When spotting which trains made you think “Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore."

[Will Crompton]

My spotting days were back in the 1970s. I and my spotting amigos grew up in SW London, 3rd rail territory. We did a lot of spotting in London termini and depots and were fortunate that there was a great variety of locos/rolling stock to be seen. On visits further afield however there was always a point where we saw an engine or multiple unit type that made us realise that were no longer on our 'manor'. For us it was class 20s when we went 'oop' north' which for us started circa Wellingborough. 03s and Class 24s without headboxes were strange beasts to us as were class 124 DMUs. What locos or rolling stock gave you a frisson of the exotic?

[Matt37268]

A few years ago 50008 made a visit to Cambridge (rather inconveniently I must add) whilst I was in conversation with my gaffers at work, so I saw a grey roof and top half of a Laira Blue bodyside go past my place of work (2019 or v early 2020 I think it was) so whilst not exactly ‘back in the day’. 
It was still a ‘whoa wtf that’s a bit of a stranger’ moment in 31A especially when your daily diet is to 387’s, 700s and 755’s with the daily dose of 66 action and top and tail tractors showing up every 3 weeks. 

I also say this as someone who’s grown up just old enough to miss them in service but just down the road from Kidderminster… 

[david.hill64]

Coming from Gloucester, trips to Scotland in the 70's were very interesting: strange 0-4-0 shunters, claytons, white circle DMUs. All strange beasts.

[Hal Nail]

I grew up in Southampton, travelling regularly by train to grandparents in Tunbridge Wells and Birmingham. So aside from the staple "bog carts" (REPs, VEPs and TCs and 3H) plus 07, 08, 09, 31, 33, 47, 73 and 74, I was also used to Hastings Units and overhead electrics.

 

Outside the norm, Peaks at Birmingham were exciting and sometimes Dad would take me for a day in London to see Westerns at Paddington and Deltics at Kings Cross. Ironically I've never been a massive fan of either though!

[F-UnitMad]

9 hours ago, Will Crompton said:

My spotting days were back in the 1970s. I and my spotting amigos grew up in SW London, 3rd rail territory.

......On visits further afield however there was always a point where we saw an engine or multiple unit type that made us realise that were no longer on our 'manor'.

For me it was the exact opposite; going from the Midlands to 3rd rail territory!! I had no idea what the various EMUs were, but they had numbers on them, so we spotted them!! Only the set numbers on the ends, though, not individual coach numbers. Spotting coaches, and even worse, wagons, was for the Extremely Sad who had nothing better to do!!!

 

You're right about the variety in the 70s, though. Yes everything (almost) was Banger Blue, but it was still very Regional, so you had to travel about to see different loco classes, not like today where the same few classes just wear different colours.

The BR Blue Era was a unique time - of little interest to the previous generation still mourning the end of steam - "diesels are just boxes on wheels", and of little interest to the following generations who grew up with the variety of liveries fromSectorisation to Privatisation - "how boring with everything just one colour". You have to have been there to understand the attraction.

I still contend - and always will - that a clean set of blue/grey coaches, with an ex-works blue loco on the point - was as smart a railway livery as ever there was.

[Hal Nail]

F-UnitMad's last post has reminded me that on a trip to Australia, c2003, unexpectedly stumbling upon Bullnose diesels in Victoria seemed both inter-continental and time-travelling!

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Stony_Point_railway.jpg

[Wickham Green too]

Third rail units were my staple diet,  EPBs in particular - and I got to appreciate the different varieties later on - but : - 

 

.... the end of steam in the North West was SO DIFFERENT ! ; Stockport Edgeley, 20/4/68. 

[AY Mod]

There were always key points on journeys that you made sure you were hanging out of by the window for these moments.

 

Seventies and Eighties

• Down the WCML on any excursion to the south coast and waiting at Mitre Bridge Junction to see if you'd got a 33 next.
• Approaching Colton Junction Challoners Whin from Church Fenton to spot the first Deltic of the day.
• Coming off the curve at Didcot to see the first HSTs of the day.

Edited February 22 by AY Mod
Corrected junction.

[Rivercider]

My regular spotting trips away from home turf started around 1975, so many of the early diesel classes were gone, and others had retreated from areas where they were once common. Each Region had its own attraction of course.

I was used to seeing 31s and 33s in Bristol and Exeter but there was always a thrill of seeing lines of 31s at Stratford, or 33s at Eastleigh mingling with 73s 09s and DEMUs (EMUs did not interest me).

 

Class 20s were strange beasts to me, but I have happy memories of trips on the NE/SW route. On the southbound homeward journey on summer evenings we would stand looking out the droplights at the corridor ends when it seemed almost every yard or goods loop we passed had a pair of 20s on a coal train whistling away.

