Trains of my childhood. Shite ones obviously

[Craig the Princess]

The normal trains were these Class 415/6s

 

Holidays down to Bournmouth were on the Wessex Expresses

 

A trip to Scotland on Intercity was a really big deal, I was so excited by the class 87s.

[dollywobbler]

I didn't have any trains. I can dimly recall one trip to Llandudno on trains, including an Intercity 125 (silent as it moved off, very odd). That's it.

[RedSparrow]

Ah I was on a new train the other day, every journey on them makes me think that the old slam-door ones were better, if a bit musty smelling inside.

 

That first pic must be Brighton station. I recognise the black and red block behind the train that houses WHSmiths from many journeys there over the years.

[M'coli]

We had the 303 EMU, I can still remember them in their original blue paint and stripey brown and black seats:

We also had the trains for the West Highland Line going along this stretch too, so that was 27s to begin with, then 37s.

[Skizzer]

Didn't have much to do with main line trains, but I spent most of the school holidays with the extended family in London so the Underground was a big deal and I loved it. Metropolitan Line trains were made of wood, as were quite a lot of the escalators, and I remember this poster campaign when they opened the Piccadilly Line extension out to Hatton Cross and Heathrow Cental (as it then was) in 1977:

 

 

(The magic of the tube has worn off a bit 35 years on.)

[Felly Magic]

I had to endure these articulated Leyland National 2's on railway wagon chassis when visiting my aunt....What shizzle.

 

[RoadworkUK]

 

We had the Class 309 "Clacton Express" units, first 100mph EMUs in the UK. Now all binned.

 

 

I miss these the most though; 312s, slam door with big opening vent windows in the doors. The last of the slam-door stock to be built, in '76 and '77. Now all binned, too.

[theorganist]

We had the Tyseley hybrid suburban units made up of vehicles from class 115/116/117/118/127 in three and four car formations mainly:

 

 

 

And we had the more powerful Class 114 Derby Heavyweights

 

 

And the Stourbridge branch line which is only 3/4 of a mile long (the shortest revenue earning line Europe I believe) used the class 121 "bubble" cars

 

 

This is the unit which is still in service today running the Cardiff bay shuttle. It actually crashed through the wall separating Stourbridge Town station and the bus station in 1990.

 

And the one below did the same the year before in 1989 and is painted in the unique "Midline" livery:

 

 

Note the autoshite style non matching door!!

 

I really loved these old DMU's with their distinctive character, sound and smells!!

[morris_ital_lover]

309s are the luckiest of all of that group of EMUs as there's two 3 coach rakes of them at the Suburban rail something or rather at coventry. Theres a two coaches from a 312 rake left. Unfortunately the 310s are all gone though.

 

These were my first real taste of British trains:

 

 

In the wonderful pre first great western livery... definitely not from the 1990s.

 

My favorite memories were of 37s and 47s plodding around... especially the Virgin 47s putting in pretty solid efforts towards destroying the local environment with all their clag.

 

 

 

Ah bliss... I was a very unhappy 10 year old when I noticed them all disappearing.

[Louise2cv]

Anyone else not seeing some of the images? I want to see them, esp the Stourbridge ones!

[DSdriver]

All present and correct here, have you tried right click on the broken image/open in new frame? That usually works for me.

[theorganist]

Anyone else not seeing some of the images? I want to see them, esp the Stourbridge ones!

 

Having some trouble finding some of Stourbridge but here is a link to the 1977 crash at the original Stourbridge Town station when unit 55012 dropped in bogie onto Foster Street East:

 

 

Here is another image:

 

 

 

This is the current traction, surely future train shite:

 

[Shep Shepherd]

When I was growing up, the railway service in east Kent (previously British Rail London & South Eastern/British Rail Network Southeast/Connex South Eastern/South East Trains, now Southeastern) almost exclusively used Class 421 EMUs. They were in operation until the mid-2000s, when they were replaced by Bombardier Electrostars:

 

 

I have yet to travel on the latter extensively, as nowadays if I have any business in east Kent, I prefer to drive than take the train

[Shep Shepherd]

I miss these the most though; 312s, slam door with big opening vent windows in the doors. The last of the slam-door stock to be built, in '76 and '77. Now all binned, too.

 

I worked at Ilford Railway Works in late 2003 when the last of the FGE 312s came out of service; they were kept in the works' sidings for some time before they were taken away to be scrapped, but not before some of them had to be temporarily put back into service following technical problems with their Class 360 'Desiro' replacements

[TagoraGL]

Anyone else not seeing some of the images? I want to see them, esp the Stourbridge ones!

 

These ones are coming and going, maybe they're too big:

 

http://wallpapers-free.co.uk/background ... e-Tube.jpg

 

 

http://www.hondawanderer.com/55032_Droitwich_1991.jpg

 

 

http://www.hondawanderer.com/55033_Blackwell_1992.jpg

 

[stoterstangen90]

[pompei]

Anyone remember that hideous small from the brakes that went right through the carriages on the 125's?

[Albert Ross]

Nothing hideous about that smell. I used to "window-hang" all the way from Paddington to Reading just to breathe it in. Then again, I used to stand and breathe in "Hoover" fumes at Paddington too...... cough.

[morris_ital_lover]

They still smell pretty awful under braking.

