So, what got you interested in railways?
 

We've all been through it, the fascination with steel wheels on steel rails. The interest might fade a bit as girls and beer take their hold in our teens, but we all came back to the hobby. We must've done, or you wouldn't be reading this! :D

So, what was it that got you interested in railways?

My Grandfather taking me at age 3 to see the "choo choos" near to where we lived in Redcar N Yorks. I was later given a second hand Hornby O gauge train set for a birthday - I wish I still had it. Ive liked railways and railway modelling ever since.

Tony

My dad grow up in Shildon and he would tell me about the great big steam loco's on the main line at Darlington,and i would sit for hours talking to him about the train's ,we would take hoilday's in Devon and my dad and i would sit on the sea wall and watch train's while the rest of my family we're on the beach.
All the best,Ian.

I suppose you could wax lyrical for ages on this subject!

Our first memories are as children and I guess we're trying to re-capture those far-off days...

The train journey usually meant that you were going on holiday. Staring out of the train window, being almost mesmerised by the constant 'rising and falling' of the telegraph wires as you passed each post. The rising of the bank as you went into a cutting - would it just lead to a bridge then fall again or would it get higher and higher until you plunged into a tunnel!

One of my Aunties always seemed to buy me a train-related gift for Christmas, usually a book. In fact one of her sons, my cousin, Frank Stratford, worked on the railways and eventually wrote a book and magazine articles about his time on the 'Great Central.'

Before I had my own electric train set I remember my father coming home from work one evening with an enormous box full of pre-war Hornby O gauge clockwork stuff - he'd been doing some work at 'the big house' in a neighbouring village and as the son of the house had grown-up the trains had just been gathering dust in the loft, so we might as well have them and get some fun out of them! We sure did, and I wish that I still had them - I played them into the ground, so to speak!

When I went up to secondary school in autumn 1959 train-spotting was very much accepted as a great hobby for lads as it was a legitimate reason to get out and about - it's amazing how far youngsters of 11, 12, 13, would go without a thought of any danger they might have been in.

Nowadays it's decidedly 'uncool' for young teenagers to be seen as having an interest in trains, yet back then, it was a great way to find your way around with your mates rather than you parents, using your initiatve to see as much stuff as possible whilst still making sure you got home at the correct time so that you could go again another day - no national rail website in those days; you had to understand the timetables to make sure you'd allowed sufficient time to make your connections and get back in time to catch the bus home in time for your evening meal!

Most enthusiasts today seem to be 'of a certain age' and I'm sure they're trying to re-live those good old days to some extent - we've all got cameras nowadays, of course, which is something most of us didn't have then, so when we get too old we can at least re-live today's scene!

Adeys message puts his reason for his interested in railways very nicely, and what he wrote about travelling by train as a child is also very true. I always got very excited as a child when going on holiday, I looked foreward more to the train journey than I did the holiday. I was not a train spotter but when I was fifteen I started working on BR as an engine cleaner, whilst working on locos as a fireman the thought of being interesred in locos and railways never entered my head, to me it was just a job a way of making a living.
It's only in later years that I have become interested in railways, my interest is mostly steam some diesel and as for electrics I have no interest in them whatsoever.
Alan Locojoe

As I mentioned in a post yesterday, I lived on the Wirral in Cheshire as a little boy and the line from West Kirby to Liverpool was one of our main forms of transport. I also have memories of seeing my Father off at Liverpool Lime Street during the period 1949-1952 so it was all steam.

If we travelled anywhere, it was by train including a trip down to Cornwall including the Helston Branch in 1950.

Model railways wise it started with Clockwork Hornby 0 Gauge.

So that is where it started for me!

John H-T.

I've always been a "Jack of all interests Master of none" My main interest has been mainly in road transport.....B.R.S. Spotter, but anything mechanical, yep Road, Rail, Sea, Air. You have my attention.

Seth

I've lived in Bury all my live, so as I've grown up I've always known the East Lancs, which was running to Rammy 9 months before I was born. I always enjoyed seeing the trains, but never got really deeply interested until I was about fifteen. As part of my coursework for my GCSE in German I had to produce a brochure encouraging German tourists to come to Bury, and along with the market the ELR is a big attraction in Bury. So I went on the internet to find some suitable photographs to use, and I stumbled across a picture of Tangmere (follow this link to see it http://www.east-lancs-rly.co.uk/php/...=photos_Steam). I loved the look of the Battle of Britain so I had to find out more about it, and I got hooked from there really. And then I started buying railway magazines after the death of my hero, Fred Dibnah, starting with Old Glory, but that didn't contain enough information on railways so I moved on to Steam Railway and Steam World, and it's just grown from there.

