Question:
What is your fondest memory of British Rail?
MusicIsAwesome!
2009-07-13 15:03:57 UTC
Hey all!

I am wondering what are your memories of British Rail? Do you miss them? Also, what kind of train was/is your fav (eg Deltic, 37 etc.).

And what are your thoughts of todays trains and the modern network?

:-)
24 answers:
william
2009-07-19 01:01:23 UTC
Pre -TOPS This was when "Scafell Pike" was D1. Westerns and Warships were red. Classes had names rather than numbers, Peaks, Baby Deltics, Brush 4s, and the most beautiful diesels of all - the Hymeks.

Travelling on the Brighton Belle and the South Wales Pullman to visit Woodham's in Barry.

Those were the days!
atj68
2009-07-13 15:23:49 UTC
I miss Jimmy Saville, the age of the train, and the curly, overpriced stale cheese and ham sandwich.



My fave train was the 12:29 on a Saturday which took us to Ibrox on a Saturday afternoon. The old Deltic was an engineering beast, stop it, you'll have me train spotting again for the first time in 30 years!



Todays trains lack personality like the 20 / 37 / 25 / 29's which used to run past my village all the time. Electric trains might be saving the planet, but where's the grunt? Where's the audible proof of power?
jsbigbadjohn
2009-07-15 03:56:24 UTC
Travelling the Highlands behind class 37s in Mk 1 stock. If only they were still running I'd be up there at every opportunity.



Sadly modern trains are mostly rather nasty boxes with plasticy interiors and no attraction for me at all. I gave up bashing years ago in this country, went to Ireland instead, but they've gone all modern over there now too, the 121s have gone and 141/181s are almost gone.



Modern freight locos - well they're nearly all 66s, powerful, reliable, but clearly built down to a price, I bet they don't last as long as the 37s did.
squeaky guinea pig
2009-07-15 03:02:51 UTC
Apart from steam trains, of which I have only dim memories from when I was small, my favourite memory of BR is the Mk1 and Mk2 coaches. For my money they were nicer to travel in than the vehicles of today. Although not suitable for modern high-speed running there are still many in use on Heritage Railways and for special trips on the main network.



Also the 1930s electric units on the Southern Region, many of which survived into the 1970s. They had wood panelling on the inside and a peculiar smell, which you don't get with trains nowadays.



The old board signals, which to my amazement are still in use in some places, the old signal boxes, from which you could hear the bells of the block instruments, and the exchanging of the token on single line sections. Happily all this can still be experienced, mainly on the Heritage Sector.



Oh yes, and paying £11.50 for a 7-day Southern Region Rover back in 1974. It seemed an awful lot of money in those days!
anonymous
2016-05-25 07:36:33 UTC
I had snuck in to a major cinema, thru the back door as people were exiting, so the alarm wouldn't sound. I found my usual prime spot, BEHIND the big screen. Plenty of snacks and warm cola stored back there, too. Now, the screens are very thin, and kinda act as a two way mirror. Not only can I see the movie, but I can see all the people in all the seats, especially on the big bright shots. I can see them thru zillions of teeny-tiny holes in the screen (that's why it's called that), but they can't see me. Plus I sit very very still. (I'll tell you why inna minute.) Now, there are always single open seats almost EVERY movie, scattered about on almost every row. And about ten minutes into every movie, after the lights are dimmed and everyone is distracted, "they" start slowly filing-in. The "others." They never sit together, and don't even seem to acknowledge one another, and are all ages. Every bit like you and me and your cousin or your aunt, except their clothes are out-of style, maybe a decade or two or more. Now, here's why I sit very very still. The first time I saw them float-in and seat themselves in the empty chairs, I was sure I was seeing things, so I quickly stood up back there to try and squint an eye closer to that dang screen to get a better focus on these apparitions. No sooner than I had moved about, I saw one of "them" bolt right up and point at me, all bug-eyed! Holy cow! I stumbled back and froze, and that one then sat back down and went expressionless again, like all the "others." For two or three hours, they just sit completely motionless, which is very distracting trying to personally enjoy the show, yet gives me time to ponder just why they're there. Old Ghosts? Wandering Spirits? Folks in Purgatory? Long-Deceased Failed Actors/Actresses? And one other thing, they wait until the last customer leaves, before they begin to slowly file out. Dematerialise, more like it. Well, that was back in the 70's, when I was young and daring. Snuck in several times and they were ALWAYS there. I finally grew into a man and started taking dates to watch movies from the "correct side" of the screen. And it never fails, there will be an empty seat beside me or my date. And we always tend to kinda lean towards each other, seemingly unexplicibly, and ya know what? So do most all the other couples. Things that make you go...Hmmm. Fond memories, tho...
Mr Em Dee
2009-07-19 18:55:13 UTC
Staff on British Rail were a community.



