If I had a Time Machine ....

[Jeremy Cumberland]

High up on my list would be to ride on a London Transport O or P stock with metadyne control, something that I am pretty sure will never be recreated in a full-size replica. A few years ago I found a wonderfully evocative description online written by an O/P stock driver, describing the manic whine of the metadyne, but I neglected to download it, and I can't find it now. It must have been quite something to hear and experience. As far as I am aware, there aren't even any sound recordings of a metadyne control train.

[TheQ]

3 hours ago, StuAllen said:

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.

Please let us know it the death of model railways has occurred...

[Matt37268]

34 minutes ago, TheSignalEngineer said:

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

Who’s playing Gene Hunt then? 😀

[Legend]

Probably reliving my youth in Paisley/ Glasgow . I wish I had taken pictures of what was then the everyday scene . Class 126/107/303 s etc . As well as a Time Machine I’d like to have a digital camera  back then .  Then there was the first time I saw HSTs in 1979 at Berwick . That Paxman scream ! 
 

As well as trains I’d take pictures of the Clyde Steamers and the aircraft at Glasgow Abbotsinch . Viscounts vanguard and Tridents 

[Matt37268]

35 minutes ago, Michael Hodgson said:

 

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.,

You might enjoy this Michael 

 

[adb968008]

Around Manchester in 1920 would be interesting…

 

Seeing heavy haul and fast passenger engines from Horwich, and how the big four designers all earned their wings in the same innovative buildings, later gutted by Derby.

Edited January 16 by adb968008

[Rugd1022]

I'd make a start by revisiting a much beloved location with family connections...

 

1) Straight in at number one pop pickers - Old Oak Common on 17th March 1906, the day the new shed opened and the day my maternal great grandfather (fireman) and two of his brothers (both engine cleaners) transferred there from Westbourne Park, imagine the pristine interior of that vast roundhouse with four turntables, filled with Mr. G.J.Churchward's finest etc. Lovely. Seventy seven years later I found myself working there.

 

2) All of the London termini during that period after nationalisation when there was a fascinating mix of Big Four and experimental new BR liveries - David Jenkinson's wonderful  book 'The Big Four In Colour' gave us a tantalising glimpse into what it was like, but imagine seeing so much more of it in glorious real life colour.

 

3 ) Paddington station in early 1965 - WR steam is all but gone and it's now wall to wall Diesel-Hydraulics in maroon and green livery, plus of course of D1015 'Western Champion' still carrying its one off golden ochre paint job,the three eight car Blue Pullman sets, D0280 'Falcon' in two tone green, a batch of new two tone green Brush Type 4s and the ubiquitous 350hp shunt engines.

 

3) Waterloo station in the first half of 1967, with the end of SR steam edging ever nearer and the Bullied Pacific's 'last fling' in the more than capable hands of so many of Nine Elm's footplate crews.... with The Kinks' 'Waterloo Sunset' wafting out of a little transistor radio, naturally.

 

4 ) Crewe station in 1970 / 71, watching the Class 50s backing onto the Anglo - Scottish expresses, endless AC Electrics and 24s, 25s and 40s on all sorts of traffic. My very first visit to Crewe with my Nan was just like this, we were on the way to visit relatives near Stockport and changed trains there.

 

 

[Reorte]

There are a lot of things that were gone before I was born that I'd love to see.  Plenty of routes (think I'd probably go for Stainmore if I had to pick one), and plenty of existing ones with now long gone trains and infrastructure.

 

If we're limited to just re-experiencing, then whilst I prefer what I remember I don't have any particularly significant memories.

 

edit to add: The memory that stands out strongest is one to not repeat - I was taken on a trip along the Settle-Carlisle during the time it was threatened with closure. I remember being told the state of the Ribblehead Viaduct was a big part of that, and as a young child that meant I was very nervous about the trip, half convinced it was going to collapse underneath us!

