If I had a Time Machine ....

[TheSignalEngineer]

A bit of musing whilst watching the snow at coffee time this morning took me back to winter scenes gone by.

Iced up trains, digging out points, gloves frozen to a signal ladder were some of the old railway memories.

 

I was lucky enough to see just about all of the Big Four front line classes still in service and to ride behind many of the express classes, particularly LMS and GWR in my local area. The oldest loco I remember seeing in traffic was a Johnson 2F dating from 1875.

My first footplate experience I can remember was my great aunt's husband taking me on the footplate of a train he was about to drive from New Street to Euston in 1950. The abiding memories were the intense heat and being lifted up to sound the whistle when the guard waved his flag and being handed back down to my Dad who had already climbed back onto the platform. The only train I can remember in pre-BR livery was on a holiday to Swanage at the age of four where the coaches were all still SR green in the early 1950s. Around that time was also my first signal box visit to New Street No.2 when waiting for a train with my Grandad. 

 

A few things I missed and would like to have done and would go back there if I had time travel, so I'll start the ball rolling with two from the LNER.

 

Although I saw a few on there I never managed to ride the ECML behind a Pacific, my first trip was with a Deltic from York to Edinburgh.

The second was although I saw them at London Road, Gorton, Reddish and Sheffield, then later when I was working at Crewe Works I never managed to get a ride behind a Woodhead Electric.

 

Given the chance what railway experience would you go back in time to do?

 

 

 

 

[Matt37268]

I wouldn’t mind reliving my youth with a day out on the North Wales Coast with a 37/4 again… 

 

[Fair Oak Junction]

I'd go back to the earliest days of the railways, possibly the opening of the S&D. See just what it looked like, sounded like, feel the atmosphere around such an important event, etc.

[The Stationmaster]

Wow, so many things - I think I hada ride behind mst of the 'common' LNER acifcs including "mallard' (cabbed it on arrib val at the Cross and the W1 (also cabbed it on arrival at the Cross)  - so ok there.   Actually saw various 4-4-)0 classes in everyday operation Ex SR, one ex -GWR (Dukedog - even hauled by it),, ex LNER D49s in. Yorkshire. and various LMS Class 2s. Travelled behind all the Collett GWR 4-6-0s except, as far as I can remember, a 'Grange' and Bulleid Light Pacifics but never a 'Merchant Navy' until preservation times.  Plus of course travelling over various now long closed, routes and to/from long vanished stations. 

 

The big misses I truly regret - not travelling over the B&M from Newport to Brecon and then the Mid Wales to Moat Lane - I'd love to go back to 1962 to do that.  

And very much regretting not having more money to allow more photography of what I saw in terms of both engines and signals and signal boxes;  I'd love to be in the very early 1960s with unlimited travel facilities and a digital camera with a pile of memory cards..  

.

[woodenhead]

I've often mused about it, but for some reason my ASD tendencies get in the way.

 

I'd love to go back to when my childhood local station was open, see the ex Great Central Directors and 04 class engines, but then I remember things would be different, smoking was normal, everything was probably a little more grubby and I might stick out like a sore thumb as looking different and more healthy than everyone else around me!!

 

So maybe I'd just pop back to 1973 and Crewe just before the trains north of Weaver became electric, and then I'd pop over to Healey Mills, Tinsley, Toton and Wath just for a look see at the yards before they went downhill.  Oh and Severn Tunnel Junction and Cardiff for all the coal trains.

[Iain.d]

…a beautiful summer Saturday in the 1950s, on the northern part of the Somerset & Dorset with a good quality digital SLR and Ivo Peters as my host…

 

Kind regards,

 

Iain

Edited January 16 by Iain.d

[woodenhead]

Just now, Iain.d said:

…a beautiful summer Saturday in the 1950s, on the northern part of the Somerset & Dorset with a good quality digital SLR and Ivo Peters as my host…

 

Kind regards,

 

Iain

When you discover you are in fact......Ivo Peters and you deliberately converted your photographs to black and white so no-one would discover you were a time traveller.

 

Did you remember to buy some shares in early Microsoft, Apple and Amazon.

[RichardT]

Must….not…get…drawn…into…this…thread…will…never…escape…

 

RichardT

 

(Oh, alright then. Watching Raven Pacifics at York in the 1920s followed by a local train to Alne to catch the Easingwold Railway)

Edited January 16 by RichardT
Owning up

[Aire Head]

4 hours ago, TheSignalEngineer said:

Given the chance what railway experience would you go back in time to do?

