Earliest memories of Railways

[Marly51]

Very few folk had cars in the 1950s and the train was essential for visiting family in the Highlands. I have modelled an early memory of Waverley Station in the CakeBox Box Challenge. Another strong memory is of staying on my own with my grandparents in Grantown on Spey, aged four. I must have suddenly missed my mum on the first night I stayed on my own, because the next day I was put onto the Edinburgh train at Grantown on Spey West. My granny asked the guard  to look after me and I sat with a kind old lady who kept an eye on me until we reached Pitlochry. The guard then came and sat with me all the way to Waverley where my dad was waiting on the platform. On the tram journey home, I suddenly felt a bit sick, so we got off and walked the rest of the way - too much excitement in one day. Sadly when my granny died a year later, my sister and I were looked after, on the day of the funeral, at the Grantown West railway cottages. I think we were very spoiled by the kind wife of the signalman. Although memories of steam include feeling a bit grubby and having smuts in your eyes, there was an incredible excitement when we heard the powerful sounds of these large locomotives  approaching the station. Travelling by train was the big adventure! 
The railway employed many local people back then and most of our folks knew the station staff and railway workers, so it was very much part of our daily lives, which is why I love recreating that era in my models.

[cravensdmufan]

My earliest memories of railways were when my Dad used to take me to Shenfield station to watch the trains;  I clearly recall steam trains thundering through on express trains.

 

For a treat he used to take me into the refreshment room on platform 3 which was the down main line platform.  The whole place would tremble when an express came through!  I guess I would have been a bit scared at first, but soon found it exciting - my love of railways therefore must have been seeded at Shenfield, and that love never left me.

 

I must have been under 3 years old as I now see the "Brits" were transferred away from the GE main line in 1961.

 

So thanks for the happy memories Dad - may you RIP.  

[Colin_McLeod]

On 16/03/2020 at 10:03, cravensdmufan said:

 

So thanks for the happy memories Dad - may you RIP.  

 

Also a big "Thank You Dad: to my own Father who introduced me to trains and model railways.

[Railfreight1998]

I have various blurred memories of dmus and GNER hsts at our local station in the early 2000s. One time that does stand out was watching an EWS loco (possibly a 37) pass by from a nearby field with a freight. The train would have originated from Guild street yard, which at that time was very near closure. The consist itself I can't really remember, but it was very short and would probably have been clay slurry wagons.

[steve1]

It's fascinating to see the spread of time involved with all these different memories.

 

Railfreight 1998 speaks about the 2000s as early memories but to me that's still yesterday. Marly51's story on the other hand is very much in line with my memories of being the son of a BR fitter at Slough in the early 1950s.

 

steve

[Reorte]

1 hour ago, steve1 said:

It's fascinating to see the spread of time involved with all these different memories.

 

Railfreight 1998 speaks about the 2000s as early memories but to me that's still yesterday. Marly51's story on the other hand is very much in line with my memories of being the son of a BR fitter at Slough in the early 1950s.

 

It seems strange to think that there are people around who'll see BR as as much history from a different world as steam is to me, steam having finished 8 years before I was born but 8 years ago may as well be yesterday and certainly not a different world. BR blue is what my early railway memories are.

[The Stationmaster]

2 hours ago, steve1 said:

It's fascinating to see the spread of time involved with all these different memories.

 

Railfreight 1998 speaks about the 2000s as early memories but to me that's still yesterday. Marly51's story on the other hand is very much in line with my memories of being the son of a BR fitter at Slough in the early 1950s.

 

steve

No doubt due to the wide age range of RMweb members as much as anything else although it also depends what awoke your railway interest in the first place.

[Hroth]

Some early memories.

 

Liverpool Central Low Level with the EMUs in the all green livery.

Seeing the smoke from a locomotive as it passed under the road bridge leaving West Kirby Joint station.

Seeing a diesel locomotive at Birkenhead Woodside on a train that was taking relatives back to London.  Frightened by the noise the loco made when the driver ran the engines up to depart!

