So, what got you interested in railways?

[27vet]

Originally Posted by DSY011

My father work on C&W repairs on the Rhodesian Railways, and so we lived in a railway house at a suburb called Westgate, opposite the shunt yard in Bulawayo. At night I would watch the sparks from the shunting at the Westgate shunt. There were some very good displays of sparks from the older loco's, as the spark arresters were not very good, and they had a wheel slip when picking up a heavy load, or the track was a wet or a bit oiled from drips off the loco. I would spend a lot of time watching and get into trouble for not being in bed as it was a school day the next day. I was in trouble so often that Dad put a board up outside the window as I was still watching as late as 23:00 on school days. No wonder I did so badly in my first 2 years at school.

Yes whem Rhodesia was the breadbasket of Africa. It was a beautiful country.

[Steve44933]

From a very early age of being pushed in a pram down alongside the embankment in New Barnet / Hadley Wood in the mid 50s, I was just captivated by the sights of the Gresley Pacific’s and rhubarb/custard coaches flying along. The magic of the rails, bridges and signals only added to the allure! Mum must have quickly found it the best way to settle us down. The interest very much still with me today.

[TrainTravel]

hello everyone! i am new

[Beeyar Wunby]

Originally Posted by TrainTravel

hello everyone! i am new

Hello Samuel, and welcome to our forum.

Cheers, John

[DSY011]

Hello Samuel, and welcome to the Railway Forum.

[kmc28]

Hi there!

I am looking to purchase a handheld ticket machine that would have been used in the UK in the 90's to the early 2000's.
I have been advised that PORTIS/SPORTIS machines were used at this time.
Would anyone happen to know where I could find one?

Please feel free to drop me an email if you cannot respond to this post - [email protected]

Many thanks

[Beeyar Wunby]

Hi kmc28

This may be tricky. AFAIK rail TOCs didn't let conductors keep them (for obvious reasons) so I don't know how they were disposed of after ~2006. The only answer that Googling gave me were a few museums, so if you wanted to borrow/hire one for a film it might be possible.

I've never seen one for sale ...but you never know.

Cheers, John

[Mafield01]

I have always been interested in mechanical items, and have ridden on quite a large number of steam trains. Several years ago I visited 'Cite Du Train' in Mulhouse in France, also visiting the Schlumpf collection (car museum mainly Bugatti's) in the same town in the Alsace.

I worked with steam all my life, but in a totally different industry - Dry Cleaning and Laundry - and had my own engineering business, carrying out everything from basic fault-finding, servicing, repairs, to installations of complete shops and factories, including steam raising equipment - mainly horizontal and vertical steam boilers.

When I retired I had lots of equipment left over, pipe threading machinery, tools, pipework and fittings etc., which I tried to sell - probably retailing at around £10k+ However, the only offers I got were from other pipefitters who wished to profiteer from this, by offering around £250 for the lot.

I ended up donating it instead, to the Urie Locomotive Society at Ropley Hampshire, and now I occasionally help out in the works, with rebuilding Urie S15 no. 409 - which has increased my interest in steam engines no end.

I also run a classic sports car - a Triumph TR5 which I enjoy tinkering with - anything mechanical (or electrics)

[clas444swtfan]

Going on trains in the uk and waching tv shows on trains too.