The Border Reiver Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 I am looking vary pensive as my photo is taken beside Class 47 D1579 at Darlington Bank Top Station, along with my faithful notebook visible in the blazer pocket. Those were the days when you could live on Lyons Gala Fruit Pies and ice cold milk from the machines on the station platforms and wore what your parents sent you out in! I didn't normally wear my school cap when out spotting but it was a wet day and I hated getting my hair wet. 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
B18 DUD Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 How about a 1960`s cup of hot chicken soup from a platform vending machine and a Caramac...bliss Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium PhilJ W Posted January 15, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 15, 2015 How about a 1960`s cup of hot chicken soup from a platform vending machine and a Caramac...bliss But wait for the soup to cool before you drank it or you risked scalding your mouth. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold TheSignalEngineer Posted January 15, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 15, 2015 I am looking vary pensive as my photo is taken beside Class 47 D1579 at Darlington Bank Top Station, along with my faithful notebook visible in the blazer pocket. Those were the days when you could live on Lyons Gala Fruit Pies and ice cold milk from the machines on the station platforms and wore what your parents sent you out in! I didn't normally wear my school cap when out spotting but it was a wet day and I hated getting my hair wet. D1579.jpg The school cap was the only thing many of us had to keep our heads warm and hair dry in those days. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CathcartCircle Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 (edited) Glasgow works open day, 27 June 1981! It was a lovely day and didn't want to wear the jacket, but my mum made me! Handy place to pin the RailRiders (which I joined on the day) badge though! Edited January 17, 2015 by CathcartCircle 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonny777 Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 How about a 1960`s cup of hot chicken soup from a platform vending machine and a Caramac...bliss I never had the soup, but Caramacs were great; as were those small cartons of Paynes Poppets. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianusa Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 Reading all this makes me think how young most are or perhaps how old I am; I don't think I am but I never spotted anything but steam engines unless you include the GW Gas Turbine! Otherwise, most things were mostly the same, school uniforms, pasties and Corona with the complicated bottle cap. Looking back, in a lot of ways I was fortunate to be able to see older GW steam engines working, Bulldogs, Saints, Stars, etc, even a Dean Goods that worked its way to Laira once or twice. Luckily the school sports field abutted the main line at Tavvy Junction and one could combine business with pleasure; I was never any good at sports anyway. Another bonus was that it was shared by a local girls high school whose green sports pants are remembered to this day! This contributed to another stage of life's evolution but the interest in trains has lingered to this day. Brian. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Kazmierczak Posted January 15, 2015 Author Share Posted January 15, 2015 Back to the cap and long trousers combination. The "Peak" is in original condition. Didn't locos seem so large when standing alongside them at ground level. Note the 17A cast shedplate on the cabside. 11 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozzyo Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 When we went out spotting we knew how to dress to impress. Any old thing would do as can be seen in this photo of us at Guid Bridge Mike on the left, me in the middle and Bamber on the right. We were close mates! I think the photo was taken by Mac. A day out on the Isle of Wright and I'd just copped a loco, over 400 miles just to get a loco? Must have been mad. Same jeans same jacket (ex B.R.) I think that the photos were taken in about 1982 or 3. Working in the shipyard on about £80 a week, digs cost about £5, so I had about £75 a week to spend on going out on the rails and drinking beer, and it had to be spent in that week. I did not tend to spend any of it to look fashionable as you can probably tell. OzzyO. PS. I think that I've still got the bum freezer jacket, I don't think I'll fit in it now. 10 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
B18 DUD Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 Took my son to Lincoln Central last year,wanted to wave him off .I thought I should get a platform ticket as I did when i was a young spotter...well the look I got !!!!..when did they fade into history.Do modern spotters have to buy a ticket to a destination to get onto the manned stations? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jenny Emily Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 I might have looked like this, but wasn't really a trainspotter. I have, however, seen a picture of a rather shy Father aged around 7 dressed in the obligatory fifties school uniform with shorts and a cap leaving for school at Pocklington. 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonny777 Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 Took my son to Lincoln Central last year,wanted to wave him off .I thought I should get a platform ticket as I did when i was a young spotter...well the look I got !!!!..when did they fade into history.Do modern spotters have to buy a ticket to a destination to get onto the manned stations? A similar thing happened to me when seeing my father off at Temple Meads. Platform tickets? What are they? Eventually the chap manning the gates/ticket barriers let me on the platforms anyway, but said to come back to him to get out. I duly conformed with his instructions, but he was nowhere to be seen and I had to 'negotiate' my way back off the station, because I was now seen as a fare dodger. