Memorable Train Spotting Moments

steamengine

What stands out as your most memorable train spotting moments. Here's mine - from a childhood holiday in Wales in 1960 !!!

Holyhead - LMS Royal Scot Class No. 46151 'Royal Horse Guardsman'
Fishguard - GWR - Corktina will like these - Chester Castle 7016, Barcote Manor 7803, Woodcock Hall 6968 (all above loco's 4-6-0 wheel arrangement)

Anyone else ???

Niles

I think diverted cement bubbles on the Rosslare line back in 2004 were as "exotic" as my experiences got. (Including a 201, needed special permission to travel between Wellingtonbridge-Rosslare Strand-Arklow). Of course it would be the one day in my life that I got a bad piece of film! (didn't have a digital camera then). Haven't really "griced" much in recent years though.

steamengine

I must admit to liking '201's. They really come across as powerful locomotives when they pass close by you at speed. More photos of them are on my to do list as soon as I get round to it. I suppose I just like all locomotives whether diesel or steam.

corktina

steamengine wrote: »

What stands out as your most memorable train spotting moments. Here's mine - from a childhood holiday in Wales in 1960 !!!

Holyhead - LMS Royal Scot Class No. 46151 'Royal Horse Guardsman'
Fishguard - GWR - Corktina will like these - Chester Castle 7016, Barcote Manor 7803, Woodcock Hall 6968 (all above loco's 4-6-0 wheel arrangement)

Anyone else ???

im not quite old enough to rememeber steam. I do however have great memories of my first brush with trains at the Great Western Soc open day at Taplow in, I think ,1967 (might have been 68). Loved the steam engines of course (4079 Pendennis Castle,3205,6106 ) but what really impresed me were the Warships and Westerns hammering past on the down main a couple of feet away. Instantly hooked on diesel hydraulics.



video here!
http://wn.com/4472,_4498,_GWS_Taplow,_KWVR,_Tyseley_events_in_the_late_1960's

Losty Dublin

corktina wrote: »

Nice photo of a narrow gauge line, there

corktina

narrow guage of course! as opposed to the 7'0 1/4" it used to be

what surprised me in that photo was the GWR brake van on the right, still in use!

steamengine

corktina wrote: »

narrow guage of course! as opposed to the 7'0 1/4" it used to be

what surprised me in that photo was the GWR brake van on the right, still in use!

Never mind the brake van, you've got Flying Scotsman and Sir Nigel Gresley in that video 4472 and 4498. Nice one

corktina

Other times I recall

(For steamengine)
6000 KGV on the very first return to steam special, I got a day off from Tech College for that!

1466 and autocoach working the Wallingford branch (later the Cholsey and Wallingford Rly) and the Abingdon branch

31618 being dragged through Reading by a class 37 heading for Kent The second loco to leave Barry scrapyard

31874 steamed for the first time (in preservation) at Alresford jsut before the Mid Hants railway reopened

D853 Thruster on fire in Reading Genmeral station (they just let in burn I think, the class 43 were hated by locomen)

Winter saturdays spent in the nice warm cab of a class 08 on pilot duty in Reading

Cleaning the muck and weeds off 5051 Earl Bathurst on arrival at Didcot from the scrapyard prior to an open day

A couple of hours spent on the footplate of 6106 on the then demo line (no 5 road)

the Dart Valley line at Buckfastleigh immediately after it re-opened, (called in by chance!) 64xx and 4 autocoaches in use

a very early Tyseley open day with KGV and Princess Elizabeth top and tailing on the demo line.

Going for a spin to the carriage sidings in Reading on a class 33 which when it came back was routed through the up main (no platform, oops....)

2 visits to barry Scrayard after only a couple of locos had left...over 200 "on display" Climbed over the fence to get in


My first ever visit to mallow Station in 1979. It was a gem,semaphores, 2 signal boxes, engine shed (just) freightliner yard, A class locos, Cravens. No90 on display,
How long have you got?

