Quote from London Lite

[richa2002]

'The old South Eastern trains had wider seats'.



Richard

 

[Julian G]

Yeah, the good old days!!!!!

 

[5872]

Yeah, the good old days!!!!!

What , I can agree they did used to have wider seats.

 

[RJ]

Those awful VEPs are long gone, hooray

 

[Julian G]

Those awful VEPs and CIGs are long gone, hooray

 

[RJ]

Just because they are old people feel the need to follow the trail of froth after them. I just don't buy it.

 

[devon_metro]

It ain't being sold

 

[richa2002]

Just because they are old people feel the need to follow the trail of froth after them. I just don't buy it.

There's no evidence that quote was from an old person.

Also, how could you not like the slammers? Had so much character and created a great atmosphere around the London termini.

 

[RJ]

I meant the traction - anything "heritage" seems to attract fans who loathed them before they died out.

I just think they were draughty and slow - going from London Victoria - Bournemouth West via Hove on a VEP was mind numbing to say the least.

 

[richa2002]

I meant the traction - anything "heritage" seems to attract fans who loathed them before they died out.

I just think they were draughty and slow - going from London Victoria - Bournemouth West via Hove on a VEP was mind numbing to say the least.

Well I never loathed them... Guess that the things that appeal to me aren't the same things that appeal to you.

 

[devon_metro]

Surely more comfortable than any modern industry standard concrete seat?

 

[RJ]

Better seats but that's about it. I'd sooner ride on a purple 317 (which have slammer seats) than a slammer.

 

[richa2002]

Better seats but that's about it. I'd sooner ride on a purple 317 (which have slammer seats) than a slammer.

Sort it out.

 

[Coxster]

I just think they were draughty and slow - going from London Victoria - Bournemouth West via Hove on a VEP was mind numbing to say the least.

Bournemouth West closed in 1965 As for being "mind numbing", well that's your fault for going the long way round

Better seats but that's about it. I'd sooner ride on a purple 317 (which have slammer seats) than a slammer.

Hmmm - those 317s obviously aren't quite how I remember them...

 

[ChrisCooper]

Well, the 1st class seats on the 317/1s are the same as the standard class seats on some slammers (CEPs, BEPs, 302s), they are actually IC70s like in Mk3 and Mk2f standard class.
I find it frustrating how some people can't accept that quite a lot of people actually liked the old trains for more reasons than pure nostalgia, and that there were many things that could be said to be better about them. It is true that people tend to hate things until something new comes along to replace them, but that perhaps shows how standards have declined over the years, and that even the stuff being replaced today (or that has not long been replaced) isn't quite up to the standards of what it replaced.
Also, I think for everyone who is biased to the old stuff (I admit I am, but I can also honestly say that the old stuff tends to come out top even when viewed from a totally unbiased view), there is at least one person who is just as biased towards the new stuff.
The two most biased arguments IMHO are:
"the old trains had character", oviously they had character, thats what you get after years of work, years of wear and years of maintenance. Anything "mass produced" rarther than hand made will lack character when new, I bet most steam locos didn't develop character for quite a few years.
"the new trains are much cleaner", well oviously they will be cleaner when they are new, they havn't had chance to get dirty yet. Also, it's likely that the old trains wern't getting anything like the same attention as far as cleaning went.