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonny777 Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 When we went out spotting we knew how to dress to impress. Any old thing would do as can be seen in this photo of us at Guid Bridge Mike on the left, me in the middle and Bamber on the right. We were close mates! I think the photo was taken by Mac. Copy of old days 1 005.jpg Did you always go for a pee together? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnarcher Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 Am I strange, or is there anyone else out there on this forum who was young in the late '50's/'60's and was never a trainspotter? I was into modelling, got RM each month made the usual Airfix WW2 aircraft and Scalextric as well as railways (I remember a Triang Dean Single and then making some dubious freelance 016.5), but never went out with notebooks etc. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danemouth Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 Am I strange, or is there anyone else out there on this forum who was young in the late '50's/'60's and was never a trainspotter? . John, I had a model railway as a boy in the 50s but was never a trainspotter! Came back to the hobby about 5 years ago, Dave Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozzyo Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 Did you always go for a pee together? well if girls can do it why not, if four of use were out and we were in a pub we did not know it was only in twos, two looked after the beer and the gear and the other two looked after each other. Wee did tend to drink a lot of ale in them days. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
brianusa Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 Its good for a laugh but when you consider what's acceptable today, it was quite respectable. Brian. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium PhilJ W Posted January 17, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 17, 2015 Jenny_wales2a.jpg I might have looked like this, but wasn't really a trainspotter. I have, however, seen a picture of a rather shy Father aged around 7 dressed in the obligatory fifties school uniform with shorts and a cap leaving for school at Pocklington. :maninlove: Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Colin_McLeod Posted January 17, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 17, 2015 (edited) Here is one of me taken at an RPSI railtour in the 1960s, and again in 2010. The locomotive, J15 No 186, looks like new, but I have obviously got older. Edited January 18, 2015 by Colin_McLeod 10 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xerces Fobe2 Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 Here is one of me taken at an RPSI railtour in the 1960s, and again in 2010. The locomotives looks like new, but I have obviously got older. Colin 186 1960s.jpg Colin 186 2010.jpg Both well preserved now! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pobrien Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 Of course every spotter had a duffle bag for his packed lunch https://www.flickr.com/photos/bristolsteam/5251019685/in/set-72157632748588591 Or a rather oversized satchel https://www.flickr.com/photos/bristolsteam/5698683333/in/set-72157632748588591 and girls in their going-around-shed gear https://www.flickr.com/photos/bristolsteam/6203802047/in/set-72157627677197669 https://www.flickr.com/photos/bristolsteam/6204318720/in/set-72157627677197669 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 While it's not customary to look like an idiot, I do it brilliantly...(Blue hat) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Kazmierczak Posted January 18, 2015 Author Share Posted January 18, 2015 Can't disagree with you there. Remind me to stay well away from Corfe Castle..... 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grovenor Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 This was a school railway society trip in 1954 with myself on this one and then my Mum and brother a few years later. Really getting way back ! Keith 7 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonny777 Posted January 18, 2015 Share Posted January 18, 2015 well if girls can do it why not, if four of use were out and we were in a pub we did not know it was only in twos, two looked after the beer and the gear and the other two looked after each other. Wee did tend to drink a lot of ale in them days. Sorry, it wasn't meant to be insulting; and thinking about it I don't remember any episodes of "relief" when trainspotting as a boy. I suppose that I must have gone somewhere at times, but can't recall any. Maybe, compared to today's consumption of bottled water, fizzy drinks and the like, we drank far less when out of doors? I certainly do not remember feeling the urge to rehydrate at regular intervals; in fact the opposite seemed to be true. I did not drink until I was quite thirsty, and quite often did not bother taking anything with me on trainspotting exploits using my pushbike - mainly because I left the house before my mother was out of bed, and I certainly wasn't going to delay my priorities by setting to and making myself a sandwich. I remember one very hot day, cycling back home some 16 or 17 miles and half way through the trip I became so thirsty that I just could not stand it any longer and drank some water out of a roadside ditch. I knew the perils of this, and was prepared for the consequences later, but my need for liquid over-rode all risks. Fortunately, I contracted no near death illness from this event. 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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