Judgement Day

My earliest memorable moment was of a Radio Train trip from Connolly to Killarney in the late 1960s - hauled by a single 121. A great day out with a superb 'high tea' on the return journey - and it wasn't a chicken dinner. Always had a liking for 121's ever since, but they were awful for footplate travel as the driver was at the far side of the control console making conversation really difficult - and catching the staff wasn't the easiest either.

Here's an interesting pic of a pair of 121s taken pre-DART at Bray - notice anything strange?

corktina

Judgement Day wrote: »

My earliest memorable moment was of a Radio Train trip from Connolly to Killarney in the late 1960s - hauled by a single 121. A great day out with a superb 'high tea' on the return journey - and it wasn't a chicken dinner. Always had a liking for 121's ever since, but they were awful for footplate travel as the driver was at the far side of the control console making conversation really difficult - and catching the staff wasn't the easiest either.

Here's an interesting pic of a pair of 121s taken pre-DART at Bray - notice anything strange?

yep, bioth cab first...never seen that before

Losty Dublin

Good point about the doors of a 121. There was a driver out of Bray who apparently was so rotund that he allegedly got stuck in the door of a railcar on evening and needed the assistance of the local fire crew to get him out.

On the cabs, I'd guess that either 121 came from Waterford to pick up the failed unidentified second 121 and en route from Rosslare or it failed on another up train from Rosslare and 121 collected her onto the consist and took her home.

Judgement Day

On arrival at Rosslare there had been trouble with the unidentified 121 (which had been at the Dublin end) and 121 was taken off and turned and headed the train back - I think - but it was a long time ago! I never had a similar photo opportunity with 121's but I did photograph 'double headed' A-class on the Ammonia at Bray after a loco failure...if I can find the photograph.

Judgement Day

Especially for corktina here is poor old No.90 back in 1983 when she was gradually falling to pieces on the Fermoy Bay platform at Mallow. The second picture shows her exiting the bay platform in 1985 - along the road - towed by a brace of JCBs en route to the goods yard. A truly bizarre memorable episode. That's a young and very foolish JD in the blue hat!

steamengine

Corktina - Post 8 above much appreciated. No way I could top that - another gem there too in KG5 No 6000.

corktina

i could go on and on...and will tomorrow if I get a round to it!

lord lucan

2 moments stand out for me,sadly no pics though.

I grew up around the corner from where the present Leixlip Confey station is now located. In the early 80's it was just trees that lined the railway and as kids we used to hang around the railway watching the trains pass. It was a pretty miserable timetable then,a handful of commuter trains,usually push and pull ex-AEC railcars and a C class,the Sligo,usually a double headed 121 and a rake of cravens and the Sligo oil hauled by an A.

We knew the timetable off by heart so knew when to turn up and watch loco's at close quarters. During the summer we'd walk up the canal to Leixlip station and watch the trains come and go there(and annoy the stationmaster!). After a summer hanging around the station we got a rare treat. A Maynooth bound train arrived in and following a few words between the stationmaster and the driver he invited us into the cab. We got a cab ride to Maynooth in the C class and return to Leixlip in the Driving trailer. I think i was 11 years old and was thrilled to get up close and personal with a loco. Given todays H&S culture it was a rare treat.

The 2nd would be a footplate ride on 4 from Wicklow Town to Bray. Around 1990-1992 i was an active member of the RPSI and helped out on the Dublin trains. As a reward for helping out on a particular Sea Breeze special to Rosslare i was invited to hop on to the Footplate and was given a turn as fireman for a bit. As a 16/17 year old and pretty fit i was shocked at how hard the firemans job was and gained a new respect for the guys that done it in the past and continue to do it voluntarily.

Compared to the relatively clean,if a little noisy,Diesels a steam engine was a living breathing thing and an amazing experience.

lord lucan

lord lucan wrote: »

After a summer hanging around the station we got a rare treat. A Maynooth bound train arrived in and following a few words between the stationmaster and the driver he invited us into the cab. We got a cab ride to Maynooth in the C class and return to Leixlip in the Driving trailer. I think i was 11 years old and was thrilled to get up close and personal with a loco. Given todays H&S culture it was a rare treat.

