Stranded at a Station-Allowed to Travel on Non Passenger Service.

[faltskog36abba]

Back in 87 as an 16 year old, I was stranded at Manchester Piccadilly as I had missed my train to Macclesfield. There was a parcel Train being loaded near Platform 10-12, I mentioned that I was stuck and the guys on the train allowed me to travel-Seeing that it stopped there. Has a good Samaritan ever came to your rescue on the Railway?, By any means of transport. I'm Sorry If I have posted In the wrong section.

 

[Skiddaw]

Me and a friend had a similar experience back in the summer of 85 when we were students. We were on our way back from a day festival at Selhurst Park and were preparing to sleep on a bench at Paddington (having missed the last train back to Reading) but managed to hitch a lift on a milk train. Bet it wouldn't happen now...

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Nope. Best I've ever had is a day return ticket endorsed to allow travel home on the following day, this after a late afternoon train had failed at Falkirk High meaning that I missed the last Southbound WCML train connection from Glasgow. Had to stay at a friend's house overnight.

 

[alistairlees]

Me and a friend had a similar experience back in the summer of 85 when we were students. We were on our way back from a day festival at Selhurst Park and were preparing to sleep on a bench at Paddington (having missed the last train back to Reading) but managed to hitch a lift on a milk train. Bet it wouldn't happen now...

As milk trains ended before 1985 (in 1981 according to Wikipedia) this seems unlikely to have happened even then...

 

[ExRes]

As milk trains ended before 1985 (in 1981 according to Wikipedia) this seems unlikely to have happened even then...

Paper train I wonder? not sure how much longer they lasted

 

[james_the_xv]

Not quite a non passenger service but a good couple of years back on the Esk Valley line it was an absolutely packed summer Saturday. I must have been around 12.

My Grandad and I boarded at Great Ayton in the rear car of the single 156 working the service. I was pressed up against the driver door looking a bit miserable and when the driver changed ends at Battersby; he invited me to sit in the second man's seat in the cab for the journey up to Whitby, chatted to me all the up describing what he was doing, signs, signals, talked about being a driver etc.

I remember my Grandad trying to thrust a couple of £20 notes his way on arrival to Whitby but he refused and told us to spend it on fish and chips.

Needless to say that's one of my best memories of the railway and sparked my interest in the operational side of the railway after I was starting to get over the 'trains go choo choo' phase of my life.

 

[Gloster]

As milk trains ended before 1985 (in 1981 according to Wikipedia) this seems unlikely to have happened even then...

Except for a few later trials, milk trains seemed to have ended in 1980. I have a vague recollection that the last ones actually ran just before Christmas 1979, but they did not disappear from the Working Timetable until a minor change in early January 1980.

Paper train I wonder? not sure how much longer they lasted

Paper trains ended in September 1988, but had been declining for two years since News International took their traffic away.

 

[notverydeep]

In around 1988 or 1989, I travelled from Bristol to Westbury in the hope of returning on the 21:45 Weymouth (I think, though it could have been Southampton) - Bristol, which I had heard had failed, hoping for a class 37 or no heat 47 coming back on top of the booked DMU. This was the last train back to Bristol from Westbury at that point. The time came and went with no information and eventually the few waiting passengers dissappeared - presumably having given up. With no sign of the train after an hour, I went to the supervisors office. They advised that road transport had been provided, but if it had, it never got to Westbury. In the end, seeing I was (fairly junior) staff, the supervisor took pity on my plight and arranged for me to join a stone train and travel to Swindon in the leading cab (47377 piloting 56041) via Melksham. I was set down there and eventually picked up by the Paddington to Bristol Newspaper or parcels train (a class 50) and travelled - again in the cab to Temple Meads - arriving sometime after 4 am. Needless to say, I was fairly sleepy the next day...

Regarding 'Milk' trains. I have often heard the term used, even in recent years - especially in London as a colloquial term for any very late train from London out to the suburbs / surrounding towns, sometimes even by non-rail enthusiast. They seem to apply the term to what are bascially just normal passenger trains at times they (or their parents) might associate with the term, rather than trains actually carrying milk...

 

[Taunton]

Regarding 'Milk' trains. I have often heard the term used, especially in London as a colloquial term for any very late train from London out to the suburbs / surrounding towns, even by non-rail enthusiasts and apply the term to what are bascially just normal passenger trains at times they (or their parents) might associate with the term rather than trains actually carrying milk...

Indeed, it was a common general public expression, not particularly anything to do with milk, for oddball very late or very early services. Was used about the train that left Paddington shortly before midnight that stopped in Taunton at about 3am. Clearly a technical nonsense, as the dairy products from Somerset went the other way, up to London.

