Do you prefer the good old days?

[poshbakerloo]

Do you prefer the good old days?

Whilst I guess I'm currently living in what will become the 'good old days' for me..

This is more a question to the older members of this forum...do you like life in 2010? Or are you dieing to get back to the 60s?

 

[EM2]

Why necessarily the '60s? What about the '70s or the '80s?

 

[O L Leigh]

Ricketts? Polio? The ever-present threat of nuclear annihilation...? Ah yes, those were the days.

O L Leigh

 

[SouthEastern-465]

I would prefer to live in the the late 1980s, 1990s, or early 2000s and wish it could stay that way and not change.

 

[37401]

I would prefer to live in the the late 1980s, 1990s, or early 2000s and wish it could stay that way and not change.

What is it you liked most back in the 80`s then? :P

 

[SouthEastern-465]

What is it you liked most back in the 80`s then? :P

Well considering the the 'Slammers were around and England seemed a better place back than thats why!

 

[rail-britain]

As a railway enthusiast I thoroughly enjoyed the 1980s to early 1990s
There was a great variety of liveries, from BR blue, Large Logo Blue, and Railfreight, right through to the sector liveries, plus everything in between

BR had started investing new rolling stock so that older loco hauled trains could be withdrawn, but this also resulted in many strikes, resulting in that older rolling stock remaining in service longer than expected as a result very often breaking down

There was also a greater variety of freight
Here in Scotland there wasn't so much coal, but the steel industry was well supported (from coal, iron ore, and lime, right through to completed steels)

I also saw the end of the era with Class 81 and 85 locos replaced with Class 90s (albeit the process was supposed to be cascading of Class 86 locos out of the InterCity fleet for freight use)

However, as a passenger this period was horrendous
Generally the internal trim was tired, in some cases broken, and often dirty
As a passenger I much prefer the current trains, I've not travelled on many that would compare as badly as they did 25 years ago!

 

[Drsatan]

Wow, this is an interesting topic...

If I could I wouldn't mind living in the early 90s. Of course, Britain was still in recession, we had John Major - a complete idiot - as PM, the internet had only just been invented, and mobile phones were the size of bricks, but there were some advantages.

Train fares were much cheaper, life went at a slower pace, and most importantly, I'd be able to look round Pompey as it was in the early 1990s (lived there as a kid).

Back in the early 1990s, I could travel round the NSE network for a nominal sum on one of their "Network Days". So theoretically I could do Waterloo - Salisbury behind a 50, Marylebone- Aylesbury on a 115, Waterloo-Weymouth on a 442, Southampton-Pompey on a 421, and maybe even Reading - Poole on a 47 with mark 2s or an HST. I've always (though this is no longer possible) wanted to travel on the Waterloo and City line when it was part of BR, and travel on one of the English Electric tube trains built in 1940 used on that route. Of course, I wouldn't be able to fit that all in a day, and there are a few routes I've probably left out.

But still, nostalgia is a powerful thing...

 

[37401]

Well considering the the 'Slammers were around and England seemed a better place back than thats why!

you didnt read what I put then

I would go back to the mid-late 90`s because it sticks well in my mind (just like the 80`s clearly sticks in SE-465`s mind) A time when we still had 37s 47s 56s 86s 87s 90s and HSTs still in regular service, I remember it quite well really and it was so much better than it is now.

 

[Oswyntail]

Times of change tend to evoke the most nostalgia. For me, the "golden age" was 1962-1972, a perfect blend of the old, the new, and the totally unexpected. The seventies were just too uniform, and dull (now worthwhile new stuff, and all rail blue as if to emphasise it). Then came the 80s, as BR was reformed, renewal gathered pace, and there was a sense of anticipation again. This was frittered away from the mid-90s (IMHO). The current scene is one of the dullest for 30 years, with standardised stock, and highly restricted workings - nothing really changes except liveries, which can only be the icing on the cake.
One point to illustrate. Linesiding in the 60s in Preston, you would always have the "standard" local fare, but you would also have visitors from anywhere in the country, borrowed by local sheds, not to mention "specials". And these would be different. You cannot tell me there is a buzz when a 66 turns up (again) or a SWT 158 instead of a EMT 158.

 

[devon_metro]

I'm sure with hindsight many of us would like to go back in time!!

 

[Tom B]

As O L Leigh states, rose-tinted spectacles...

 

[yorkie]

If I could I wouldn't mind living in the early 90s. Of course, Britain was still in recession, we had John Major - a complete idiot - as PM, the internet had only just been invented, and mobile phones were the size of bricks, but there were some advantages.

