Online train spotting simulator

Mind you, it was always the anticipation and the waiting which was an integral part of spotting, particularly on the old Great Central towards it's closing years. You never quite knew what might turn up. Brits and Scots!!!!, we would happily wait hours (and the homework suffered). Kemble isn't it?

Kemble isn't it?

It looks very, very much like it !!

I first used it in 1986 when it had flower beds, clean loos and the most likeable staff........ sic transit

Seek train seat.

and no download or anorak required :-)

When I turned around I got taller -

Never quite understood the excitement of Trainspotting. You still see the odd anorak clothed individual with binoculars in one hand and their Ian Allan published log book in the other parked near a railway bridge.

OK back in the days of steam and few cars a young school boy had probably never seen anything faster. The shear power, force, smoke, steam, noise and heat of the loco must had fuelled the young men the brave cold, long waits on platforms etc.

I thought when railway stations stopped charging for platform tickets that marked the end of the pastime but no !

The new generation now are Eddie Stobart spotters ! They even have their own club with spotters guidelines and a league table.

The only thing I get excited about these days is watching Jolene Blalock on TV's Star Trek Enterprise but I am too old to remember why :-)

I wonder if they will still have model and real trains in the 25th century ?

I used to do it when I was a kid.

Until I bunked Plaistow shed to cop the last Tilbury 4-4-2T. The following year when I came to copy the underline into the new Combined Volume it wasn't there any more because it had been withdrawn.

After that I gave up and just made sure I got to see the interesting ones.

As an adult, I used to get the train from Manchester to York regularly because I loved the place - the museum, the walls, the castle, the Viking centre, the Minster, etc, etc.

As the train entered the platform you could see the anoraks dictating the entire train into pocket recorders.

Used to get reasonably interested in spotting the train near where I grew up. It passed on its way to the clay pits about 11 o'clock so I only saw it during school holidays . No idea what the numbers were, have never been interested in such things. On one occasion a passenger special was run and a few locals wandered down to the old platform .Looking at some of the stranger "enthusiasts" one bloke said they"they look a bit weird" to which his mate retorted "be thank full that train spotting at Petrockstowe is too boring even for them to come here often".

Less telly and other things around as well. Also a lot of people were still quite hard up 40 to 60 years ago. Not every parent could afford the gift of a trainset so youngsters found entertainment with the real thing fairly cheaply.

I was sad enough to ask and get a hand written platform ticket at Turnham Green on LT once during the annual trip up to my grans. Eventually the Steam hauled works train did appear. Mind you back then the District stock was fairly varied as well.

G.Harman

Dictating into tape recorders,eh! The only ones we had access to needed a wheelbarrow to carry then round, and a mains supply !!. I suppose I was lucky(?) to see Woodford Halse when it was still reasonably busy with freight, although the passenger service was quite sparse by then. Passed through there on our way to Rugby quite often, and I can remember the hoardes of us what used to congregate near the 'birdcage bridge' carrying the ex-GC line over the LNWR.

If I saw the chimney of a 'Clan' pacific, did it mean I could 'cop' it. The big boys said I couldn't, but I did anyway.

From 8 years old my parents, in their wisdom, sent me to failed boarding educational establishment with delusions of being a minor public school. This meant meant happy hours travelling from Glasgow and then Westbury to Cheadle Hulme. Though I had my Ian Allen I was never really interested in spotting but loved to just watch the trains at work. With the demise of WR hydraulics and spread of electrics I'm affraid my interest waned somewhat - and in all those trips I never did see a single Warship!

Then I went to work for them and it all just became a job - the only reason I noted any particular engine was due to it having a particularly drafty cab or such like.

20-odd years later I stumbled across an article that mentioned the 47's were being cut up and..... well, here I am

Cheers Richard

On Thu, 18 Sep 2008 07:44:40 +0100, snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.co.uk said in :

Ha! I used to commute via Didcot Parkway, that very often had a small knot of anoraks at the end of the platform hoping, I presume, for a sight of something more interesting than the local crop of EWS

66s. I confess to mild excitement the first time a rebuilt 43 pulled in, but my very brief trainspotting days ended with 37s on Inter-City service, and the occasional Peak if you were lucky.

Guy

The Metropolitan electric-loco-hauled compartment stock trains used to run past my aunt & uncle's back garden in Dollis Hill. Fair shook the house! Then there were the Bakerloo trains stopping at the station, and the steam trains to and from Marylebone. Only about 4 hours' peace at night.

In message , Dragon Heart writes

I regularly see several at the country end of platforms 5/6 at London Bridge.