowfield loop, over the years it had 24/25/31/37/40/45/46/47 and 56 plying their trade on it.

[Allegheny1600]

Very close by Western Sunset's location!

At my grandmothers house overlooking the ECML at Creeton just north of Little Bytham! From her front room you could see down into the cutting, over where the M&GN used to run across and beyond through the station area which quickly ran onto viaduct over Little Bytham itself, - magic!

I spotted either there or nearby from the early 70's through to the early 90's when electrification changed the view forever and 'Grandma' passed away!

Would still give anything to see (or have seen) those fabulous diesels in green, or even better than that, to see steam there.

Also, Stenson Junction just south of Derby was pretty good! My father used to moor his canal boat at Findern there, opposite the power station. I always (as a nipper!) jumped on the roof of the boat to watch all the MGR action and so many 'Deltic's passing (it was only later I learned they were actually 'Peaks'!!)

Cannot fail to mention Barnetby in the early 80's though - the constant procession of freights through there was something to bee seen to be believed!

Nowadays, the best I can get (in this country!) is either Winwick Junction (WCML) or Carnforth and the route to Ambleside viaduct towards Barrow.

Sadly only Europe now offers the diversity and frequency of action we used to take for granted.

Cheers,

John E.

[owentherail]

Dawlish warrens langstone rock on a summer saturday morning in the mid 70s, the smell of suntan lotion off the beach and chips from the cafe's, in the evening off to cockwood harbour with tide in.

In mornings there was always a loco in sight somewhere from the rock, Local trains with 25s inter regionals with 45/46s westerns pre 1977 and 50s/47s and 37s on extras!!!

[definate maybe]

For me its the lines north of Inverness, especially when they hit the coast. Dont know what it is but the lines twisting around the rugged coastline really have a great appeal to me. Unfortunately they are definately not places where you would sit waiting for some rail action to take place!!

For locations which are possible to visit for the sole purpose of watching trains nowhere lineside really stands out. Most of the time I used to just wonder to see what was on a depot/ yard rather than go for an actual lineside location to sit for a few hours.

[lmsforever]

Platform end by the turntable at Liverpool St in 1950,s early sixties lots of action and interesting locos.

[caradoc]

In a similar vein

 

Standing at the end of Kings Cross platform 10 late 70s, always something happening, Deltics in and out of Gasworks Tunnel, 31's shuffling the empty coaches. 47 on the rescue spur. Suburban stock to and from the widened lines.

I will never forget my first visit to Kings Cross in September 1972 at the age of 13. As someone who grew up on the Western Region, the locos seen at the Cross were impossibly exotic - Apart from the Deltics, what about the 11xx Class 47s ? And the constant shuffle of locos to and from the stabling point was wonderful.

Matt

[Mallard60022]

Clapham Junction circa 1960/70/80.

Liverpool Street 1960.

Stratford Loco 1960.

Top Shed 1960

Near Consett 1962

Laira & Plymouth North Road1958 - 1964

Devonport Kings Road goods yards 1959 - 1963

Bristol Barrow Road & St Phillips Marsh 1963

Cardiff Canton 1963

Wellingborough Finedon Road Signal Box 1976.

Horseted Keynes or Kingscote circa 2000

Barrow Hill 1972 - 2010.

Weymouth Loco June 1967

Dymchurch (RH & DR) summer timetable.

Doncaster Station yesterday, today and any day (except Sundays!) - wish I'd been there circa 1960:o

and so on and on and on.................

However, best of all for me, Exeter Central & Exmouth Junction, any time summer timetable 1960/61/62:rolleyes:

36E

[Rugd1022]

Aged eight..... sitting on the blue brick wall at the bottom of Railway Terrace, just north of the platforms at Rugby watching E numbered pre-Tops electrics flying past, the bays full of AM4s and AM10s, along with the odd Brush 4 on freightliners and the local Baby Sulzers pottering about on the Southam, Bescot and Northampton trippers.... happy days, and where it all started for me. Despite all the remodelling at Rugby, that bit of wall is still there today and everytime I go past it I think of E30xx's heading north on the down fast.