 

All date to before 1964, but by not much.

[Nearholmer]

6 hours ago, steve1 said:

It's fascinating to see the spread of time involved with all these different memories.

As SM says, speaks a lot about the age range here, which is one of RMWeb’s positives.

 

I do get the feeling that, whatever our ages, an awful lot of us were ‘hooked’ a little bit either side of 5yo, and that some alchemical mixture of familial cosiness and deep awe was a part of it in many cases.

 

 

Edited June 12, 2020 by Nearholmer

[Chris116]

My father was a radio producer for BBC Light Programme (Radio 2) and although he had a driving licence he did not have a car. He was very keen on a wide range of sports and we used the Underground and railways around London and further afield to go on trips to watch sport. I soon found the journeys as interesting as the sport when we arrived at our destination! I wold sit in a window seat facing direction of travel and at every junction I would want to know where the line that left ours was going to. My poor father often did not have any idea but now many of them are closed I have all the maps that would have been so useful back then. The longest journey we did was to Manchester about twice a year to see my Grandfather who was Dean of Manchester and I used to love the long journey in the early days with steam in full flight. One of my favourite memories is during the rebuilding with electrification in the Manchester area we got back to whichever Manchester station the trains to London were running from and due to the engineering work both the line to Euston and to St Pancras were leaving the same station in Manchester. Two London trains, one for each route were on either side of the island platform. The faster train was the one we were due to travel in until my father made the mistake of taking me to see the engines. The slower of the two trains was steam hauled via Matlock while the faster was diesel hauled running on the WCML. I was five or six at the time and there was no way we were going to travel on the diesel hauled train in my mind and I am glad to say that my father saw things my way so I can say that I used the Peak Rail line when it was a real mainline. Living in a house that backed onto the railway between Southfields and Wimbledon Park also helped and over the years I visited all the signal boxes between East Putney and Wimbledon Park which have now all vanished.

[cravensdmufan]

I like Chris116's memory above of the choice between diesel and steam hauled London bound trains.

 

Triggered another memory for me.  While watching the trains on the GE section my father referred to the new traction as green diesels with a "big snout"!  Which now I realize could only have meant Class 40's!

 

Strangely I don't remember 31s which would have been fairly new around the same time.  Obviously Type 2s didn't make so much of an impression!

Edited June 12, 2020 by cravensdmufan
Spelling

[Spam Can Man]

I was born in 1959. My earliest memories were going to see my grandmother (my dad's mother) at the Honor Oak Estate at Brockley. My late father couldn't drive then, so we used to get the underground train from Surrey Docks station on what I think may have been Q stock. Getting off at New Cross Gate and waiting in the waiting room where they used to have a coal fire at winter. Getting a box of Paynes Poppits out of the vending machine (they also had another machine that would stamp letters into an aluminium strip for one old penny). There was usually some wagons in one of the sidings adjacent to the underground line, the Fyffes vans stick in my mind. Then we would get into a green electric train to Brockley station, the old station with canopies before they replaced it with that hideous CLASP building. Walking down St Norberts Road and then going past the railway substation where the enormous Hackbridge transformers used to hum loudly. Ahh happy days! 

[Andy Kirkham]

I was born in Bristol in 1955 and the nearest railway to our house was the line to Canons Marsh goods depot. My mother used to take me there for walks and I remember standing on the level crossing which crossed the throat of the yard as the pannier tank bore down upon us cab-first and seemed to stop just in time. I remember being particularly struck by the vertical bars over the cab windows which were one of the principle features of these locos from that viewpoint. I was also intrigued by the GWR shunters' trucks whose purpose was always a mystery to me; in my mind I called them "Hotwells Trucks" (after Hotwells Road which ran alongside the line).

