What kindled your interest in railways?

Robin Summerhill · Post by **Robin Summerhill** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 2:46 am

My early years were spent living some 50 yards from the main Bristol to Birmingham line mid-way between Staple Hill and Mangotsfield stations. Trains and railways, therefore, were never far from my ears in my early life, but I have to admit no more than a passing interest in them until one unusual day, Saturday 8th September 1962. So the tale went at the time, my mother was sick of having me under her feet through the summer holidays and had instructed father to Ã´take the boy to Bournemouth for the day.Ã¶

At the time, as far as I was concerned as I got up that morning at 0430 to get to Mangotsfield for the 0615 train, it was simply a day out to the seaside. I was not aware, although I think my father was, that 8th September 1962 was the last day that the Pines Express would run over S&D metals. Unfortunately, I was blissfully unaware of the significance at the time!

The incident that kindled my interest, and to an extent then affected much of the rest of my life, happened to me as we sat in Templecombe for over half an hour that morning. For those unaccustomed to the Somerset & Dorset working methods, S&D trains often sat for an inordinate length of time at Templecombe waiting for connections on the Salisbury to Exeter line. A 37 minute booked stop was therefore nothing out of the ordinary!

The event that I witnessed that morning was at the front end of a train arriving from the Salisbury direction, and took the form of an unrebuilt Bulleid pacific. I had never seen anything remotely like this before. Living, as I did, next to the Midland main line to Bristol, I was used to seeing a selection of ex-LMS, Midland and Standard engines passing through, with an occasional Great Western design thrown in for good measure. And of course more of these could be seen in Bristol itself. But this was different. Very different. Excitingly different! Within the next few days I had equipped myself with all the necessities that a young train spotter needs (Notebook, pen, Locoshed Book) and the course of my social life was then firmly set until the end of steam in 1968, and indeed the first 7 years of my working life from 1969.

Has anybody else got a story or two to tell?

horace · Post by **horace** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 10:00 am

Although I lived only a Hundred yards or so up the road from Robin and heard the Midland line all the time my interest was kindled in about 1953 sitting as a toddler with my grandfather at the back of The Black Swan in Eastville of which he was the landlord. I remember the noise of the engines making a real noise on the start of their climb up Filton bank, even though I was only 2 it got me hooked.

Ian L Jamieson · Post by **Ian L Jamieson** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 1:47 pm

I think that it all started when I first popped into the world. I was born in the King George V nursing home, which was hard by Newbury Park station in east London. At this time [1943] the LNER ran steam-operated services, but by 1947 the Central Line had taken over and the bright red electrics really fascinated me. It was at this time that I became interested in the RTs that ran out to Chigwell and Loughton, so my bus interest started at much the same time.

All my mother's family were from the Leeds area, so we used to make the occasional journey from King's Cross and I seem to recall being allowed on the footplate of an A3 pacific - that really got me going, of course.

We moved to Bristol in 1950, I was given my first ABC in 1953, and I spent most of my free time at Horfield, Patchway, and Temple Meads, while holidays were taken in North Devon and South Devon, and like the previous comment I saw my first Bulleids at Barnstaple; I was hooked then - and they remain my favourite locomotives all these years later.

Looking back over the years I consider myself extremely fortunate to have a hobby that gave me, and continues to give me, so much pleasure.

Roger · Post by **Roger** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 3:36 pm

I was taken in a pushchair to see my father who (at the time in the very early 1950s) worked at Bath Green Park sheds. A fatal mistake by my mother!!!! Throw in the fact that I had a Grandmother and Grandfather who lived midway between Oldfield Park station and the Green park sheds (barely a 1/4 mile apart) and I was hooked.

Although I am now in my mid 60s I still have a great interest in railways and get out and about on day trips. A good outdoor hobby and whilst I like to reminise about steam it is rewarding to have an interest.

buxton4472 · Post by **buxton4472** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 10:08 pm

Simple!

1) Grandfather on the railways (signalman, Charfield)
2) Father on the railways (booking office, Charfield)
3) Proximity to the railway (50 yds away at the bottom of the garden)
Not surprising then that I was bitten by the bug.

