The spots we spotted at

[eastwestdivide]

Leicester birdcage above the depot (but not on your own at night!)

Semaphores to warn you that stuff's coming, plenty of chances for the unexpected, trains slow enough to photograph easily, depot close enough to get everything with binos, chip shop in easy cycling distance. As Beast66606 said earlier, jumpers for goalposts.

Enough with the nostalgia already.

 

 

Honest, two photos taken from the same spot.

[10800]

Martyn's mention of the 'goth gloom' of St.Pancras didn't half rang a few bells, I always prefered it's shadowy old self to the new incarnation, as nice as it is, for me it's lost some of it's soul. Way back in 1980 I went to a transport rally / swapmeet that was held in the adjacent goods depot one Sunday morning, getting a bit bored I wondered over to the terminus and found it to be ghostly quiet, there was hardly a soul about and the place just oozed atmosphere. I bought a copy of Model Railway Constructor and sat on a parcels barrow by the stop blocks to read it, I remember how erie it seemed just sitting there on my own, in the middle of London!

 

Like this Nidge? (1968)

 

[Glorious NSE]

Martyn's mention of the 'goth gloom' of St.Pancras didn't half rang a few bells, I always prefered it's shadowy old self to the new incarnation, as nice as it is, for me it's lost some of it's soul. Way back in 1980 I went to a transport rally / swapmeet that was held in the adjacent goods depot one Sunday morning, getting a bit bored I wondered over to the terminus and found it to be ghostly quiet, there was hardly a soul about and the place just oozed atmosphere. I bought a copy of Model Railway Constructor and sat on a parcels barrow by the stop blocks to read it, I remember how erie it seemed just sitting there on my own, in the middle of London!

 

Back in the mid-late 80s you would have one or maybe 2 trains sat there on a Saturday, usually HSTs although the reason for our visits was to see if there was a peak on the mail vans (usually a duff though!) - The HST arrivals I think must have been an hour apart, and after the crowd had dispersed then.....nothing, just you, pidgeons and the occasional high speed mail van...it definately had a unique atmosphere, and yes I do miss it!

 

I do also like the current incarnation, whilst the 80s version was a 'special place' personally I was conscious it wasn't doing what it was meant to do - nowadays (if you look past the champagne bars and giant snoggers) it's doing the job it was meant to do, a bustling terminus, trains in and out every few minutes.

 

Do I have to admit to spotting more recently?

 

These days...well the 2011 and 2012 years here are up to date with all days out listed - not all these are rail-related but most are:

http://ukrailwaypics.smugmug.com/Daybyday

[The Stationmaster]

Back in the mid-late 80s you would have one or maybe 2 trains sat there on a Saturday, usually HSTs although the reason for our visits was to see if there was a peak on the mail vans (usually a duff though!) - The HST arrivals I think must have been an hour apart, and after the crowd had dispersed then.....nothing, just you, pidgeons and the occasional high speed mail van...it definately had a unique atmosphere, and yes I do miss it!

 

I do also like the current incarnation, whilst the 80s version was a 'special place' personally I was conscious it wasn't doing what it was meant to do - nowadays (if you look past the champagne bars and giant snoggers) it's doing the job it was meant to do, a bustling terminus, trains in and out every few minutes.

St Pancras was on my regular 'London circuit' (it followed Cricklewood and Kentish Town shed bunks) but it has change somewhat and the Tilbury boat trains are no more. I was there last Friday to meet my son enroute to home from Wiesbaden so popped over and took a couple of pics on this side of the station - which I'd last closely looked at but only on drawings back when we were working on SPAD mitigation measures long before there was even anywhere to lay the tracks the trains below are standing on! I never thought I'd take pictures of a 21st century emu (didn't take the numbers tho')

 

 

[Arpster]

New Milton (on the Southampton to Bournemouth line) in the early 1970s on a summer Saturday: tons of EMUs (of course), but also some exotic combinations such as 4TC + 4VEP + 73. Lots of 47s on excursions and inter-regionals, including some from ultra-rare sheds like Toton and Gateshead. Then cycling back home for sausage and mash for lunch. Fourty years ago, dear oh dear...