Edited January 17 by Reorte

[Nearholmer]

London, c1900-05, I think, just when the “old style”, 1860/70s steam-hauled urban and inner-suburban services were giving way to electrification, so two systems to see,  the main-line termini were at their most prosperous, and there were goods trains and goods stations everywhere.

 

On one boringly long train ride, I even began to plot in my head which places I’d visit in what order, to experience as much as possible in a 24hr time-travel slot, my cover story for being an obvious fish out of water, and how I would obtain currency on the day (pawning something!).

 

I’d welcome a travelling companion, because some of the places I’m thinking of going were probably a bit rough at the time.

[Nearholmer]

16 hours ago, Jeremy Cumberland said:

As far as I am aware, there aren't even any sound recordings of a metadyne control train.

I think there might be some preserved trolleybuses with Ward-Leonard control, which possibly sound similar.

[TheSignalEngineer]

1 hour ago, Rugd1022 said:

Crewe station in 1970 / 71, watching the Class 50s backing onto the Anglo - Scottish expresses, endless AC Electrics and 24s, 25s and 40s on all sorts of traffic.

I was at Crewe Works followed by working on the Shrewsbuiry and Chester lines Sept'67 to Aug'68. I think they were up to about D438 in traffic or on test by the end of that spell. Back in 1970 working in Rail House with a panoramic view from Coal Yard and Sydney Bridge  to almost Basford Hall from my desk.

[Flying Pig]

2 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

On one boringly long train ride, I even began to plot in my head which places I’d visit in what order, to experience as much as possible in a 24hr time-travel slot, my cover story for being an obvious fish out of water, and how I would obtain currency on the day (pawning something!).

 

Given that anyone from any time after time travel was invented could visit the same period as you, the likelihood of your meeting any natives at all would seem to be vanishingly small, so this is unlikely to be a serious problem.

[woodenhead]

2 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

On one boringly long train ride, I even began to plot in my head which places I’d visit in what order, to experience as much as possible in a 24hr time-travel slot, my cover story for being an obvious fish out of water, and how I would obtain currency on the day (pawning something!).

 

Ditto, my main concern is not sticking out and how would I pay for things.

 

Of course I must remember also not to use my iPhone to take photos or say things like "In twenty years all this will be gone" or suchlike.

 

I'd be like the worst most pessimistic person ever at Crewe in 1955 - "Well first they are going to get rid of the steam engines to the South, and it will be diesels to the North.  Then they will close loads of routes all over the country and eventually we will all end up in one type of train - the unit"

[Nearholmer]

Thinking about, which is probably not a good idea, if time travel was invented, presumably the technology, and all other technology, would diffuse backwards in time, so that very quickly all times would actually be pretty much the same, and technological progress across all time would be led by a sort of spearhead of the furthest future, which would itself be ever-accelerating as the back diffusion built a higher platform from which to launch each age.

 

A bit like how travel in space has led to all places becoming more and more alike, every high street the same in every town in the country, and aa discarded empty Coke tin in every conceivable place on the planet.

 

So, pretty quickly, it wouldn’t be worth the bother of going to 1900, because it would be just like now, although now itself wouldn’t be like now now, if you see what I mean.

 

 

 

 

Edited January 17 by Nearholmer

[woodenhead]

2 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

So, pretty quickly, it wouldn’t be worth the bother of going to 1900, because it would be just like now.

Except now would no longer look like now either.

 

The past is better of left alone, we don't want to step on a flower and end up with cats running the world.

 

Have you seen Bodies on Netflix, excellent series

https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/sci-fi-tv-shows-netflix-october-2023-bodies

[Nearholmer]

8 minutes ago, woodenhead said:

Except now would no longer look like now either.

 

Yes, I spotted that and amended as you were pointing it out.

 

All very confusing.

 

There would be no definable “now” in the sense of “how things are now”, because everything would continuously be updating and revising. Now, you go to bed, your phone downloads V28.67.7 and updates itself, and you can’t find your contact list in the morning. The same would be happening to everything, even you while asleep. You might go to bed and cease to have ever existed before morning, or simply get up to discover that, as you say, cats now rule the world, but only for a millisecond, while someone goes back and sorts that problem out.