I think you could say the internet was 'invented' around 1962 (as this is when the theory behind packet networks first came about) and came into existence (as ARPANET) in 1969. The internet was first open for commercial use in 1988. So I don't think you could say it was invented in the early 1990s, but it is true to say it only became available and known to the general public in the early 1990s. But it was 'invented' a long time before. Perhaps it depends how you define invented, and it also depends how you define the internet. Even then it wasn't until 10 years later, early 2000s, that internet access became really mainstream.

 

[Drsatan]

I think you could say the internet was 'invented' around 1962 (as this is when the theory behind packet networks first came about) and came into existence (as ARPANET) in 1969. The internet was first open for commercial use in 1988. So I don't think you could say it was invented in the early 1990s, but it is true to say it only became available and known to the general public in the early 1990s. But it was 'invented' a long time before. Perhaps it depends how you define invented, and it also depends how you define the internet. Even then it wasn't until 10 years later, early 2000s, that internet access became really mainstream.

Sorry, I should have been a bit clearer.

I was referring to Tim Berners-Lee's invention of the WWW (world wide web) in 1991.

 

[Waddon]

I think I'd like to live in some sort of hybrid of the 20th and 21st Century. I'd love to ride on a long distance steam hauled express surrounded by characters from an Agatha Christie novel while checking my emails and drinking a Latte! But I do miss four wheeled freight wagons with a brake van on the back...

 

[LMS6202]

No matter what era you were brought up in you will always look back with nostalgia. I loved the 50's and 60's and 70's. Today the world seems to me to have lost all logic and common sense and tolerance. IMO we are heading for some sort of catastrophe. Maybe race wars or religious wars or worse still a nuclear effort. If none of those take place [wishing] then mankind will pay the consequences of not looking after the planet. We live on a ball in a bubble and if men burst the bubble then that's the finish. Hope I am not around then.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

I'm sure with hindsight many of us would like to go back in time!!

Not me pal.. If time travel were possible then I'd go forward to see where it all winds up.

 

[poshbakerloo]

I would like to go back to 1995 to see what trains ran thru Prestbury before the 323s, I have no memory of them! And also as Jerry Springer was best back then

 

[bluebottle]

Ah, nostalgia's not like it used to be...

 

[LMS6202]

Ah, nostalgia's not like it used to be...

Oh how very droll. Award yourself a one day stint with first to have a good cry

 

[Oswyntail]

Ah, nostalgia's not like it used to be...

Even in Ancient Greece, they harked back to a "Golden Age" where everything was better. I suspect being discontented with one's lot is a human feature.
Off the railways, I do feel that, in material terms, we are better off today. We can travel more, have access to better quality food, and are generally disease free. But this has come at a price (or two). The UK is much more "homogenised", with the same shops, same building style, same transport - a lot (but not all) of local variance has been lost. Secondly, we do seem to have lost much of the sense of community. This has a million different reasons, amongst which ease of travel and centralisation of working functions are, IMHO, prime. Yes, community events happen, but they tend to be "put on" for us by "the council"; services are provided by a constantly rotating set of people (I could not identify any one local postman, policeman, GP etc). And, though there were horrific events, I can distinctly remember two separate times from the 60s when community action helped steer families I knew away from a possible "Edlington".
But, to go back to my first paragraph, exactly the same was being written in 1st century BC Rome. So perhaps I am just old

 

[4SRKT]

From a railway POV I'd love to be back in the '80s. It was truly a golden age, and the latter part of the decade was when railway operations changed for ever. Having evolved only gradually since their inception, the revolution was swift and final. I'm glad I saw the old methods and attitudes in action. From a music POV, also the '80s is where I'd be. From every other conceivable POV (as long as Tony Blair could be airbrushed out of more recent times that is), I'd pretty much rather live during any era other than the '80s. Politically repulsive (including the seeds of the disastrous railway privatisation being sown), and with the already mentioned brown-gusset-inducing constant threat of nuclear war. No thanks.

 

[SouthEastern-465]

you didnt read what I put then

I would go back to the late 90`s because it sticks well in my mind (just like the 80`s clearly sticks in SE-465`s mind) A time when we still had 37s 47s 56s 86s 87s 90s and HSTs still in regular service, I remember it quite well really and it was so much better than it is now.

And the mid-1990s clearly sticks in my mind espicially with the Class 415/416 EPB units being withdrawn rapidly and being replaced by Class 465s and many other units, and MK1 EMUs, Class 411 CEPs, Class 421 CIGs, Class 423 VEPs, and DEMUs Class 205/207s all in regular passenger service, and no 'Electrostar' or 'Turbostar' units in sight.