Early Memories of Railways

[glencairn]

What are your memories of Railways 'when you were a young'un'?

One of mine is --


I remember (it must have been 1952) visiting family in Shankhouse, near Blyth, Northumberland, seeing very old looking coal wagons with NER on the side. The 0.6.0 tender engine was black in colour with no lettering on it. (Don't ask what Class of engine it was. I only knew there were 'big' engines and 'small engines )

The whole scene looked dilapidated; what with the old wagons, the long overgrown grass the train looked to be running through.

The track must have been worse for wear, because a wagon derailed. It must have been a regular occurrence, has the Fireman immediately climbed down from the engine and lifted (yes lifted) the errant wagon back on to the track. No 'elf'n'safety required.

Shortly afterwards the line closed. (Well before Dr Beeching)

Perhaps seeing scenes like this have 'stuck in my mind' and a railway is not all 'prim and proper'.

Glencairn

[Walkingthedog]

Having footplate rides on pannier tanks in the Slough Estates exchange sidings.

[Mountain Goat]

When I was about two years old, I remember waiting at the train station and watching a Western diesel come in, and we went in the guards compartment of a coach.
I don't remember the name or the number as I had not learnt how to read in those days, but I have a very good visual memory from my early childhood and I know it was a western.
The last time they passed in regular service in my area was around 1973 or just after, so I was quite young. I was only born a year before that!
I remember my first words as I spoke early at a few months old. I remember my Dad making a fuss and I said nothing at all then until normal speaking age. My Dad said I spoke clear and concise.
I remember when I was about a year or two old (At the latest three years old as I just turned four when we moved) and at the garage a double decker bus had been parked there for a day or two as I think it broke down. My Dad took me up the stairs at the back and we went up to have a look.

[mijj]

My friend's dad was a shunter driver. He called out over the fence (we were on the beach) and we had a footplate ride. This was about 1950/52'ish .
Jim.

[Steve M]

Having footplate rides on pannier tanks in the Slough Estates exchange sidings.

If the wind was in the right direction we could hear them in Windsor. But they were all gone by the time I was train-spotting from the Farnham Rd bridge in the very early 70’s.

[Puddles]

I lived in North London not to far from the main line coming out of Kings cross between Haringay and Hornsey stations. There was a large shunting yard which you could hear the constant clanging of the wagons bouncing of each other and the sudden burst of energy from the steam engines as it’s wheels slipped on the tracks When it took up the load,
I can still hear the sounds in my head as I write this but one of my fondest memories is when I was about ten years old getting out of school at Station Rd Wood Green each day and running as fast as my legs could take me up to Alexandra Palace Station to catch sight of the Deltic prototype coming hurtling through the Station on its way into London.
The great big blue monster with yellow flashing down the side was always on time every day.
When I started to build my model railway in oo gauge the very first loco I purchased was the Deltic prototype.

[bulleidboy]

Hi Puddles - we were obviously not far apart - I did my spotting at New Southgate between 1957 and 1964 and certainly saw the blue prototype Deltic on many occasions along with very many A4's etc. I recall seeing Falcon in prototype colours. BB

[IanS]

Two memories:

1) of being taken a short distance from where my grandparents lived to see the coal wagons go up and down. These were rope hauled for Dawdon colliery. A short time later a boy was badly injured riding on them.

2) standing on a footbridge near where my cousin lived as a steam train trundled past to and from Silksworth Colliery.

[Roger O]

My early recollection are getting the train from Old Hill to Snow Hill Birmingham and spending many hours there and sometimes jumping on the train to Wolverhampton Low Level on the same ticket and spotting on the end of the platform where you could see both Low and High Level stations Western and LMS respectively. It was the days of Kings, Castles and Blue Pullmans and occasionally the odd Duchess ,Scot and a gas turbine loco on the mid day Scot on the high level at Wolverhampton, good old days. All this was when I was about 12 or 13 I couldn’t imagine my grandchildren being given that much freedom today.

[RAF96]

As an urchin we would walk a mile or so to the railway line, climb the embankment and wave to the drivers passing. I remember small usually black locos towing coal wagons and bigger sometimes black and sometimes green locos towing coaches. We would sometimes put 6” copper nails on the track for the locos to flatten, then we filed them into points that were tied into bamboo canes for our spears.

Later I did my apprenticeship at RAF Halton which meant using the ECML for travel to/from leave at home in the NE. I would always look at the front of the train at Kings X to see what was pulling it but never took any notes or photos. This was early 60’s with all the iconic locos - A1, 3, 4, P2, etc on task plus early diesels including the big blue Deltic. If it didn’t have wings I wasn’t that interested - then - opportunity missed with hindsight.