Childhood travel memories

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Moat Lane Junction was a station with no road access, I believe there was at one other like it somewhere in the north of England.

Wikipedia lists current stations:

Altnabreac railway station
Berney Arms railway station
Corrour railway station
Country Park Halt railway station
Dduallt railway station
Dovey Junction railway station
Middlewood railway station
Nant Gwernol railway station
Newton Dale Halt railway station
Rheidol Falls railway station
Rhiwfron railway station
Smallbrook Junction railway station
Snowdon

[didcotdean]

Moat Lane Junction was a station with no road access, I believe there was at one other like it somewhere in the north of England.

You may be thinking of Trent, which was intended as an interchange station and served no local community as such, apart from the close by Trent College boarding school.

[bradshaw]

Ah; the Still and West, spent many hours there in the mid-sixties while at Portsmouth College of Technology. Steam was still around, passing the Chemistry block during lectures. We had a science trip to the Science Museum, coming back on the newspaper train visa Eastleigh. Managed a footplate trip from Woking to Basingstoke, Bullied hauled.

[Phil]

1963. I'd be 6 years old. We lived in the village of Wookey in Somerset, and my kindergarten was in Priory Road in nearby Wells. Every week-day my mum would see me onto the bus and I'd travel on my own to Wells - aged 6, remember - and be met at the other end by my teacher at the school.

Except, I wasn't really on my own, since every single passenger on the bus knew me and looked out for me, and even the driver lived two doors up from us and his 14 year old daughter had been my babysitter for the past five years. And if Mum was a couple of minutes late, the bus would always wait.

But although travel related, that's not what I wanted to tell you about. For the S&D^▸ (Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway) aficionados amongst you, my mentioning the words "Priory Road, Wells" up there would have immediately jumped out at you. Although the former S&D station in Priory Road had closed to passengers in 1951, goods traffic continued using the line right up until the late 1960s. Every Wednesday was half-day closing at the Kindergarten, but because there was no bus back to Wookey and beyond until later that afternoon, if the weather was good the teacher used to take us across the field at the back of the building to watch the engines on the turntables and working in the goods yard, and I saw the buildings being demolished, which is probably where my love of preserved railway architecture was born.

I was also fortunate enough to travel on the last scheduled service out of Tucker Street station (the other Wells station, which was on the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) line) which closed to passengers on 9 September 1963; but although the memories remain vivid - not only of the train journey itself, but particularly of the machine dispensing chocolate on the platform, and the other machine that flattened and bent pennies for some godforsaken reason - no-one in my family had a camera until many years later, so sadly there's nothing to look back on from that time.

[Chris from Nailsea]

... while at Portsmouth College of Technology ... Managed a footplate trip from Woking to Basingstoke, Bullied hauled.

Surely you weren't actually bullied at Portsmouth, bradshaw?!? 

[bradshaw]

Do you not love automatic spell checkers

[eightf48544]

First train journeys Swindon Town to Southampton via MSWR middle  of the war. Vaguely remember a very full and standing journey and being passed down the corridor to the loo.

My grandmothers back garden  in Woolston backed onto the line hich is in deep cutting up to Shooling. there was also the headshunt for Woolston yard so I could watch the afternoon pick up goods shunting and taking the wagons away to Beavois yard. Didn't like the Q1s a bit scary!

As it was up hill Portsmouth bound trains coughed quite well. the other highlight was the Brighton Plymouths usually a WC^▸ (Wiltshire Council (Unitary Authority))/BB unrebuilt of course. they huffled up the hill. I did catch the last Brighton Atlantics on one.

Then to Slough and sitting on Down relief platform with my mother and seeing one of the last Didcot's Saints ( a Hall with big wheels) on a semi fast which stopped at Slough.

Early 50 s and my grandmother used to buy a weeks rail rover either WEst to Bournemouth or East along the coast to Portsmouth. I liked the Bournemouth best. Often travelled back via Ringwood,  othewise Bournemouth West and trainspotters delight of the pull back besides Bournemouth shed for Weymouth portion to come into the platform. Also did Winchester Chesil, Fawley branch.

Also did a long haul along the South Coast to have a week in Folkstone and watching the boat rains from the beach also RHDR.

[paul7575]

First train journeys Swindon Town to Southampton via MSWR middle  of the war. Vaguely remember a very full and standing journey and being passed down the corridor to the loo.

My grandmothers back garden  in Woolston backed onto the line hich is in deep cutting up to Shooling. there was also the headshunt for Woolston yard so I could watch the afternoon pick up goods shunting and taking the wagons away to Beavois yard. Didn't like the Q1s a bit scary!

As it was up hill Portsmouth bound trains coughed quite well. the other highlight was the Brighton Plymouths usually a WC^▸ (Wiltshire Council (Unitary Authority))/BB unrebuilt of course. they huffled up the hill. I did catch the last Brighton Atlantics on one.

Then to Slough and sitting on Down relief platform with my mother and seeing one of the last Didcot's Saints ( a Hall with big wheels) on a semi fast which stopped at Slough.