 

Bill

 

When on holiday in the New Forest in the 1980s, my dad and I would often spend an hour or two on Hinton Admiral station in the evenings. I remember its old, decaying wooden station buildings well, the smell of the paint on the rickety wooden footbridge and lampposts that would rub off on your hands, the graffiti and the quietness between trains. There'd be the EMUs, at first the old 4TC+REP but then the Wessex Electrics; the stoppers squealing to a halt and nobody getting off, or most of the trains barrelling through at what seemed to me to be incredible speed, shoes sparkling and flashing. The highlight of the evening, and what we'd time our visits for, what the mail train about 8pm which was usually a Class 73 or 33 turn but sometimes through up a 47. Happy memories.

 

One very clear memory is an evening that we drove to Brockenhurst instead of Hinton Admiral and caught the stopper to Eastleigh. I don't know what kind of EMU it was (being from the North East, they all looked the same to me!) but I remember the huge novelty of a door for every facing pair of seats with a window you could lower. We sat right behind the driver's cab and I spent most of the journey on the sunny, summer's evening with my head out of the window. Magical. Nostalgia's a powerful thing, huh?

 

Arp

[Gwiwer]

St. Pancras was atmospheric in its own quiet way. It had a unique style. That huge majestic train shed with just one or two throbbing "Peaks" beneath it in most hours (and they never seemed to be the ones you needed) plus the unusual Rolls Royce-powered dmus on the locals again just one or two in the hour. Long quiet periods. In later years the excitement of finding a new "namer" when Toton and Tinsley started the unofficial naming spree. Later still the brief Peak revival as you hoped the "green one" was on its rostered turn. It's not at all the same place now.

[10800]

I certainly remember my father taking me to St Pancras one time and seeing D1 Scafell Pike and D3 Skiddaw at the buffers.

[definate maybe]

Although my days there would have been a few years later, I have to agree with Gwiwer. St Pancras didnt seem to bussle or rush like the other main London terminus. I seem to recall that on our London days out my dad and I would never spend too long at St Pancras as it was always rather tranquil. We used to think nothing off spending 3 or 4 hours at Euston or Royal Oak but Saint Pancras accounted for probably half hour at best. Although it was quiet it was also nice to be there. I seem to recall the loading off a parcels train and the odd hst arrival as rather refreshing after watching the chaos of the other locations.

[Super D]

Another Tamworth fan. Spotted there in the late 50's when some friends and I pitched tents in a field next to the station. Many great days camping there. Also went to Retford at least twice a month and watched the crossing from the cattle market. Always left for home when the Niddrie goods had gone through heading North.

[beeman]

Wonder if anyone can advise on this. When aged around 14, reckon 52/53. God !. some 60 years back, I went with some other pupil/boys to Tamworth spotting. I recollect vaguely getting off the bus and walking , eventually along a field track toward some bridges, think called a truss type. Situated in the field were some black painted 'shacks' which emitted a most foul and vile smell. Possibly something to do with animal rendering. I recollect 'climbing' up between the girder work of the bridges looking head on down the track. Bit unerving seeing a Steamer comoing toward you at high speed. Seeing this post I decided to survey Google Earth to see if I could locate the spot. The only one which looks as if it was is on the pic. Be interested if anyone can enlighten. Beeman.

[br2975]

Where it all started for me.

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Took my first numbers from this bridge 3790 shunting the goods yard (on the right) and 92220 'Evening Star' on an up train of vans.

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I was hooked.

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You wouldn't know there had been a station, yard and private sidings here.

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Those with any Sid Rickard photos will recognise Ely (Main Line) straight away

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Never thought I'd still be standing here 38 years later !

 

Brian R

[Guest 838rapid]

When I first started spotting I was interested in taking the numbers of locos stored in Swindon works,we never had the highlights of dogSh*t alley like Doncaster,we had Rodbourne Rec to see the locos around the back of the A shop and Hawkesworth Trading estate to see the locos stored in the yard by the Gloucester line.

 

Though they didnt count to my mates at the time,I really wish now I had a camera then,all those Rats,Whistlers and Peaks..

