Trivia: Odd Old Station (or On Train) Items You Remember.

[6Gman]

The huge manual departure display at Glasgow Central where large boards were ferried back and forth into windows (one for each platform).
https://www.railscot.co.uk/imageenlarge/imagecomplete.php?id=17775

Yep, that one too.

And the flipover (Solari ?) screen at Euston.

 

[nottinghamcity]

Jayes Fluid! The whole network smelled of it, from the heritage DMUs, to the recently mopped travellers fayres.

 

[L&Y Robert]

Steam-heated compartment corridor coaches. My last train (steam) out of Manchester Vic. of an evening (went via the electric line non-stop as far as Bury, then over the hill to Accrington and thence to Burnley). As soon as I got on I would check to make sure the little Brass lever over by the window was in the "ON" position, and if it wasn't I'd push it over. Then would come a reassuring subdued hissing from somewhere under the coach, and a cloud of steam surge up from between platform and running board, and a certain smell - dust, old cigarette smoke, hot pipework - fill the air. And of course the compartment got warm! Does this make any sense to anybody? All gone now, and long forgotten, but sometimes now and then in my imagination I smell the smell, hear the hiss, and see the steam. Ah me!

 

[BurtonM]

A lot of the above - the 180 degree things and Quickfare machines especially.
For me:
Rail Alphabet.
CRTs.
Actually having to consult the paper timetables on the wall.
Manual announcements.
Slam doors in suburban London.
Solari flapperboards.
The grumbly buzzing sound of electric units pulling away.
Digital flap clocks.
Tired London stations in NSE colours.

 

[fgwrich]

When you bought your ticket, the clerk put it on their side of a little turntable, you put your payment on your side, then they pressed a little lever or switch and it whizzed round 180 degrees.
Much cooler than those troughs we have these days.

Oh wow, That's something else you've just reminded me of. If only you could download memories, I'd love to see some of my old NSE/Early SWT Era ones between Basingstoke and Exeter! The choice of these ticket windows or a Quickfare, Red Red and Red everywhere. Up the stairs to platform 2 and a look at the CRT Screen for your Network Express 159 (Sadly I'm not that old and only just missed the loco hauled era).

The old "Welcome to Hampshire" signs at Grateley.

The old portacabin used in the mornings for someone to sit in with an portable ticket machine to sell tickets when the Permit to Travel machine was in use.

I remember those - there was a large one at Bramley and Farnborough too. In fact, there's something similar still standing in the subway at Micheldever.

I love the sound of the W Club too. How I miss those 442s through here, and to some extent the CEPs as well!

One recurring memory and something I miss almost every day. 47s on the XCs - I pass over Norn Hill bridge on my way into work every day, many memories of being sat behind XC 47s in VT & Intercity Coffins while waiting for the platform.

 

[Phil.]

At Kings Cross in the late 70s - the old departure indicator with the green letters, the seedy buffet in the corner which had Bowyers pies under a hot glass cover and the prostitutes and drug dealers huddled over a cup of coffee.
At Newcastle, the huge cone shaped pendant fluorescent lights which hung from the roof and swung about in a strong wind. Clouds of diesel clag. Seeing trains lit up on the OCS panel in the signalbox. The Searchlight signals which took a long time to clear so if you were going to Middlesbrough from Platform 7 they would clear one after the other.
At Grantham the coal fire which you could feed with coal as you slept in there waiting for a Deltic on a diversion.


55014 Newcastle 8.4.79 par PinzaC55, on ipernity

"..Deltic on a diversion"? Grantham was their stomping ground for all of their lives.

 

[Phil.]

Getting a proper meal in a proper dining car with a second class ticket.
Boarding a train without a ticket and buying one on board without being treated like a potential criminal.
Dirty trains.
Dirty stations.
Gas lit stations as late as 1972 in the case of New Barnet and Oakleigh Park.

 

[Requeststop]

I think I must be the only one with nostalgia for the ticket office at the top of the stairs at Penzance.

 

[EM2]

If you're one of us that miss the Solari indicator boards, check this out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDQcpUdeYbY&t=31s

A scratchbuilt Solari for a model railway!

 

[Clip]

When you bought your ticket, the clerk put it on their side of a little turntable, you put your payment on your side, then they pressed a little lever or switch and it whizzed round 180 degrees.
Much cooler than those troughs we have these days.