Early 50 s and my grandmother used to buy a weeks rail rover either WEst to Bournemouth or East along the coast to Portsmouth. I liked the Bournemouth best. Often travelled back via Ringwood,  othewise Bournemouth West and trainspotters delight of the pull back besides Bournemouth shed for Weymouth portion to come into the platform. Also did Winchester Chesil, Fawley branch.

Also did a long haul along the South Coast to have a week in Folkstone and watching the boat rains from the beach also RHDR.

I thought this looked familiar, is this meant to partially duplicate your previous reply on the 5th...   

Paul

[eightf48544]

Paul mistake thought first post hadn't gone so repeated but added to.

[PhilWakely]

As the expression goes.... Hindsight is a wonderful thing'.

I have two major regrets in life...........

I posted way back at reply #2 about hindsight and regrets.

However, I have no regrets about being led on by my older brother and both of us being naughty little schoolboys! I am not entirely certain of the year, but it was either 1963 or 1964. We lived a couple of miles from Exmouth Junction shed and on several occasions, I recollect cycling over to the shed and leaving our bikes unchained at the entrance. Then, walking in and sneaking passed the manager's office to spot whatever was on shed at the time before sneaking out again and cycling home.

On one such occasion, 34026 'Yes Tor' was in steam on one of the shed roads, complete with driver and fireman. My brother caught the attention of the driver and naturally asked 'Can we get on the footplate please?'. The answer was 'Yes' and we were duly helped up onto the (rather warm) footplate. Much of the conversation has been lost in the mists of time, but I can remember being asked if we wanted to stay on the footplate for a ride to Exeter Central as 34026 was just about to be sent there. Two very excited youngsters eagerly said 'Yes', oblivious to the consequences of being dropped at Exeter Central and having to make our own way home. Thankfully, brother - being four years older than me - had enough money (and sense!) for us to get the train back to Polsloe Bridge Halt and walk the few hundred yards to our bikes at Exmouth Junction.

Not sure how the driver and fireman fared, but nobody seemed to bat an eyelid at Central when we got off the footplate.

[eightf48544]

Stations without road access the most famous being Bala Junction which didn't appear in the public timetable so you left Bala before you arrived!

[Witham Bobby]

My earliest train travel memory was a trip from Bridgwater to Weston-Super -Mare when I was about 3 years old, with my mother and her mother.  The main memories are the (very shiny) green DMU^▸ (Diesel Multiple Unit) arriving at Bridgwater and then manouvering the pram containing my younger brother off the train at Weston.

I'd been a railway enthusiast for ages before that, according to my mother, getting very excited by the diesel shunter that would cross from Bridgwater (WR) yard towards George Hooper's Timber yard (where Sainsbury's now is) and on to the docks.  My dad worked at Hoopers, so I'd often see this little shunter trip.

We later moved to Milverton, and I remember Saturday morning trips to go swimming (actually, near drowning  )  in James Street Baths, Taunton, with my dad, whose Royal Marines style swimming lessons were not child-friendly.  I remember spending most journeys standing on the plates of the gangway connections between two coaches, riding them up and down as they would buck quite wildly (these were not buck-eye coupled coaches!)  Very happy days, although I still can't swim very well.

[Chris from Nailsea]

I do remember being carried by my father down a railway platform in Plymouth to see a new train.  I was introduced to the driver, who wore a black cap and gave me an enamelled badge of a diesel train.

Looking back now, I must have been aged 3 or 4 then, so it would have been 1962 / 3.  The Plymouth railway station would have been North Road then, I think.  And that badge (which I sadly no longer have) was tiny and metal - the last thing anyone should give to a toddler! 

Having conferred with my father, whose memory is excellent (unlike my own rather hazy version), it would in fact have been 1961 / 2.  We were living in Torquay then (without a car in those days), and we would have travelled by train from there via Newton Abbot to Plymouth North Road (well, I got that bit right!) to visit my grandparents in Plymstock.  My father has some recollection of leaving my mother at the exit of the station, with a load of luggage, while he carried me down the platform to meet that train driver. 

[Gordon the Blue Engine]

My father’s family were from Northern Ireland.  Back in the early fifties, when I was about 5 or 6, I remember us catching the Ulster Express from Rugby to Heysham, a trip we did several times.  We’d have dinner in the Restaurant Car – I remember the cutlery rattling and a large piece of white fish in a funny tasting (as I thought at the time) sauce.

I remember boarding the Ulster Prince (was the other boat called the Ulster Monarch?) at Heysham, having a cabin with no windows, and then getting up early in the morning to be on deck as we sailed up Belfast Loch Lough.

edit for correct spelling of Lough - thanks to CyclingSid 

[CyclingSid]

Can somebody remind me of the route of the Brighton to Plymouth? Went to Plymouth a couple of times on it, I presume I would have got on at Havant (?).
Also remember sailing up Belfast Lough early one morning, on a Royal Fleet Auxiliary (that didn't have a good trip to the Falklands).