Adam

Adam,
Perhaps a BoB might not have been the best choice for German visitors.
Remembering Doodlebugs.
John

Adey’s recent post has helped me decide when my interest in railways started.
I started trainspotting when I was about 8 years old simply because it was the done thing amongst young lads at the time and not because I had any real interest in railways. I think parents applied a similar logic when buying their kids toys. Boys were given train-sets, even though they might never have expressed a particular interest in trains and girls were given dolls.
As there were plenty of fields beside the railway in the late 1950’s we often played football between trains which meant that our initial attempts at trainspotting were often a bit half-hearted. If the game was at a crucial stage when a train came it tended to take priority and many a number was missed as a result.
One by one most of the gang decided that trainspotting wasn’t for them leaving just a few of us to progress beyond simply writing down numbers. I think the Ian Allan ABC books that we used for marking off our numbers were responsible for fuelling my interest. The little snippets of info contained in these books about each class of loco whetted my appetite and I started to develop a real interest and seek out more information.
Instead of simply being a means of visiting relatives our regular train trips to Manchester took on a new meaning. Perhaps I shouldn’t say this but the journey became more exciting than actually visiting my Aunts and Uncles.:D Manchester was only 40 miles away but for a young lad with a newly found interest in trains it was a different World. I will always remember catching a brief glimpse of a Jubilee leaving Manchester Victoria with a train of carriages some of which had destination boards carrying the inscription London – Cologne. I had read about train ferries and was convinced that I had seen my first International train conveniently ignoring the fact that I was in the middle of Lancashire miles away from any North Sea port. It was a real disappointment when I eventually discovered that the destination boards actually read London - Colne.:o

John (Gandalf),

In my defence at the time I didn't know that it was a Battle of Britain, I just knew that it was big and looked good. Besides, using my German skills the brochure would have been totally illegible for a German!

Adam

Being deprived of slam door trains and having them replaced with awful Pacers at the age of (umn...now) roughly 7/8 yrs!!! (City Line - Merseyside)

There was just something about sticking your head out of the door window and feeling the wind in your hair at such a young age!!!

Like Most everybody else, My Father loved the Railways and It sort of attached itself to me .The thrill of standing on a Station and watching a Steam loco with all It's associated smells coming in. As a child during the 40s and 50s I used to spend some time in Loughborough and used to stay not far from Loughborough Central. I spent hours there taking numbers and watching.Rgds Tony (southern.)

A pal took me to the Great western Soc open day at Taplow...loved the steam engines (still do) but what hooked me was the procession of Westerns and Warships hammering past....

My interest in railways began in quite a tangential way I suppose.

Up until the age of 12, I had no interest in trains at all; in fact, I can vividly recall being terrified at the age of 3 or 4 by a steam locomotive on the Hull-Withernsea line. And then, one morning during assembly at my school, I noticed that a group of lads sat behind me who were from another form were looking at those strange ABC books that boys in my form had also been passing around. I mentioned this fact to one of the lads from my form, and decided to find out what all of the fuss was about. Not only did this encourage a bit of inter-form friendliness, but within a week I had purchased a copy of the DMU ABC ( I was reliably informed that it would be more use, as DMU's were endemic in Hull), and I was hooked for life. Thenceforth, every Sunday was spent bunking Botanic Gardens, every Friday evening after school involved a race to Paragon Station in order to see the arrival of the Scarborough train (always a Class 37), and every breaktime meant a trip across the playing fields to cop the Type 1 on its daily trip to the small yard at the closed Marfleet station.

In time, the Newton Hall Grammar School trainspotting club spread its wings further and further afield. Trips to York and Doncaster were followed as we got more adventurous by spending weekends away, 'doing' all of the depots in London and the south east, Scotland, South Wales...you name it, and we probably went there. And if nothing else, the geographical knowledge acquired certainly impressed our Geography masters ( "Where is the Eden Valley?" , " Settle and Carlisle line Sir!!")

