Railways not as interesting?

[petrolhead746]

Hi,
Just wondering what people's thoughts are on this?

I travel a lot for work on the trains and I'm just not enjoying it as much as I used to. There isn't much to see anymore. Mostly build up with trees and high banking. The modern stock is a soulless. For all their faults I usually enjoy a ride on a Class 150 because you can feel the speed and its exciting. Modern units like the CAF units are boring to travel on. I used to love the Pendilinos but since refurbishment they seem also boring to ride on.

I still enjoy bus rides. There is plenty of variety in the vehicles and lots to see. Let me know your thoughts. I know railways are functional blah blah.. I'm taking about the enjoyment for enthusiasts not there as much.

 

[Peter Sarf]

I expect people a bit older than me saw steam going as the end of their interest. For me the lack of loco haulage is another set back but the railways are not here for enthusiasts.

For non-enthusiasts (so the vast majority of customers).
OKay I think air-conditioning will be a plus for many although personally I prefer fresh air and a less claustrophobic interior. The temperature will never be right as people have too many tastes temperature wise anyway. That is the same for S**ts but I do prefer older examples.

I must admit that outside I have noticed the view getting poorer and poorer due to vegetation and sound barriers(fences). I find a 350 preferable to a 390 just for the less closed in feeling. As for windows - I recently travelled on some 465s and I was amazed how nice they were on a hot day with the windows open. Surprised how much nicer they are than my usual 377s.

Modern trains are getting like aeroplanes. The windows are less and less important it seems. Granted more and more passengers have their head stuck in their mobile/laptop so a window is getting irrelevant.

I would say that although the purpose of the railways was primarily to get people from A to B the actual journey experience now seems dumb-ed down. Train travel is no longer an enjoyable experience and in fact I prefer the coach which is a lot cheaper and a lot less prone to engineering work. That disruption was always a problem so arguably nothing new there except the positives have receded. I have found busses give an even better view than coaches.

 

[petrolhead746]

I expect people a bit older than me saw steam going as the end of their interest. For me the lack of loco haulage is another set back but the railways are not here for enthusiasts.

For non-enthusiasts (so the vast majority of customers).
OKay I think air-conditioning will be a plus for many although personally I prefer fresh air and a less claustrophobic interior. The temperature will never be right as people have too many tastes temperature wise anyway. That is the same for S**ts but I do prefer older examples.

I must admit that outside I have noticed the view getting poorer and poorer due to vegetation and sound barriers(fences). I find a 350 preferable to a 390 just for the less closed in feeling. As for windows - I recently travelled on some 465s and I was amazed how nice they were on a hot day with the windows open. Surprised how much nicer they are than my usual 377s.

Modern trains are getting like aeroplanes. The windows are less and less important it seems. Granted more and more passengers have their head stuck in their mobile/laptop so a window is getting irrelevant.

I would say that although the purpose of the railways was primarily to get people from A to B the actual journey experience now seems dumb-ed down. Train travel is no longer an enjoyable experience and in fact I prefer the coach which is a lot cheaper and a lot less prone to engineering work. That disruption was always a problem so arguably nothing new there except the positives have receded. I have found busses give an even better view than coaches.

Yes I like the 350s too. The 158s are a nice bridge between new and old

 

[Gloster]

As someone who can remember travelling in loco-hauled Mark 1s on express trains, watching long trains of 16t minerals or vanfits and seeing 350s clanking around large stations, it is definitely much less interesting nowadays. There just isn’t the variety of things to see as you travel about, even when you only went a moderate distance. There were around a dozen different variety of mainline locos (counting types such as 24 and 25 as one, etc.), a far wider variety of types of traffic and classification of trains, and much more of operating interest. Now it seems to be that the colour-scheme is often the most obvious difference. It may be a far more efficient way of doing the job, although the current structure of the railway negates that in my opinion, but it ain’t as interesting.

 

[Sun Chariot]

Buddha allegedly said: it is better to travel well, than to arrive

I agree with @Gloster and @Peter Sarf .

My childhood and teen years (to latter 1980s), I do recall that the railways had a sense of  theatre.
The smell of a Paxman Valenta opening up on an HST.
The sounds of vac-fitted 4-wheel wagons, protesting as their brakes and axles groan with age and abuse.
The sight of semaphore signals clattering to "clear" and then an anticipation of the next arrival.
The ground vibrating as a heavy diesel loco thunders by (oh, for Dawlish summers in the '80s).
The frantic bogie movements of a speeding carriage and the rush of air through a Mk1 window, as a Euston-Northampton "cobbler" service tries to break its own record to its first stop, Leighton Buzzard.