 

[WesternLancer]

Except for a few later trials, milk trains seemed to have ended in 1980. I have a vague recollection that the last ones actually ran just before Christmas 1979, but they did not disappear from the Working Timetable until a minor change in early January 1980.

and I'm guessing that they would have been milk tankers by that time - not trains with churns of milk in vehicles that may also have had passenger carrying vehicles in the trains make up?

Tho as @notverydeep rightly observes, it is interesting that this term has "persistence in wider parlance as a colloquial term for any very late train from London out to the suburbs / surrounding towns"

 

[Bertie the bus]

Back in the late 70s/early 80s my dad took my brother and I to the football at Luton. Returning to Preston I can't remember whether we had misread the timetable or suffered a delay but we found ourselves at Manchester Victoria after the last departure. They put us in the rear cab of a 25 on a newspaper service unsupervised with the strict instruction to not touch anything.

 

[Gloster]

I have always regarded the phrase ‘milk train’ as an early train that wakes everybody in the vicinity up as the empty (old style) metal churns are unloaded at each wayside station.

EDIT: I think that milk tanks were introduced in the late 1920s, but traditional churns still appeared on trains in the 1950s.

 

[Peter0124]

Stranded at Rutherglen in 2019 due to them locking the station shut (was on the last service of the night which terminated there).
So what happened was the driver offered to bring us back into Glasgow Central on an ECS towards Yoker, where taxis were arranged for us to get home.

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Giving genuine stranded passengers rides" home or to destinations was far more liberal back in the day under "deeply inefficient British Rail"

I can think of a few light engines being arranged as urgent taxis with passengers put in rear cabs at various places , parcels trains carrying passengers but control and boxes advised to bell them on class 2 service - and my particular favourite , during the one of the very grim winters in the South East , and following a bad gap in the service , a young man and his mother being given a ride on a snow plough to Waterloo - (where it was going for a crew change) - he had an important practical exam at the Royal College of Music. (which he was able to prove) - and they had walked several miles in the snow to reach the just about functioning railway......

 

[WesternLancer]

- and my particular favourite , during the one of the very grim winters in the South East , and following a bad gap in the service , a young man and his mother being given a ride on a snow plough to Waterloo - (where it was going for a crew change) - he had an important practical exam at the Royal College of Music. (which he was able to prove) - and they had walked several miles in the snow to reach the just about functioning railway......

Excellent anecdote - I hope the examiners made the effort to get in!

 

[ChiefPlanner]

Excellent anecdote - I hope the examiners made the effort to get in!

The SM got some feedback that the exam indeed too place. Presume with the right results. Possibly an entrance exam ?

Anyway - him and his mother got an icycle encrusted 33 with plough front and rear .....beat that !

 

[steamybrian]

Back in BR days of the late 1980s I decided to travel with a work colleague from Tonbridge to Stonegate for a few pints in the pub next to the station before the pub closed completely. Got back to the station in time for the last up train at approx. 2230hrs . At the correct time the train formed of gleaming new 8 CEP failed to stop for us. Accordingly I got onto the signal post telephone to the signalman who kindly arranged for a following ECS also formed of 8CEP to stop and picked us up and we had a non stop journey back to Tonbridge.
Today I suspect that would be too difficult to arrange...!

 

[railwaytrack]

Back in BR days things were so much simpler and more customer friendly. I remember that if a train was passing through a station that you wanted without stopping you could just ask the Driver or Guard to additionally call there for you and they would normally do so. I did this many times when travelling to certain stations with infrequent services. These days there is zero chance of that happening unless the control has authorised and permitted a Special Stop Order to take place.

 

[weepingwillowb]

I have a memory of being with my mum at a largish station, and she was getting upset because there was no more trains that day stopping at where we had to go to. We lived at Wetherby at the time, so I don't think I remember it right. Anyway, I do recall some uniformed men round us and one saying to my mum that a train would make a special halt to let us off. This would have been in 1962 or perhaps up to a couple of years prior to that.

 

[6Gman]

Early 60s we somehow ended up at Georgemas Junction with a loooooong wait for the next train to Thurso.

So we (two adults, two young children) ended up in a (goods) brake van hauled by a 26.

Never found out whether it was a booked move or specially provided. (That my dad was a loco driver - albeit at a depot c. 500 miles away - probably helped.)

 

[WesternLancer]

The SM got some feedback that the exam indeed too place. Presume with the right results. Possibly an entrance exam ?

Anyway - him and his mother got an icycle encrusted 33 with plough front and rear .....beat that !

