The strange phenomenon of railway enthusiasm

Open_G

It’s a bit of a weird one this. I suppose I have a passing interest in railways based on dog walking along an old track bed near my then home. I then found an old tunnel emerging from halfway up a hill (leading to finding relics from the demolished viaduct that once sat at its portal). This lead to an interest in the disused stations still around the country and looking into the history of various lines. It’s always fun to find a bit of history left behind when the lines were lifted. We took our 9 year old nephew for an explore around an old tunnel on the Scarborough-Whitby line and he adored it, turning up the next time we saw him with a bunch of books on Beeching he’d borrowed from the library. 

I definitely don’t fit into the trainspotter model but I have seen first hand the volumes of (usually men) hanging around with digital SLR’s on platforms in York waiting for an unusual train to roll through. The popularity of Francis Bourgeois is also a big oddity to me although oddly entertaining. I work on the railway (it is just a job to me though) and when we had the autumn treatment train coming through, even on my semi rural line there were daily people out with their cameras. 

midiman1962

Lots of this stuff on YouTube to scratch that itch. Living in Derbyshire we are blessed with many disused railway lines in scenic places. I often cycle them. Just amazing to see the amount of work that must have gone in to building them back in the day only for them to lie idle .

robgilmo

Open_G said:

It’s a bit of a weird one this. I suppose I have a passing interest in railways based on dog walking along an old track bed near my then home. I then found an old tunnel emerging from halfway up a hill (leading to finding relics from the demolished viaduct that once sat at its portal). This lead to an interest in the disused stations still around the country and looking into the history of various lines. It’s always fun to find a bit of history left behind when the lines were lifted. We took our 9 year old nephew for an explore around an old tunnel on the Scarborough-Whitby line and he adored it, turning up the next time we saw him with a bunch of books on Beeching he’d borrowed from the library. 

I definitely don’t fit into the trainspotter model but I have seen first hand the volumes of (usually men) hanging around with digital SLR’s on platforms in York waiting for an unusual train to roll through. The popularity of Francis Bourgeois is also a big oddity to me although oddly entertaining. I work on the railway (it is just a job to me though) and when we had the autumn treatment train coming through, even on my semi rural line there were daily people out with their cameras. 

Francis Bourgeois seems like a top guy, I dont think he is as nerdy as he lets on, with trains yes, but I reckon you could have a good laugh with him over a pint or two.

Phil_C

I'm a depot train driver and I often get my picture taken by guys with a tripod, whilst doing shed moves 

It can be interesting though, usually stuff stays in situ either due to it being owned by Network Rail and they've decided to do nothing with the land after it becoming obsolete, or various signalling/track being too expensive to dig up.

EricTheWeary

We went on the Forest of Dean steam railway last year. There is something I like about the recreation of older (I’d say simpler)times. They were doing some filming at the station and halfway along the tracks the embankments were covered in fake snow (The Sister Boniface Mysteries which are filmed around Gloucestershire). 

The best thing about using a local train now is that it isn’t as crap as the local bus service. Although if I hang on until Birmingham Moor Street that’s a delightful olde worlde station, kind of place to have a coffee and watch the world go by for half an hour. 

Deadman

What red blooded man doesn’t love a big dirty Class 37 going balls out? The noise, the smell, the…

Errr, anyway, yeah agreed, I don’t see the attraction and am definitely not a spotter.

Sporky

I'm not into trains, but I do like the weird disused bits, the viaducts that end in midair, the abandoned stations and so on.

When I was in York there was a network of cycle/foot paths where the branch lines used to be. They were good. 

boogieman

I can understand the appeal of steam locos : all the heat, noise and smell, the mechanical things whirling and whooshing, that sense of just-about contained power as it sits there, a bit like a dragon waiting to be let off its chain. The old tracks and stations have a certain nostalgic charm too I guess. We took our little grandsons on a preserved track from Tenterden out to Bodiam Castle last summer and they loved it, despite never having even seen a steam engine before. 

Open_G

EricTheWeary said:

We went on the Forest of Dean steam railway last year. There is something I like about the recreation of older (I’d say simpler)times. 

Don’t get me wrong I love a steam engine in full snorting, chugging and clacking mode. I even took our niece and nephews on the tiny wolds railway boring them to tears as I went into work mode and started telling them about the minor intricacies of ground frames, points and tail lamps even on the 200 yard track they have there. 

Open_G

Deadman said:

What red blooded man doesn’t love a big dirty Class 37 going balls out? The noise, the smell, the…

Errr, anyway, yeah agreed, I don’t see the attraction and am definitely not a spotter.

The fact you know what a class 37 is (I had to google it) suggests otherwise. 

They were what topped and tailed the autumn treatment train here. They do rumble through…

EricTheWeary

Open_G said:

EricTheWeary said:

We went on the Forest of Dean steam railway last year. There is something I like about the recreation of older (I’d say simpler)times. 

Don’t get me wrong I love a steam engine in full snorting, chugging and clacking mode. I even took our niece and nephews on the tiny wolds railway boring them to tears as I went into work mode and started telling them about the minor intricacies of ground frames, points and tail lamps even on the 200 yard track they have there. 

My oldest son loved Thomas the Tank Engine and trains. But once inside one he was bored within five minutes. It is sitting in a box watching trees go by and children don't tend to find that exciting. 

boogieman

What I don’t get is model railway enthusiasts. We have a little group of them in the village that descend on one guy’s shed once a week, play with the layout, drink tea and eat cake. I get the second part but not the appeal of watching a model train going round and round and round a tiny track for a couple of hours. I imagine the actual building bit is interesting, after that….. meh. 