The 2nd would be a footplate ride on 4 from Wicklow Town to Bray. Around 1990-1992 i was an active member of the RPSI and helped out on the Dublin trains. As a reward for helping out on a particular Sea Breeze special to Rosslare i was invited to hop on to the Footplate and was given a turn as fireman for a bit. As a 16/17 year old and pretty fit i was shocked at how hard the firemans job was and gained a new respect for the guys that done it in the past and continue to do it voluntarily.

Nice one. The cab rides I've had were in 2711 from Farranfore to Tralee, and 22004 from Heuston to Kildare (and back too). No locos sadly.

cocoshovel

As a kid I grew up near the Waterford to Rosslare line, Seeing the trains pass by every now and then alongside the river just outside Waterford city was nice. I used to sit on the tracks for hours just throwing stones into the river until the rumble of an 141 class (I think) came from the distance, and around the corner it became visible with a good bit of smoke pluming from them. Of course I ran away terrified because I shouldn't of been on the tracks at such a young age and watched from the distance.
Christ, when I think of the amount of people that used to vandalize that passing train . This was 1997 onwards.

Edit: Thinking back, one thing that stands out most about those trains was the craven rolling stock. The bogies just seemed so huge and that big gap between the ground and the train was slightly intimidating to me.

A more recent one was about 3 years ago when I saw a 2800 class on The Waterford to Dublin line. Its the only time I've ever seen it running on it, and I wonder why.

corktina

cab rides. In about 1985 I got invited to accompany a friend of mine who was a train driver from Reading to Birmingham and back in the cab of 47074 on bank holiday sunday . Poor 47074 had one traction motor isolated but once safely on the Midalnd region, we still got 100 mph out of it near Birm International!
This was a rarity as it was the only loco hauled train on his roster, apart from the shunter in Scours Lane yard (did that too, got to drive it for a bit until he thought Id have us off the rails from going to fast!) 08850 i think it was.
Several time I "helped" the shunters stable 2BIL units at the low-level stabling point next to where Reading South Shed used to be, that was interesting to say the least, jumping down from the platform over the third rail!
Other than that, there was only really the east and west end station pilots, doing a little shunting. The west end pilot was usally a Western class 52 at this time though. :-)

steamengine

Some great stories above in those posts

Here's a few more locomotives from my early days which I either travelled behind or observed or both. I was around for the last few years of steam, but when it ceased a lot of the wonderment went also, and its only in recent years I have renewed my interest in railways, to the extent of once again realising what an engrossing subject they can be. Sorry no photos, not even a notebook - all from memory and all GNR.

S Class - Galtymore, Errigal, Slieve Gullion, Carrantuohill. These were 4-4-0 passenger locomotives - blue livery.

V Class - Eagle, Kestrel, Merlin. 4-4-0 Express passenger - blue livery and normally on the Enterprise as were the following:-

VS Class - Lagan, Liffey, Boyne, Erne - an enhanced version of the V's with smoke box deflectors and outside Walshaerts valve gear.

I can add another cab ride to my list. A39 from Downpatrick to Inch Abbey and back! Finally got a loco.

dermo88

Back when I was a student, I helped fix a train guards bike on the way back from work, and after a chat, he said he could fix me up with a cab run.

Which.....was manna from heaven for me. I was in 143 and 145 Double heading an evening commuter train with Cravens stock.

Got another run from Greystones-Arklow on the 17:26 Commuter in November '95. Between Dublin and Greystones, it was not advisable for 'civilians' to be in the cab, due to rules and regulations. South of Greystones, the regime was rather more relaxed. I drove 082 under instruction from Wicklow to Arklow. The 071's were new to the Arklow/Rosslare services then, after years of struggling with 121's, 141's and A Class and persistent motive power shortages meant that the trains were somewhat underpowered. The 071's changed all that.

Lovely machines......seems like yesterday.

To get the same friendliness, you have to go abroad to Asia, South America......

