So, what got you interested in railways?

[Dawnrider]

Bruce,what a story! Never having been on a mainline steamer i envy anyone who has worked on one-must be fabulous!

[ACE]

Great Topic...the 64000 dollar question
From a young age, although my Father certainly isn't interested in rail! Remembering a class 25 on the blocks at Penzance is the first real memory that i can think of...always had a train set since about 7 years old, loved trainspotting in the early 80's and taking poor quality photo's with my ECTRA 12 kodak camera the one with the steading handle lol
40 years down the line, I'm as fasinated as ever....

[John H-T]

Originally Posted by Dawnrider

Bruce,what a story! Never having been on a mainline steamer i envy anyone who has worked on one-must be fabulous!

You can still drive mainline steam in Poland at Wolstyn and it is a lot better value than Footplate experience in Britain. Definately worth saving for. It may continue for another 4 years. It is the experience of a lifetime: In the driving seat at 50-60mph with your hand on the regulator, even if someone is standing behind you ready to step in if you screw up!

Best wishes,

John H-T.

[almark]

Don't know really,i was only 3 weeks old!!!!But been around Pres railways for the first 10 or so years of my life and couldn't get enough of trains! Now i mainly do mainline tours about 30 or 40 a year and still can't get enough! Must be something wrong with me!

Cheers,
Mark

[reflector]

I was always interested in road transport. According to my mother, the first phrase I ever uttered from my pram was "Trams, buses, lorries" pointing to the Bristol Road out of Birmingham when she tried to take me for a walk in the opposite direction toward what were then open fields.

Until I was about 10, I was an avid bus spotter and then met a fellow bus enthusiast who was also a keen train spotter. He soon got me hooked which was in the last few years of steam and pre-Beeching I'm glad to say. I'm still interested in buses (and trams too) but my major interest for many years has been railways.

[Ermo]

The old man worked in the parcels office at bromsgrove station, at the foot of the Lickey Incline. He took me with him one day, when aged about four, in1957, and parked me on one of the benches on the up platform armed with an exercise book and pencil. apart from a fifteen year gap when West Brom and that strange breed we call women took over, have been an enthusiast ever since. luckily my wife is very understanding, and even quite likes 37s..Even though dragged up on ageing rusting steam, seem to prefer the old diesels and go to as many galas as I can.
tara a bit

[reflector]

Originally Posted by Ermo

The old man worked in the parcels office at bromsgrove station, at the foot of the Lickey Incline. He took me with him one day, when aged about four, in1957, and parked me on one of the benches on the up platform armed with an exercise book and pencil. apart from a fifteen year gap when West Brom and that strange breed we call women took over, have been an enthusiast ever since. luckily my wife is very understanding, and even quite likes 37s..Even though dragged up on ageing rusting steam, seem to prefer the old diesels and go to as many galas as I can.
tara a bit

How I envy you, Ermo. A trip to Bromsgrove station in the 50's was always a highlight for me to watch the Jinty's and of course Big Bertha on banking duties.

[Ermo]

Yeh my dad told me he took me on the footplate of Bertha as a baby, but obviously I have no memories of that and cant remember ever seein the loco. The grove was a magical place back then-a constant hive of activity with dozens of us kids spottin.bank hols and summer sats were something else!!!! northbound trains queueing all day to get up the bank.

[ghq]

I'm getting on a bit these days, but reflect fondly upon the footplate rides with my father, a driver, at Eastleigh, when I was a young lad. As his father was a locomotive driver pre 1900, I suppose it was hardly surprising that I became interested. Even more so when I was apprenticed at the same sheds as a locomotive fitter working on Lord Nelsons,King Arthurs, T9s, Drummond Tanks and various standards. I still have an interest from afar, even though not having had any connection since going to sea at the completion of the apprenticeship.

[60159]

There is just something magic about railways and of course the nostalgia of British Steam. Once you have got the bug it just doesn't go away.

My start was fairly inauspicious - I was frightened of steam engines! my father worked in newspapers and made periodic trips to London by night sleeper. My mother and I would often see him off on a Sunday evening from Dundee Tay Bridge station where the night sleeper from Aberdeen would sometimes change engines before proceeding. I could not be persuaded to go forward down the platform to see these noisy monsters. (I must have missed some wonderful sights!)

However at age 10, two of my school friends had discovered "trainspotting" and out of idle curiosity I went with them one Saturday morning to Dundee Tay Bridge station to see the 11.47 to Aberdeen which pulled in from Edinburgh behind 60004 William Whitelaw. I was hooked! A 1959 Ian Allan part 4 was promptly acquired for 2/6 and intense spotting ensued. For Christmas a year later my grandfather was persuaded to buy me for 10/6 a 1960/61 Combined Volume which was the envy of all my mates.

The remarkable thing which others have commented on, is the ground we covered at such tender age and with few parental concerns. A one week "Freedom of Scotland" ticket allowed four of us to cover stations and sheds at Aberdeen, Inverness, Perth, Stirling, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Mecca itself - Carlisle. (from Edinburgh Princes Street behind 46226 Duchess of Norfolk and back to Perth behind 46201 Princess Elizabeth - wonderful!) A family holiday that required an overnight stop in Newcastle saw me begging my father to let me visit the station late one evening - "just an hour please Dad" and again for another hour in the morning while mother took in the shops. The first thing I saw on entering the station in the dark of nght was a gleaming 60003 Andrew K McCosh - heaven!

Sadly as with other correspondants my intense interest lasted only from 1959 to around 1962/3 when other interests gradually took over - not least latterly wine (or rather beer) women and song (or so I'd like to think! It meant I missed out on the migration of many steam locomotives to Scotland in the twilight years of 1965/67.

Interest however was never really lost and rekindled in the late 70's since when books have been collected, model railway started (but not finished of course), railwayana acquired, model railway exhibitions attended, preserved railways visited and a footplate experience some 15 years ago driving and firing Flying Scotsman on the GCR (light engine, great footplate crew and certainly not restricted to a sedate pace - I acquired an indelible smile!)

Now just off to watch my Railway Roundabout DVD boxed set which I got for Christmas along with Scottish Byways part 2 which I've already watched several times and I thoroughly recommend it!

A great 2009 to all. Mike