 

On one occasion my mother took me with her to visit a dressmaker in Bedminster. As a reward for tolerating such an insufferably tedious experience she took me onto Bedminster station where we witnessed a passenger train drawn by a diesel (which can only have been a Warship of course) bearing a headboard which she read out to me - "The Bristolian". I was exultant at having seen "A Famous Train" - I had never made the mental connection between the name of that train and and my home city. In my mind famous and newsworthy things occurred in a completely different universe from the mundane one in which I lived.

 

What I think is interesting is that a number of my early railway memories are of scenes which enthusiasts would consider iconic, even though they occurred by chance and were not guided by any enthusiast motives (my dad was not especially interested in trains).

 

* 1960 or 61 - standing by the river at Dolgelley throwing stones in the water when a Barmouth-bound train passed on the opposite bank.

* Yeovil Town 1960 - being scared by an unrebuilt Bulleid blowing off. I can be sure of the year because my mum took me into a cafe by the station and played for me on the juke box a song of that year which I particularly liked - "Please Don't Tease" by Cliff Richard

* Possibly on the same day visting family friends who lived in a bungalow right next to the Salisbury & Exeter line. It must have been a summer Saturday as my recollection is of trains howling past every few minutes.

* Our 1962 holiday was in Bournmouth (to which unforgiveably, we travelled from Bristoi by coach), but we stayed in a guest house close to the overbridge at the east end of Central station, so every day I saw that much-photographed scene when I accompanied my dad to buy his morning paper.

* 1963 was St Ives, and also the year we first got a car, so not much chance of seeing steam, but it may have been in that year that we drove past Washford station and saw a steam train waiting at the platform

* 1964 was Padstow and I remember seeing a Spamcan at the buffer stops but unfortunately my railway interest had lapsed and I made no requests to vist the station again - I could kick my  8-year-old self!

 

In 1967 my interest was begining to revive. I remember asking my dad "Do you think there are still any steam engines on British Railways?" "Ooh, I shouldn't think so" was his reply. At Whitsun we visited Weymouth for the day and went nowhere near the railway station. Later in the summer a friend invited me to accompany him trainspotting at Temple Meads and I bought a copy of Railway World. It contained a lavish photo feature entitled "Steam's Last Fling on the Southern". I was utterly thunderstruck realizing what I had just missed.

Edited July 12, 2020 by Andy Kirkham

[Pacific231G]

On 04/07/2020 at 23:46, Spam Can Man said:

. Getting off at New Cross Gate and waiting in the waiting room where they used to have a coal fire at winter. Getting a box of Paynes Poppits out of the vending machine (they also had another machine that would stamp letters into an aluminium strip for one old penny). There was usually some wagons in one of the sidings adjacent to the underground line, the Fyffes vans stick in my mind. Then we would get into a green electric train to Brockley station, the old station with canopies before they replaced it with that hideous CLASP building.

http://www.edinphoto.org.uk/0_edin_t/0_edinburgh_transport_-_railways_equipment.htm

 

Apart from providing teenage railway enthusiasts - including me- with a pennorth of harmless entertainment producing our names (or rude messages!)  between trains, what were those strips actually for? Labelling luggage, particularly trunks, or crates seemed the obvious answer but without a rivetting device there was no obvious way of attaching them to anything. Perhaps the parcels office would do that for you.

I think that when you pulled the upper handle to deliver the completed nameplate there was a dimple (which possibly should have been a hole) at each end but even so I've no idea  how you'd have used them in any practical way.  I do remember that the cut strip that finally emerged had viciously sharp corners!

I can't remember how many characters the machine at Oxford gave you for 1d (an old penny) but the one here was 10 for 1d and ISTR that I could just do my initials and surname for 1d. Another source says it was 22 characters so there must have been price inflation.

https://pennymachines.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?t=631 

 

The characters you could use were 1-0, A-Z (upper case only), dash, comma, apostrophe, &, full stop, £ and (for some bizarre reason) § - the section symbol used in typography.

 

A few stations (ISTR that Bristol was one)  also had a scale model steam loco in a glass case that you could make operate for a penny and they were far more entertaining.