Superb - an experience possibly good enough to inspire a musical composition (I'm reminded of 'Overture 125' )

 

[MadMac]

Giving genuine stranded passengers rides" home or to destinations was far more liberal back in the day under "deeply inefficient British Rail"

I can think of a few light engines being arranged as urgent taxis with passengers put in rear cabs at various places , parcels trains carrying passengers but control and boxes advised to bell them on class 2 service - and my particular favourite , during the one of the very grim winters in the South East , and following a bad gap in the service , a young man and his mother being given a ride on a snow plough to Waterloo - (where it was going for a crew change) - he had an important practical exam at the Royal College of Music. (which he was able to prove) - and they had walked several miles in the snow to reach the just about functioning railway......

Semi-related note. Casting my mind back to 1973 on the morning of, I think, the final exam for 'O' Grade Maths, it gets to start time and three people are missing: all three travelled by train from Lanark to Motherwell. About an hour later, all three duly appear and are ushered to their seats. They had boarded their DMU at Lanark - it was one of the ones with individual compartments, they were the only people in the compartment and it turned out that the door was locked on the side they needed to exit on. They couldn't get the window down either to attract attention. At Glasgow Central, they were able to get out, explained their plight, and BR swung into action: They were brought back on an ECS working and someone called the school to explain the situation. I am pleased to report that all three passed!

 

[RichJF]

Not quite as exciting as riding a milk train or plough lifts but...

During the snow of 2010 I was stranded at Tonbridge. All trains were cancelled. I told the station staff I needed to get back to Canterbury.
After about 20 mins a special 465 was brought out of the sidings ad hoc & run to Ashford unadvertised, albeit carefully! Luckily it stopped at Paddock Wood, Headcorn & Staplehurst as emergency stops so I didn't feel too guilty being the only one onboard.

 

[Railsigns]

There was a day that I spent running around on trains with no itinerary planned, and one of my first trips was to Ardrossan Harbour. On arriving there, it turned out that the unit would be returning empty to the depot, and the next departing service wasn't until much later in the day. A member of traincrew saw me studying the timetable on the platform and offered me a run up to Ardrossan South Beach station to await the next service coming from Largs, which I gratefully accepted.

The funny thing was, I got off at South Beach and discovered that I'd have to wait fifty minutes until the next train, so rather than hanging around there I filled the time with a walk to the Harbour station and back!

 

[zwk500]

Not quite as exciting as riding a milk train or plough lifts but...

During the snow of 2010 I was stranded at Tonbridge. All trains were cancelled. I told the station staff I needed to get back to Canterbury.
After about 20 mins a special 465 was brought out of the sidings ad hoc & run to Ashford unadvertised, albeit carefully! Luckily it stopped at Paddock Wood, Headcorn & Staplehurst as emergency stops so I didn't feel too guilty being the only one onboard.

That reminds me of this gem: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/8428097.stm During December 2009 60163 Tornado was operating a tour round Kent when nothing else could move because the 3rd rail had iced over. Many passengers couldn't make the tour due to the snow, so empty seats were offered to people stranded at Victoria waiting for service trains.

Not exactly a non-passenger service, but worth it for the quote!

He added: "If any of the train operators want to modernise their services by using steam trains, I would be happy to give them a quote."

 

[GRALISTAIR]

Back in 87 as an 16 year old, I was stranded at Manchester Piccadilly as I had missed my train to Macclesfield. There was a parcel Train being loaded near Platform 10-12, I mentioned that I was stuck and the guys on the train allowed me to travel-Seeing that it stopped there. Has a good Samaritan ever came to your rescue on the Railway?, By any means of transport. I'm Sorry If I have posted In the wrong section.

Yes. 1970s. I could get a parcels train out of Piccadilly circa 2 am to Sheffield.

 

[BluePenguin]

Back in BR days things were so much simpler and more customer friendly. I remember that if a train was passing through a station that you wanted without stopping you could just ask the Driver or Guard to additionally call there for you and they would normally do so. I did this many times when travelling to certain stations with infrequent services. These days there is zero chance of that happening unless the control has authorised and permitted a Special Stop Order to take place.

Why was it possible then but not now?

 

[zwk500]

Why was it possible then but not now?

Combination of the railway being busier and the way delays being penalised I suspect. That bring said, it can happen now if its the most appropriate action but a taxi nowadays will normally be more suitable.

 

[Magdalia]

Yes. 1970s. I could get a parcels train out of Piccadilly circa 2 am to Sheffield.

The 0210 Manchester to Cleethorpes was a newspaper train and was advertised to passengers.

 

[Falcon1200]

I remember that if a train was passing through a station that you wanted without stopping you could just ask the Driver or Guard to additionally call there for you and they would normally do so.

That is certainly not my recollection from travelling by rail since 1972 ! Might it not have been better to get on a train booked to stop at your station in the first place instead of depending on a possibly friendly traincrew (and causing delay to everyone else on the train) ?