Early Memories of Railways

[glencairn]

The one that is the earliest in my memory is ---------------

I lived with an Uncle and Aunt and two cousins until I was three years of age. Therefore it was at that time. (When I was four I lived with my Grandma and Granddad.)

If I was three, then it was the Summer of 1950. Aunt and Uncle decided to take us to Bridlington for the week.

It was a Saturday morning. Suitcases were packed. The excitement of going on holiday.

As my Uncle had to work Saturday, he was to follow us the following day. (Six day working days were the 'norm' then.

I remember how dark, dingy and very smoky the area around the ticket office at Leeds City Station was. My two cousins (Jean, 7 yr old and Margaret, 5 year old) and I watched as my Aunt bought our train tickets. Carefully she placed them in her handbag.

With having two suitcases a Porter was needed and one was immediately on hand. Loading the cases on his hand barrow he asked "Which train."
"Bridlington," Aunt replied. To which we scurried after the Porter to our waiting train.

At last we boarded the train. Aunt lifted the suitcases on to the luggage rack above and we settled down in our compartment.
Looking out at the platform, a huge Station Clock gave the time of 08.56. Aunt smiled as our train was not due to depart until 09.37.
Another elderly married couple joined us in the compartment.

Aunt looked out of the window and saw, not twenty yards away, a lady with a tea trolley. The clock said 09.04. Plenty of time.
"There isn't a queue I shall get some tea," said Aunt and alighted from the carriage.

No sooner than she had bought the tea, she turned, saw and heard the engine take the strain an began the Schhuff, Schhuff, Schuff. The time was 09.07.

Pandemonium struck in the carriage. Three of us screamed "Mam." Tears streaming down our cheeks

We were some way out of Leeds by the time the other couple in our carriage managed to calm us down.
The Ticket Inspector arrived. Off course we had no tickets. Aunt still had them in her handbag. The Ticket inspector was dubious to our story, but we stayed on board.

Finally we arrived at Bridlington. The elderly couple had their own suitcases, but they also helped us with ours.
At the ticket barrier, the Inspector allowed us through to the other side, but had to wait there until the next train from Leeds arrived. The elderly couple waited with us.

Thirty minutes later, the train from Leeds arrived. Amid tears of joy, Aunt thanked the elderly couple.

The 09.07 departure to Bridlington from Leeds was a 'Duplicate' and not in the timetable.

The week in Brid was great.

Glencairn

[Hound Dog]

Great story and told with such detail that I almost thought I was being taken back to an Enid Blyton Famous Five novel...... bet there was “lashings of ginger beer”that night.

[bulleidboy]

Lovely story - you could picture it all taking place as you read it.

[LC&DR]

My early memories go back to my childhood in South London, specifically East Dulwich. I remember being severely told off by my uncle for getting out of my push chair to see a big blue flat sided locomotive crossing a bridge. Probably a Merchant Navy class on a Dover to London boat train.

Not strictly trains, but in the same area I have memories of watching and riding on trams.

Soon afterwards we moved out of London to Barnehurst in Kent and our house overlooked the Bexleyheath line between Barnehurst and Slades Green and from my parent's bedroom window I was often watching the trains going by. These were mostly electric but now and again there would be steam train, especially in summer when trains carrying holiday makers from South London were taken to the seaside usually Margate and Broadstairs, and even more exciting when they came back on a hot summer's evening the locomotive would set the embankment on fire, so we got the spectacle of the Fire Brigade coming to put it out as well.

My uncle and aunt still lived in East Dulwich so we visited them by train to New Cross and 'bus via Rye Lane, the trams had gone by then. Going home waiting for the train at New Cross was exciting too because steam trains would come thundering through at speed on their way to east Kent. It wasn't easy to watch them however because there was a high wooden wall along the edge of the opposite platform with only a small gate in the middle where a glimpse of the train could be had. The electric train was sometimes a wood bodied carriage with hard seats, but it was all part of the adventure.

The best days out were trips to the Science Museum in South Kensington and the Zoo at Regents Park. This got an electric train ride to Charing Cross where it was almost guaranteed I could see a Schools, King Arthur or Battle of Britain class steaming away at the end of platform 6, or roaring away as it assisted the outgoing train to the end of the platform. Then there was a trip on the Underground and a short walk to get to the treat.

Another treat was a trip to Gravesend on the electric and a steam train to Allhallows on Sea.

With all this exposure to railways and my father's love of trains too it was inevitable that I went to work for the Railway when I left school.