 

Walk through sidings with a camera and take pictures of every damn wagon I could find 😂

[TheQ]

Travel down the MSWJR line on the last days of said company.

 

I do remember being hauled by a Deltic on my first day in the RAF  26th Oct 1976 the engine exploded somewhere in the middle between Edinburgh and  Berwick on Tweed.

 

My only foot plate ride, behind a Brush 47 a few hundred yards at Ludgershall station.

 

[DaveF]

Start by going back to around 1910ish and visit Calrisle, Newcastle York and as many other places as possible and take photos of the liveries.  Or Switzerland in the 1970s/80s when old locos and stock were still in use.

 

How long could I stay in the past and could I miss out the bad years?

 

David

[BMacdermott]

Hello everyone

 

Indeed, time travel would enable us to return to such interesting places as Oxford, Exeter Central, Exeter St Davids and Newton Abbot - to name just four of possibly hundreds!

 

Much of our 'history' is garnered from photos and many of those emanate from BR days from (as noted) Ivo Peters etc. Most of those photos will have been taken 'during the main part of daytime' and often on Summer Saturdays.

 

Time travel would allow the historian to see what those places were really like, spread over a whole day and/or over a whole week or number of weeks! There would be so much to see and learn!🙂

 

If time travel were possible, I'd be first in the queue with my notebook and camera at the ready!

 

Brian

[TheSignalEngineer]

4 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

...Actually saw various 4-4-0 classes in everyday operation .........and various LMS Class 2s. ...

 

Gloucester Barnwood had some of the last Johnson 2P 4-4-0 locos in service. I remember watching them race through Selly Oak on a Class B working to New Street, usually three or four coaches. We also had them at Saltley and Bournville. I saw them on Derby workings and standing pilot on the Midland side at New Street, where they ofthen got called upon to give heavyweight Bristol trains a shove up to Church Road, particularly on wet days. The Fowler 4Fs that replaced them on the stoppers were hardly a match and soon gave way to Standard 5s.

[TheSignalEngineer]

1 minute ago, BMacdermott said:

Most of those photos will have been taken 'during the main part of daytime' and often on Summer Saturdays.

I always found it more interesting to be about the railway at night when I worked at Crewe around 1967/8. I also clearly remember the bustle of freight and parcels activity when we used to catch the overnight train from Snow Hill to the West Country in the 1950s. Oh for my electronic vlogging camera of today with its ASA setting up to 12800 and 1/32000 shutter speed. 

[Ian Hargrave]

Going back how far.OK. ……observations of trains& railways that stick there like glue. Chocolate & cream Colletts on the Brighton -Cardiff through train with Schools 933 at the front ( August 1948 ). Blue 46206 at Shrewsbury ( August 1952 ) Later that same month Fowler boiler Scot 46148 Colwyn Bay. The last Saint 2920 Pontypool Road,1954. Brit 70009 on the Belle,Waterloo 1951 and the Bulleid  Tavern Cars . The Festival of Britain Railway exhibition at Waterloo East with 18100 Gas Turbine & the 1500dc o/h electric etc. Cabbing 60022 at KX on arrival with FS. Being shown around The Trianon Bar of the Arrow on its arrival at Victoria.A journey on the up South Wales Pullman behind Castle 5013 . The prototype Deltic at KX and the golden transition years at  Temple Meads,York and Crewe . I just have such wonderful memories.

[phil_sutters]

I would like to see the S&DJR at the end of the blue livery period, as the Midland and LSWR liveries were being introduced (imposed). I suppose the line between Evercreech Junction and Burnham would provide the locations - so that I could visit the Wells and Bridgwater branches and see the rail and sea traffic at Highbridge Wharf. A look inside Highbridge loco, carriage and wagon works would be the icing on the cake. Evercreech would allow me to see the Bath to Bournemouth trains. I suppose I could force myself to see the GWR on the Weston to Taunton line.

If Dad were around I am not sure which era he would choose, but he would greatly appreciate the ability to take a digital camera with him and not be constrained by 24 exposure roll films.

Edited January 16 by phil_sutters

[The Stationmaster]

38 minutes ago, TheSignalEngineer said:

Gloucester Barnwood had some of the last Johnson 2P 4-4-0 locos in service. I remember watching them race through Selly Oak on a Class B working to New Street, usually three or four coaches. We also had them at Saltley and Bournville. I saw them on Derby workings and standing pilot on the Midland side at New Street, where they ofthen got called upon to give heavyweight Bristol trains a shove up to Church Road, particularly on wet days. The Fowler 4Fs that replaced them on the stoppers were hardly a match and soon gave way to Standard 5s.

