Your very first rail journey with parents

[Yew]

Butterly Heritage railway, dragged by a black steam loco in an open Mk1.

First with my parents on NR? Probably late 90's on the robin hood line to worksop, sprinter of some sort, followed by a ATN 142 to Sheffield.

 

[chorleyjeff]

Mine would have been Staines-Earley - Winter 1960 or 1961 (snow and plenty sparks) to visit my dying grandmother in the old Battle Hospital in Reading. What stock would it have been?

First I can remember, I think, is Preston to Llandudno in non corridor stock and being very very thirsty as the train crawled very slowly along the coast on a hot day. Or it might have been Preston to Liverpool when I got soaked when the engine took water from water troughs and some of the overspill ended up in my compartment. But both were a lot better than travel sickness on coaches and buses - Preston to Halifax by service bus change at Burnley was awful with cigarette smoke to inhale and being sick.

 

[fowler9]

First I can remember, I think, is Preston to Llandudno in non corridor stock and being very very thirsty as the train crawled very slowly along the coast on a hot day. Or it might have been Preston to Liverpool when I got soaked when the engine took water from water troughs and some of the overspill ended up in my compartment. But both were a lot better than travel sickness on coaches and buses - Preston to Halifax by service bus change at Burnley was awful with cigarette smoke to inhale and being sick.

Ewww, for my sins I am a smoker but I keep my filthy habit as far away from anyone else as I can, to the extent I just don't smoke at times when I am legally allowed to.

 

[hassaanhc]

First NR journey I can remember is making the short journey on a Networker Turbo between Southall and Slough under what was then Thames Trains, I'm sure it would have been me, my mum and my brother (who was probably in a buggy at the time :P).

 

[aptisman]

Paddington to Kemble, Summer 1944

 

[nw1]

Sale to Altrincham, 1976 or 1977, a few times over the course of a year - on what I later learnt were 304s.
I can still remember the style of the lighting on the trains (very big round lamps with a central bulb), though it took a sighting of 304s in 1983 or 1984 to jog my memory of it.

After that was a big gap before I resumed regular train journeys (daily Mon-Fri, so memories obviously very much better) on CIGs and VEPs in 1982 from Haslemere to Guildford - with the occasional HAP. I still remember being fooled into thinking the refurbished BEPs - 2301 to 2307 - were brand new trains in 1983 as they looked all shiny and new and very 80s internally - contrasting with the older style interiors in the unrefurbished CIGs and VEPs. The CIG and VEP era is probably the "definitive" train era for me, BR and later Network SouthEast.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Our household has never had a car so from birth I've

I don't think I went on a proper 'intercity' journey until 1997 - Euston to Glasgow Central headed by an 87 which conked out at Lancaster. Free Virgin Cola was doled out which got younger sibling and I buzzed up, probably to the annoyance of the other passengers as we charged up and down the aisles and played in the vestibules! Then out of Glasgow Central low level (via the grimmest station toilets I've ever seen) to Lanark (why we didn't change at Motherwell I don't know) on an SPT orange 303, past miles of abandoned industry and estates ready for demolition. Even having spent years in some of the most run down areas of London, the scale and extent of what I saw heading away from Glasgow on that trip always stuck with me. Pulling into Lanark felt like another world.

First InterCity journey - the 12.00 Guildford to Manchester in 1982, travelling as far as Stafford, which is where I saw the aforementioned 304s bringing back memories of earlier childhood. That seemed incredibly exciting - InterCity travel and observing InterCity trains in places like Stafford or Reading in the early-mid 80s for me had a romance that only continental travel has for me these days. The increasing jadedness of getting older....

 

[Springs Branch]

My earliest clear memories of anything at all are of a train journey between Hindley North and Manchester Victoria in the mid-1960s. For some reason my dad had to travel to an appointment in Denton and took his young son (me) along with him. My memories are a series of snapshots. . . . .