But the thing that really got me was something that I thought about whilst stood at the stops at Paragon station one Friday evening many, many years ago. I looked at the rails where they came up against the buffers, and realised that, give or take a change of gauge, and the English Channel (conveniently crossed by a train ferry:) ), I was looking at one end of a continuous ribbon of steel which stretched all the way across the Eurasian continent. All the way....across France, Poland, the Urals and then past Lake Baikal until it ended on the shores of the Eastern Pacific Ocean. Maybe it sounds a bit trite in this world of intercontinental air transport, but if you just sit and think about it, it's an incredible thing.

Trains and railways...I just love 'em :) :)

I was a very lucky kid.As my two previous posts have indicated, I went from about 14, everywhere with my P-Way Senior Engineer Dad.He had one ambition, to be the Engineer responsible for the section of the WCML over Shap. This he achieved,+ the Settle- Carlisle.

We both shared a wonder that two strips of steel, could be kept correctly apart, and no noticable lateral or horizontal distortion, to go for hundreds, or thousands of miles at then 90 to 100 mph, with trains of 00's or 000's tonnes,
held only by a wheel flange of just over an inch deep ( typically 1 and 1/8th inch )

The only time I remeber being a little anxious was when staying in Prague about 1996, I took the Warsaw express for an afternoon trip.Modern almost new Air Con stock, but at about 80/90mph curves were taken with massive sieways kicks and lurches, the adjoining track, looking like and maybe was an unmaintained siding! Cant difficiency was not in it, I'm sure it had none at all!

Andrew

For me it was the amount of travelling i did on trains. I started to become facinated on what type of train i was travelling on and other general railway information such as signal types. I'd not call myself a train spotter but a railway enthusiast. I have actually just applied to Central trains so hopefull i'll get my dream of working on the railways and trains. Fingers crossed hey?

Good look 222007!

Adam

As a very small boy some 55 years ago I lived in a small place in Nottinghamshire called Awsworth. The Great Northern line from Derby Friargate to Nottingham Victoria went through the village. I would lie in bed at night listening to the loose coupled freights picking the couplings up as they started up the incline. That noise started my life long love of railways, I spent every hour I could by that trackside. In 1957 my mother let me go to Grantham for the day with some boys older than myself. I defy anyone to have gone there in the height of summer and being surrounded by A4s, A3s, A1s, V2s and come away without a love of steam engines. It has been with me ever since.

That's a great description Paul. It really sums it up for me also but in a different part of the country. From where I lived I could hear trains on two main lines and I would lie awake at night and try to guess the class of loco. The sound of a Super D on a heavy freight or a Stanier Pacific on an overnight sleeper would travel for miles.:)
Nowadays, If I have the window open, I might just about hear a Pendolino:(

As a very young boy, about 4 or 5 I lived in Bulawayo which was the headquarters of the Rhodesian Railways. My father worked on the railways and so we lived in a railway house at a place named Westgate. Westgate was also a marshaling yard area and trains were shunted 24/7. The nights over there get dark very quickly and it is dark by 18:30 in summer and by 17:30 in winter. I loved to stand at my bedroom window and watch the sparks from the working locos. Rhodesian 12th Class 4-8-2's were used most of the time and they put on a great show. Later on the railways started to use 14th class Garratts which were much quieter and had far better spark arrests. That was the end of the fireworks show.
Syd

Oh... Well, my interest in train is due to my Grandfather. When I was a very very young boy He often taken me to see trains. I lived near the railway (about 500 meters - 600 yds?) and closeness there are: the "Tuscolana Station" and two bridges that allow to watch a lot of moving trains! I don't know why ... but in winter time on Xmas the best gift for me was a train model! Nowadays I changed my house and I live close to the railway (200 mts - 300 yds?) and I become a commuter (is the correct word?). In fact, everyday, I take a train to go to work and to come back home!!

The different types, classes etc of steam locos

Having to pick the spilled coal up off the track to light the fire at home when we had nothing just after the war and thanks to the kindness of the firemen at 24d who used to give us a shovel full now and again, that is what gave me my passion for railways. Also I can still taste the bacon and egg they used to share made in the shovel, great days.

Chris.

Travelling behind steam engines from a very early age.
Visits to the National Railway Museum in York when it was just a railway shed.
Model railways for many years while at school.
Seeing magnificent examples of British engineering in various ports around the world. Some of it very old.

I've always loved big machines, and since I grew up in the 70's it was always class 37, 47 & 55 which did it for me. I always fancied driving trains, but didn't get round to it until 20 years after leaving school.