 

 

Edited January 17 by Nearholmer

[woodenhead]

The paradox of course being if someone went back in time and it altered history, then likely they would not exist in the same manner after the change causing the paradox to correct back to the original timeline before that person again goes back and does it again, and again, and again....

[Rivercider]

Like Rugd1022 I think I would like to concentrate on railway locations with family connections. Some of the places I knew but after they were in decline, or closed. I think a 24 exposure film, used wisely, would do for each day out.

 

1. Make trips again with my dad in the mid 1960s,  I would pay more attention to the Western Region hydraulics at work in Devon. We might fit in a trip to Waterloo to catch some of the steam I just about remember, and I might bump into Rugd1022. 

 

2. Spend some time with my grandad when he was a platform inspector at Exeter Central in the early 1960s. Also maybe ask him which of the signal boxes he had worked in the past were most interesting in case I had the chance for another day out. I am sure he could arrange for a proper shed visit to Exmouth Junction. 

 

3. Visit my great great grandma and see what a LSWR railway crossing keepers life was like in the late 1800s, perhaps include a train trip to Sidmouth.

 

4. Some of my mothers side of the family hailed from the Teign Valley. The Teign Valley line closed before I was born, so perhaps a trip along the line riding with the guard of one of the goods trains, stopping at various stations and quarries along the way. It would have to be before WWII before traffic tailed off.

 

cheers

[Flying Pig]

21 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

Thinking about, which is probably not a good idea, if time travel was invented, presumably the technology, and all other technology, would diffuse backwards in time, so that very quickly all times would actually be pretty much the same, and technological progress across all time would be led by a sort of spearhead of the furthest future, which would itself be ever-accelerating as the back diffusion built a higher platform from which to launch each age.

 

A bit like how travel in space has led to all places becoming more and more alike, every high street the same in every town in the country, and aa discarded empty Coke tin in every conceivable place on the planet.

 

So, pretty quickly, it wouldn’t be worth the bother of going to 1900, because it would be just like now, although now itself wouldn’t be like now now, if you see what I mean.

 

 

 

 

 

Hence CAMTIM. For the Cathedral of Chalesm, read all your favourite loco classes when EMD and Siemens start exporting to the past.

 

The what-if really needs to be: what if time travel were invented for you and your friends only and none of those annoying paradoxes and side effects occurred?  Then we can stop worrying about the details.

[APOLLO]

This would be an interesting time machine day out, only a couple of miles away.

 

I would need a tin hat, gas mask, clogs, flat cap, knotted scarf and next doors Whippet !!!!!!

 

 

I could visit my Grandma for a cup of tea, she lived 3 doors up from Belle Green Lane level crossing. Grandad was over in France back then in the Army. Wonder what she would think of my digital phone / camera !!

 

 

Then again, perhaps not as my Mum was not yet born !!! 

 

Brit15

[NZRedBaron]

As for me; I'll take what's probably the boring but safe option; modern video camera and a RADAR gun, and then set up along various places and times, to see if City of Truro / Flying Scotsman / Papyrus / etc. actually did make their record breaking runs.

[Flying Pig]

9 minutes ago, NZRedBaron said:

As for me; I'll take what's probably the boring but safe option; modern video camera and a RADAR gun, and then set up along various places and times, to see if City of Truro / Flying Scotsman / Papyrus / etc. actually did make their record breaking runs.

 

On what planet is that safe?!  Measure the wrong answer and you'll be lynched when you get home.

[Michael Hodgson]

5 hours ago, woodenhead said:

 

The past is better of left alone, we don't want to step on a flower and end up with cats running the world.

 

 

What makes you think they don't?

 

[pH]

It’s quite disturbing to realize that I actually experienced quite a few of the things that people are saying they wished they had been around to see or do. I must be getting old!

[Richard_A]

I would like to see the various railways around Swansea, just so when I got back to the future I would have an idea where it all was. 

Edited January 18 by Richard_A