Judgement Day

August 1986 - somewhere in the North Wall docks. Tralee & Dingle Loco 5T has just arrived back from the USA via Liverpool the day before. A high point in my spotting career!

12 months of hard negotiating with its owner Edgar T.Mead and which involved fighting off the unwanted attention of the several other preservation organisations resulted in her return to Ireland. If I had known how things were to eventually turn out at Blennerville she would now be in Cultra or England. A younger and less bitter JD in this photograph by veteran railway photographer Joe St.Leger.

lord lucan

No hi-vis,safety boots or hard hat JD?:eek::eek::pac::pac:

Losty Dublin

lord lucan wrote: »

No hi-vis,safety boots or hard hat JD?:eek::eek::pac::pac:

In them days, the only steel protection offered to staff on the railways was the lid on your billy can

16miller

Most memorable momemts?

This week- for the last four nights No 4 the Jeep has steamed past my house on the GNR main line, regular as clockwork at 11.38, headlamp blazing without so much as a whistle.

highlydebased

Getting a look in the cab of push/pull MK3 set as a youngfella having arrived in Limerick from the Junction with 124 at the rear....

Seeing the last MKIII service last year pass by my kitchen window

181's on the Castlemungret Shale- used to love seeing those

CIE

lord lucan wrote: »

2 moments stand out for me,sadly no pics though.

I grew up around the corner from where the present Leixlip Confey station is now located. In the early 80's it was just trees that lined the railway and as kids we used to hang around the railway watching the trains pass. It was a pretty miserable timetable then, a handful of commuter trains, usually push and pull ex-AEC railcars and a C class,the Sligo, usually a double headed 121 and a rake of cravens and the Sligo oil hauled by an A.

We knew the timetable off by heart so knew when to turn up and watch loco's at close quarters. During the summer we'd walk up the canal to Leixlip station and watch the trains come and go there (and annoy the stationmaster!). After a summer hanging around the station we got a rare treat. A Maynooth bound train arrived in and following a few words between the stationmaster and the driver he invited us into the cab. We got a cab ride to Maynooth in the C class and return to Leixlip in the Driving trailer. I think i was 11 years old and was thrilled to get up close and personal with a loco. Given todays H&S culture it was a rare treat.

The 2nd would be a footplate ride on 4 from Wicklow Town to Bray. Around 1990-1992 i was an active member of the RPSI and helped out on the Dublin trains. As a reward for helping out on a particular Sea Breeze special to Rosslare i was invited to hop on to the Footplate and was given a turn as fireman for a bit. As a 16/17 year old and pretty fit I was shocked at how hard the fireman's job was and gained a new respect for the guys that done it in the past and continue to do it voluntarily.

Compared to the relatively clean, if a little noisy, Diesels a steam engine was a living breathing thing and an amazing experience.

I've often heard it said that firing a steam engine is an art; some people take to it by nature while others find it too complex and quirky (and physical, unless of course, you have an "ultramodern" steamer with an automatic stoker) to get their heads around. Not only is it keeping the firebox going with the proper draught and all the dead spots filled with coal (on a coal burner that is); it's also keeping your eye on the boiler level and working the injector to refill the boiler from the tender or tank, and when stopped, there's switching the blower on, shaking the ashes out from underneath and scraping the ash pan clean, using the blow-down valve to clear out the sediment (steamers didn't use distilled water after all), refilling the tender/tank with fuel and water etc. And on hot days, the heat from the firebox can be unbearable, I've heard, never mind the cold from outside on cold days that the firebox can't keep off you (no Irish steamer that I've seen, except maybe the Bulleid turf-burner, had anything like the "all-weather cab" that a lot of Canadian and some US steam engines had).

BTW, I moved out of Leixlip in the early 80s. I remember them rebuilding the Louisa Bridge station, and the startup of the push-pull commuter service with trains that got moved off the Howth and Bray suburban services once the DART was starting up. I also recall when the DART 8100/8300s were being given unpowered "test" runs around the system hauled by C-class engines with compromise couplers (always wondered why they went with Scharfenbergs on the EMUs instead of standardising all types on buffer/chain; the expense can't be that much higher, especially if Deutsche Bahn can run IC trains push-pull at 200-220 km/h with cars and engines coupled with buffer/chain linkage).

