Watching tubes.....................

One of my earliest memories of being a lad was my dad taking me down to my uncle's house. He lived right next to the East Coast Main Line near Newcastle, and I used to stand with my dad and wave at the drivers as they passed. Occassionally, I'd get a toot and a wave back, which made my day!
(Obviously this was before HSTs ruled the ECML - The Deltics were still running! Real trains!)

I don't think you're doing anything wrong, and I certainly can't imagine any LU staff minding what you do with your sons!
In fact, quite the opposite! I always wave at the youngsters who wave at me! You're teaching your kids to respect the railway and that's very important!

Maybe in a few years (I know they're only 3 at the mo!) they'll be logging on to this forum and turn out to be as enthusiastic about LUL as most of us here are!

My Dad used to take me to watch trains on the ECML at Offord (Huntingdonshire) when the Deltics ruled, we then moved to York so there was no hope!

I can't work out where the interest in Underground comes from, but it has been there since I was about 10! Got worse when I left school, had money and moved close to London!

When my Son and Daughter are old enough (only 10months at mo), I will take them to watch the trains on the WCML near our house (sigh from my wife ). Shame about the lack of thrash though! ;D

That is exactly how I felt, infact probably right up to my teenage years if I remember correctly. It's surprising I chose my career on something that worried me so ;D

[pedantic]
Brent Lodge Park, Elthorne Park is the other side of Uxbridge Road down towards Boston Manor. [/pedantic]

I used to get scared by the tube as well, mainly by those old style 'yellow tickets' barriers. Oh, and wooden escalators on the Piccadilly Line.

For me, my interest in railways began as a child, with the long train journeys to our summer house in the south of sweden, to my grandparents in germany and my godfather in france.

Standing on a platform, or in a vestibule, and reading the destination boards in the door windows really set my imagination on fire.

"Stockholm-Malmö-Trelleborg-Sassnitz-Berlin-Frankfurt an der Oder-Kunowice-Poznan-Warszawa-Terespol-Brest-Minsk-Moskwa"

reading, and realizing that this very carriage was going all the way to Moscow, that these steel rails formed a continous link all around the world, to faraway places. And where was Terespol, anyway? What kind of people lived there? What did the place look like? Suddenly, the fabled land on the other side of the horizon was not so unreachable. The world was, literally, there to travel.

Another strong memory are the sights and sounds and smells from those journeys. The sort of swaying bumps that woke you up in the middle of the night, when the sleeping cars were shunted aboard a ferry. Catching glimpses of a neon-lit, wet asphalt platform somewhere whilst passing through a station. The huge, long, wide curve approaching Hamburg Hbf from the north, where you could see the whole of the train stretch out along the river and the harbour. And why did the hot cocoa smell so different in french restaurant cars when compared to german sleeping cars? My excitement at the age of seven or so when I discovered that french commuter trains had flap seats in the door vestibules, and me absolutely insisting on sitting there for a whole summer, much to my parents annoyance, since they were very uncomfortable for adults. And the long, deep rumbling that made the whole station jump when a train with loaded steel torpedos (special cars carrying molten steel between steelworks) passed by, pulled by a pair of diesel-hydraulics that sounded like they were going to lift off at any second.

So many memories!

/igelkotten

Never had a problem admitting I'm a railway enthusiast, and well into my teenage years I was a "trainspotter"

A large chunk of the way I have got to where I am now is through having (and admitting) I have a deep interest in railways. A small price to pay for the salary I'm on

There are far worse things to admit to in this world, but social attitudes dare not admit to it. Some of the most popular "hobbies" that people admit to tend to strike me as quite strange. I won't name any here, but it's not hard to think of any.

Besides, despite some of the moaning the staff members on here do about the job, the fact we all post to forums such as this means there must be a reason we want to talk about railways. So I reckon I'm in good company ;D

I used to go down to the Bunny Park (mentioned by Dave) with my Dad as a toddler. The size of Warnecliffe viaduct used to amaze me - I didn't know such things could exist on my doorstep after seeing Ribblehead in a video! It's a shame they've covered Warnecliffe with overhead catenary - having Ealing Hospital (in my opinion one of the most hideous buildings in West London) in the background is bad enough!

I don't recall ever having a fear of using the tube as a youngster - I thoroughly enjoyed it! (I must admit, being brought up in London makes all the difference). The only problem I used to have was getting bashed on the head by the doors on unrefurbished 73 stock whilst sticking my head out to check the starter!

Of course today I still love trains - I've just come back from Newquay on one incidentally - and I am lucky enough to attend a school which lies next to the GWR Brentford Goods line (it gives me something to listen to when staying behind after school to do extra work and help my teachers )

It doesn't surprise me! I don't know anyone my age who knows a first thing about trains - my mates would be completely lost if they read some of the posts here, and that's an understatement!

Can't remember what huge sums our drivers get paid now (I'm not one by the way). Us in the signalling grades get paid "comfortably" but then it is jolly hard work. Put it this way, we get enough to afford "decent" tea to drink whilst at work ;D With the staff members on this forum alone, I'd say they're getting their money's worth!

Both grades get more than the drivers you mention, but do they have "rostered overtime" to boost their actual salary?

I'm not being awkward or avoiding the issue, it's just I really can't remember all of the individual figures.

I've seen figures about £30,000 floating around. BTW, am I correct on assumption that those figures are "per year, before taxation"?

However, at least some of the taxes go into public transport which, theoretically, would improve your working conditions on the underground.