Latter 1990s, I lost interest in the railway scene (diminishing variety and the grind of commuting to London on WAGN). I've only resumed a casual photographic interest since early last year - but the magic of trains long departed "my station"...

 

[Ashley Hill]

Waiting on the platform for something interesting and rare to turn up has long gone. A. There’s little of interest about. B. You only have to consult your mobile to see what’s about. The modern railway has become bland and predictable.

 

[Sun Chariot]

This photo thread gives we "pre privatisation" folk a fabulous memory jog:

lostwin - BR in the mid 80's

I'm a new member to the site, but have been lurking for a while - particularly on the fantastic 'Back in the Day' thread. It has inspired me to dig out my old B&W negatives, grab a scanner and re-discover what I took at the time. Like many I expect, I started by spotting and snapping but it...

www.railforums.co.uk

And, the good point made by @Ashley Hill - my photo thread shows how monotonous it's become these days...

Loco hauled around Havant

A summer "challenge" deep in SWR/Southern land - Photograph loco-hauled, or light, services within within my locality. Focus is freight workings or uncommon traffic. I'll add to this thread during the year.

www.railforums.co.uk

 

[LMS 4F]

I went to London on Saturday and rode a Mk 4 pushed by class 91 127. The return was on a five car class 802. They were both efficient although the return was very crowded but they were bland compared to my many journeys to and from various garrison towns on Mk1 stock pulled by a Large pacific in the 1960s.
The view from the window was acceptable but from a railway point of view apart from a few class 66s at Donny and Peterborough everything else we saw saw some sort of EMU and as been said only the livery seems to offer any sort of variety.
None of these comes anywhere near the thrill of seeing ex LMS garrets on long coal trains on the Midland main line in the 1950s as a small child.
However perhaps when todays youngsters get to my age or near they will look back on today as their golden age.

 

[Belperpete]

I honestly never thought I would find someone enthusing about 150s! Compared to first gen dmus, they are abominations. I suppose it is like the bus enthusiasts who enthuse about route masters - they may be historic, but my last couple of journeys the ride was appalling. Give me a boring but comfortable "Boris Bus" any day.

The problem with opening windows was that inevitably on even the hotest day there would be some old dear complaining about the draft, and insisting that they be closed.

Personally, I prefer the sea of green to the sea of industrial dereliction that used to be the usual view.

In reality, the days of loco hauled passenger trains was over many decades ago, when they were displaced by HSTs and 158s etc. All that has been happening recently is one type of multiple unit being replaced by another. I happen to think that the HST was iconic, but no doubt those younger than me think the same about the units they were brought up on. A bit like my view of sprinters and pacers compared to Derby Lightweights.

 

[Fermiboson]

Suspect it is nostalgia more than anything. There are always interesting niches in any system, they usually change with time which means an older generation of enthusiasts lose interest in the new niche while a new generation of enthusiasts find something else interesting.

At the risk of incurring the ire of the crowd, I certainly don’t find sitting by a window on a class 350 any more boring than a Castle HST.

 

[Islineclear3_1]

My interest kind of finished with the end of slam door stock on the mainline. I remember the days where one could bunk around engine sheds, scrapyards, depots, go up signal boxes, hitch cab rides etc... there was always something to watch at (mainly) larger stations; e.g. shunters trundling around, locos changing ends, never-ending sounds of slam doors, variety of diesel sounds, e.g. Crompton Parkingson, English Electric, Mirrless, Paxman Valenta; tap changers, compressors etc. etc. It was always so exciting to visit a different region and see different engines/rolling stock/units etc. So much variety back then.

Views were generally unobstructed; no tree growth until recent times when "green corridors" line many routes; no nasty new-builds/high rise/massive car parks suffocating stations. Telegraph poles with signalling communication wires running parallel to railway lines, the number of signal wires and point rodding; even some of the point motors used to be really loud (e.g. Euston back in the day)

Porters going about their business, assisting with luggage, pushing trolleys; station managers walking around and happy to speak to passengers/answer queries etc and very few...automated announcements in your face 24/7. No threatening jobworths "security" manning ticket barriers - the railway used to be such a friendly place. I find many facets of the railway now so oppressive and uninviting. Even the announcements on one TOC I travel on seemed to be turned up to full volume!

