Where does it all phase out?

[Drsatan]

I think I've been interested in railways all my life - from when I was 9 till when I was about 12 I pretended I wasn't interested in railways simply so the other kids at school wouldn't think I was strange. By feigning a lack of interest I believed I would be accepted by the other kids. I guess that was quite common amongst many contributers here when they were children especially if none of their friends were interested.

Until I was 4, I lived in Porchester, a suburb of Pompey (I've never supported Pompey FC so please don't hate me!). I'd often travel into Pompey from Porchester station - usually on a 421 or 423 - and my primary school overlooked the Fareham - Portsmouth line so I'd often look and admire the passing trains. I even saw some unusual movements including a de-icing unit and a 466 presumably on a test run. I'd also go to Eastleigh and watch the trains go by.

When I moved to Romsey, I still harboured a passion for trains. Indeed, the first train I remember going through Romsey was a diverted HST! I read railway magazines, including Steam, which I guess was very unusual for a six year old. And like a lot of pre-teen kids, I was a great fan of Thomas the Tank.

Another contributing factor to my interest in railways was the location of my grandma's house. Her house overlooked Ewell West station on the Raynes Park - Epsom line so I would see a lot of 455s. At the time, I was quite attracted to their NSE livery and the noise produced when leaving stations. I made many trips up to London with my grandparents which I really enjoyed - the most exciting stretch was from Raynes Park onwards to Waterloo where the train joins the South Western Main Line.

As I have already mentioned, my interest in railways subsided from the age of nine. It was only from late 2003 (when I was 12) that I regained my interest for some reason, probably because I felt more confident about liking trains.

However, my interest has gradually matured. It's no longer a passion, more of an interest.

 

[ed1971]

^Damn right. Most of the Darts in our town were replaced by VDL pieces of ****e and Enviro200's.

Good riddance to them! Although the replacements don't sound much better! I rode on a Pointer Dart a few weeks and as usually it looked and felt like it was going to fall to bits at any moment! I'd much prefer a Routemaster 'Dartmaster' even though they sound like a Dart, the suspension is miles better!

 

[SouthEastern-465]

Good riddance to them! Although the replacements don't sound much better! I rode on a Pointer Dart a few weeks and as usually it looked and felt like it was going to fall to bits at any moment! I'd much prefer a Routemaster 'Dartmaster' even though they sound like a Dart, the suspension is miles better!

Not trying to go off-topic but has berty the bus been withdrawn and been replaced by a Enviro-200?

 

[JustinStacey.x]

Good riddance to them! Although the replacements don't sound much better! I rode on a Pointer Dart a few weeks and as usually it looked and felt like it was going to fall to bits at any moment! I'd much prefer a Routemaster 'Dartmaster' even though they sound like a Dart, the suspension is miles better!

Thats what I like about the old Plaxton Pointers and Alexander bodied Darts. Sit at the back and you can just bounce about all day long on the crappy suspension and listen to it creak and groan. And the fact that they only have four gears (narrow ones at that) means that on our rural roads they end up screaming along at around 50MPH for sustained periods. Nothing like hearing them whine

 

[90019]

Thats what I like about the old Plaxton Pointers and Alexander bodied Darts. Sit at the back and you can just bounce about all day long. And the fact that they only had four gears means that on our rural roads they end up screaming along at around 50MPH for sustained periods. Nothing like hearing them whine

I really like our Pointer bodied darts, but some of them are terrible, they take ages to change out of first, screaming along the road before crashing forward into second, some of them also have a bit on the brakes at about 5mph, when they suddenly grab and everyone gets thrown forward a bit. Even some of the old Leyland Olys weren't as bad.

 

[JustinStacey.x]

^Yep one of ours does that too. It sticks in first and then snatches into second with a *jolt*. Depends on how hard the driver boots it. If he accelerates hard, it actually doesn't seem too bad, if it's light acceleration it will stick in first for a few seconds at least or until he accelerates harder.

A lot of our fleet do it in fact, the VanHool coaches do it when going downhill (engine braking) and if the driver taps the accelerator it will jolt into gear and then start to coast rapidly.

 

[90019]

Yep one of ours does that too. It sticks in first and then snatches into second with a *jolt*.

The worst for it I ever experienced was on one of our E reg olys, the gearbox was rediculously bad, every time it shifted into second, the bus would lurch forward quite violently, with a large crash, and the whole bus shook, creaked and rattled. Thankfully, I was only on that bus a few times.

 

[JustinStacey.x]

Haha I like anomalies like that, makes the journey interesting

 

[jayc]

Buses? Stagecoach in East Sussex were still using Leyland Nationals from around 1977-79 as recent as 2000 Hmmm...orange vinyl seats! Used to be fun hearing the engines scream as the bus travelled up Rodmill Drive in Eastbourne. Not that the Alexander-bodied N-reg Volvo double deckers were much better though - both made lots of noise for little gain. These days the trend appears to be for these small Optare things, quite a few in Hastings.

The Leyland Nationals were always a bit nostalgic as I remember travelling on these in the '80s in Surrey/Hants when it was the pre-Stagecoach/Arriva 'Alder Valley' bus company - with both the red/white and green/yellow livery.

On topic - Being an 80's kid I was hooked on Thomas the Tank Engine and used to enjoy a trip to Reading or Guildford on the NSE Thames/North Downs DMUs or looking out for a Wessex Electric travelling along the top of West Heath Bridge in Farnborough. The interest in trains ended by about the age of 9 but restarted around 16 when I started travelling twice a week on the North Downs line. Been a bit intermittent since then.