My most vivid memory was being on board some of the last Connolly-Carlisle Pier non-stop trains, en route to Holyhead and towards Blackpool. I seem to recall laminate stock mixed into those trains. Best and fastest ride from Dublin city to Dun Laoghaire I've had on any land-based vehicle at any time.

Judgement Day

June 1982 - Lixnaw on the North Kerry weedspraying train. This trip, my first over the line, would be amongst my favourite train spotting memories. Couple of pics here at Lixnaw. 209 was freshly out of the Works at Inchicore.
Long lost trainspotting pal, Andy Grant from Glasgow hanging out of loco cab, train driver the late Paddy Neville kneeling on platform, middle of platform group Cork enthusiast Fr.David Donellan SJ, and kneeling on the track is the train guard Liam Cronin (also doubled as the weedsprayer cook). Most of the others in the pic are locals enjoying the novelty of the occasion.



The second pic is of the adjacent Railway Bar where all adjourned to for an hour once the photographic formalities were out of the way.



The inside of the Railway Bar some years later during a materials recovery operation on the North Kerry. The pic is by railway photographer extraordinaire, Joe St.Leger (in the right foreground) and behind him the proprietor, Jack McCarthy. His uncle was General Manager of the Listowel & Ballybunion Railway for most of its existence. A young para military JD with sambo and Guinness in the centre of the pic - those were the days!

lord lucan

209 looks fantastic in that shot JD.:)

steamengine

Cracker of a post JD - very nostalgic quality to it - can almost hear Mary Hopkins 'Those were the days'

duffmckegean

Great Stuff JD.

It must have been some experience to be on the cab for the pull up Barnagh Bank, through the tunnel, to hear the GM rumble!

dermo88

My old spotting place was Clondalkin Station just after I got interested again after a few dormant years as a teenager. This was still in the early to mid 1990's, where the A Class were dying off, and initially 071's dominated the Dublin-Cork mainline.

There were few more sights of raw power at work than seeing an 071 in full cry storming through Clondalkin or Hazelhatch with a full load of 13 coaches on a Friday heading to the likes of Galway or Tralee.

Double heading with small GM's was still relatively common.

Then came the first batch of 10 x 201's. Good looking engines, but they lacked the same atmosphere as the 071's, which as time went on, and they became scarcer, gained cult status amongst rail enthusiasts.

I only ever got one go behind an A Class, and that was 25.09.1995 on the last run in Iarnrod Eireann service. My last sight of an A Class in proper revenue earning action was 003 on the evening Cork-Arklow ammonia. That was regularly handled by a pair of small GM's (Often a pair of 121's), which often hauled the following mornings Arklow-Drogheda commuter which was always made up of Cravens stock. These were wonderfully comfortable in winter....the steam heat being atmospheric and they seemed "cleaner" inside than the newer Mark 2d stock, which was showing its age, with graffiti, wood work being carved with assorted names of Waynes and Waynettas proclaiming their "LUV", not to mention the toilets which were not very pleasant in a lot of cases.

By September 1995, the 201's were in full control. The 2 x Blue NIR engines had arrived (208 and 209) and were now on Enterprises, hauling the NIR Mark 2 set with what I regard as one of the nicest liveries to grace a modern Irish train....the NIR InterCity paint scheme.

17 Japanese DMU's arrived in 1994 (Arrow). Ireland was the first country in Europe to purchase Japanese rolling stock, and they proved reliable, but not too comfortable, but they done the job. They seemed to ride roughly on Irish track. This was the beginning of the end of locomotive hauled services, and while enthusiasts disliked the change, it was one which made the railway a more attractive and better place for its paying customers, saved money, and gave it a chance to become a system Irish people could actually be proud of.

