What Makes You Sad?

[Fred26]

...Railways only, please.

Closed stations and lines, especially when I think, 'that would be so useful now'. (I've been looking at this). There's loads of these and I always feel a sense of sadness inside and a longing for their return. Looking at an empty space, or a built-over area where a station or line once stood is sad, to me, in that it used to be something poetic. I don't mean to sound like a pathetic *******, but that's how I feel about them.
I read about cycle tracks and they sound great (and the couple I've walked are very nice), but they're not railways and if it were up to me, they'd be ballasted over in a heartbeat.

Empty trains. I want to see every train busy. I work for a TOC and my heart sinks when I see our trains running empty. Perhaps I have some romantic idea of the railways, but I don't have to stretch my imagination too much to believe that all trains could be busy.

 

[Hydro]

Maybe a bit over emotive, but I get the point.

Seeing massive freight yards partially ripped up and a dumping ground for redundant wagons, like Healey Mills and Washwood Heath. Just shows the remnants of industry and jobs that are long dead.

 

[Fred26]

Maybe a bit over emotive, but I get the point.

I have had a few vodkas.

Seeing massive freight yards partially ripped up and a dumping ground for redundant wagons, like Healey Mills and Washwood Heath. Just shows the remnants of industry and jobs that are long dead.

I cannot remember the figures, for my memory is awful, but in the Railway News (I think that's what it's called) newspaper, it told of how many people were employed by the railway in the 20s and how many are now. Very gloomy reading.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Older stuff
Like the railway viaduct that was never built over Bushey heath, the lines planned, drawn up, publicised and never finished;
Closed viaducts and lines, especially when you go onto overgrown stations, and think that 50 years ago, in place of this unloved wreck, there would have been steam trains, enthusiast, stationmasters all rushing about the site where you now stand alone;
Before and after photographs: especially of locations such as Belah Viaduct. Even worse ones are of old lines now under housing estates, or great termini now under business parks. Sad;

Modern day
Unloved stations, like above, places like Water Orton and Wakefield Kirkgate, unloved, uncared for, horrible;
Horrendous stations like Newport (South Wales etc), what would the pioneers think of what we have done to their network? Soulless;
People treating trains and railway property as bins, rubbish tips or social gathering points for chavs etc);
When you see old architecture being pulled to the ground, Lostock Gralam building etc;
Short-sightedness: I bet they wish they'd kept the back platforms at Crewe, took up the Bullring builder’s offer of more space for railway lines.

Matt

 

[EM2]

That I never got to see a black EM2, with a train of carmine-and-cream Mk1s in tow, charging over the Woodhead route.

 

[RichmondCommu]

The loss of railway manufacturing plants. To name but a few Derby Loco Works, York, the "Plant" at Doncaster, Crewe..... To my knowledge we only have one manufacturing plant left in the UK (at Derby) and so many of our trains are imported from Germany, Japan and other nations.

The free market is no bad thing and with privatisation it was unavoidable but i find it very sad that so much of our railway manufacturing base has gone forever when France, Germany and Italy have managed to keep theirs.

I have a degree in Mechanical Engineering and would have loved to have followed my father and grandfathers foot steps into Derby Loco works but even in the mid 80's it was apparent that it had no future.

 

[ian959]

The way the railways are used as a dump for peoples rubbish. Some of the railways in urban areas like Liverpool, Birmingham and Glasgow (to name but a few) are just plain disgusting.

 

[the sniper]

Rugeley Trent Valley station not being staffed makes me sad... :cry:

 

[crewmeal]

Disused railway lines in the cities eg Harborne (West Birmingham) connecting to New St. Given today's traffic problems it would have made an ideal tram route in and out of the city. The majority of the route is a rubbish dump now.

 

[Aictos]

Not keeping the connection from the ECML to the Thameslink via the widen lines, would have meant some semi fast services from Welwyn GC, Royston and Hertford using 8 car services leaving the existing inners to use the NCL route to Moorgate.

Only thing is now a gas main is in the way!

 

[ATW Alex 101]

When I was on my way to peterborough and had to change at grantham. There were a few enthausiasts there and seen a steam engine coming through and I thought oh boy. Only when it was coming through on the line away from the platform my 158 came and blocked it. I could see all the trainspotters there looking at there photos on the cameras blocked by a moving 158.

It turned out later that this was the duke of glouster.

 

[Tom B]

When you hear of petty things such as : (from another thread)

Drivers can stop at any time they require a physical need break. Unfortunately, due to the separation of the toc/foc facilities, we have seen drivers refused admission to buildings because they work for a company other than that which claims ownership of the facilities. Instead, the drivers are reduced to taking their break wherever they can, this includes signalboxes, at the discretion of the signalman. They have no such predjudices.

For pity's sake, not letting a driver use the loo because he's frmo a different TOC? Just shows how ridiculous some of these companies can be.

 

[strange6]

I was sad today on a run to Stockport when the crappy 150 I was on had the toilet door jammed open and the stench of stale p**s wafted throughout the train. These older 150's are time for retirement now I think. Horrid trains

 

[YorkshireBear]

unused yards and lines left into disrepair is a bit of one for me, seening locos unrestored, modern and heritage.

when i think of disused station i dont think of enthusiasts and stuff like that. I think how many people met there, maybe fell in love. how many stories started and finished there? and now its just unloved.