 

Being a speccy bastard I've been tempted to stick my head out of window at fully chat but I sense 125 MPH winds would probably remove them for me..... that and the rather scarey prospect of the combined speed with any other 125s being 250 mph.

[CreepingJesus]

We had the 303 EMU, I can still remember them in their original blue paint and stripey brown and black seats:

 

That looks very much like Westerton station, which was close-ish to our house. Well, it was that or Bearsden, but there were more trains thro' Westerton, so I'd go there.

My granda worked for BR for many years, and had some hairy stories about the early 303's - apparently the TM blowers would give up unexpectedly, and cause the TM's to catch fire. Happened more than once, too...

I've stood waiting on the platform for my other half, when 125's have pulled in. I can't help but think they almost all sound like a bag of spanners now! In fact, the one she was on the other day had a substantial air leak from one of the bogies; have East Coast got Kwik-Fit maintaining these venerable old beasts?

[Felly Magic]

The re-engined HST's are now to be honest life expired (newest built in 82, but most are from around 1976). Grand Central Trains have quite an alarming failure rate too.

[Negative Creep]

When I was growing up, the railway service in east Kent (previously British Rail London & South Eastern/British Rail Network Southeast/Connex South Eastern/South East Trains, now Southeastern) almost exclusively used Class 421 EMUs. They were in operation until the mid-2000s, when they were replaced by Bombardier Electrostars:

 

 

I have yet to travel on the latter extensively, as nowadays if I have any business in east Kent, I prefer to drive than take the train

 

 

I grew up in Rochester, and since my Dad worked for Freightliner and got free travel, and I was not old enough to drive. Therefore I had many journeys on them

[DSdriver]

beneluxtrein

I had a journey from Goes to Vlissingen on one of those. I remember them being much smoother riding, cleaner and more spartan than our slam door trains in Kent.

 

When I was a kid the Golden Arrow, an early version of the London to Paris Eurostar - except you had to get off at Dover join a ferry and the get on another train called the Fleche d'Or* in Calais). It was the last steam locomotive passenger train in the south east running on after the electrification of commuter stock - we used to go to Bromley South just to watch it passing through.

*Strange but true: Fleche d'Or is Golden Arrow in French

[M'coli]

We had the 303 EMU, I can still remember them in their original blue paint and stripey brown and black seats:

 

That looks very much like Westerton station, which was close-ish to our house. Well, it was that or Bearsden, but there were more trains thro' Westerton, so I'd go there.

That's Cardross station, before they demolished the outside roofless toilets.

 

Edit: also I remember them in their 1970s BR blue paint, not the original Caledonian blue paint.

 

As to the brakes of 125s, they must have used an asbestos material in the past to make that smell.

[tonedepear]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6v3tmPud6Y&feature=related

 

<3

[Shep Shepherd]

I grew up in Rochester, and since my Dad worked for Freightliner and got free travel, and I was not old enough to drive. Therefore I had many journeys on them

 

I grew up near Sandwich and used to use the railway a fair bit to get to Deal, Dover and Ramsgate when I was a teenager. In my early 20s, I used to frequently travel by train to London in order to chase jobs and to have 'cosmopolitan' days out; Sandwich to Charing Cross took 2.5 hours on those old class 421s

[andrew e]

I miss these the most though; 312s, slam door with big opening vent windows in the doors. The last of the slam-door stock to be built, in '76 and '77. Now all binned, too.

 

I worked at Ilford Railway Works in late 2003 when the last of the FGE 312s came out of service; they were kept in the works' sidings for some time before they were taken away to be scrapped, but not before some of them had to be temporarily put back into service following technical problems with their Class 360 'Desiro' replacements

 

Hep shep, A or B shop? I did my apprenticeship there, 91-95. Regarding the 309's their departure (via the LT&S with the motor coach locked out) was due to the *cough* asbestos content *cough*.

[Shep Shepherd]

I miss these the most though; 312s, slam door with big opening vent windows in the doors. The last of the slam-door stock to be built, in '76 and '77. Now all binned, too.

 

I worked at Ilford Railway Works in late 2003 when the last of the FGE 312s came out of service; they were kept in the works' sidings for some time before they were taken away to be scrapped, but not before some of them had to be temporarily put back into service following technical problems with their Class 360 'Desiro' replacements

 

Hep shep, A or B shop? I did my apprenticeship there, 91-95. Regarding the 309's their departure (via the LT&S with the motor coach locked out) was due to the *cough* asbestos content *cough*.

 

Small world! I worked mainly at the gatehouse (OMG security!), but my role took me to both the 'A' Shop and the 'B' Shop. When I was there, both shops were involved in revamping First Great Eastern's 315 stock, a project which was cancelled when they lost their franchise to National Express, IIRC.

 

I left the works in 2005 after the security company I worked for lost their contract to a company employing minimum wage mongtards with no knowledge of railway premises security at all

 

Here's a picture that I took of The Volvo at the works on Boxing Day 2003, not long after I bought it. Yes, we go back a long way:

 

 

[andrew e]

The easist *ahem* way to borrow stuff there, was walk straight out the front door carrying it, but then this was the BR days

[Shep Shepherd]

The easist *ahem* way to borrow stuff there, was walk straight out the front door carrying it, but then this was the BR days

 

 

I think a lot of that sort of thing still happened when I was there, but I wasn't ever asked by the management to search anyone