1. Boarding the train at Hindley North. The station was gloomy and dark with substantial brick buildings and a proper platform canopy – since demolished and replaced with today’s bus shelter. The train had maroon coaches and was crowded – we had to stand in the corridor. Presumably a steam train, but I do not remember noticing the locomotive.
2. Changing trains at Bolton. I remember crossing the junction at Bolton West, seeing green DMUs in other platforms and joining a green diesel train into Manchester. Presumably the train from Hindley had been a Liverpool Exchange to Rochdale (via Bury Knowsley St) service from that era.
3. Walking along the very busy concourse at Manchester Victoria, past the ticket barriers to the bay platforms.
4. Sitting at the front of a bus with red seats and travelling along a road which was much wider, longer and straighter than the roads in my local town (Hindley). Presumably this was a Manchester Corporation bus along Hyde Road towards Denton.
5. Coming home from Man Vic to Hindley North, we may well have travelled via the Atherton line. I remember passing through the tunnel at Pendlebury and being scared by the sudden darkness.

These things are all I can remember of that trip, and as I said it’s pretty much my earliest memory of anything.

 

[RogerB]

It would have been when I was a toddler c1953. We lived in Birkenshaw and visited our gran's in Accrington, so we probably departed from Halifax or Bradford.

My parents weren't sure how I'd react to a steam engine, but apparently I stood on the platform and imitated the whistle. "He likes trains!" they said. We moved to Wakefield (Cliff Park Avenue - look on Google maps) and my train spotting career began.

The only station I really remember as a kid was Manchester Victoria & Exchange, with their common platform. I knew when we were arriving at Manchester because the tracks made a very distinctive noise at Miles Platting!

 

[Polarbear]

I was born in Australia so my earliest Train rides would have been around the Melbourne area. Although we had a car, my dad worked shifts so I would have been taken into town by my mum on the train from Mitcham.

The first rail journey I remember was a trip on Puffing Billy, a preserved narrow gauge railway in the Dandenong hills east of Melbourne. It's probably what got me hooked on rail travel to be honest.

http://www.puffingbilly.com.au/

As regards this country, my first rail journey was from Southampton to Chester on 8 February 1971. I don't remember much about it other than we were in compartments for the whole journey (MK1's).

 

[fowler9]

I was born in Australia so my earliest Train rides would have been around the Melbourne area. Although we had a car, my dad worked shifts so I would have been taken into town by my mum on the train from Mitcham.

The first rail journey I remember was a trip on Puffing Billy, a preserved narrow gauge railway in the Dandenong hills east of Melbourne. It's probably what got me hooked on rail travel to be honest.

http://www.puffingbilly.com.au/

As regards this country, my first rail journey was from Southampton to Chester on 8 February 1971. I don't remember much about it other than we were in compartments for the whole journey (MK1's).

Ah, was hopping to go on that Puffing Billy railway when I was out there. Had to make do with the train from Packenham which was fun but perhaps not quite as interesting. Still, got to see Southern Cross and Flinders Street (Which I believe was once the busiest railway station in the world) and also the train in to the city centre went past the MCG which was cool. We also visited the railway museum at Ipswich in Queensland which was interesting.

 

[sprinterguy]

It will undoubtedly have been a class 143 “Pacer” between Sunderland and Newcastle. I remember many such trips as a child, even if not necessarily the very first one. My Gran used to take me up to Newcastle to watch the trains for a couple of hours, and slightly later in my childhood we would sometimes go as far afield as Gateshead Metrocentre.

I distinctly recall the fascination of watching the sleepers of the adjacent track pass by faster and faster, until they became a blur, through the full length door windows on the 143s (And on the 142s, too, once they had been re-fitted with the same design).