 

Oh happy days..

[tractionman]

For me my main haunts in the late-70s and early-80s were dotted along the WCML between Rugby and Shilton, especially around Brinklow - I have a treasured few 126 photos from those times, as well as my books of numbers of long-since scrapped locos.

 

I liked Rugby station too, and recently have been back there a few times 'spotting with my young son, and although so much has changed at the station over the past 30 odd years, it's still a good train-watching location and nice reliving my youth!

 

I also did regular 'spotting trips from home (Coventry) to Brum (New Street) and often afterwards I came home on the train feeling rather sick because of the smokey atmosphere of NS - now at NS it almost seems unimaginable that it was so popular for us 'spotters, but so it was back then.

 

Those Strathwood 70s spotting days books bring it all back...

 

cheers,

 

Keith

[Bernard Lamb]

Late 1950s at Berkhamsted.

A group of us would gather at the bottom of Castle Street near the station.

The embankment had a wall which became a railing at this point giving good views of the trains.

We would assemble at around 8.30 and would stay until the first bell went at 8.50 giving us a sporting chance of getting into assembly before the second bell at 8.55.

Best spot was the prototype Deltic but that was later in the day on route to somewhere rather than hauling a train.

Totally OT.

The school had quite a collection of GWR nameplates in the craft building. I wonder if they are still there or what became of them.

Bernard

[Martino]

Between '63 and '70, in the school playing fields next to the GW main line just east of Slough station. 61XX prairies shunting in the nearest lines during the first couple of years, a 9F sitting all afternoon in the siding nearest the school and distracting my attention from English lessons and the 6th form girl's blouses! Westerns, Warships, Hymeks and Brush 4s thundering past,plus Blue Pullmans. Later still double headed rail blue Warships on the the Cornish Riviera.

 

Asking to see round Slough shed after it had closed and being given a tour by the Station Master (or whatever he had become by then )

 

Wandering round Slough Trading Estate and being given footplate rides on the Hudswell Clark 0-6-0 tanks, and investigating the old station.

 

Must look out some photos........

[45568]

Wharfedale Road bridge Tyseley, then to the shed on Warwick Rd, New Street platform 6?, trips to London (unaccompanied) from age 10. Hazelwell station on the Camp hill avoiding line was at the bottom of my grammar school playing fields. Nottingham Vic. and Bulwell when we visited relatives in Notts. Lichfield TV on Sunday afternoons with mam + dad. Stechford when the W.Coast diversions were on, (long bike ride round the ring road!).

Years, 1957-66, then I was 15, and, well...........................

Cheers, Peter C.

[Rugd1022]

Like this Nidge?

 

Spot on Rod! .... and if the boredom and quiet got too much, there was always the short walk over to The Cross to see if there were any big bulbous noses parked up by the stop blocks! A few years back during a break when I was road learning down London way, I nipped into KX to grab a bite to eat and have a shuftie round the platforms, despite the electrification and lack of EE Type 5s it still has a certain atmosphere... one of my biggest regrets is not spending more time there (or indeed chasing the Deltics more often) but it's still one of my favourite 'spots'... how many of us have stood for hours under the old GNR canopy and gazed in anticipation at Gasworks Tunnel....?

 

 

 

 

My mate Jon isn't a forum member but KX is pretty much his favourite 'spotting place', here he is with Deltic '19 in '81 dreaming about becoming a driver, which he managed some fifteen years later...

 

[cb900f]

!960 Clay Cross Jct, on the station overbridge aged 7. Jubilees, Patriots, Black 5s and my favourites at the time, Royal Scots including 46100 herself when she was shedded at Nottingham

 

Hard to believe that the Junction no longer exists.

 

Pete

[MarkC]

Early 70s, platform ends at Liverpool Lime Street. Got into the signal box more than once, & was often to be found in the cab of the station pilot, sometimes even driving the thing

 

Assorted AL1-6, Peaks, 40s, 24s & 25s, occasional 47s, AM4 EMUs (when they were 4-car sets!), various DMUs, including the wonderfully futuristic-looking Class 124 Transpennine sets.