 

Aged twelve.... various spots along the Seawall taking it all in... Westerns, Peaks, 47s, 50s, 25s and 31s on anything and everything, devouring Walls ice cream and wishing it would never end.

 

Ah, memories

 

Nidge

[DaveF]

Back in the 70s - Swayfield (near Corby Glen) on the ECML.

Plus the High Dyke branch

Nowadays - just about anywhere in Northumberland

 

David

[Southernman46]

If we're talking now then being stood along side the Up Slow at Worting Jn watching a Freightliner on the Down Slow being overtaken on the Down Fast by the Woking - Whatley stone empties a split second before an up Freightliner blattered past on the Up Slow 6ft away and thinking "I'm looking after a proper railway"

[sir douglas]

for me it has to be kirkthorpe foot crossing, just west of normanton station

[mikemeg]

Almost anywhere by the side of that incredible thing which was the railway of the late 1950's/early 1960's, especially on an early summer's day. The smell of creosote off warmed sleepers, the shimmering of the heat haze just above the track, the scents of the lineside vegetation and that smell, that memorable and unmistakeable smell of smoke and oily steam which lingered long after and was the lasting signature of the passing of a steam locomotive.

 

Most of all was the utter assault on all of the senses of the passing of an express at speed. That had to be experienced to be believed, it still does.

 

I stopped spotting around 1964, just before those last few ignominious years which were the final demise of steam on BR. Like many of my generation I was resigned to never seeing those sights ever again; perhaps a few pristine but lifeless examples in the National Railway Museum. Who could have imagined that so many of those great locomotives would survive and would live again? To thrill not just my generation, who knew them, but whole new generations who did not know them. And not just the locomotives but the complete environment in which they lived and worked; whole lines recreated as in their halcyon days.

 

Wonderful.

 

Mike

[APOLLO]

Sitting on the wall on Cemetary Road, Ince, Wigan, opposite Springs Branch engine shed WCML around 1966 with a bag of jam butties, bottle of tizer & my combined volume !!. Brits, Jubs, Dub D's, Black 5's Black 8's, Standards, Mickeys, Nine Two'ers, Brush 4's Big D's, Sulzers (class 25's), etc, etc, - never a dull moment.

 

Of course we all thought it would go on for ever ----------------.

 

Brit15

[Torn-on-the-platform]

The fields just south of Horsted Keynes on the Bluebell offer a great chance for a reasonably well angled shot of a full length (by bluebell standards) train. Many a happy hour spent there during Gala weekends

 

Visitors to my website will know I have recently visited the South Devon Railway. I have visited since but have been working too hard to keep uploading my photos. I have not yet found a location on the opposite bank of the Dart to the railway from which I can take photos of the railway and river at the same time. When I find a suitable place, I'm sure it will become my new favourite lineside position!

[bike2steam]

50 years ago, standing on top of the concrete pill box that used to stand within the triangle of land surrounded by railway lines at Old Oak Junction, one of few locations to regularly watch steam locos from all four pre-nationalised railways go past.

[Mallard60022]

Almost anywhere by the side of that incredible thing which was the railway of the late 1950's/early 1960's, especially on an early summer's day. The smell of creosote off warmed sleepers, the shimmering of the heat haze just above the track, the scents of the lineside vegetation and that smell, that memorable and unmistakeable smell of smoke and oily steam which lingered long after and was the lasting signature of the passing of a steam locomotive.

 

Most of all was the utter assault on all of the senses of the passing of an express at speed. That had to be experienced to be believed, it still does.

 

I stopped spotting around 1964, just before those last few ignominious years which were the final demise of steam on BR. Like many of my generation I was resigned to never seeing those sights ever again; perhaps a few pristine but lifeless examples in the National Railway Museum. Who could have imagined that so many of those great locomotives would survive and would live again? To thrill not just my generation, who knew them, but whole new generations who did not know them. And not just the locomotives but the complete environment in which they lived and worked; whole lines recreated as in their halcyon days.