Some Chiltern stations still have these or did have them. Pop down to Gerrards Cross and have a looksy

 

[LewFinnis]

What was my local station, Martin Mill, where the ticket office also incorporated the signal box and the local Post Office. Nowadays it's only staffed Monday to Friday until 1030 a.m.
Until 1962, standing on the Up platform, looking for the engine smoke over the hill towards Deal, showing that the train was on its way. And the Man of Kent, always with an unrebuilt Bulleid loco.

 

[janahan]

those 180 degree things... I have seen them recently, in a modern station. I think it may even have been my local station, Feltham which the ticket office is from the late 90's. (Don't remember, as I am normally an oyster user). I will check when I go home.

 

[EbbwJunction1]

The 'W' club

For many years until the 442's were removed. In the buffet car on the 4REP's and later in the "Snug" 442's on the 5.30pm (Later 5.35pm) Waterloo- Weymouth train on Fridays. They was a group of drinkers who would order a round of drinks every time the train went through a station with a name that started with 'W', which on this route there is quite a few.

Blimey, that's some trip ... I make it eight stations (rounds) in 2 hours and 40 minutes!

I love the sound of the W Club too.

See my post above .... !

 

[Intercity 225]

those 180 degree things... I have seen them recently, in a modern station. I think it may even have been my local station, Feltham which the ticket office is from the late 90's. (Don't remember, as I am normally an oyster user). I will check when I go home.

The ticket office at Manchester Victoria has those and I think the Alfreton station office still has one too.

One thing, I remember vividly are the old menu holders that were attached to Mark 3 tables that used to have "Tariff" printed on them. They used to be on almost all Mark 3 tables in both Standard and First but haven't seen them for years. The wording had heavily faded on the final ones I saw though!

Great idea for a thread by the way - they'll probably be many more random unusual things that spring to mind over the course of the afternoon!

 

[Hornet]

Steam-heated compartment corridor coaches. My last train (steam) out of Manchester Vic. of an evening (went via the electric line non-stop as far as Bury, then over the hill to Accrington and thence to Burnley). As soon as I got on I would check to make sure the little Brass lever over by the window was in the "ON" position, and if it wasn't I'd push it over. Then would come a reassuring subdued hissing from somewhere under the coach, and a cloud of steam surge up from between platform and running board, and a certain smell - dust, old cigarette smoke, hot pipework - fill the air. And of course the compartment got warm! Does this make any sense to anybody? All gone now, and long forgotten, but sometimes now and then in my imagination I smell the smell, hear the hiss, and see the steam. Ah me!

The joy of getting off the sleeper from Glasgow Queen Street at Inverness, and parking myself in a compartment on the early morning Wick/Thurso service in the middle of winter, with the warm fug of the Steam Heating enveloping me, (plus not being able to see out of the window, due to the condensation)!

Also the Braziers on the Platforms for the Post Office workers. Can remember being at Perth at stupid o'clock waiting for the above sleeper train, in temperatures well below zero, toasting on one side and freezing on the other. Also remember waiting overnight in Carlisle for an S&C service. The heating in the waiting room was fairly ineffective for a February in the late 70's, so spent most of my night stood next to another Brazier, which was happily burning away at the south end of the London Bound Platform. That afternoon would see me on my one and only trip over the Woodhead Route (Weekend Diverted Service).

 

[Howardh]

Not part of a station or train - but a shout for the water troughs. I can just about remember the one you could see from Ladybridge bridge and the steam trains speeding past picking up the water.

Wonder if they ever picked up pigeons or even cats having a quick drink??

 

[tsr]

I am but a youth compared to many posting here, but railway memories recede into the distance surprisingly fast sometimes, and there are many experiences which nobody will ever have again.

Those who have posted about Solari boards and "flappy" station clocks - yes indeed! Brings back memories of dispatch training at London Bridge... 455s with yellowy lights underneath ex-NSE clocks, the seconds flapping down and the occasional segment getting stuck in the swirl of digits.

Before that, decrepit old compartment EMUs dragged around by NSE & Connex crews in the odd yellow waistcoat (or whatever they felt like wearing). "Full and standing" was so much better, as a child, when you had the excitement of squeezing down a corridor, exploring just one more compartment to see if you could bag seats together.

