How did your interest in railways start?

cml387 · 25-09-2011 08:07PM #1

Apologies if this has been done before,I have looked and not seen any similar post.

If you can indulge me,I'll start.

I was born in Gillingham (kent) and every Sunday mass-going required crossing the railway outside the station.Lord knows the southern VEP electrics weren't that spectacular,but I remember the novelty of seeing the southern diesels (now class 33) hauling freight.

Then there would be the annual trip to Ireland,taking the Irish Mail (yes,even steam hauled in those days) to Holyhead.

We eventually moved to Mullingar in the sixties,and I remember vividly the particular sound of the GM locomotives with that stepped up engine noise as they pulled away.

It's a strange obsession to the outsider I suppose (and slagging from my work colleagues "Have you got an anorak as well?") but on an enforced vacation last week I took myself to Goolds Cross for a bit of spotting.I'm may have only imagined the wry smiles of motorists passing by but I don't care.

CaptainSkidmark · 25-09-2011 08:18PM

Sitting in mallow railway station on saturday mornings watching the 141's doing the run about and watching the containers being loaded and unloaded. the noise of the 141's building up speed was amazing!

101sean · 25-09-2011 09:32PM

Getting my first train set aged 6 or 7 (still got the loco somewhere), has always played second fiddle to my other interests though. Have a section of my library dedicated to Irish railways and have had a garden railway in planning (but no further :rolleyes:) since I moved.

OP, I lived and worked in Chatham/Gillingham from 1963 until I moved here 4 years ago. We did trips to Goolds Cross (father is from there) every two years but he had a company car. Can remember the car being craned off the ferry in 64 and the couple of times it was loaded on a train to get off the pier at Rosslare. The only journey we did by train was when the car blew it's engine in 1966 and we came back starting from Clonmel. Car came back the same way, saw it on a flat wagon in the sidings.

Spent plenty of time on Goolds Cross bridge watching trains, have some very poor slides from the 70s of passing A Class on freight trains stood in the station while drivers had a chat, the box was still open then.

cml387 · 25-09-2011 09:45PM

101sean wrote: »

Getting my first train set aged 6 or 7 (still got the loco somewhere), has always played second fiddle to my other interests though. Have a section of my library dedicated to Irish railways and have had a garden railway in planning (but no further :rolleyes:) since I moved.

OP, I lived and worked in Chatham/Gillingham from 1963 until I moved here 4 years ago. We did trips to Goolds Cross (father is from there) every two years but he had a company car. Can remember the car being craned off the ferry in 64 and the couple of times it was loaded on a train to get off the pier at Rosslare. The only journey we did by train was when the car blew it's engine in 1966 and we came back starting from Clonmel. Car came back the same way, saw it on a flat wagon in the sidings.

Spent plenty of time on Goolds Cross bridge watching trains, have some very poor slides from the 70s of passing A Class on freight trains stood in the station while drivers had a chat, the box was still open then.

Would you have got your first train set in Baker's in Canterbury street?
That's where I got mine,a Trix set with a "Jinty" and six mixed goods wagons. I think the transformer is still around somewhere.

101sean · 25-09-2011 09:54PM

I don't know but it could have been, I used to go in there a lot.

25-09-2011 11:19PM

Thomas the Tank Engine probably played a part, I read the books and had some of the toys. I then moved to Kerry with my parents in 1996 and therefore took the train to and from Dublin many times since then.

My interest was dormant for many years though. It was really only around 2005/2006 when I really started to follow it and by then, most of the interesting stuff was gone.

corktina · 26-09-2011 06:38AM

Attended a Great Western Society open day at Taplow, Buckinghamsire in 1969. Yes the steam was great but oh my, the Diesel Hydraulics hammering past feet away did it for me too.... first time Id reallt seen trains.

lord lucan · 26-09-2011 09:21AM

I grew up around the corner from where the present Leixlip Confey station is and pretty much spent many of my chilhood years by the side of the rails watching passing trains. That was how my love of trains began and now i count myself lucky to have been around to see A/C/121/141/181 & 071's in action.

Love steam but i grew up as a diesel kid and the sound of any GM will always raise the hairs on my arms.:)

101sean · 26-09-2011 09:52AM

Diesel Hydraulics hammering past

Used to go trainspotting on holiday in Devon (mother's family from there) with a cousin, usually at Exeter St Davids or Newton Abbot in early 70s when it was all Westerns, Warships, Hymeks and 47s. I can still clearly recall the sound of a twin Maybach powered Western accelerating now

corktina · 26-09-2011 12:56PM

101sean wrote: »

Used to go trainspotting on holiday in Devon (mother's family from there) with a cousin, usually at Exeter St Davids or Newton Abbot in early 70s when it was all Westerns, Warships, Hymeks and 47s. I can still clearly recall the sound of a twin Maybach powered Western accelerating now

me too! the Beach? feck that!:D

foggy_lad · 26-09-2011 11:22PM

Got a bit interested while robbing kegs off the train in Maynooth years ago:D:D

dermo88 · 27-09-2011 12:12AM

I got interested as a child and my interest waned around the time I was 8 or 9 years old. By the time I started again, I was 16, and took the train down to Wexford at Christmas.....27th Dec 1992, if I recall correctly.

The smell of a crisp winters morning, the beautiful scenery on the Avoca valley, the rattle of a 141 hauling a rake of Mark 2's.