The future looked bright, the future was not Black and Orange. You know you are getting old when rolling stock that was commonly in use when you were young is now being sent off to a museum.

likestosmile

Judgement Day wrote: »

June 1982 - Lixnaw on the North Kerry weedspraying train. This trip, my first over the line, would be amongst my favourite train spotting memories. Couple of pics here at Lixnaw. 209 was freshly out of the Works at Inchicore.
Long lost trainspotting pal, Andy Grant from Glasgow hanging out of loco cab, train driver the late Paddy Neville kneeling on platform, middle of platform group Cork enthusiast Fr.David Donellan SJ, and kneeling on the track is the train guard Liam Cronin (also doubled as the weedsprayer cook). Most of the others in the pic are locals enjoying the novelty of the occasion.



The second pic is of the adjacent Railway Bar where all adjourned to for an hour once the photographic formalities were out of the way.



The inside of the Railway Bar some years later during a materials recovery operation on the North Kerry. The pic is by railway photographer extraordinaire, Joe St.Leger (in the right foreground) and behind him the proprietor, Jack McCarthy. His uncle was General Manager of the Listowel & Ballybunion Railway for most of its existence. A young para military JD with sambo and Guinness in the centre of the pic - those were the days!

Judgement Day, would you have any more photos of the railway line in Lixnaw from that day back in the 1980s or earlier. im trying to trace a streetcape photo of Lixnaw from as far back as i can. I love your railway bar one.

Banjoxed

Seeing the works locomotive on the track formation of the Green Luas line at Beechwood in early 2004.

My heart leapt and I thought "F*ck you Tod Andrews"

h.gricer

Great gricing moments, tis like a ''great graffiti artist moment'' finally conquering that place, the satisfaction got from that, there have been so many over the years, 1 comes to mind when on the 8th August 1986 i walked straight into Tara mines unchallenged, locomotive 057 had just arrived, I took a few photos in the sun, I walked out again, you'd never get away with that now, the place is full of CCTV, visitors these days is by appointment only and cameras must be left at the gate with security, the 1980s was a different era.
Or the time I met the late Joe St Leger at Fota in co Cork, I walked out to Marino Point and walked around ammonia tanks, the guy said I was ok provided my camera didn't have a flash.
Another time I drove into Kilmastulla in March 1999, the guy asked me did I have a hard hat, I certainly had a hard neck, all that behavour is long gone, only memories and the photos, all good fun.
Regards
h.gricer

Judgement Day

A bit off topic, and much as I now hate the mention of the place, one of my most memorable train spotting moments was driving the first locomotive into Dromod shed since the line closed in 1959. That honour fell to "Dinmor" the green diesel in Ciaran Cooney's pic. It was a dark winter evening, probably in 1993 but thankfully my memory is rapidly fading as regards the C&L.

Another high was standing on the footplate of "Dromad" on its first day of operation on the C&L in 1994 (?) - first 'new' steam locomotive delivered to Ireland since "Lough Melvin" and "Lough Erne" to the SLNCR in 1949.

Ciaran - hope you don't mind me using your pic.

bob425

Sunday 26th June 1977, Dublin hurlers were playing in Wexford Park and the morning train from Connolly was longer than normal and to my delight , a double would haul us to Wexford - 135+128. From now on pairs of GMs would be the norm down my beloved South Eastern - usually 121s. Back then there was only a morning and evening train each way on Sundays.

Three days later I saw my first 071 arrive into Heuston - 084 - the 1135 from Cork - in that brownish ( meant to be orange ) livery. How ironic that 36 years later 084 would be the last 071 still in the orange livery.

h.gricer

[QUOTE=Judgement Day

A bit off topic, and much as I now hate the mention of the place, . [/QUOTE]
Ah you don't really mean that JD, you gave me a great tour of that place in July 1993, then we spent a while chatting in the old goods store surrounded by all the memorabilia, i envy you at the time living amongst all that junk, like a pig in ****, and me heading back to the big smoke leaving that dream world behind, the place was a great escape.
Regards
h.gricer