 

Used to go there & back from home in Crosby via the Southport DMU service via the Bootle Branch. Cabbed THAT run a few times too

 

Happy days...

[TheSignalEngineer]

Late 1950s - 1964 by the water tank on Platform 1 at New St (just by the red brick building on Jim S-W's model), 1960-66 Down side waiting room at Snow Hill. Found the old table from there during a site visit in 1972, shove halfpenny football pitch still visible engraved in the varnish. Vincent Drive, site of University Station now, 10 minutes by bike from our house - once copped a Polmadie Scot there. 1960-65, anywhere around the GC bridge at Rugby or in the Up side Relief Cabin after I got a pair of binoculars.

 

Two for Nidge here, taken from under the GC bridge and at the site of Rugby PSB in 1960

 

 

[beast66606]

Port Sunlight Siding signal box - thanks to a certain signalman and a forum members sister

 

 

[Rugd1022]

Lovely shots TSE! My mate Griff was born in Rugby in 1950 and those are exactly the sort of images the mind conjures up whenever he talks about what the place was really like in the late 50s / early 60s period, before the knitting went up. In 1966 he joined the railway and became a booking lad in Rugby PSB, right on the spot where you took the pics, so he had a grandstand view of the daily proceedings on both lines. On his days off, when he wasn't travelling around the country armed with his Ian Alan ABCs, he'd be sat in his back garden at Hillmorton watching all sorts of wonderful machines flying past.... as a lad though before joining the railway he could see the twins 10000 and 10001 on the Royal Scot from his bedroom window, the lucky s*d!

[gronk the shunter]

Crewe - normally the South end by the depot, sitting on brutes, jumpers for goalposts and all that.

Yep, that's where I was too, usually in my school uniform as I'd "missed" the train to school (the 08.38 all stations to liverpool lime street from platform 2a) sometimes pretending to enjoy smoking ten No.6. The same place now is a desperately sad shadow of it's former self, thanks to EWS and Deutsche Bundesbahn.

 

Other than that spent most days leaning out of my bedroom window, the crewe - shrewsbury line passed by the end of the garden. 25's, 33's, 40's and 47's all day long, and a solitary class 50 each night on the mail train at about 10.30pm. Not to mention HST power cars being tested from crewe works in green and pink primer.

[Temeraire]

Through the 80s obviously spent time at Basingstoke Station and also at Battledown flyover on way to or from girlfriends house by bike. Regular trips to sit on the cabinet at the end of platform 5 at Reading with many others and then there were the Saturday dayouts to London to tour the terminals which we always seemed to do in the same order. Train to Waterloo, tube to Euston then down to St Pancras for the Peaks and cross the road to KX for the Deltics, then it was onto Liverpool St for the 37 and 47 hauled Cambridge and Kings Lynn trains. Back on the tube to Victoria and finally to London Bridge on the South London line before heading back to Waterloo.

[TheSignalEngineer]

.................................. those are exactly the sort of images the mind conjures up whenever he talks about what the place was really like in the late 50s / early 60s period, before the knitting went up. In 1966 he joined the railway and became a booking lad in Rugby PSB, right on the spot where you took the pics

 

We used to get the 0915 Birmingham - Norwich MetCam DMU, back on a loco hauled train from Bletchley to Birmingham that was about 17.20 at Rugby. Usually about 120 locos in that time on summer Saturdays. Best day probably in about 1961, 19 Pacifics in 9 hours - 2 Princesses, 12 Coronations and 5 Brits. When Newbold troughs came out everything steam hauled on the Up stopped in the platform to take water. Cabbing express locos all day.

 

.........................as a lad though before joining the railway he could see the twins 10000 and 10001 on the Royal Scot from his bedroom window, the lucky s*d!

Singly the Twins and 10201/2/3 were regular performers in the late 1950s on a train from Euston that arrived at Birmingham late morning. They returned about 14.30. After the clearances were raised at New St when the new Ring Road bridge replaced the old Worcester St, and EE Type 4s appeared on the West Coast the train changed to steam haulage frequently with Stanier Pacifics