And.....I was hooked.

shamwari · 27-09-2011 07:10PM

One of my best mates is a train driver. That helps foster an unhealthy interest!

And I'm big into engineering, so if it's got an engine and it moves, I'm interested!

steamengine · 27-09-2011 08:57PM

A kaleidoscope of reasons - here's some

Hornby 'O' gauge clockwork trainset, later 'OO' electric - 0-6-0 Tank engine + 2 passenger coaches in Southern Railways green. Reading this lot, well worth a gander as it's free on line. http://meccano.magazines.free.fr/

Father worked on the GNR as did a few neighbours. Lived a stones throw from Killester Station, oodles of steam trains in the mid fifties - travelled on and spotted. In any event you lived with the sounds, constant puffing and chuffing, whistles sounding day and night.

The atmosphere of 'Amiens St'. Station in the old days - memories of the Station Master resplendent in his 'great coat' c/w gold braided cap - signalling the Enterprise departures with his deafening pea whistle. Steam wafting up between the carriages on a winter's morning shrouding the coaches in an eerie mist. Engine drivers in their blue overalls, grease tops and white scarves - regulators opening accompanied by some wheel spin as these great machines eased away from Platform 3 en route to Belfast.

Those were the days

cml387 · 27-09-2011 09:54PM

steamengine wrote: »

A kaleidoscope of reasons - here's some

Hornby 'O' gauge clockwork trainset, later 'OO' electric - 0-6-0 Tank engine + 2 passenger coaches in Southern Railways green. Reading this lot, well worth a gander as it's free on line. http://meccano.magazines.free.fr/

Father worked on the GNR as did a few neighbours. Lived a stones throw from Killester Station, oodles of steam trains in the mid fifties - travelled on and spotted. In any event you lived with the sounds, constant puffing and chuffing, whistles sounding day and night.

The atmosphere of 'Amiens St'. Station in the old days - memories of the Station Master resplendent in his 'great coat' c/w gold braided cap - signalling the Enterprise departures with his deafening pea whistle. Steam wafting up between the carriages on a winter's morning shrouding the coaches in an eerie mist. Engine drivers in their blue overalls, grease tops and white scarves - regulators opening accompanied by some wheel spin as these great machines eased away from Platform 3 en route to Belfast.

Those were the days

If I could thank that more,I would.

Even after the end of steam engines,the steam heating on the trains generated enough atmosphere to make even the most mundane journey an event.

Cookie_Monster · 27-09-2011 10:45PM

by magic

shamwari · 28-09-2011 08:24PM

cml387 wrote: »

If I could thank that more,I would.

Even after the end of steam engines,the steam heating on the trains generated enough atmosphere to make even the most mundane journey an event.

+1. Craven's disappeared from regular passenger use around 8 years ago, and with them the last of steam heating. Even though they are around 50 years old, they have something about them in terms of quaintness and comfort which a modern railcar will never ever match.

Stonewolf · 28-09-2011 08:27PM

I grew up in Donegal, our curious little railway was gone 20 years before I was born.

I'm much more interested in the social, historical and engineering aspects of railways and unlike a lot of you folks don't have much in the way of nostalgia for CIE of old nor do I do the whole spotting thing.

Those GM engines do sound rather good though.

steamengine · 28-09-2011 10:09PM

cml387 wrote: »

Even after the end of steam engines,the steam heating on the trains generated enough atmosphere to make even the most mundane journey an event.

shamwari wrote: »

+1. Craven's disappeared from regular passenger use around 8 years ago, and with them the last of steam heating. Even though they are around 50 years old, they have something about them in terms of quaintness and comfort which a modern railcar will never ever match.

The Cravens were/are fine coaches, RPSI still use them on some of their trips. Talking about steam heating, I travelled occasionally, as a kid, on the GNR in the First Class corridor compartment coaches. The two pics below resemble them pretty closely, - note the freshly laundered head rest covers and the photos above the seat. On GNR these would be photos of scenic spots such as the Mountains of Mourne or Killybegs etc. The handle above and slightly to the side of the head rest cover in the second pic was for regulating the steam heating !!!

picture.php?albumid=1408&pictureid=10720

picture.php?albumid=1408&pictureid=10720

picture.php?albumid=1836&pictureid=10721

Poxyshamrock · 28-09-2011 11:33PM

My grandfather used to take me for walks along the Limerick to Foynes railway line from the city centre, past the Crescent Shopping Centre and beyond Raheen!

flyingsnail · 29-09-2011 06:32PM

My grandparents house was beside two railway lines, Limerick to Foynes and Limerick to Castlemungret, I used to love watching the trains pass. But I think I really got hooked after seeing RPSI 461 passing on the way to Foynes in 1993.

Poxyshamrock wrote: »

My grandfather used to take me for walks along the Limerick to Foynes railway line from the city centre, past the Crescent Shopping Centre and beyond Raheen!

I know it well, still makes a nice walking route along the Foynes line.

A Dub in Glasgo · 29-09-2011 09:07PM

Being offered a graduate job with British Rail in S&T.

I rarely used the railway in Dublin as growing up in Ballymun, there was very little opportunity. My grandda was so proud that I ended up working for the railway (even the British one!) as he worked at Inchicore and Kingsbridge / Heuston.

How did your interest in railways start?

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