40672 was the Watford Jcn 'shed pilot' always seemed to stand in the shed yard in steam - presumably to cover a main line failure (it stood facing Euston)

[StuAllen]

Part of me wants to fast forward 100 years to see how things like HS2 end up (although that may be depressing) - going back in time I would go back to the early eighties- had some great days out with Mum and Dad from Brighton by train - destinations that stand out were York, Penzance and Aberystwyth. I loved the sound and smell of 125’s at Paddington or Kings Cross - much better than the slam mk1 emus that took us to London. I was too young to appreciate it back then, but I’d love to go back.

Edited January 16 by StuAllen

[ChewChoo]

August 1869 to witness the end of broad gauge, the conversion work and the beginning of standard gauge on the Hereford to Gloucester line. I can just remember travelling on it a few times before the closure in 1964…

Edited January 16 by ChewChoo

[Hippel]

I've always thought I'd like to go back to around 1910 and stand on the platforms at Carlisle. There were so many companies that ran into or through Carlisle, that the variety of locomotive liveries must have been impressive. Again, taking a digital camera!

 

Paul

[TheSignalEngineer]

1 hour ago, The Stationmaster said:

40672 was the Watford Jcn 'shed pilot' always seemed to stand in the shed yard in steam - presumably to cover a main line failure (it stood facing Euston)

I can remember a lot of places having a loco fired up ready to go as either a pilot of swap in case of failure. At sheds it also acted as the breakdown train loco if required. In later days of steam at Snow Hill the 'Big Pilot' was usually a Hall or sometimes a Grange. It stood in the New Yard by the turntable and did a bit of shunting as required if not needed for anything else. I once remember a diesel struggling in with the 3pm to Paddington. A Castle was on the Shrewsbury - Paddington Parcels waiting to follow. The Castle pulled the diesel and its train to London whilst the pilot followed with the parcels. 

The Bank Pilot on the LNW side of New Street was usually a tank loco, later a 350 then a 204HP shunter. The spare big loco on that side was usually off the early train from Crewe after it had disposed of the ECS at Vauxhall. That's how I copped Britannia hauling about 30 LMS 3-planks full of brick ends to the tip during New Street rebuilding. The Midland side would have a loco standing in the siding between 9 and 10 facing Bristol and another in the Parlour siding at No.2 box facing Derby. There was also frquently a small engine in the Fish Dock, later to be replaced by a 350. Of course up to the start of the LMR electrification work there was a turntable with stabling sidings for locos not needing to go back to shed before the next working

after engine changes.

[whart57]

I think I could provide a great service to 21st Century Railway Modelling by simply going back to, say, the 1880s and somewhere like the Canterbury stations and photographing something other than the engine of a train. Just getting some good shots of passenger carriages, goods stock - that elusive LCDR brake van - and infrastructure like signals and level crossing gates. Then the next week doing the same thing but in 1905 or 1910.

 

Out of curiosity I'd also shoot back to 1830 and Whitstable, just to see if Invicta ever did pull trains

 

It might also be interesting to go forward forty years to see if HS2 ever gets built, though I fear I will see the Transport minister in the Euan Blair government coming up with a new set of excuses.

[melmoth]

All of mine are management related. To take three from the 1940/50s.

 

1.  To be able to implement nationalisation along the lines of the LNER's Landlord & Tenant (?) scheme

2. To avoid the 1955 ASLEF strike

3. To allow the Modernisation Plan to run its course without over-ordering unproved designs.

 

And that's before we even reach Beeching.

[TheSignalEngineer]

2 minutes ago, melmoth said:

All of mine are management related. To take three from the 1940/50s.

 

1.  To be able to implement nationalisation along the lines of the LNER's Landlord & Tenant (?) scheme

2. To avoid the 1955 ASLEF strike

3. To allow the Modernisation Plan to run its course without over-ordering unproved designs.

 

And that's before we even reach Beeching.

A bit like a BR 'Life in Mars' series?

[Michael Hodgson]

9 hours ago, TheSignalEngineer said:

Given the chance what railway experience would you go back in time to do?

 

 

Perhaps an unlikely one, but it would be the (old) Glasgow Subway.

Just before it was due to close for rebuilding in 1977, I caught the train the Glasgow specially to visit it. 

However it had been forced to close earlier that day beause of a problem at one of the stations.,