Your earliest train / railway memories ?

lord lucan

MYOB wrote: »

Still doesn't explain removing the track once DMUs started to be used - could just have locked the points.

Less maintenance basically,one less set of points on the network that need to be maintained. Part of the reason behind the move to tin cans from loco's.

L1011

lord lucan wrote: »

Less maintenance basically,one less set of points on the network that need to be maintained. Part of the reason behind the move to tin cans from loco's.

Lock them off and don't maintain them, if they fail replace them with a single straight track panel.

Cost more to remove them than it would have to have left them there and waited.

roundymac

Same in Cobh. The points were taken out, now when the spray train has had to visit on the last two occasions, a second 071 had to follow it to bring the train back to Cork. The same occours with Midleton, only difference being that points were never installed during the rebuild.

purplepanda

First memories of trains for me was traveling over to London Euston in the old fashioned night coaches from Holyhead with separate compartments seating six people, complete with elbow rests & proper cushioned seating & oak paneling.
At the time Euston had the usual new building smell of cement when it was being modernised. The marble stone in the station says it was opened by QEII herself in 1968 so I reckon it was around that period.

Later on most of British Rail's similar era coaches were used for football fans specials trains up & down the country, saving BR the cost of demolition in the process!!!

I've never been on a steam train before either!! I'm trying to persuade my young lads & a few friends to visit the bluebell railway, which seems to be the nearest steam train to London that I know of?

corktina

Mid Hants Railway would be easier, train from Waterloo, cross platform connection .

Judgement Day

The situation in Tralee is farcical especially since the introduction of the 22000s, but no doubt in time the space in front of the platform will become a staff carpark. :rolleyes:

Losty Dublin

MYOB wrote: »

Lock them off and don't maintain them, if they fail replace them with a single straight track panel.

Cost more to remove them than it would have to have left them there and waited.

All told, it costs circa €200,000 to construct and install a new set of working points as well as removing the old ones and allowing for adequate track space for a loco to run around. A lot of money to spend on something that just isn't needed anymore.

Judgement Day

And what would it have cost to leave a straight line under the canopy ending in a buffer stop near Edward Street LC? It seems to this seasoned observer that CIE/IE are obsessed with pulling up every yard of track they can.

DDigital

Flyingsnail correctly pointed out why the track was under the canopy during loco hauled days and why the trains originally stopped where the new railcars still stop.

However, considering that railcars don't need run around loops, it borders on stupidity that Irish Rail, would rip up the track and prevent these new railcars from terminating right under the canopy in Tralee. I await a really obvious explanation as to why Irish Rail would do this. My own opinion is on the side of Irish Rail just being happy to rip up track that includes points, without giving genuine thought to how an already existing track layout could remain beneficial to the railcar era.

L1011

Losty Dublin wrote: »

All told, it costs circa €200,000 to construct and install a new set of working points as well as removing the old ones and allowing for adequate track space for a loco to run around. A lot of money to spend on something that just isn't needed anymore.

Where did I ever mention installing new ones?

purplepanda

corktina wrote: »

Mid Hants Railway would be easier, train from Waterloo, cross platform connection .

Corktina are you trying to get me down there to report back on the the Parry People Mover!!!:D Don't think it's down there yet? :rolleyes:

Bluebell is 1 hour 10 mins from me £11.50 so it's double the journey & price down to Hants

Waiting for some decent weather than I'll be going!!!

corktina

but you would need to go by bus or car as it will be a while before the Bluebell get to east Grinstead.

W123-80's

Westport - Dublin. 160 miles. My sister having all her sandwiches & nice things ate by the time we got to Castlebar. Thats 11 miles into the journey.

Run_to_da_hills

My Grandmother use to take me down Dunlaoghaire Pier to see the male boat come in, this would have been a regular sight. Early 70's I would guess by judging by the car.

101sean

My first trip to Ireland on my own was from Euston in Summer 1978, like Purplepanda it was a night service in compartmented BR Mk1 stock. Got on with my bag and a 4 pack of McEwans and got a compartment to myself. I paid to go first class on the ferry,it was only around £3 extra. There were still a lot of foot passengers then and remember being very self conscious walking past dozens of families up the ramp to first class which was almost empty

Judgement Day

101sean wrote: »

My first trip to Ireland on my own was from Euston in Summer 1978, like Purplepanda it was a night service in compartmented BR Mk1 stock. Got on with my bag and a 4 pack of McEwans and got a compartment to myself. I paid to go first class on the ferry,it was only around £3 extra. There were still a lot of foot passengers then and remember being very self conscious walking past dozens of families up the ramp to first class which was almost empty

I would have been going the opposite direction at about the same time and the 1st class lounge was a Godsend - only £4 dearer and nobody in it, plus as much free tea/coffee/juice and biccies as you could consume on the crossing. It became the Pullman lounge about that time - see my ticket below - and by then a steward manned the entrance to turn away the great unwashed who dared venture in.

d4head77

Being on the Enterprise with steam coming in the window. Leather strap on the door. My dad getting me a comic.

purplepanda

corktina wrote: »

but you would need to go by bus or car as it will be a while before the Bluebell get to east Grinstead.

The Mid Hants steam engines look more substantial than the Thomas the Tank style engines on the bluebell so I'l make the trip there. Mind you I'm just judging from the pictures & don't really have a clue

From what I remember traveling on the night ferries in the '70's was a dangerous adventure, luckily we always used to upgrade to 1st class to avoid the riff raff & drunken hordes, nowadays I'd be more at home with the later!

101sean

The Bluebell has some very old LBSCR and SECR engines which tend to be on the smaller size but still has big mainline engines. Both lines are ex mainlines rather than small branches and are similar in nature, being ex Southern Railway.

For real rural in the sticks Thomas the Tank engine style you should try the Kent and East Sussex Railway, spent a lot of weekend in the 80s working on it.