And train seats were generally more comfortable and luxurious judging by today's standards!

Ah...the days :

 

[Sun Chariot]

Telegraph poles with signalling communication wires running parallel to railway lines

That very sentence encapsulates what got me into railways. My young self, early '80s "Merrymaker" excursions behind a big blue 'un (vague photos and vaguer memories, of Peaks and Duffs).
The canter north up the Midland Main Line, would afford me a very hypnotic sensation, of watching all the telegraph wires rising and falling, between each post flashing by the window.

 

[Blindtraveler]

I could have posted this same thread about 50 times in the last 5 years

 

[petrolhead746]

Buddha allegedly said: it is better to travel well, than to arrive

I agree with @Gloster and @Peter Sarf .

My childhood and teen years (to latter 1980s), I do recall that the railways had a sense of  theatre.
The smell of a Paxman Valenta opening up on an HST.
The sounds of vac-fitted 4-wheel wagons, protesting as their brakes and axles groan with age and abuse.
The sight of semaphore signals clattering to "clear" and then an anticipation of the next arrival.
The ground vibrating as a heavy diesel loco thunders by (oh, for Dawlish summers in the '80s).
The frantic bogie movements of a speeding carriage and the rush of air through a Mk1 window, as a Euston-Northampton "cobbler" service tries to break its own record to its first stop, Leighton Buzzard.

Latter 1990s, I lost interest in the railway scene (diminishing variety and the grind of commuting to London on WAGN). I've only resumed a casual photographic interest since early last year - but the magic of trains long departed "my station"...

wish I had been born earlier!

 

[Peter Sarf]

Suspect it is nostalgia more than anything. There are always interesting niches in any system, they usually change with time which means an older generation of enthusiasts lose interest in the new niche while a new generation of enthusiasts find something else interesting.

At the risk of incurring the ire of the crowd, I certainly don’t find sitting by a window on a class 350 any more boring than a Castle HST.

I think nostalgia and the reluctance to accept change imposed is part of it. But I do think there is a lot less going on at stations etc. As an example I could hang around Bescot yard for a few hours and see far more freight than I would see all day nowadays.

TBH a 350 is not a bad view and ambience - better than a Pendolino I feel.

My interest kind of finished with the end of slam door stock on the mainline. I remember the days where one could bunk around engine sheds, scrapyards, depots, go up signal boxes, hitch cab rides etc... there was always something to watch at (mainly) larger stations; e.g. shunters trundling around, locos changing ends, never-ending sounds of slam doors, variety of diesel sounds, e.g. Crompton Parkingson, English Electric, Mirrless, Paxman Valenta; tap changers, compressors etc. etc. It was always so exciting to visit a different region and see different engines/rolling stock/units etc. So much variety back then.

Views were generally unobstructed; no tree growth until recent times when "green corridors" line many routes; no nasty new-builds/high rise/massive car parks suffocating stations. Telegraph poles with signalling communication wires running parallel to railway lines, the number of signal wires and point rodding; even some of the point motors used to be really loud (e.g. Euston back in the day)

Porters going about their business, assisting with luggage, pushing trolleys; station managers walking around and happy to speak to passengers/answer queries etc and very few...automated announcements in your face 24/7. No threatening jobworths "security" manning ticket barriers - the railway used to be such a friendly place. I find many facets of the railway now so oppressive and uninviting. Even the announcements on one TOC I travel on seemed to be turned up to full volume!

And train seats were generally more comfortable and luxurious judging by today's standards!

Ah...the days :

Shunters - With almost 1,000 class 08s, and maybe another 500 other shunters there were plenty of staitons with a shunter to hunt down. If you were lucky it would be in action. Thornaby, Tinsley and Toton each had over 300 locomotives each.

 

[etr221]

wish I had been born earlier!

so do we all - whenever we were!

 

[Halwynd]

I always used to enjoy a Saturday with a Peak Wayfarer ticket in the 80s.