 

[9007pinza]

My mum being Italian, trips to Italy by rail in the early 60`s from Darlington. My mum is convinced it was steam hauled from Darlington to KX, but probably EE4, or Deltic, I think.
A porter taking us from the ferry in Ostend to the sleeper train, it seemed strange as there was no platform of any sort
An image of 6 berth couchettes still sticks in my mind. I always chose a top one, so being able to peek out past the window blind.
Arriving at some terminus station in Germany possibly, and then panicking because we left the opposite the way we went in. convinced we were going to crash as were going the wrong way
Being in the front carriage, somewhere in Europe, and seeing the center cabbed diesel, working hard & making wonderful noise.
In deserted Brussels station in the middle of the night changing trains, and we had been on the wrong one, and the guard told us to get off!
Looking out to sea whilst on the rail bridge link from Mestre to Venice.
Unfortunately too young to remember more details of this wonderful experience

 

[Mike99]

Hi, My earliest memories were trips from Penge West to London Bridge, c1963/64 (about 5 to 6 years old) and an isolated journey from London Waterloo on a 2 car train c1965 to Wokingham. Watching trains once a year at Redland Station, Bristol whilst visiting an Aunt, again around early middle 60's. Then 5 years from 1969 travelling everyday from Penge East to Bromley South on EPB's to go to senior school hell at Bromley Grammer School
Regards
Mike

 

[kenpix]

Sunday School excursion in the mid-fifties, Walthamstow (Hoe Street) to Clacton in scruffy Gresley bow-ended blood and custard coaches. Engine was B17 "Gayton Hall". Did not get there until after lunch so time on the beach was limited - but of course the train journey was the real treat.
The following year's trip was to Chalkwell via the Kentish Town - Barking line, this time hauled by a 4F 0-6-0; speed probably didn't exceed 30mph for the journey.

 

[yorksrob]

I still remember being fooled into thinking the refurbished BEPs - 2301 to 2307 - were brand new trains in 1983.

You're not the only one to have been so fooled

 

[overtonchris]

I am told (reliably) that my first train ride was in 1964 from Basingstoke to Reading by some sort of steam train!!! I more reliably remember travelling with Mum, Dad and sadly deceased Brother many times from, say, 1967 to Waterloo on the slam door electrics / 33s+Stock (but can't remember a 42 haulage......Grrrrr) and to Reading on the 205/207 Hampshire/ Berkshire Boggies. How those seats used to "prickle" the legs!!!!!

 

[Smudger105e]

Mine would have been between Portslade and West Hove (as it was then) and Steyning. All I remember is the locking lever to lock the drop light. My brother and I used to use it as a regulator and pretend we were Casey Jones!!

What power would that have used? M7? O2? Standard tank?

 

[David Goddard]

A number of trips from Ely to Peterborough during 1984 but most memorably Nenta's Christmas excursion to York on 8 December of that year. Pressie from Father Christmas on the way home!

 

[Jones]

Bangor to London, for some reason I thought it was a Deltic. About 1980 or early '81, I remember seeing the recently "redecorated" Iranian Embassy at Princes Gate.

Would a Deltic have worked this? Changed loco at Crewe maybe?

Remember it was an early start!

 

[30907]

Mine would have been between Portslade and West Hove (as it was then) and Steyning. All I remember is the locking lever to lock the drop light.

What power would that have used? M7? O2? Standard tank?

That description suggests to me the Maunsell-type Motor (Push and Pull) sets which were converted around 1960, in which case an M7 is a safe bet, but an H is also possible, or even an E4 (not in P-P mode!).
Later on a Standard tank might have been used before dieselisation in 1964, but an O2 is highly unlikely.

 

[sprinterguy]

Bangor to London, for some reason I thought it was a Deltic. About 1980 or early '81, I remember seeing the recently "redecorated" Iranian Embassy at Princes Gate.

Would a Deltic have worked this? Changed loco at Crewe maybe?

Remember it was an early start!

To the best of my knowledge, even at that late stage of their lives a Deltic would never have reason to make it that far West.

If it was some sort of English Electric loco with a nose that you can recall, then it is far more likely that it was a class 40, which were regular performers on the North Wales coast.