class411
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Post by class411 on May 31, 2015 9:20:00 GMT
Some of the comments in the 'compartment stock' thread made me think about some of the great train journeys I've taken.
My very best was an all day trip from Luxor to Cairo, non stop. It was Christmas so the temperature was perfect at around 22c, and the train wasn't air conditioned so we got plenty of warm, fresh, air. The service was pretty empty so there was no one else near us and no passenger noise. We sped along in the bright sunshine, with the lush green of the Nile valley immediately to our right, alternating between reading, chatting and listening to our CD players (pre MP3). We'd brought our own snacks - Arab food is very suitable for this as you can get good, fresh, items that don't go hard/soft/dry during the day.
It's the sort of journey that you'd love to do again, but you just know that you'd be lucky to ever get the same conditions all at the same time.
What was/were your best journey(s)?
I've got three more worth mentioning but I'd like to hear from others, first.
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Post by pridley on May 31, 2015 13:42:44 GMT
Has to be the vintage train from ?eský Budejovice, Czech Republic to ?eský Krumlov in a winding journey through the Bohemian countryside in a cute vintage train. We did it during snowy weather, mid-winter. I'd love to do it again, in summer weather like you see here. Though would probably resent there being even more tourists!  And oh brother, what a destination:  |
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Post by londonstuff on May 31, 2015 20:36:46 GMT
I definitely like the sound of Luxor to Cairo: somewhere I go semi-often. I've been researching the Orient Express to Paris, or perhaps even further afield. Delightful though eye-wateringly expensive but good for something special. The thought remains though that it might be better to travel hopeful than to arrive: just like breakfast in bed is the thought better than the reality?  |
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Post by theblackferret on May 31, 2015 21:19:54 GMT
The ones I want to try with Mrs tbf are the Norwegian Fjords line and to Moscow, preferably via the Baltic States.
The best one we did-Detroit to Chicago to celebrate our first wedding anniversary & realising the suburbs of Chicago are strung out about ten times the length of London's from the central termini/us!!
In this country, preserved, West Somerset Railway on a very wet December 29th 2000.
Tube-October 2013, the entire length of the Piccadilly Line from Uxbridge to Cockfosters.
Rail-Inverness to Wick & back from Thurso (Wick to Thurso via bus).
Best of all-from Aylesford, via Strood & Chatham to meet Mrs tbf at Selling, where we found a nearby pub for what was our third date-she drove, of course.
So it was on Wednesday 5th August 1987, that I intended telling her any reasonable man didn't mind her meeting other blokes (we met through Dateline, you see), but I wasn't a reasonable man any more, because I was in love with her.
Needless to say, I hardly got three words out before she said, yes, I feel the same about you.
Incidentally, the pub cat that night felt the same about both of us. Meaning a double order of fish fingers & chips was in order to celebrate with Ginger the day we officially became an item!
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Post by nickf on Jun 1, 2015 7:24:56 GMT
As a baby I was taken on the train from Waterloo to Padstow - but I can't remember any of it.
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roythebus
Pleased to say the restoration of BEA coach MLL738 is as complete as it can be, now restoring MLL721
Posts: 1,275
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Post by roythebus on Jun 2, 2015 6:45:38 GMT
A cab ride on the Nilgri Hills line in India, on one of the metre gauge rack steam locos; later a footplate ride from Trichy to Nagoor on a metre gauge WP steamer.
And my drive on a Deltic from Leeds to London, making up 17 minutes from Doncaster to London in 1978. (see RMweb "fastest Deltics thread). As luck had it, someone was timing the journey and turned up with the log and my duty sheet about 3 years ago. 114 mph top whack, unforgettable!