In the 1960s, platform tickets were 2d and you could then watch as many trains as you liked so even better entertainment value than either penny machine.

Edited July 12, 2020 by Pacific231G

[simontaylor484]

My early memories of rail travel was going to London with my parents and Grandparents for the weekend from Doncaster. We stayed in the Grafton hotel. It was shorly after the Libyan embassy siege the end of the road had big blue sheets up. We went on a bus tour and i remember passing the Iranian embassy that had some alreration by some Gentlemen from Hereford.that weekend formed my love of Hsts. 

[Andy Kirkham]

31 minutes ago, Pacific231G said:

A few stations (ISTR that Bristol was one)  had a scale model steam loco that you could make operate for a penny and they were far more entertaining.

 

King George V. It's still there.

[Pacific231G]

8 hours ago, Andy Kirkham said:

 

King George V. It's still there.

Where on the station is it displayed?

Is it now static or can it still be run. If so I assume it's a bit more than 0.416p.

[tigerburnie]

My family moved to a brand new house that was only a hundred yards from the Great Central line, I was 4 years old and all I remember was these huge smoke belching beasts rattling the panes of glass in the windows. Around 3 years later with my pals we went down to the trackside to see the Master Cutler going up to London hauled by the A3 Flying Fox, I can still see that image clearly in my mind. A few years later I was going to cross the track to go fishing on the canal on the other side and I had to wait for a train charging up the incline out of Leicester, at the head was V2 St Peters School of York looking brand new, obviously straight from an overhaul, it was a crisp summer morning with a bit of mist over the field, I can see that image too, almost 60 years later.

[Andy Kirkham]

10 hours ago, Pacific231G said:

Where on the station is it displayed?

Is it now static or can it still be run. If so I assume it's a bit more than 0.416p.

I think you can just see the glass case in this picture below the leftmost departure indicator.

https://www.alamy.com/passengers-on-platform-at-temple-meads-railway-station-bristol-england-uk-designed-by-isambard-kingdom-brunel-image348008091.html?pv=1&stamp=2&imageid=A455BE7D-F60B-4C5A-9394-8E0E42E0A337&p=5343&n=131&orientation=0&pn=1&searchtype=0&IsFromSearch=1&srch=foo%3Dbar%26st%3D0%26sortby%3D2%26qt%3Dbristol%20temple%20meads%26qt_raw%3Dbristol%20temple%20meads%26qn%3D%26lic%3D3%26edrf%3D0%26mr%3D0%26pr%3D0%26aoa%3D1%26creative%3D%26videos%3D%26nu%3D%26ccc%3D%26bespoke%3D%26apalib%3D%26ag%3D0%26hc%3D0%26et%3D0x000000000000000000000%26vp%3D0%26loc%3D0%26ot%3D0%26imgt%3D0%26dtfr%3D%26dtto%3D%26size%3D0xFF%26blackwhite%3D%26cutout%3D%26archive%3D1%26name%3D%26groupid%3D%26pseudoid%3D%26userid%3D%26id%3D%26a%3D%26xstx%3D0%26cbstore%3D0%26resultview%3DsortbyPopular%26lightbox%3D%26gname%3D%26gtype%3D%26apalic%3D%26tbar%3D1%26pc%3D%26simid%3D%26cap%3D1%26customgeoip%3D%26vd%3D0%26cid%3D%26pe%3D%26so%3D%26lb%3D%26pl%3D0%26plno%3D%26fi%3D0%26langcode%3Den%26upl%3D0%26cufr%3D%26cuto%3D%26howler%3D%26cvrem%3D0%26cvtype%3D0%26cvloc%3D0%26cl%3D0%26upfr%3D%26upto%3D%26primcat%3D%26seccat%3D%26cvcategory%3D*%26restriction%3D%26random%3D%26ispremium%3D1%26flip%3D0%26contributorqt%3D%26plgalleryno%3D%26plpublic%3D0%26viewaspublic%3D0%26isplcurate%3D0%26imageurl%3D%26saveQry%3D%26editorial%3D1%26t%3D0%26edoptin%3D%26filters%3D0

 

I think it still operates, though I'm not sure about that. 