Earliest recollections include traveling from Charfield to Bristol behind ex-MR Compound 41123 (1958-ish - the loco stalled entering Wickwar Tunnel and had to raise steam before continuing), watching the breakdown gang re-rail a Johnson 0-6-0 which had come to grief on the crossover in the station at Charfield, visiting great-aunt in Forest of Dean going via BerkeleyRd and the old Severn Bridge to Lydney town (I was too shy to accept a ride on the footplate of the Pannier tank pulling our train!), and going on holiday by train to Perranporth changing at Chacewater (1957). Then my grandfather in his retirement moved to Cheshire and I spent many school holidays close to the WCML with the requisite Ian Allan locospotter books. Great days and great memories!

jules · Post by **jules** » Sat Mar 17, 2012 4:02 pm

Easy for me: I grew up on Ralph Road, opposite Muller Road bus garage which was next to Ashley Hill Goods Yard. My sister used to take me over there when she got home from school most evenings to watch the yard being shunted. I just about caught the pannier tanks doing it, bit the job was soon switched over to North Brits (D63xx) and Hymeks (D7xxx). There began my love of diesel hydraulics and Maybach engines in particular.

I didn't take much notice of what went on out on the mainline until one evening, I was hanging around the recently closed Ashley Down station with some older kids who were spotters. I sort of expressed an interest and had some of the pertinent facts explained to me.

Next time I visited, I took a notebook. The *first* train to power through was double-headed: D818 Glory on the front with D602 Bulldog as train engine. I couldn't understand the other kids total excitement and joy, but it was the rare sight of Bulldog working through Bristol that had done it.

I was told I was "unbelievably jammy" to get one of my first cops as "Bulldog". From then on, I was hooked ...

Geoffers · Post by **Geoffers** » Sat Mar 17, 2012 4:28 pm

My grandfather, who I never knew, was a guard for GWR, my mother worked in the office at Temple Meads, my uncle was a signalman, my uncle by marriage and his son worked at Temple Meads, and we lived in Queens Road, close to Ashley Hill station.

I went to sleep in the evenings to the sound of shunting and in the school holidays and at weekends I was a spotter. Would that I could remember *anything* about those days!

Ian L Jamieson · Post by **Ian L Jamieson** » Sat Mar 17, 2012 6:50 pm

This is becoming a really interesting thread, isn't it? Thank you Robin, for starting it up.

buxton4472 · Post by **buxton4472** » Sat Mar 17, 2012 7:56 pm

Having an interest in railways in the 50s and 60s was a perfectly wholesome and acceptable hobby for young lads. Certainly it was a sociable pursuit and one which taught me more about the geography and industry of the UK than I would ever have learned in school! The 'trainspotting' image got tarnished very much in the 80s and 90s and rail enthusiasts became branded almost as social outcasts. I'm very glad I was born when I was and grew up with the freedom to roam wherever we wanted (within reason), enjoying much more tolerance from the organisation that the railways were then. Heritage railways/steam specials apart, being a rail enthusiast these days would be a very dull experience with the predictable bland mix of traffic all moving effortlessly at similar speeds, having to watch it through that awful green fencing that now graces our railtracks. And could you imagine lads of 14 these days travelling the length and breadth of the country with parental approval ? Not that any could afford to at current rail ticket prices of course!

Robin Summerhill · Post by **Robin Summerhill** » Sat Mar 17, 2012 8:21 pm

buxton4472 wrote:Having an interest in railways in the 50s and 60s was a perfectly wholesome and acceptable hobby for young lads. Certainly it was a sociable pursuit and one which taught me more about the geography and industry of the UK than I would ever have learned in school! The 'trainspotting' image got tarnished very much in the 80s and 90s and rail enthusiasts became branded almost as social outcasts. I'm very glad I was born when I was and grew up with the freedom to roam wherever we wanted (within reason), enjoying much more tolerance from the organisation that the railways were then. Heritage railways/steam specials apart, being a rail enthusiast these days would be a very dull experience with the predictable bland mix of traffic all moving effortlessly at similar speeds, having to watch it through that awful green fencing that now graces our railtracks. And could you imagine lads of 14 these days travelling the length and breadth of the country with parental approval ? Not that any could afford to at current rail ticket prices of course!