Then we move into the better days of the modern Southern railway and the first time I saw the shiny new graphics on the 377s which did the "Speed Run", and the other end of the spectrum, with the tremendous noise of them struggling on snow before "Ice Mode" became a big thing.

those 180 degree things... I have seen them recently, in a modern station. I think it may even have been my local station, Feltham which the ticket office is from the late 90's. (Don't remember, as I am normally an oyster user). I will check when I go home.

Quite a few places still do. Redhill has them. For how much longer, I don't know!

 

[Deety]

The little armrest ashtrays in carriage B of the Great Western HSTs. And traipsing all the way to the buffet car for a microwaved burger with sauce so hot it would still burn your mouth by the time you got back to your seat.

Guess I'm quite young as well!

 

[PR1Berske]

I have to say that my fondest "lost memory" is of the look and sound of the old analogue clocks found across the network in my 80s/90s youth. When 59 seconds switched over to 00, that sound will stick with me - clunk, clunk, kaaclunk pitter-patter, clunk, clunk...

 

[EM2]

I have to say that my fondest "lost memory" is of the look and sound of the old analogue clocks found across the network in my 80s/90s youth. When 59 seconds switched over to 00, that sound will stick with me - clunk, clunk, kaaclunk pitter-patter, clunk, clunk...

09:59:59 (or 19:59:59 for that matter) was great fun

 

[6Gman]

What I really, really miss at this time of year are the special mail and parcel arrangements - some additional trains; some booked trains lengthened; extra weekend services.

And a huge mix of vehicles - BR standard BGs, GUVs and CCTs, but also ex-LMS, LNER, GW, Southern. Even 12ton box wagons pressed into use.

Great stuff.

 

[yorksrob]

Suburban SUB's converted into de-icing units still in grubby BR blue were a bit of an unusual sight during the height of the NSE era.

 

[matchmaker]

Leather straps on droplights.

 

[Steve Harris]

If you're one of us that miss the Solari indicator boards, check this out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDQcpUdeYbY&t=31s

A scratchbuilt Solari for a model railway!

That is the dogs n***.

If I had a big enough place I'd love to have one. One can only dream though....

I just used to love Solari boards.
No craning your neck. Just wait to hear the wheer, then look up to see what platform your train was going from.

 

[Trackman]

the old wooden departure boards on platforms at big stations before PIS came in. They may have changed to plastic towards the end, but you could read them as clear as day.

 

[TrainfanBen]

I was born in the 90's, but even I can remember when you could just travel on the train without it being some sort of capitalistic experience.
You used to be able to walk around New Street and other stations to get a train. It wasn't perfect, but that's what it was for. Not shopping.

Call me cynical but I think something has gone deeply wrong in our society, turning travel into a consumer market beyond just tickets and the odd bit of food and drink...

EDIT:
Am I the only one who thinks Solaris boards are easier to read? This LED business is fine but its pixelated. I wish stations and train operators would move on to the 'epaper' E.g like Centro/tfWM are using at bus stops in Birmingham/Coventry City Centre, its much clearer.

 

[fgwrich]

I have to say that my fondest "lost memory" is of the look and sound of the old analogue clocks found across the network in my 80s/90s youth. When 59 seconds switched over to 00, that sound will stick with me - clunk, clunk, kaaclunk pitter-patter, clunk, clunk...

Just for you.

[youtube]f6AsGDHLJp0[/youtube]

 

[b0b]

Just for you.

[youtube]f6AsGDHLJp0[/youtube]

this ... waiting for a valenta powered HST. ahhhhhh

 

[Taunton]

Big machines that wrote your name on a short strip of (IIRC) aluminium.

I was at the Bluebell Railway some years ago. Also there was an older couple, seemingly with zero railway interest, who were going round asking if they had such a machine. Seemed the chap remembered them on stations from his childhood (possibly a lapsed spotter). He wanted the tags for, of all things, labelling a large number of plants in his garden, he said there was nothing sufficiently weatherproof on the market nowadays for this. I explained to him that such station items were not owned by the railway, but by concessionaires, who would just take them away at the end of their contract.

 

[47271]

Sorry nostalgia buffs but the earliest railway thing I remember is broken down push pulls between Edinburgh and Glasgow in the 1980s. 'This is due to a fault in the locomotive' is a phrase that resonates with me from another era.

Happy days, eh.