 

Wonderful.

 

Mike

 

Beautifully put and my feelings exactly.

36E

[wollastonblue]

I just adore the foot crossing at Trimpley on the SVR. It's alway a magical place to go and watch the trains go by.

 

 

[Arpster]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfPoG8I5HBw

 

This one right here at about the same time this was filmed. Every Friday evening with my dad. Always loads happening; 03s scuttling to and from the Central Station, freights coming by, locos running on and off the shed. Fascinating times.

 

These days, since that is now a single line overlooked by a block of flat-pack flats, I'd say it was here:

 

 

Arp

[Gwiwer]

Angarrack Viaduct.

 

On a hot day there's that smell of warm railway, a buzz of insects and the chatter of birds, the faint whiff of the country from the surrounding fields, a tantalizing zing of sea air wafting in from over the towans and a rather good view in almost any direction. Then there's the bonus ..... trains come through and in days gone by they would have been announced by the thrum of a hydraulic powering up the bank from Hayle with perhaps 14 on for a summer Saturday holiday train.

 

And within walking distance of some respectable ales at the end of your lineside session.

[The Stationmaster]

Almost anywhere by the side of that incredible thing which was the railway of the late 1950's/early 1960's, especially on an early summer's day. The smell of creosote off warmed sleepers, the shimmering of the heat haze just above the track, the scents of the lineside vegetation and that smell, that memorable and unmistakeable smell of smoke and oily steam which lingered long after and was the lasting signature of the passing of a steam locomotive.

 

Most of all was the utter assault on all of the senses of the passing of an express at speed. That had to be experienced to be believed, it still does.

Mike

 

And that strange 'zinging' noise you sometimes got from the lineside telegraph wires. Add in - in so many places - the sounds of the countryside and the smell of new mown hay occasionally drifting across to contrast with the aroma of the railway captured so completely by Mike. Plus the noise of the signal wires and signals coming off for whatever would be along next or - if you were lucky - being close enough to a signalbox to hear the bells so that you at least had an idea what class of train it would be. And the thrill of seeing a 'rare' loco or the latest brand new diesel - nothing to beat that for excitement ( until you discovered girls).

Nothing in my mind to beat the country station for such an amazing mixture of sights, sounds and smells but even those unglamourous, often murky, urban caverns had great excitement with so many more trains coming and going all around you.

It's a great thing is nostalgia

[woodenhead]

When I was a child I used to love listening to the old Argo Transacord railway recordings and the sounds of wildlife between trains or as they approached has always stuck with me.

 

I think life in general is a lot noisier than it used to be and these are the sorts of sounds we no longer hear as well.

 

Had a holiday in the summer in the middle of the countryside, it was bliss when all you could here was the sounds of animals - no road vehicles and only the occasional fighter jet.

[Southall]

A truly evocative post mikemeg and a great video arpster.

 

It may never be the best location, but for me the pedestrian over bridge between Southall station and the shed. Earliest memories are as a young boy standing with my father above the steam operated mainlines and getting blasted by what I now suppose were Kings and Halls on full chat and in their (unbeknown to me) last days. Later days saw Westerns, double headed NBLs and Warships, although my current understanding is that the Warships were not designed for double heading, so assume one was a failed engine.

 

Grew up in a house backing on to the mainline and can vividly remember the sound of a light engine Pannier, with little steam, returning to shed each evening around 8pm.

 

Spent most of the summer holidays with mates from the road on the top of the embankment watching trains. There were a number of long sidings that had become disused until the early sixties when they became full of rows of steam engines, wooden wagons and toads – all marked ‘Cond’ in white paint. The embankment was full of all the smells Mike lists. Happy days, but really too young to understand what was really going on.

 

As a result hated most diesels thereafter, but spent plenty of time spotting them. Must say that the sound of the 37 in the video is helping me to revisit that opinion!

 

Also need to visit Didcot 2-3 times a year with my boys. Truly find that after all these years the smell, sight and sound of steam still uplifts the spirits.

 

Southall