Edited July 13, 2020 by Andy Kirkham

[jonny777]

My earliest railway memory is from August 1956. I only remember really because overnight there had been a severe thunderstorm which woke me up, and the lightning was so frequent it lit up my bedroom almost constantly. I was taken on holiday later that morning by my parents and remember being seated by a large carriage window and being told to look for the lightning outside, and thinking that I had already seen enough of that - thank you; and how was I going to see lightning when the sky was grey, the mist was grey, the drizzle was grey, and the tracks were grey? 

 

I cannot say precisely where that was, either Peterborough North or maybe Grantham, and the holiday destination was Bournemouth. I would love to know what locos I saw that day, but I was three and a half and had no knowledge of trainspotting at that time. 

[Pacific231G]

On 13/07/2020 at 08:42, Andy Kirkham said:

I think you can just see the glass case in this picture below the leftmost departure indicator.

https://www.alamy.com/passengers-on-platform-at-temple-meads-railway-station-bristol-england-uk-designed-by-isambard-kingdom-brunel-image348008091.html?pv=1&stamp=2&imageid=A455BE7D-F60B-4C5A-9394-8E0E42E0A337&p=5343&n=131&orientation=0&pn=1&searchtype=0&IsFromSearch=1&srch=foo%3Dbar%26st%3D0%26sortby%3D2%26qt%3Dbristol%20temple%20meads%26qt_raw%3Dbristol%20temple%20meads%26qn%3D%26lic%3D3%26edrf%3D0%26mr%3D0%26pr%3D0%26aoa%3D1%26creative%3D%26videos%3D%26nu%3D%26ccc%3D%26bespoke%3D%26apalib%3D%26ag%3D0%26hc%3D0%26et%3D0x000000000000000000000%26vp%3D0%26loc%3D0%26ot%3D0%26imgt%3D0%26dtfr%3D%26dtto%3D%26size%3D0xFF%26blackwhite%3D%26cutout%3D%26archive%3D1%26name%3D%26groupid%3D%26pseudoid%3D%26userid%3D%26id%3D%26a%3D%26xstx%3D0%26cbstore%3D0%26resultview%3DsortbyPopular%26lightbox%3D%26gname%3D%26gtype%3D%26apalic%3D%26tbar%3D1%26pc%3D%26simid%3D%26cap%3D1%26customgeoip%3D%26vd%3D0%26cid%3D%26pe%3D%26so%3D%26lb%3D%26pl%3D0%26plno%3D%26fi%3D0%26langcode%3Den%26upl%3D0%26cufr%3D%26cuto%3D%26howler%3D%26cvrem%3D0%26cvtype%3D0%26cvloc%3D0%26cl%3D0%26upfr%3D%26upto%3D%26primcat%3D%26seccat%3D%26cvcategory%3D*%26restriction%3D%26random%3D%26ispremium%3D1%26flip%3D0%26contributorqt%3D%26plgalleryno%3D%26plpublic%3D0%26viewaspublic%3D0%26isplcurate%3D0%26imageurl%3D%26saveQry%3D%26editorial%3D1%26t%3D0%26edoptin%3D%26filters%3D0

 

I think it still operates, though I'm not sure about that. 

Thanks Andy

Thats it all right and I found this clip on YouTube of it working in 2014.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZ1aIq7vIBc

(I assume the chocolate and cream coaches were a special)

 

Apparently it then cost 20p to make it run so, if it's still working,  probably still the same. That was an inflationary increase from the 1d it cost when I saw it in the 1960s  but it would have been a penny when it was originally installed so likely about the same. I seem to remember that the proceeeds from it went to a railway charity but making it coin operated may have also been to ensure that it wasn't run into the ground by being constantly activated.