Wot he said with a couple of caveats!

Certainly railway enthusiasm taught me a lot about UK geography - whether it actually taught me any more than I would have learned (Geography being one of my favourite subjects in school) is another matter. However, it could be a double edged sword .....

Once upon a time about 20 years ago, I was in the car and without a map in the depths of darkest Leicestershire, and wanting to get to Derby. I began to recognise place names that used to have stations on the Burton to Leicester via Coalville line. Using a trick that I had used successfully in the past, I then started to follow the signs to these places to get me to Burton, and then I thought I'd pick up the A38 for Derby. It was only when I got to the outskirts of Leicester I realised that I'd been following these stations the wrong way ....

buxton4472 · Post by **buxton4472** » Sat Mar 17, 2012 9:53 pm

Robin Summerhill wrote:It was only when I got to the outskirts of Leicester I realised that I'd been following these stations the wrong way ....

How remiss of the Highways Agency not to label their road-signs 'UP' and 'DOWN' !!

tonyperks · Post by **tonyperks** » Sat Mar 17, 2012 11:53 pm

For me it was my uncle, when I stayed at my grans on a saturday night, when i got up in the morning he would get out and set up in the front room his old Triang Trainset and it filled the whole floor too, and i have never looked back since.

Mitch · Post by **Mitch** » Sun Mar 18, 2012 1:17 pm

I was born in Radstock and our house overlooked both the S&D and the Bristol & North Somerset lines. I spent countless hours sitting on the garden wall just watching the trains go by. One of my earliest memories is of a GWR railcar working towards Bristol, and the horrendous traffic jams that built up on summer Saturdays when both level crossings in the middle of the town were in constant use.
After the S&D closed and I was a little older, a friend and I used to blag rides on the track lifting trains from Midsomer Norton to Binegar on Saturday mornings. With no railway left in Radstock, I thought nothing of cycling to Clink Road Junction at Frome to watch the trains there.
I joined the railway as a trainee guard at Westbury on January 21st. 1980, moved to Bath Road in 1984 and became a passenger guard in 1986. Thirty two years into my career, I now work at Birmingham New Street for CrossCountry, working those vile Voyagers anywhere between Newcastle, Plymouth and Bournemouth.
Had I not been brought up near the railway, I often wonder where life would have taken me and what I'd be doing for a living now.

AndyK · Post by **AndyK** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 3:27 pm

The main factor was probably going on holiday to the Barmouth area in 1960 and 1961 with rides on the Festiniog, Talyllyn and Fairbourne. And we were staying in a caravan site very close to the Cambrian coast line. Back home in Bristol, I remember seeing the panier tanks shunting at my local railway location - Canons Marsh goods depot.

But although that planted the seed of my enthusiasm, our family didn't often travel by train and my interest waned and lay dormant through my primary school years, when I was much more interested in military matters and spent all my pocket money on Airfix tanks and planes. I am really annoyed with my 8-year old self that when we had fortnight's holiday at Padstow in 1964 I observed a Bulleid Pacific standing at the buffer stops but had absolutely no interest in revisiting the station or seeing any more of the local railways.

In about 1966 (I think the closure of the Somerset & Dorset had passed without me being aware of it) my interest began to revive - possibly prompted by the acquisition of an Observers Book of Locomotives. I remember asking my dad "Do you think there are still any steam locos on British Railways?". "Ooh, I shouldn't think so" was his reply.

At the end of the 1967 summer holidays, just before I started at secondary school, a friend invited me to join him train spotting at Temple Meads. On the station I purchased a copy of Railway World and was thunderstuck to discover that steam had been operating relatively nearby on the Southern Region until a few weeks before - and we had actually had a day trip to Weymouth that summer although I do not know whether it was before or after the end of steam.

For the next eleven months I was painfully aware that steam was still operating on BR, but in such distant areas that there was no chance of me witnessing it.

However I launched myself enthusiastically into spotting and consoled myself with the knowledge that, even though the Western Region had no steam locos, it did have by far the best diesels in the form of the Westerns and Warships...

Mitch · Post by **Mitch** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 3:36 pm

Ahh, yes. Westerns and Warships, the pride of the Premier Region