Staff on todays Network are out to get everyone else.



Managers these days know nothing about the job we do, which brings home another question of how can they manage us?



Policies and procedures mean nothing any more. British Rail followed them properly.
b'stardoh
2009-07-15 11:29:30 UTC
My fondest memories of British rail are the great days of steam back in my childhood. In the 1950s I lived at St. Leonards-on-sea and behind our house was a large engine shed with turntable and so forth. The steam locomotives were brought here daily to be cleaned out and got back up to steam the next day.



Most of the engines were the famous Schools Class locos of the Southern Railway, then owned by British Rail, but still dressed in their Black Knight WW2 all black livery and not the Green of the SR.



http://home.clara.net/rod.beavon/railways.htm



To be honest, there's nothing quite like these next monsters, they're just bloody awesome.



The Big Boy Locomotives of the Mighty Union Pacific Railroad Co.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8f9VFlNyDQ
David S
2009-07-14 13:45:21 UTC
Being realistic I don't have many fond memories of British Rail since for most of the first part of my life the railways in Britain under British Rail were in terrible decline. The Beeching Report stupidly commissioned without vision by a Tory government was implemented without vision by a Labour government and that tells you a great deal about Britain's post war political history too. Older trains were mostly more comfortable I suppose and you could open the windows. The modern semi privatised/franchised network has many faults too, but passenger

numbers have risen by 50% nationally since 1996. After many infrastructure problems in the early days of privatisation, punctuality

has now vastly improved; trains are cleaner and on most lines much more frequent too; customer service is better as well; the fare structure

is too complex and too many tickets bought for immediate use are too expensive, and those bought far in advance possibly too cheap i.e

the fares are unbalanced. Franchise periods need to be far longer and in return the rail companies should not pay premium payments to the treasury - they already pay corporation tax on their profits, but they

should be required to invest in trains, stations etc and should face severe fines for not fulfilling their committments. Privatisation has thrown up some companies that really know how to run railways well

such as Chiltern Railways, Wrexham and Shropshire and surprisingly

South West Trains owned by Stagecoach, and shown up some really

incompetent companies such as National Express
Paul
2016-05-17 17:19:46 UTC
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rdenig_male
2009-07-14 02:39:01 UTC
Having a British Rail breakfast on a morning train from Newcastle and a good dinner on the way back, travelling on the Executive ticket purchased by my then employers. The clowns at National Express East Coast have taken away most decent dining facilities.



When I was in my teens, smelling steam.



And to be pedantic Deltics and 37s are locomotives - trains are the things they pulled.
Winnie
2009-07-13 15:56:40 UTC
Travelling in the Great Western steam trains, from Paddington to Truro during the late1940's when it was standing -room only at times. Being able to buy a ticket at the station. Wonderful to have corridors and compartments. Just to see the steam when going through tunnels.

Now I have to book in advance to get a decent ticket price, change two or three times on different train companies - it is an ordeal now to travel any distance. Hate it.
WENDEL HOMES
2009-07-18 03:42:36 UTC
British Rail had a magnificent work force in those days, men who were extremely loyal to the business and the people, the real problem was that just after WW2 the infrastructure (How I hate that) THE RAILWAY was knocked to pieces and our country had had little money available to invest and improve, as did the City... hence the Nationalisation.

There were numerous stories printed of trains running late and whatever but you would have had to experience the problems faced by the railwaymen to understand that things where never as easy to dismiss by a nagging line or two in the newspapers day after day.

The share holders hated the Nationalisation programme yet we as a nation needed a running railway and to nationalise was the only sane way forward.

Another jolly that held back rail's progress was the 'common traffic' law that forced the railway to carry anything from a box of matches to a ships boiler, they could not refuse to convey this any type of traffic to it's destination, sometimes with the added cost of slewing the track to gain clearance....and then relaying it to perfection... but... the road hauliers could refuse... whatever.

As such... Rail lost earning power to the betterment of road.

One other important hurdle was the fact that the Motorways began to gain ground, yet, these were funded from public taxes( Not many folk owned their own cars then so the tax payer paid not the road fund license)... whilst the Railway was expected to fund itself, even with those strangling millstones already mentioned around it's neck.(It was a political football) one term of government doing it's utmost against the hue and cry of the other in the Tory papers (Nothing has changed).