 

cheers 

[Oldddudders]

I grew up in early '60s Surrey, so like the OP, London was within easy reach if you had a bit of pocket money. Steam was still about in several termini - KX & Paddington not least, so I saw some famous locos in ordinary service. FS? KGV? Mallard? Yup. And a GER blue station pilot at Liv St. The LSWR main line was still entirely steam, so I saw all the Merchant Navies, almost all the light pacifics. Even Charing Cross still had steam for a short while - and I watched some of those from the outside balcony at the Royal Festival Hall. Going to Tonbridge and catching the last knockings of Kent Coast steam - conductor rail was in place and driver-training trips in progress - was also pretty cool, as they say these days. A weekend staying with parents' friends in Bishops Waltham yielded a tour passing Eastleigh - and there was M7 30021, numerically the first SR mainland loco in the ABC. A Cornish holiday enabled me to get to Wadebridge and see all three surviving Beattie well-tanks. 

 

But oddly, I think the pinch-myself moment probably happened at school, which was situated alongside the former SER line through Dorking. We were used to a daily WR train from Reading to Redhill and return being hauled by a 43xx, but suddenly about 1962 that changed to a Manor! As the SR Schools class had already been withdrawn, it was a thrill to have an unexpected named loco on a local service again.

 

Embarking on a 38-year career with BR in 1966 obviously got me to places and to meet people. When I was SM at Dartford in 1979-80, my Rest Day Relief manager had been SM at Kelvedon, while my boss the AM had been SM at Halesworth - both long after the respective interesting branches had closed, though. But then in my next job my boss had been SM at Bailey Gate on the S&D, while I shared an office with a former Shedmaster at Dorchester. I rubbed shoulders with a few people!

 

 

[25kV]

I was pretty much bound to Preston as a kid, and trips elsewhere were mostly limited to excursions or open days.  But I do have a memory of going to Manchester (all of 25 miles from home) with my dad, and walking from Victoria to Piccadilly to see what was there - and seeing a 76 on the blocks.  That was like a whole other universe.

 

Preston was a strange little world on a weekend - or at least it seemed to be.  25s, 40s, 47s, 81s-87s, but rarely anything outside of this.  Even 37s felt a little unusual, and 31s or 45s would be very noteworthy.  So I often felt the "Kansas" thing when something unusual came to me! 

 

But in that blue era, I think the thing (and you can probably tell by my sig) that had the biggest effect on a 7/8 year old kid like me, was that stripey  Alien Pointy Train that would occasionally, unpredictably, and mysteriously turn up. 

[nomisd]

Late 70s/early 80s Rugby with many a West Midlands and East Midlands Rovers in school holidays. Three things come to mind.

 

• anything Southern, but especially 73s.
• class 76s
• anything Scottish. For a long time the solitary 26/27 that I saw was one that was at Crewe Works during an open day in the mid 70s (1976?). Went on a Merrymaker to Edinburgh in the early 1980s and saw them by the bucketful.

But even at Rugby there was the out of the ordinary. One of the remaining class 44s used to work a coal train to Rugby (presumably for the cement works) in the late afternoon/early evening. Certainly in time for me to get from school to the station to see it.

[Flying Pig]

46 minutes ago, AY Mod said:

There were always key points on journeys that you made sure you were hanging out of by the window for these moments.

 

Seventies and Eighties

• Down the WCML on any excursion to the south coast and waiting at Mitre Bridge Junction to see if you'd got a 33 next.
• Approaching Colton Junction from Church Fenton to spot the first Deltic of the day.
• Coming off the curve at Didcot to see the first HSTs of the day.

 

Wouldn't that be Chaloners Whin (now known as Tesco)?  The Selby Diversion didn't open until after the end of the world in January 1982.

[Jeremy Cumberland]

Same era as @Will Crompton, but grew up on the electrified WCML a little north of Watford. All of London and Kent was "home". The Southern and Western regions didn't really have anything notably exotic (though of course the triple-headed class 37 iron ore trains weren't anything we saw near London). Class 24s, while rare, did sometimes venture as far as Willesden.

 

The nearest "not in Kansas" locomotives were probably class 44s, which rarely ventured south of Leicester. Being the first class in my oldest ABCs, they naturally had some kind of mystique about them, and spotting one was far more highly valued than spotting a 20. On the WCML, prior to their move to the Western, class 50s had a similar exotic feel to them. Liverpool and Manchester had all sorts of electric oddities, with classes 502, 503, 504 and 506 on different lines, and of course the class 76s.