I once did a works training course where we stayed at the BT college in Staffordshire for weeks on end. One bloke was an absolute fanatical model railway enthusiast ; he used to ring his wife every morning to make sure his trains were leaving on time. He was a bit of an all round engineering genius and had also built an entire home tv studio from scratch, where he broadcast British news to his fellow nutcase/enthusiast in Belgium. I did wonder sometimes how his wife put up with him…. must’ve been like living with Wallace. 

darthed1981

I have to admit - I do love trains.

I live near the old Great Central Main Line - so as much as I love the atmosphere of old abandoned railways and so on - the staggering quality of the abandoned infrastructure makes me hopping mad at the stupidity of ever abandoning it.

A lot of railways are like that.  I live within a mile of the old Northampton-Peterborough railway, which follows the A45/A605, one of the most hideously over-busy roads in the Midlands and would be a huge asset if it had never been ripped up.  Sadly, it was ripped up, and the cost to re-open it would be prohibitive.

That's what really gets to me is it would have been trivially easy to have stopped running trains up the lines and protected them... instead, because Beeching's crooked boss Marples owned shares in a road building company, they were all willfully destroyed.

Side note, anyone else write railway ghost stories?

Deadman said:

What red blooded man doesn’t love a big dirty Class 37 going balls out? The noise, the smell, the…

Errr, anyway, yeah agreed, I don’t see the attraction and am definitely not a spotter.

I'm more of a Class 47 man, for me a 47 in Network South East colours, and a 37 in Swallow livery.

I also love class 90s - they look like puppies.

One of my favourite noted things on a recent trip on the ECML is they are now running Intercity 225 sets in almost-original livery, as they are slowly replaced with the new trains.

darthed1981

boogieman said:

What I don’t get is model railway enthusiasts. We have a little group of them in the village that descend on one guy’s shed once a week, play with the layout, drink tea and eat cake. I get the second part but not the appeal of watching a model train going round and round and round a tiny track for a couple of hours. I imagine the actual building bit is interesting, after that….. meh. 

They do some beautiful work - my Dad is a lifelong enthusiast and it gives you some very useful electrical and practical skills.

When running a layout - they will often run a compressed version of a real timetable for the line being "modelled".

I'm kinda wanting a line running round my garden - but sadly that is more than a trivial engineering challenge... might just have to be a little train set under the car port!

Teyeplayer

There are youtube videos of trains coming in and out of stations, diesel, electric, etc -boring as hell in my mind, but some folks are into it. My mate’s wife snuck down in the middle of the night and caught him watching them, in her own words: ‘it was so sad, I was disappointed it wasn’t porn’.  

Open_G

darthed1981 said:

Side note, anyone else write railway ghost stories?

Charles Dickens - The Signalman. 

My wife bought me a copy when I qualified, albeit with the modern term. It’s accurate enough to suggest Dickens spent a bit of time in a box. 

darthed1981

Open_G said:

darthed1981 said:

Side note, anyone else write railway ghost stories?

Charles Dickens - The Signalman. 

My wife bought me a copy when I qualified, albeit with the modern term. It’s accurate enough to suggest Dickens spent a bit of time in a box. 

I've got two whole books of them.

Of course the Signalman has that wonderful TV version as part of the Ghost Stories for Christmas strand (where you can find it today from the BFI).

Abandoned railways scare the crap out of me, of course exploring them can be hazardous as well - so doing it alone is unwise.

You can find videos on YT of people breaking in and bashing disused tunnels by themselves - which strikes me as deeply stupid - as break a leg in a damaged drainage ditch, or worse, and there won't be any phone signal to call for help.

snowblind

I suspect the appeal of all the old disused tracks and stations just comes from an interest in history. Humans often gravitate to old stuff for no other reason that it is old. Just by way of an example most people would find this place more interesting than the local weatherspawns just cos its 500 years old.



Anyone with an interest in internal combustion engines can't help but get a tingle when seeing the deltic motors they used in the early diesel locomotives. Similarly a genuine 1970s 100W amp (they built 'em proper in them days). Age tends to imbue value to things for no other reason than simple longevity.

Dominic

Any transport nostalgia is quite awesome ......seeing a Steam train going along a valley or over a viaduct from a distance is picturesque.
I've seen similar things with echoes of the past and been quite dumbstruck ;
I've seen an old Galleon/Pirate ship under full sail against a sun set in the Caribbean (probably a tourist trap cruise ) but it looked incredible....
also seen a long Camel train in the desert and some festival in France with Medieval re-enactment ......about 500 Knights in full armour Horseback parade .....the clatter of armour and smell of horses ,pounding  of hooves like rolling thuinder ;makes you realise what it must have been like to be an infantryman /pikeman lined up against a heavy cavalry charge 500 years ago.

darthed1981

snowblind said:

Anyone with an interest in internal combustion engines can't help but get a tingle when seeing the deltic motors they used in the early diesel locomotives. 

I was randomly waiting for a train at Milton Keynes once and saw in the distance a train coming through - thought "hang on - looks like a Deltic" only for one to come hammering through with a rake of orient express coaches (rail tour presumably).

Incredibly noisy smokey thing - but very impressive!

scrumhalf

I used to like playing "Beeching" when on a new train journey, looking for disused bits of railway infrastructure.

I'm glad someone brought the subject up.

You could say that I was chuffed.