Then in the sixties along came Dr Beeching, who went wild, hammer and axe chopping of the feeder roots and branches until we have nothing but an A-B,C-D,E-F, green tube, tree avenue of a railway that is like a flight in the clouds, little too interest to the traveller and little chance of ever getting a timetable capable of running money earning freight, as he had seen to it, the extra four and six way tracks had been slashed away to nothing.

What he ought to have done is smashed the 'common traffic' laws and arranged for improved public funding until our nation would have had the modern rail network that could cope with all the container freight that now clogs our roads at great cost to the nation in delays, high repair bills, high fuel costs plus blocked commuter routes. (Who in his right mind would invest in a business in London these days?)

I used to work as a fireman on the steam engines during the period of British Rail and the changeover Diesel era and I have to say I miss that job from the bottom of my heart, the variance of locomotives and carriages gave the railways great interest to all who knew and used it, whereas now we have a nondescript boring railway with same,same Italian trains and Canadian loco's that all look alike and cost us greatly in import costs.

Our own endeavours politically chopped at source when they were on the very verge of fruition,(The tilting train technology trials were very good with a few teething troubles... well reported) and low and behold our competitors are let in using similar technology (Politics again)

We are a Nation of trusting fools.
Tirial
2009-07-16 01:41:19 UTC
To be honest, it was earlier this year when the A1 Tornado came rattling through our local station rather unexpectedly. The whistle sounded, and on the platform heads turned with the comments of "Is that a steam train?!" and sure enough it came through - at quite a rate.



Too bad it didn't stop, but it definitely brightened up an otherwise dull day!
anonymous
2009-07-16 20:41:03 UTC
blimey this has really reawakend old memories for me,i used to be on the trains alot as a child in the 70s and 80s as it was free for me to travel because my dad worked for br.

what i remember most clearly is the sound of the doors slamming as people got on the old blue and white carriages and being able to lean out of the window.

as others have mentioned i too remember the clickety clack sound as you went over the joins in the track and the jimmy saville let the train take the strain adverts on tv.

i dont use trains these days
TEE S
2009-07-18 16:07:11 UTC
My Nan lived at St James Park in Exeter. When I stayed there, my bed was under the bedroom window and it faced the railway station. I used to sit up in the dark, look out the window and watch the 121 multiple units stop there and then trumpet (you'll know what I mean if you've heard one) out again, and watch the class 50's going through from/to Waterloo. Also used to stand on the bank (or the platform) and wave to the drivers who would toot back at us (nowadays they ignore you - miserable sods!).



Oh, yeah. What do i think of todays services? Crap and overcrowded.
?
2009-07-13 15:07:45 UTC
My fondest memory is of being called a "Little slag" by a British rail ticket inspector in Hackney a good 15 years ago. He thought I had jumped the train with no ticket...he was wrong....he got the sack.
Jeriz
2009-07-17 10:39:20 UTC
worked as an apprentice for them 69-74.Most of my wages were given back to them in the form of tickets,albeit at staff rates .Along with free tickets I covered around 12500 mls a year .Gone now are all those diesel locos I photographed from Penzance to Thurso ,Oban and Norwich.Miss the western hydraulics the most though the Deltics were special.
paof2
2009-07-19 02:03:29 UTC
My maternal grandad used to work at Warrington stock yards, he was in charge of the horses that they used to turn the turntable with the steam engines on.

I never met him, he died exactly 3 months before I was born, but some of my earliest memories are of my gran telling me about him.
anonymous
2009-07-13 15:07:57 UTC
I absolutely love the modern rail network. Speaking as a rail enthusiast, i love it but the olden days were also epic. My fav had to be the deltic. They are beasts!
creviazuk
2009-07-13 16:02:42 UTC
When the lines were still B.R. and before they were continuous.



The clackity-clack clackity-clack as the wheels ran over the joins for endless miles....no more.
anonymous
2009-07-13 15:07:42 UTC
Standing on the road bridge getting smoke in my face.Very young boy at

the time.
anonymous
2009-07-13 15:12:48 UTC
Dodgy pork pies n curly sandwiches..
anonymous
2009-07-13 15:12:17 UTC
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHtRZ_k0s7M



Class 52's forever! (and I'm glad they didn't trash one for this test)



As for today, well, we're (still) getting there!



Daisyhill - serve that little Hitler right!!!
Thecrazyone1
2009-07-13 15:06:52 UTC
That time when one of them crashed...


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