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class411
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Post by class411 on Jun 2, 2015 7:34:51 GMT
A cab ride on the Nilgri Hills line in India, on one of the metre gauge rack steam locos; later a footplate ride from Trichy to Nagoor on a metre gauge WP steamer. And my drive on a Deltic from Leeds to London, making up 17 minutes from Doncaster to London in 1978. (see RMweb "fastest Deltics thread). As luck had it, someone was timing the journey and turned up with the log and my duty sheet about 3 years ago. 114 mph top whack, unforgettable! to Roy's thread. Well worth a read! |
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Post by nickf on Jun 5, 2015 15:25:02 GMT
A cab ride on the Nilgri Hills line in India, on one of the metre gauge rack steam locos; later a footplate ride from Trichy to Nagoor on a metre gauge WP steamer. And my drive on a Deltic from Leeds to London, making up 17 minutes from Doncaster to London in 1978. (see RMweb "fastest Deltics thread). As luck had it, someone was timing the journey and turned up with the log and my duty sheet about 3 years ago. 114 mph top whack, unforgettable! to Roy's thread. Well worth a read! ...and here is some audio, recorded by my old guv'nor, of a couple of Deltics. Sit back, close your eyes and enjoy. Deltics |
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Post by rtt1928 on Jun 8, 2015 14:09:30 GMT
Two trips on the Caledonian Sleeper.
The first in August 2013 between London and Aberdeen (I returned to London, two weeks later on a daytime train)
and the second in August last year between London and Inverness (and back a fortnight later)
IMHO, a nice experience. Has anyone else travelled on the remaining UK sleeper trains?
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Post by snoggle on Jun 8, 2015 22:28:53 GMT
A week long trip round the UK on an All Line Rover back in BR days (1988). I stayed in youth hostels / B&Bs. If I can remember the itinerary I think it was something like
Day 1 London - Bournemouth return
Day 1 London - Fort William sleeper
Day 2 Fort William - Mallaig
Day 2 Mallaig - Kyle of Lochalsh via Ferry
Day 2 Kyle of Lochalsh - Inverness
Day 2 Inverness - Perth
Day 3 Perth - Glasgow
Day 3 Glasgow - Carlisle
Day 3 Carlisle - Leeds
Day 3 Leeds - Chester
Day 4 Chester - Llandudno Junction
Day 4 Llandudno Junction - Blaenau Ffestiniog
Day 4 Ffestiniog Railway
Day 4 Minffordd - Shrewsbury
Day 5 Shrewsbury - Falmouth Docks via Wolverhampton and Birmingham
Day 6 Falmouth Docks - London Paddington
Day 7 London - Bath Spa return
From memory the only train that ran late was the Inter City from Truro to London on Day 6 and then only by 10 minutes. That was pretty good given the fairly parlous state bits of BR were in by then. A thoroughly enjoyable way to view Britain's countryside and towns.
Other memorable rides are Istanbul to Munich arriving in Munich on German Reunification Day having crossed the full width of Yugoslavia (part of Inter Rail).
London to Paris on the first public journey on Eurostar (having written to BR International 3 years earlier asking if they were taking "reservations" - they were and they remembered to invite me to buy a ticket for the first day).
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class411
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Post by class411 on Jun 9, 2015 8:11:41 GMT
A second one from me:
Many years ago I was travelling out of London on the last Ramsgate/Dover train. It was very cold and clear and there was an enormous amount of hoar frost. As well as vegetation this frost had evidently covered the third rail, and for long stretches of the journey the trees and other vegetation at the side of the track were permanently illuminated by arcing caused by the pick-up shoe continually losing contact for tiny fractions of a second. It really was an absolutely magical experience with the glistening track-side continuously illuminated by a succession of flashes to the accompaniment of a similarly continuous crackling and fizzing.
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roythebus
Pleased to say the restoration of BEA coach MLL738 is as complete as it can be, now restoring MLL721
Posts: 1,275
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Post by roythebus on Jun 9, 2015 21:08:32 GMT
Another couple of memorable trips from my days as a BR driver... working the 1540 something to Shepperton on day, arrived at Earlsfield, got ding ding from the guard, lost power..power back on, took power, lost power. About 5 times! there was a REP and 8TC that had for some reason stopped on the down main and I thought maybe me and him starting together caused the substation to trip out, but no, off he went and my train died every time I took power.
