your thoughts on Network-SouthEast?

im a big fan of BR in the 80s and 90s before privitisation,and my favorite part of BR was and still is Network SouthEast,can people please tell me there thoughts,memorys and first Ecounter with NSE even if its bad or good,i just want to here about it in its hey-day.!

[Gandalf]

I seem to remember when NSE came into being there were lots of bargain outings. Huntingdon to Brighton for something like £5, cannot even park the car at a station for that these days. Not quite NSE but does anyone remember the Merrymaker Excursions especially the Teddy Bear Specials or the Boots tickets? Apart from those the day in Brighton was fun.
John (G)

[John Hunt]

Merrymakers were a brilliant idea.
I can vividly remember them from the mid 80s - Summer Sundays all priced at £6.50.
Haulage from Leicester was usually Class 47, sometimes a Class 45, with a rake of Mk 1 coaches.

Four trips spring to mind -
1) Leicester to Carlisle via Derby, Wakefield Westgate and Carnforth, across to Newcastle and back to Leicester via ECML, Doncaster, Sheffield; steam heat 45 all the way.
2) Leicester to Portsmouth & Southsea the long way (via B'Ham & Oxford)
3) Leicester to Ramsgate with a delay on the return leg because a signalman had not been advised that the working was coming through his seldom-used section and had to show up just to let us through; steam heat 45 all the way again.
4) Two weeks later, a mystery trip which involved some intricate route through South London passing by Stewarts Lane depot. Final destination was....... Ramsgate!

[Gandalf]

The best I remember was to Edinburgh from Peterborough,
£15 firstclass !!!!!!!!!!!!. We stopped at Berwick for some time due to a broken rail (or so we were told). Hst as far as you could see up[ or down all waiting patintly for the rail to be repaired and off again. Being First Class and next to the noisy bit I asked the guard if I could go and see the engine, this idea was aggreed to so in I went but was followed by more or less the rest of the compartment mnany of whom then complaind of smelling of diesel fumes, still it was a good idea for me.
The Boots trip to Berwick was another tale altogether.
Happy days.
John (G)