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Old 5th March 2016, 15:30
Linesman Linesman is offline  
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Join Date: Mar 2016
Location: Blackhall,Co Durham
Posts: 2
My interest in trains

From the age of 12 I used to travel by train to school. This was back in the 1950's and these trains were old electric units with slam door compartments. At Lewes, where my school was located, there were interesting steam engines pulling ancient carriages on the 'Uckfield Flyer' to admire, whilst the London bound express trains had luxury Pullman cars in each set.

At Newhaven there was always the excitement of seeing the steam pulled Boat Trains arriving and departing with their 1st, 2nd and 3rd class carriages and Pullman cars. And also the 'Puffing Billy' freight trains that crossed the old manually operated swing bridge over the river.

At Seaford I got to know the station staff and they would take me on the London expresses to inspect the coaches and even into the driver's cab.

For holidays it was often a trip on the steam hauled express out of Brighton to Southampton or the West Country, a wonderful trip for a youngster.

Then there were the holidays in France, Belgium and Holland with journeys on some really antiquated old trains with their completely different style steam engines, wooden seats in carriages and 'hole in the floor' loos. There were also trips on express services out of Dieppe and Ostend to Paris, Brussels and beyond.

Later when I worked in London there was commuting out of Marylebone to Maidenhead and occasionally a trip on the Brighton Belle to go back home.

Overseas came the fascination of seeing the trains in Egypt with people sat on the roofs and coming across the only train service in Borneo running out of Jesselton (now Kota Kinabalu).

Nowadays I take the occasional trip from Co Durham to the South Coast to visit family and friends using the super Grand Central service to Kings Cross, and then the Thameslink from St Pancras. But mostly I enjoy watching the trains passing by from home with the Royal Train going by occasionally, 'specials' on excursion trips, GBrf freight trains, Direct Rail diesels and various Northern Rail trains en route to Sunderland, Newcastle, Hexham and Carlisle.

Linesman
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