A 104 or 108 DMU (then a Pacer or Sprinter in later years) to Manchester Victoria. A brew from The Coastal and then a couple of trips to Stalybridge for the Peaks. A 45/0 was a bonus, a 47 was a disappointment, but a 47/7 on its way to/from Crewe Works was quite satisfactory. Perhaps an hour on the footbridge that overlooked the former Exchange station for some photography - but keep an eye out to make sure you didn't put your foot through the steps. Then a lively trip on the Seddon Centreline to Piccadilly, a sausage roll from Bakers Oven, or, if a bit flush with cash, the treat of a sit-down all-day breakfast from Little Chef inside Piccadilly station. Next was the daily Class 33 to Stockport (1345 to Cardiff) - always hoped to drop on 33027 Earl Mountbatten of Burma, but never managed it. Then the next DMU to Buxton, usually a 104, for pictures of the 37's and 47's on shed. Back to Stockport, then a DMU to Stalybridge via Denton, for one last Peak back to Victoria. Then another DMU home. All for two or three quid.

Manchester Victoria before the monstrosity that was built above it was marvellous, still stuck in the steam era and oozing with soot, dirt, character and history - I have many happy memories of it. I rarely go back to Manchester, but on the odd occasion that I've passed through I always feel a cloud of depression come along at what I see today.

Still go out for the odd photograph of a freight or a charter - anything with a loco I suppose - but I just can't get interested in todays multiple unit railway.

 

[Sun Chariot]

IManchester Victoria before the monstrosity that was built above it was marvellous, still stuck in the steam era and oozing with soot, dirt, character and history.

Thanks for the evocative memories.
Funnily enough, I recently re-enjoyed my 35mm photos from the 1980s and early 1990s.

Victoria exactly as you described it. 31s, 37s and 47s waiting on the through lines. 504s at the old platforms and by Bury's former steam shed.
Preston, 37 with domestic coal on the Deepdale branch - the wooden gated crossing and dilapidated housing around it.
104s, 110s, 111s plus abundance of MetCams and Derbys.
Peaks at Leicester, Barrow Hill, Bristol Bath Road. 33s on the Cardiff - Pompey, Waterloo - Exeter and "Burma Star" heading a boat train.
Crewe scrap sidings packed with 40s, a split box 45/0, an 84 and the pioneer 81.

Happy times.

 

[AlterEgo]

A cheap Ryanair flight will get you into Central or Eastern Europe where there is much more interest and variety and a less po-faced attitude toward the curious passenger.

 

[Ken H]

I Suppose I am lucky. I live in a land of semaphores with freight trains (stone and timber). There is some jointed track nearby and a few kettles on excursions. And stations have friendly cafes.
OK most ordinary passenger trains are cl 158.
I am sure many RUK members know where I am!

And a short distance away there is an electrified railway into a large railway station if i want to see modern stuff.

 

[birchesgreen]

The railway is a bit predictable nowadays though you can still get some variety from ECS and test runs on the likes of the WCML. Of course around Derby you can still get to see some funky stuff.

 

[Sun Chariot]

I could hang around Bescot yard for a few hours and see far more freight than I'd see all day nowadays.

Definitely there seemed far more variety. I'm certain modern unit-based passenger trains and block freight workings are more productive and more cost-effective; but they just don't capture my interest.

The railways seemed more  accessible back then, too - we took a personal responsibility and there wasn't an inherent security-state (sadly it seems a function of wider society's issues). I fondly recall official visits round Toton, Eastfield, Crewe, Swindon, Wolverton; and also some unofficial visits around Bescot and MC Metals.

 

[Peter Sarf]

Definitely there seemed far more variety. I'm certain modern unit-based passenger trains and block freight workings are more productive and more cost-effective; but they just don't capture my interest.

The railways seemed more  accessible back then, too - we took a personal responsibility and there wasn't an inherent security-state (sadly it seems a function of wider society's issues). I fondly recall official visits round Toton, Eastfield, Crewe, Swindon, Wolverton; and also some unofficial visits around Bescot and MC Metals.

Apparently in Europe (you know the lot who apparently lumbered us with so many rules and regulations) there is very little in the way of railway boundary fencing.

In the UK we seem to be becoming tied up with health and safety, political correctness and Woke. But then there seems to be more rule-breaking/ferral-behaviour - noise, swearing, spitting, littering.