 

The class 124 Trans-Pennines were notable just for their front ends; to ride in they weren't really any different from the 123 Inter Cities on the Western. Venturing further afield, though, and the class 126 Inter Cities seemed very different indeed (mystique added by the four surviving 79xxx cars). Scotland, of course, with its 26s, 27s, push pulls (first 27s, then 47/7s) and Glasgow blue trains was a completely different world

[phil_sutters]

Weirdly it was a recent experience. Having had twenty or so years of steam in Somerset and Bristol, then forty or so with 3rd rail electrics at home and work locations and Thames Turbos and HSTs when visiting my parents in Oxford, I went on a snapping trip around some London stations I had rarely frequented. The penultimate London stop was Marylebone. For the first time in ages I saw a loco powered train that wasn't a special. I say powered rather than hauled, as it was 68012 propelling.

[AY Mod]

42 minutes ago, Flying Pig said:

 

Wouldn't that be Chaloners Whin (now known as Tesco)?  The Selby Diversion didn't open until after the end of the world in January 1982.

 

Sigh; it was all so long ago now. 🤔

[Steven B]

I'd travel into Manchester Victoria on the Calder Valley line (or if there was time to waste via the Oldham Loop). Crossing town to Piccadilly was like entering another world, one filled with loco hauled trains and over head electric multiple units. And of course the 101's, Pacers and Sprinters were were used to over at the L&Y side of town.

 

When Metrolink took over the Bury line it was like we'd arrived in the future. The original T-68s look so dated now!

 

Steven B

[pH]

13 hours ago, Will Crompton said:

What locos or rolling stock gave you a frisson of the exotic?

Growing up in the west of Scotland, my first sight of an “unrebuilt” Bulleid light pacific through Axminster on a holiday in August 1963 was notable (not to say vaguely disturbing! 😳)

[Steamport Southport]

African ones?

 

I bless the trains down in Africa

 

 

Toto!

 

Seriously, apart from things that were strictly local that never travelled to the North West (such as SR or Scottish EMUS) the only classes we never saw around here was Class 58s and 59s.

 

Then when the Class 91s appeared they were ECML only so never saw any of those either. When you did you knew you were on the wrong side of the Pennines.

 

Most of the rest put in occasional appearances such as 50s, 33s, 26s, 27s, 73s, etc.

 

This was the 1980s and early 1990s. Never took much notice after that.

 

 

Jason

[7802]

Having grown up in Devon, the sight of anything with a pantograph seemed incredibly exotic.

[TheSignalEngineer]

14 minutes ago, AY Mod said:

 

Sigh; it was all so long ago now. 🤔

Living about 3 miles from New Street and Snow Hill we had a local circuit which was quite varied. Family connections at Stafford and Bromsgrove, outings to Worcester, Leamington, Stratford upon Avon were all regular . 

 

Early realisations of different things started around 1953 when we travelled to Swanage via the S&D and later in the week using a local to Corfe Castle which still had old stock in some variation of Southern green. Not sure which shade, Green was Green in those days. 

Next was a birthday trip with my grandparents to London Zoo, around 1955-56. What were those funny trains that ran on 4 rails south of Watford Junction? And their companions about half as high as proper trains? And those points at Euston which flew across with a bang and a hiss?

[Hal Nail]

2 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

A weekend staying with parents' friends in Bishops Waltham 

Was the branch still there? I think they tested Thumpers on that at one point.

[TheSignalEngineer]

And my first DubDee in the flesh, or should it be metal, was a bit af a shock. 

A school trip to London I think it was, before the M1 was built. We went via Banbury and somewhere ended up parallel to a railway. Possibly the GC near Aylesbury as we ran alongside 90033 of Woodford Halse on an Up coal train for a short time. Never seen one of those before.

The next one I saw got stuck in Snow Hill Tunnel with a load of 40 coke hoppers from South Wales to Bilston. Had to be rescued by the station pilot. 

[Southernman46]

June 1972 - Bristol Temple Meads - 9 years old - living in Gillingham Kent - car trip from a Holiday in Weymouth - everybody else went to Bristol Zoo - I had 2 hours amongst exotic diesels that weren't Cromptons ............................. Heaven !

Edited February 22 by Southernman46

[PhilH]

One (and only?) advantage of being old is that you perhaps have experienced sights and experiences that some today would envy. I was born and bred just outside Eastleigh and a great day out for us lads was a trip on the train to London to trainspot...nb on our own, no adults, aged barely 12. Truly exotic was my first A4 on Kings X bufferstops, 60028 Walter K. Whigham, absolutely gleaming. This was closely followed by a red Coronation at Euston. 
 

Heaven!

Edited February 22 by PhilH