Speaking of trains not being cool anymore. I was in a shop recently and had to fill in a form. When the young female shop assistant heard that I was a train driver she exclaimed loudly "Train driver - that's really cool". Suspecting that she might be extracting the weewee I asked her for her reasons. She said that everyone nowadays seemed to be in IT or PR, and it was nice to see someone doing a 'real job' .......as far as I could tell she was serious. :confused:

I too always fancied being a train driver and was always interested in the class of train I was travelling on.

I think she probably was being serious John.
In this day and age it makes a pleasant change to hear someone admit to doing a good old-fashioned job. Some of the job titles given by TV games show contestants are unbelievable and I can't believe just how many "managers" there are nowadays.:)

I think she was being serious too.

I had the same experience today.

I have loved trains for as long as I can remember, I lived in Birmingham and had an Uncle that was a Trainspotter, I got my first Ian Allan Train Ref at the age of six.

My Mum and Dad were great and gave me a lot of encouragement by taking me to Tamworth on the main LMS north line to get train numbers, its very hard to describe to Aussies over here the feeling of seeing a crack express pulled by a Coronation Class loco at about 100mph, most of our Aussie trains were speed restricted to about 60mph, (still are).

I lived close to a main LMS line near Bromsgraove, spent most of my spare time sitting beside the line collecting numbers, even used to buy a packet of fags and wag school so I could go down to the track.

First model layout was a Hornby OO 3 rail Dutchess of Atholl set, age 10.

what got me intrested in railway was by becoming instred in steam

Well actually it was a little special in my case. After making some family research I found out that I was a distant heir of Huntingdon Beaumont. I'm sure many of you know who this is but for those who don't he's the "inventor" of the railway.

I guess you could say my family was a part of the evolution of railway :)

Nice to meet you all

My Aunt taking me to Newark & Mansfield from Nottingham by train in the mid 50s
But what really kicked it off was going to Par(Cornwall) from Nottingham in 1959.
We went all over Cornwall that year by train and of course it was all steam.:)

In 1963 my family went on the overnight special from Hull Paragon to Paignton in Devon for a weeks holiday. I'd have been nearly 7 years old at the time, and it's my lasting regret that I wasn't interested in railways at all at that age. Imagine the memories I could've had now to look back on! :(

Reminds me of family fortunes,they were asked(someone who has a dirty job).
Not one mentioned a coal miner,footballer yes.Sign of the times I suppose.
Kenny.

I can't say I was bothered about railways at all when I was a kid, though I did have a small Hornby train set that had a circle of track and a 3 car DMU in BR blue, but I broke that by leaving it on the fireguard in front of the fire and the wheels melted.

Years later I was told to write an essay on something to do with local history, so I plumped for finding out about the railway that ran along the bottom of the school field which was the line from Middlesbrough to Whitby. I read several books on the subject and from then on I was hooked on all things railway.

I was born and brought up in a row of colliery houses on Tyneside surrounded by railways. At the bottom of the street was a four track(2 BR, 2 NCB) main line to the docks carrying coal traffic. At the bottom of the garden was a passenger line where Gresley EMU's clanked around (and later took me to school daily). About a couple of hundred yards past the other end of the street was another colliery railway to the docks which lead from the colliery where my dad worked (and knew the loco drivers). I later spent many happy hours illicitly on the footplate....I didn't stand a chance really
Two early memories.
Firstly, for a number of weekend nights the east coast main line was diverted past my bedroom window due to a Bridge replacement. The traffic used the steep curve between the coast pasenger line and the four track line and I lay in bed at night listening to the sound of heavy trains being thrashed up the curve. What the Loco's were I never knew. I couldn't see in the dark.
Secondly on the coal line to the docks there was a procession of trains up three or four miles of bank. They were nearly always a J27 and 20 x 25 ton hoppers. One day when I was about 9 yrs old the signalman at the nearby level crossing said "Come back in half an hour and you'll see something unusual" A J27 had failed and a collier was due to sail. The hoppers from the three trains were coupled up and double headed by two J27s. 60 hoppers and the two J27s came up the bank. Engines full fore and regulator wide and doing all of 4 - 5 mile and hour.
As I said, did not stand a chance of not being an enthusiast

Tony p

Great recollections Tony.:)
I had an aunty who lived in a house surrounded by railways very much like yours. I loved visiting her but always came home tired after lying awake each night listening to the constant procession of trains.:D

I think I got interested in railways by curiousity. my parents took me and my bro's and sis to paignton on holiday and I remember my first trip on an hst. we had stopped at newton abbot and the guard announced that we couldn't go any further due to minors. I was quite confused.