 

[yorksrob]

I was sad today on a run to Stockport when the crappy 150 I was on had the toilet door jammed open and the stench of stale p**s wafted throughout the train. These older 150's are time for retirement now I think. Horrid trains

The 150's are alright. They just need some TLC.

As for what makes me sad:

Blown up viaducts such as Crowhurst in Sussex.
Dismantled trainsheds such as Bradford Exchange.
Routes that should never have been closed and have no chance of reopening such as Yarmouth - Lowestoft.
Network SouthEast being no more.
The fact that I'll never be able to get a compartment in a slammer again when visiting the family in Kent.

 

[Fred26]

Another one of mine is disused station buildings. I find it especially sad to see rail buildings bricked up, unwanted and unloved. Travelling on any number of lines I've seen these, but most recently on the Cambridge - Norwich route. I understand it makes little financial sense to have them used for rail purposes, but couldn't they be sold or let as private dwellings?
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

when i think of disused station i dont think of enthusiasts and stuff like that. I think how many people met there, maybe fell in love. how many stories started and finished there? and now its just unloved.

I have similar thoughts, but for how many people would have worked there.

 

[Dolive22]

A particular branch line that almost goes past my house and two of the campuses I use. Local planners would have liked it because it's a car off the road, I would have liked it because parking was £3.80. Much of that could have gone in to the college vending machines.

 

[MCR247]

Seeing a GC 180 trundling to Bradford carting around fresh air when they could be utilized elsewhere.....

 

[YorkshireBear]

Another one of mine is disused station buildings. I find it especially sad to see rail buildings bricked up, unwanted and unloved. Travelling on any number of lines I've seen these, but most recently on the Cambridge - Norwich route. I understand it makes little financial sense to have them used for rail purposes, but couldn't they be sold or let as private dwellings?
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---


I have similar thoughts, but for how many people would have worked there.

well that comes under the stories bti so i do too

 

[IanPooleTrains]

A lot of things make me sad:

The demise of Wrexham and Shropshire
Overcrowding on the railways - but that has been part and parcel of railways for centuries :roll:

I could go on and on, there are a lot of things

 

[50041]

Pictures like these:

http://englishelectric.zenfolio.com/p375532762/e390dcbca

 

[SprinterMan]

Cutting up the 312s when central door locking would have given them another 10 years.
Needlessly storing new or new-ish trains that could be utilised elsewhere (e.g. 180s*, 442s*, 458s*, 460s, FGW's spare 158 driving car that should be reformed into their normal 3 car 158, giving the centre car to northern or SWT, the new 11 car 390s and those 321/4s without a home).

*No longer stored

 

[ChrisCooper]

Glad I'm not the only one that feels like that about the 312s. The last built barely managed 25 years in service. I'm sure they could have found use somewhere, I'm sure there was even talk of departmental use because they were so young, but no, all but 2 coaches have been scrapped.

 

[tbtc]

Politicians meddling in railways, rather than letting routes run for the benefits of passengers

Sentimentality (there were no "good old days", you just remember things as being better when you were younger)

Building on railway land (it only takes one or two buildings on the site of an old line to make it unfeasible to put a line back)

Small classes (completely inefficient, like the 180s)

Diesel islands

 

[cymro inside]

The Waverley route, Penrith to Keswick , Bangor to Caernarfon , Hailsham to Polegate , Lewes to Uckfield , High Wycombe to Bourne End, Kirkham To Wyre Dock and Rochdale to Bury to Bolton.all useful lines that survived Beeching only to close in the 68-70 period,if they had only lasted til 74 when the pso grant came into being then the probability is that they would still be with us now.

 

[50041]

Once-great locomotives on their way to the scrap heap:

http://englishelectric.zenfolio.com/p825163517/h19a8097a#he4e8901

 

[Leslie Fletcher]

Last century when I was a teenager I train-spotted at New Mills South Junction whenever I could and saw a procession of freight trains and the odd passenger train. Looking across the valley, it was the same on the Stockport-Buxton line. For the most part, the frequency, speed and convenience of the passenger services has greatly improved but freight has virtually disappeared and been replaced by polluting, aggravating road haulage. that makes me angry rather than sad.

These days I watch trains in a different country so it is now the replacement of rail freight/container traffic from Holyhead by masses of container lorries on the A55 which gets my goat.

 

[TomJ93]

The spackers up at Coventry don't deserve trains, poor 50040.

 

[OuterDistant]

For me it's being an age where just as I got into it, railway activity in the Potteries fell off a cliff! I'm just a few years young to have seen traffic to assorted pits and steelworks, Oakamoor sand traffic, Stoke North Yard, lots going on at Longport and even traffic on the Cheadle branch.

 

[YorkshireBear]

Cutting up the 312s when central door locking would have given them another 10 years.
Needlessly storing new or new-ish trains that could be utilised elsewhere (e.g. 180s*, 442s*, 458s*, 460s, FGW's spare 158 driving car that should be reformed into their normal 3 car 158, giving the centre car to northern or SWT, the new 11 car 390s and those 321/4s without a home).

*No longer stored

just to make it a little better, i believe the 321's are now all allocated? after a fight between northern FCC and NXEA. All i know is northern didnt win, i think it was NXEA.