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

[Pendle Forest]

My earliest 'odd place for a loco' was being taken by my parents to Burnley Central where, in the coal yard, BR in its wisdom had decided to name 86213 Lancashire Witch.  It had been hauled over, dead of course, from Preston by a 25 that was lurking elsewhere in the yard.  It was dark and they had floodlights up and someone had invited along a 'witch' with a big cauldron that was very enthusiastically belching out bright green smoke that made everyone choke. 

[rob D2]

I remember my dad taking me to london stations just the once . Must have been 82-83 . I was brought up on a western region diet of 50s/HSTs and 117s.

 

St Pancras - like a medieval gothic cave full of strange short nosed diesels . 
 

Euston - numbers I’d never seen that existed only in my spotting ABC . 86xxx, 87xxx, making a strange sci fi humming , going to places that only existed in my head as Football teams . Some fairly sensible names - “ City of Milton Keynes “ etc ( was it a city then ??) . Hoped to see an APT - didn’t .

 

Kings cross. HSTs like a comfort blanket - 254 set numbers though . Underline em ! ( I used to draw a line through the number - what a numb nut , hadn’t read the Haynes guide to spotting ).

 

The phrase - out my comfort zone summed up that day 

[Nearholmer]

2 hours ago, rob D2 said:

- “ City of Milton Keynes “ etc ( was it a city then ??)

Not formally, no, but it has been known as “a new city”, rather than “a new town”, since the inception of the development scheme in the 1960s.
 

The loco was written-off in a very nasty collision at Colwich Junction in 1986, and for a long time (maybe still) one of the nameplates was displayed in a memorial garden alongside the site of the accident.

 

PS: just looked it up, and the garden has been re-configured, and fenced from the railway, which is why it’s not so visible from passing trains now, and it seems to contain both nameplates, flanking a memorial to the driver of the loco.

 

 

 

Edited March 4 by Nearholmer

[adb968008]

Maybe i’m old fashioned, but my long way from Kansas moments are more recent… 

like seeing an 87 at Didcot, riding a pair of 73’s to Preston, whilst looking at a 92 in Blackpool.

very strange nights those GBRf railtours were.

 

Though utterly surreal has to be riding a GWR prarie on the Polish mainline.

 

Edited March 6 by adb968008

[adb968008]

Whilst on the subject of Kansas..

 

I was once sent on an assignment to Kansas, and discovered Burnt Ends (look them up, they are a speciality, few places in the UK offer them), as well as Frozen Custard (never seen this anywhere outside Kansas)…

 

but the kansas union station has had a fantastic overhaul…

 

not many trains though...

 

but not too far away are beasts like this…

 

Yes a 9f will fit inside this tender…

ive been lucky enough to have seen 3 Big Boys so far, 4006 St Louis (above), 4017 Green Bay and 4012 Scranton.

definitely a long way from my Kansas.

 

 

Edited March 6 by adb968008

[Wickham Green too]

Oddly, I've seen three different ones ! - 4004 in Cheyenne, 4005 in Denver & 4014 when in bits ..... yes, the bits were big !

[BachelorBoy]

Hong Kong trains in snowy NE England

 

https://www.checkerboardhill.com/2020/09/mtr-train-testing-tyne-and-wear-metro-england/

 

Edited March 7 by BachelorBoy

[jamie92208]

I saw 4004 in Cheyenne and even my train phobic wife was impressed.  We both saw 4014 running in 2019 a lucky coincidence on our Ruby wedding trip.  That's my story. 

 

Jamie

Edited March 7 by jamie92208

[balders]

For me it was April 1983 and a visit to patures Southern. Staying in Weybridge saw me with 5 days of freedom to go and explore. It may seem mundane back then if you lived in it all......but to me the staggering amount of trains into and out of Waterloo was boggling. 

 

All obviously slam door of several types and in three days I'd cleared my 508's....and I'd never even seen one before. This ain't Coventry any more. That's for certain! First runs down to Basingstoke behind (and in front of) push-pull cromptons. Class 09's and 73's and some arcane 3rd rail slam door units. Loved it. Very happy days!

 

Regards

 

Guy

[Southernman46]

On 22/02/2024 at 14:31, Southernman46 said:

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 !

and Part 2 is ......................... 26/10/73 - first London visit - whilst changing trains at Queens Park from the Bakerloo (on route to Willesden & Old Oak Common shed visits) standing on the platform and having 83003 + Mk1's race past on the mainline (1st 25kV electric "cop" & destroyed a few years late in the Watford collision).

[Southernman46]

On 01/03/2024 at 20:36, Wickham Green too said:

According to Wakipedia, the BTH diesel "Hauled the last train from Robertsbridge to Bodiam in February 1972 prior to the track being lifted on that section" ..... so a green Crompton could - theoretically - have got through at some time !

On slightly different but similar vein I noticed today that it is still theoretically possible to run directly off the SWML Down Slow at Basingstoke into the Down siding and continue as far as the bufferstop round the corner on the "Alton Branch" (barring a few of 3-4" diameter silver birches in the 4ft). I have to take some of the blame? for this as we'd always intended (back in the late 2000's) as the PW maintainer to install one of the redundant bufferstops from the down yard onto the end of the electrified down siding as a slightly more permanent "end" to the operational infrastructure than the very small "stop" board (still existant) standing in the 4ft of the siding but never got round to it - I am surprised this has never been done as anything going too far in the siding is most likely going to suffer an "earth fault" in the remining double slip 😵

[DY444]

I spent much of my childhood in Derbyshire and it was always going into SR land, particularly the two big London termini of Waterloo and Victoria.  It all seemed so completely different in so many respects to the wide eyed me.

 

Waterloo with its strange old departure boards, large lettered cubes hanging from the roof from where enormous lines of holiday makers destined for the Isle of Wight, Bournemouth, Weymouth etc would snake across the concourse, the ornate platform barriers with their gates, ocean liner boat trains, class 73, 74, 33 and REPs, and 09s with high level air pipes.

 

Then there was Victoria.  All the hustle and bustle but for the most part the only train noise was the slamming of doors and the air being dumped by recently arrived emus.  The South Eastern side in particular always seemed immensely exotic to me.  Literally the gateway to Europe with a constant stream of Continental boat trains, MLVs on the stops sometimes on P1, P2 and P8 simultaneously, Class 71s, the Golden Arrow and the Night Ferry.

 

There were obviously other places that were wholly different.  Doncaster with hoards of kids crowding around every deltic.  Crewe as it was in the 60s and 70s with its curious mix of ancient track layout, diesels, AC electrics and loco changing.  Woodhead.  The WR hydraulics and lower quad signals etc etc.  To me though the SR was a unique world of its own and I loved it.

Edited March 22 by DY444

[Wickham Green too]

10 hours ago, Southernman46 said:

... the "Alton Branch" ...

I've just re-read Holcroft's account of filming 'The Wrecker' ..... all set up, train wrecked & burnt and debris cleared on a Sunday so the P-Way gang could work through the night and have the line open for traffic on the Monday ........................... and without a CGI in sight !