I went through the fault finding process and eventually got assistance in the rear from another 455. Coupled up, took power, lost power another 5 times. By this time it was about 1730 and there'd been nothing on the down since 1600-ish!! Eventually I got emergency isolation and took my shoe fuses out to isolate my train. Took power, lost power... eventually they called out fitters from Wimbledon Park depot. They cut the shoegear off to make sure my unit was isolated. when they got to the trailing cab on my unit where the guard was sitting, they went to cut the shoe gear off and found a drinks can wedged on top of the shoe gear. Every time I moved the train, the shoe gear moved and the drinks can shorted between 750V+ and earth!! Hence tripping out the substation.
So, by this time we managed to get the train moving (1830), still nothing on the down local, I hate to think what Waterloo was like! Arrived at Wimbledon to be met by a platform choc-a-block with cheering passengers, yippee our train has arrived at last, only to be told it was going empty to depot as this was the defective train. That involved blocking both up lines, the down fast and the District Line, and the two signalmem pulling about 65 levers to complete the move.
What did I hear about it? Absolutely nothing until about 6 months later, a memo saying they hadn't received my report.
Memorable? I think so.
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Post by whistlekiller2000 on Jun 9, 2015 21:50:56 GMT
All these impressive journeys will make mine seem rather dull I'm afraid. However, the ones that stick in my mind are all from my distant past aged 6-8 or thereabouts. First would be my first ever journey on a big train (not the "toy ones" as my late grandfather, an Eastern Region employee most of his working life, described the underground) between Stratford and Liverpool Street. In hindsight it was totally unnecessary to get off the Central Line at Stratford, get on the big train and then rejoin the Central Line at Liverpool Street, but that's what Grandad wanted in order for me to understand what "a proper railway" looked, sounded and felt like!  I do remember the awe as a big blue train with wires above its head pulled in and we had to open the doors ourselves to get in and from there into a compartment! For months afterwards, 1962ts held very little interest for me. Second would be a journey between Leiden and Amsterdam on a yellow train with blue markings c.1973 - Dutch trains are cool. I thought it far more modern looking and advanced than the big train at Stratford and made a point of telling Grandad upon my return to England. His understandably nationalistic response is largely unprintable on a forum where children are present and should have been unspoken in 1973 where children (me) were also present.........  |
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Post by grahamhewett on Jun 10, 2015 7:36:37 GMT
Still recall fondly a trip on the Arlberg express (Zuerich to Wien) c1970. Just to sit in OBB's finest stock (possibly the cl4010 EMUs) and watch the Alpine scenery roll by,complete with a good lunch served in the restaurant car by what appeared to be a retired member of the Austro-Hungarian aristocracy. [Compared with the usual school trip experience of cramming into SNCB's tattiest stock at Oostende for an overnight trip down the Rhine, a real eyeopener].
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Post by westville13 on Jun 10, 2015 21:45:13 GMT
First of all apologies for lurking and not saying "Hello" properly. Hello. Can't resist this thread as I was responsible for a time for liaison with the Railway Heritage Trust and had the chance to do the Settle and Carlisle and the Warcop branch (then still just in use by MOD)in Sir Bill McAlpine's GE saloon. That was certainly memorable not just for the smoked salmon sandwiches but also for the two photographers who popped out of the bushes at the end of the branch just as we arrived. Sadly I cannot remember the locomotive but no doubt the photographers will!
A splendid contrast with going to school in Sutton in the 50's on Southern slam door electric stock.
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Post by spsmiler on Jun 17, 2015 23:37:47 GMT
Over the years I've taken so many train journeys...
I've been over the Alps on a luxury TEE train, sat in leather armchairs on German ICE trains, been on a Swiss train that broke down (and also a BR InterCity 225 when going to Edinburgh which also broke down)... here in London a slam door compartment train ride from Liverpool street to Stratford when I had the compartment to myself on a balmy evening with both windows wide open could qualify as one of my best journeys, and a greenfly infested A stock train as one of my worst (whilst seated I looked up to see that the ceiling was a mass of green flying insects)!!!
