The Rail Enthusiast thread

[Mad Doug Biker]

Its changed now, they are all paranoid about someone having an accident and suing them (and if its not that then there are the metal thieves these days), so they tend to take security very seriously!

That said, I remember Ayr depot used to be easy to get around as was Motherwell every so often. Also I walked round Margam in South Wales in the middle of the night a few years ago, and Stratford used to be nice too, especially in the last years when it was all but closed and the sheds were full of juicy things (to a Scottish Spotter) like stored class 58s'.

I haven't visited any depots in a long long time now though.

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

I used to go on trips with various groups of people, visiting depots and yards tended to be a fairly hit and miss affair with some depots being all out no go areas whilst others were more accommodating to us.
For example, I remember one of the first trips I ever went on, we visited Newcastle Heaton (Heaven only knows why anyway) and (the now closed) Thornaby (Stockton On Tees).
The security guard at Heaton wouldn't even let us stand on the pavement outside the gate so we could look through the fence (I seem to remember he was referred to as 'Hitler's Grandson' forevermore after that).

Thornaby however couldn't have been more different, and we were practically invited in and given a guided tour!!
I remember standing there in the shed as just a few feet away a convoy of no less than 5 class 56s' rolled in with all the door klaxons going off!!
It is also where I found my first ever orange hi viz vest, complete with old BR double arrow on which had been dumped next a row of (probably) stored locos.

Other depots and yards were good to us (to varying degrees) like Carlisle Kingmoor, Warrington Arpley, Doncaster Carr, Worksop, Tinsley (Sheffield), Tyseley (Birmingham), Soho (Birmingham), Saltley (Birmingham), Bristol St Phillip's Marsh, Westbury, Old Oak Common (West London), Stratford (mentioned before, it was where the 2012 Olympic Park now is, which is a bit odd to imagine) and, most surprising of all, considering the 3rd rail, Hither Green! (South London).

Other places however practically had electric fences, machine gun posts and acid filled pits, like Crewe Electric, Toton (Nottinghamshire) and North Pole (London. Admittedly, the Eurostar Depot, but we couldn't get anywhere near the place except for seeing it from passing trains).

 

[Smurfy]

Trainspotting in the seventies used to be easier than that. More often than not, walking up to the depot, asking to see the foreman to see if he'd grant permission to 'do' the shed almost always got you access and you were usually left alone to get on with it. Some sheds/depot staff were notoriously vicious - Holbeck, March and Toton spring to mind.

York was my favourite depot. I got to operate the turntable with a class 20 on it in the roundhouse which now forms part of the national railway museum and my 'work' was rewarded with a ride out to the freight yard and back once some wagons had been shuffled. I also got to spend an afternoon in the cab of an 08 shunter there. Darlington wasn't too bad and rides in the cab of the 03 station pilot were quite common.

I've only ever had one mainline cab ride. I was on a Thameslink at Brighton, sitting directly behind the cab. The driver entered the cab using the door from the passenger compartment, rather than the driver's door. He didn't close the door straightaway, and when he saw me looking at the various controls, he invited me in for a cab ride. It was one of these:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Rail_Class_319

The only other thing I've done is to operate the crossing barriers at this place, which is done using a huge winding wheel with a handle:
https://maps.google.co.uk/?ll=54.25...oid=Lcb4l1HeP3AM4S-sH7x7aw&cbp=13,233.82,,0,0

 

[Hover Fly]

We went round Wigan (Springs Branch) once after seeing all the 40s and 25s on shed we went through a side door into the old steam shed to be met with the sight of a rake of ex-LMS (possibly some were early BR) coaches in immaculate condition. We had no idea why they were there, their numbers didn't show in any stock lists and BR employees we asked hadn't a clue. The next year they weren't there. Years after the end of the Cold War later it turns out that it was the LMR Emergency Control Train and we shouldn't have been able to know they were there, never mind see and climb into them. Someone had been lax over locking the door.

 

[Smurfy]

Nope not been to the railway. It's a bit too far for a day out though I could be persuaded to have a long weekend and take in the Severn Valley Railway and anything else between Bewdly and Bristol.

If you're in that area, the West Somerset Railway is not that far away, and worth a look. Longest heritage line in the UK I believe.

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

We went round Wigan (Springs Branch) once after seeing all the 40s and 25s on shed we went through a side door into the old steam shed to be met with the sight of a rake of ex-LMS (possibly some were early BR) coaches in immaculate condition. We had no idea why they were there, their numbers didn't show in any stock lists and BR employees we asked hadn't a clue. The next year they weren't there. Years after the end of the Cold War later it turns out that it was the LMR Emergency Control Train and we shouldn't have been able to know they were there, never mind see and climb into them. Someone had been lax over locking the door.

I bet a picture of that would be interesting now!!

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

The last depot I ever went to wasn't in the UK, it was Foligno in Perugia, Italy!

 

[Smurfy]

We went round Wigan (Springs Branch) once after seeing all the 40s and 25s on shed we went through a side door into the old steam shed to be met with the sight of a rake of ex-LMS (possibly some were early BR) coaches in immaculate condition. We had no idea why they were there, their numbers didn't show in any stock lists and BR employees we asked hadn't a clue. The next year they weren't there. Years after the end of the Cold War later it turns out that it was the LMR Emergency Control Train and we shouldn't have been able to know they were there, never mind see and climb into them. Someone had been lax over locking the door.

Expect to find MI5 smashing down your door at dawn tomorrow morning.

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

I remember Springs Branch too, but by the time I visited it properly (instead of just seeing it from passing trains) it was the EWS Component Recovery and Distribution Centre, so it was full of rather derelict class 47s and so on. It was deserted when I was there (night, just like Margam mentioned earlier), so I got to wander round and see plenty of things.

Its now closed.

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

Most other places I never got into, but things were easily seen and identified through fences, seen from bridges with Binoculars, from passing trains, etc etc.

Another real no go depot though was Stewarts Lane in Wandsworth, South London, but then, most things could (still can) be seen from passing trains anyway.

 

[Smurfy]

Most other places I never got into, but things were easily seen and identified through fences, seen from bridges with Binoculars, from passing trains, etc etc.

Another real no go depot though was Stewarts Lane in Wandsworth, South London, but then, most things could (still can) be seen from passing trains anyway.

Good grief! Was this recent? I thought people got arrested for far less than that! Almost everyone's a terror suspect now!

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

It wasn't recent, no, but most places are ok anyway.

 

[classic33]

It wasn't recent, no, but most places are ok anyway.

Try taking a picture at a station. See what happens.

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

Try taking a picture at a station. See what happens.

Yes, that is a station, and taking pictures, but watching a train through binoculars as I was talking about at a yard/depot, even most stations I imagine will be different

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

An example, when I was in London and the South East, I found I could look at the units stabled at Clapham junction through my bins without anyone saying a word, even at the height of the post 7/7 security paranoia, whereas, if I had brought a camera out, someone would have said something.

Difference is, a camera can record images, a pair of binoculars can't.