 

[LMS 4F]

When I first became interested in the railway British Railways was about 7 years old as was I. In fact it was still four separate railways in many ways, particularly as far as Locos were concerned.
Both LM and LNER differed in their passenger locos on separate lines.
The West Coast had Duchesses and Princesses but the Midland main line never saw either. The same was true on the East Coast where the Greeley Pacific’s were plentiful but at Cambridge they were hardly ever seen.
The numbers had changed apart from the GWR but nothing else had.
True the BR standards were coming but the variety and the number of locos can only be dreamt of today.
My first trip to Bletchley when I was about 10 I “copped” over 120 locos across the whole range of LMS motive power.
Looking back I rember it being a friendlier place although there was the occasional bad egg. I was certainly helped by staff several times going well beyond their usual duties.
The modern railway I rate as mainly efficient and very quick on the main lines but if I was starting out now I doubt I would have the same lifelong interest.

 

[birchesgreen]

In the UK we seem to be becoming tied up with health and safety, political correctness and Woke.

So the railway is less interesting now because its woke? Cool.

 

[Halwynd]

Thanks for the evocative memories.
Funnily enough, I recently re-enjoyed my 35mm photos from the 1980s and early 1990s.

Victoria exactly as you described it. 31s, 37s and 47s waiting on the through lines. 504s at the old platforms and by Bury's former steam shed.
Preston, 37 with domestic coal on the Deepdale branch - the wooden gated crossing and dilapidated housing around it.
104s, 110s, 111s plus abundance of MetCams and Derbys.
Peaks at Leicester, Barrow Hill, Bristol Bath Road. 33s on the Cardiff - Pompey, Waterloo - Exeter and "Burma Star" heading a boat train.
Crewe scrap sidings packed with 40s, a split box 45/0, an 84 and the pioneer 81.

Happy times.

Indeed they were, and I've just had a quick look at some of my pictures too - overnight trains to Dawlish using compartments with pull-down blinds - an ideal sleeper without the supplement - for a day photographing 'Holidaymaker Express' trains on the wall, slow journeys to Penzance trying to get as many 50s as possible, BREL open days, unofficial visits to Stewarts Lane - 'watch out for the third rail though' I can remember one foreman telling me - can you imagine that today, the men in white coats would take you (and probably the foreman) away before you even got past the gate.... as you say, happy days.

 

[Halwynd]

When I first became interested in the railway British Railways was about 7 years old as was I. In fact it was still four separate railways in many ways, particularly as far as Locos were concerned.
Both LM and LNER differed in their passenger locos on separate lines.
The West Coast had Duchesses and Princesses but the Midland main line never saw either. The same was true on the East Coast where the Greeley Pacific’s were plentiful but at Cambridge they were hardly ever seen.
The numbers had changed apart from the GWR but nothing else had.
True the BR standards were coming but the variety and the number of locos can only be dreamt of today.
My first trip to Bletchley when I was about 10 I “copped” over 120 locos across the whole range of LMS motive power.
Looking back I rember it being a friendlier place although there was the occasional bad egg. I was certainly helped by staff several times going well beyond their usual duties.
The modern railway I rate as mainly efficient and very quick on the main lines but if I was starting out now I doubt I would have the same lifelong interest.

I ran vaguely remember seeing steam during its last year, but really I was too young - I'd have loved to have seen much more. I once read somewhere - no doubt tongue-in-cheek - that if you weren't a schoolboy rail enthusiast in steam days you were an oddball. How times change!

 

[52290]

so do we all - whenever we were!

I thought the world I knew was about to end when one Saturday in September 1964 I went to see the last 'Semi' in BR service, 46256 Sir William A Stanier FRS, pass through Leyland on its last run.
I then bucked up a bit, there were still some Brits and things and a whole load of stuff abroad. So I bought a better camera for better photos of the end of steam.

 

[Andy Pacer]

I think this is a topic that comes around time and time again, and generally things are less interesting than they were the previous time!

 

[Falcon1200]

I very much agree that railways are not as interesting as they were; In my case, I started spotting at Oxford in 1972, when we had a small loco depot with an allocation of 5 (five!) Class 08s, parcels sidings and a coal depot in the old LMS station. They have all gone but, conversely, the station is busier than it has ever been, with half-hourly services on many routes, including an entirely new (and unthinkable in 1972) route to Marylebone. Yet it is just not as interesting, perhaps because all passenger trains are multiple units, and freight just passes straight through (although there is still activity at Hinksey Yard).

But I don't doubt that an enthusiast in 1972 would have bemoaned 'how boring the railway is now' compared to 1922!