Probably the train journeys where something was done that would horrify safety officials the most occurred in the mid 1960's when I was a child - we had a motor home and when touring round Europe we'd travel across the Alpine mountain passes on the special flat wagon trains designed to carry cars. The motor home had a two burner gas stove (powered from camping gas bottles located under one of the seats next to the dining table) and whilst travelling through the tunnels we'd brew up afternoon tea. Yup, boiling the water in the kettle using a naked flame! Not just once but multiple times.
My most frightening train journey was the first time I was on a northbound Northern Line train when two were travelling side by side in a tunnel near to Camden Town. I was a child at the time and thought that we were going to crash... nowadays I know better and just which it could happen when I had my camcorder at the ready! The journey which I doubt would be replicated today was on a Central Line train in the days when the guards would switch the lights off when travelling above ground on a sunny day. Normally on trains to Hainault they remembered to switch the lights back on at Leytonstone, but it did happen (once) where the front of the train was already below ground before the lights came on.
The journey which I think tops everything however was a 1991 trip on the overnight Melbourne - Sydney train. I had a private sleeper compartment and whilst admiring the countryside through the train window I decided that it was time to change my clothing and retire for the night. Since the train was passing through open countryside I did not see a need to close the window blind. This was a big mistake as whilst I was stark naked the train made a station stop. Worse still, someone on the platform decided to look inside the train and cupped his hands around his face to get a better view through the train window... fortunately of an adjacent compartment! I dared not move, in case someone noticed the movement and looked inside to see who was there! (The cupped hands were because it was twilight so the window glass reflected back the little remaining daylight).
Simon
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Post by Deleted on Jul 8, 2015 19:51:18 GMT
The best one we did-Detroit to Chicago to celebrate our first wedding anniversary & realising the suburbs of Chicago are strung out about ten times the length of London's from the central termini/us!! Loved approaching Chicago on the train. My best trip was Cleveland - Chicago a couple of years ago. Left at 3am or something obscene and took a good 5 hours or something, but loved every minute of it. Snaked through Ohio, watched the sunrise over the lonely farms of Indiana and trundled through the industrial architecture of Chicago to arrive in time for lunch. |
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Post by theblackferret on Jul 8, 2015 20:12:39 GMT
The best one we did-Detroit to Chicago to celebrate our first wedding anniversary & realising the suburbs of Chicago are strung out about ten times the length of London's from the central termini/us!! Loved approaching Chicago on the train. My best trip was Cleveland - Chicago a couple of years ago. Left at 3am or something obscene and took a good 5 hours or something, but loved every minute of it. Snaked through Ohio, watched the sunrise over the lonely farms of Indiana and trundled through the industrial architecture of Chicago to arrive in time for lunch. There's nothing so good as watching the sunrise in an exotic or unknown location. I can't beat you on the train front, but coming back from the USA in 1988 on the 'plane, we had a fidgety old bat behind us & I couldn't get a moment's sleep-Mrs tbf was away in a trice. She, however, missed the 3am sunrise over Greenland from 30,000 feet. Quite something-too awed to take photos! |
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Post by grahamhewett on Jul 8, 2015 20:53:48 GMT
spsmiler -your story about the lights out reminds me of a holiday many years ago on Lake Luzern - we had bought those Swiss passes which give you so many days free travel and the rest at half price. One evening over dinner,having just returned from a "free day", a friend noticed that there was still a last train up Mount Rigi to collect the hotel staff,which we could use for free. So we did - we were the only passengers (in both directions actually) and it being a beautifully clear night, the guard kindly switched the lights off so we had an astonishing view of the lake by night.Magic.
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I do remember the awe as a big blue train with wires above its head pulled in and we had to open the doors ourselves to get in and from there into a compartment! For months afterwards, 1962ts held very little interest for me.
