Trains and your stories

[Twocky61]

Re: Trains and your stories

On my list then for steam trains,we will be going on the Dean Forest lydney steam train next

Used to live in FoD in the 70's where I went to Abenhall (now Dean Magna) High School. This was in Mitcheldean where for a year we lived in a company (Rank Xerox) rented house. RX were the main FoD employer where whole families worked there. The unions finally killed the "Golden Goose" employer RX was demanding too much. RX paid well over the average but the likes of Arthur Scargill were never happy wanting more & more thus killing the "Golden Goose" RX were.

We eventually moved to Cinderford after Dad bought some land in English Bicknor to self build. He gained planning permission only to realise he had been to ambitious the daft sod my Dad is lol

[Richard1978]

Re: Trains and your stories

I remember going to East Croydon in 2003 from Victoria & the trains were like ones from the 1950s.

Class 487 were often seen on TV & films due to the fact the Waterloo & City line didn't run at the weekend, & was easier to rent out as a location than a tube station.

[Arran]

Re: Trains and your stories

I remember the Southend fenchurch st line had the old carriages with the individual compartments with their own doors, one each end which opened to the outside, i.e no corridor. That was on the late 80s/early 90s.

Known at the time as the Misery Line. There was even a proposal to rip up the tracks and turn it into a road then run a coach service. It eventually got upgraded with modern trains.

[Mulletino]

Re: Trains and your stories

I remember the Southend fenchurch st line had the old carriages with the individual compartments with their own doors, one each end which opened to the outside, i.e no corridor. That was on the late 80s/early 90s.

[Arran]

Re: Trains and your stories

Anybody remember the Class 487 trains on the Waterloo & City Line when it was run by British Rail? They were built in 1940 and replaced in 1993.

They are both retro and modern in appearance for a train built in 1940 with the Southern Railway air vents and the glass light shades.

If only the BR Southern Region could have used a similar design for the trains it built in the 1950s instead of the slam door trains we ended up with based on some Southern Railway design from the 1920s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_487

[amethyst]

Re: Trains and your stories

I saw the Merton programme as well and thought it was very interesting.

Looking forward to next weeks episode

[staffslad]

Re: Trains and your stories

I saw the Merton programme as well and thought it was very interesting.

[amethyst]

Re: Trains and your stories

I was watching a new series on tv Paul Merton going round the Uk on trains stopping at the requests stops it was good

[staffslad]

Re: Trains and your stories

The sliding door trains I used in the early 90s would have been diesel. It is only now that they are electrifying the line by us.

[Richard1978]

Re: Trains and your stories

Many trains between Marple & Manchester were slam door until as late as 2003.

[Arran]

Re: Trains and your stories

Slam door trains were still in regular use this side of the Millennium in the southern counties of England. They were electric multiples that were powered by live rails. Almost all of the railways radiating out from Victoria, Waterloo, and Cannon Street stations serving south London, Surrey, Sussex, Kent, Hampshire, and parts of Dorset are electrified using live rails.

[staffslad]

Re: Trains and your stories

I think the slam door trains were changed to sliding door ones around 1991/1992 in our area. I caught a train from Victoria to Rochester in late 1999 and was surprised to see that on that route slam doors were still being used.

[darren]

Re: Trains and your stories

When i was younger me and my uncle would go to scarva by train which is about 5 or six miles from where i live.

Wed go there every 12 th of july for the annual band parades trains would be full to bursting.
Almost impossible to move.

[staffslad]

Re: Trains and your stories

I remember around 1973 or so we went on holiday on a train, probably to Great Yarmouth. There was my mom, dad, me, my aunt and uncle, and my cousin. I think we had a compartment to ourselves and we were given blankets and pillows so we could sleep. We also took our car on the train and each time we went round a bend we would look out to see if we could see it.

From 1984 to 1987 I commuted by train to university each week-day. The trains were all slam door type that were used on that route. I remember the feeling of relief on freezing winter days when the wind was biting on that platform, seeing the train pulling up as it was always warm inside.

[Arran]

Re: Trains and your stories

Slam door trains in south London and the southern counties of England. In the last year or so that they were used Waterloo station announced slam door trains on their electronic notice boards so that enthusiasts waiting in the concourse could find them.

Merseyrail trains on the Wirral Line as they go under the Mersey between James Street and Hamilton Square stations.