[bulleidboy]

I can remember as a child the summer holidays. As a family living in North London, we would spend two weeks in August at Swanage in Dorset. I recall going from the late 1940's until about 1960. I would go with my dad, about ten days before the holiday, to take our trunk of clothes to Waterloo Station, and book our seats at the same time. We used to get the 9.15am from Waterloo and it arrived in Swanage just after 1pm - this was usually the first Saturday in August. I can remember one journey where the train went very slowly through Basingstoke (where I now live), and to our surprise, my mothers brother and his wife were on the platform waving. It turned out they were waving to an ex-neighbour they knew was on the train. They were as equally surprised to see us as we were to see them. The train used to stop at Southampton for about ten minutes (probably taking on water), and my dad used to jump out and buy cartons of Kia-Ora orange drinks and peanuts. On one occasion, hearing a guards whistle, he leapt back into the train spilling orange drink over everyone.

I remember Waterloo Station as a very busy station on a Saturday in August, with huge lines of taxis queuing between platforms 11 and 12 - there used to be a roadway running between those platforms. There was also two huge wooden indicator boards, where the name slats used to revolve, and there was a distinctive sound, when an all stopping train was cleared from the board and about twenty names were cleared from the board.

The hotel in Swanage (The Glenthorn Private Hotel, Ulwell Road) is still there, but is now flats. Anyone who knows Swanage will be aware the station has not changed since the 50s and 60's. They were good times.

[glencairn]

Brilliant stories and memories by all.

Keep 'em coming.

Glencairn

[GeoffAlan2]

Sitting in my pushchair in Darlington station when I was told by my dad to watch for the express coming through.
A blue A4 at the head of the train ran into the far end of the station on a line set back from the platform and against a brick wall, and going fairly slowly, but while still under the roof, it opened up with clouds of smoke and a lot of noise and accelerated out of the station leaving one little boy hooked for life.
In later life I discussed the incident with my mam, who was an ex-goods booking clerk for the LNER. She too remembered the occasion and told me that normally the train didn't go through the station but 'around the back' so must have been diverted and slowed for some reason, so the driver would have been keen to make up time.

[Tony House]

My early memory of Railways in my youth I use to live in old Chalvey in Slough, the garden was in sight of the Slough Windsor line, use to see the Class 121 Bubble Car with its single ended DMU unit on its hourly service, about 8.30 the 2 x 3 car unit think there was an earlier train about 8.00 would pass heading for London.

One of my memories is seeing a full Royal train being pulled by a Castle Class heading for Windsor and again out of Windsor heading towards Slough. That is when it was still a twin track.

My other memories are standing on the foot bridge on Stoke Poges Lane which crossed the Western Region Tracks not far from Slough station and over looked Slough North Shunting yard. Saw the end of steam and the end of the Class 35 41/42 and 53s and shunting of goods trains. As I was working for Slough Parks Dept based at Salt Hill Park, so saw things slowly change. Use to watch the trains in my later years,(2000's) on the council (Lunch Time) they are boring, Thames Turbos, HSTs and the occasional Yeoman ballast train with its Class 59. Must go over there again sometime to see the new modern trains running under the overhead power lines

[dtb]

We lived alongside the main line in Macclesfield, south of the station, we had a huge garden that sloped right down the the railway bank and we used to run to the fence on hearing a loco working hard up the gradient on the up line towards Stoke on Trent, they were usually assisted by a banker so it was a double treat for us.

[cheshire lines]

Growing up in Northwich, Cheshire in the 1960s, my earliest memories of train journeys were the local DMU services to Manchester (Central) and Chester (Northgate) for shopping trips with mum and dad. The service still runs, but with different termini and routes. Manchester Central was converted into the GMEX exhibition centre service (now renamed back to Manchester Central) and the service was then diverted to Oxford Road station. Later still, the original route between Altrincham and Manchester was converted to one of the first Manchester Metro routes and the
railway service now runs via the former South Manchester Freight Loop to Stockport to terminate at Manchester Piccadilly station.

Chester Northgate station was demolished to make way for the Northgate Arena, with the train service being diverted to the larger Chester General station.

Although our local passenger service had been dieselised by the time I was old enough to take notice, there were still plenty of steam hauled freight services running through Northwich; many of these were associated with the ICI chemical works at Lostock, Winnington and Weaverham (Wallerscote).
Northwich loco shed lasted almost until the end of steam, closing in March 1968, although it remained in use as a diesel stabling and signing on post for ages after that.

I do remember being hauled by a steam loco from Northwich to Knutsford for the annual Knutsford May Day celebrations (which warranted extra trains being run back then). I can also remember being allowed onto the footplate of a steam loco at Chester General, when we were going on holiday to Anglesey one year. We had caught the local service to Chester Northgate and then walked across to Chester General.

Another memory is looking down at the exchange sidings at Oakleigh where ICI diesel locos (which, according to my mum, I called 'ding-a-donga diesels' on account of their warning bells activated by their connecting rods) took over from the BR locos which brought the trains into Oakleigh). The sidings were close to a National Health clinic and Victoria Infirmary, which we had to visit on occasions and a nearby road bridge afforded a good view of the sidings.