Edited July 14, 2020 by Pacific231G
grammar

[Colin_McLeod]

On 12/07/2020 at 12:32, Pacific231G said:

 

A few stations (ISTR that Bristol was one)  also had a scale model steam loco in a glass case that you could make operate for a penny and they were far more entertaining.

 

There was one such model in Belfast Great Victoria Street station. It got damaged by a bomb during the Troubles but is now restored and on display at the Whitehead Railway Museum.  Here is it's story from the RPSI website.

 

https://www.steamtrainsireland.com/rpsi-collection/40/no202

[CameronL]

Very early memory - getting the train from Chorlton-come-Hardy (wrong spelling but this site wouldn't let me use the right one) station in Manchester (as mentioned in the song "The Slow Train" by Flanders and Swann) in the early 1960s. My Dad asked me if I wanted to see the engine and just as we got to it, it let out what seemed to my young eyes and ears  a huge blast if steam from under the cylinders which absolutely terrified me. 

I remember it as a big, black tank engine. It didn't take much research to find that it was possibly an ex-LMS Fowler 2-6-4, and here is a picture of one on the Stockport train at Chorlton. They were withdrawn between 1959 and 1966, which fits 

Edited July 26, 2020 by CameronL
Spelling problems

[Colin]

My earliest clear memory is from around 1956/7, when most main line coaches were still in Carmine/Cream livery - I was around 4 years old IIRC and the location was Ilford station on the GE main line. First train through was an express, I remember being rather scared of the huge green loco (must have been a Britannia, but could have been a B17 I suppose) which whistled deafeningly as it tore past us. The next train was something very different - a small stubby and very dirty tank loco (I well remember that its dome was very close to its chimney so it was doubtless one of the Buckjumper family) which hissed and clanked past at the head of a very mixed freight. I absolutely loved that little engine and its noisy clattering train - after the express it seemed almost friendly in comparison. Further memories are based around summer trips to Southend c. 1960/61 and big tank locos on the LTSR - The Standard 4MT soon became my all time favourite locomotive.

My earliest model railway memories (apart from hours spent playing with my own TriAng Princess Elizabeth passenger set) are of the Gamages Christmas displays which featured Lionel 0 gauge US trains and of my best friend who lived over the road, whose Dad had made him an impressive Hornby Dublo 3 rail layout on a proper baseboard - his “Duchess Of Montrose” and BR 4MT tank were the stuff of dreams but sadly incompatible with my rather more basic setup! I sometimes wonder who was the real enthusiast in that house, as my friend wasn’t that interested in his trains and sometimes left me on my own playing with the layout - ironically, his Dad often looked in to see how I was getting on.......

[billy_anorak59]

Born in 1959, my earliest memories all date to about 1963-65.

At Liverpool Lime Street, and looking up at an absolutely massive red engine at the buffer stops, and asking my Dad ‘if it was like my City of London?’ (my treasured Hornby Dublo engine).

Walking to my local station ‘Bromborough’ (Wirral) on my first family holiday, complete with suitcases, and bucket and spade; standing on the platform, and being aghast at the grey and rust apparition that pulled in. To my tender sensibilities, engines should be black, shouldn’t they!? In my mind’s eye, it must have been a Stanier 4MT. I remember the maroon compartment coach we boarded having a large round window at both ends (‘Porthole’, I suppose). The only other things I remember about the journey was sitting in the compartment singing ‘We’re all going on a summer holiday’, watching the rise and fall of the telegraph wires outside the window, and the specks of dust suspended in the air, lit by the sun streaming in through the window (weird what sticks in the mind!). Reaching Colwyn Bay station (we were holidaying in Llandudno), and seeing another train pulling in as we paused at the platform (…mind’s eye again – it was hauled by a Black Five’)

Finally, my sister and I being invited into the cab of a DMU at Birkenhead Woodside one dark late afternoon Saturday in winter, returning home from a shopping trip to Liverpool. The rails were glistening in the rain up to the tunnel mouth, and I recall vividly the row of marker lights on the inside of tunnel wall as we departed. Thank you driver!