Perceptions of time

[Villain]

Nov 6, 2023 19:25:34 GMT Three Litre said:

Nov 6, 2023 19:22:36 GMT Villain said:

There are definitely still a few people on the railway who started at the tail end of steam days on BR, some of the steam charter drivers for instance, who've retired and come back working for private companies. I know one who's 75 and still driving and firing on the mainline, he's very fit, doesn't look his age and passes the medical every year. Looking back, when I started on the footplate back in January '83 I was working alongside men who'd started their careers before the war. My other half's late dad started his career as a 'booking lad' in Slough East signalbox in 1946 under the GWR. As for the diesels, some of the earlier ones a re still in daily service but the later built ones make me feel old i na way, I can remember seeing the first 87s appearing in '73 and they're now long gone from BR service, likewise the 58s which appeared in '83, now all but retired from mainline service.

I find myself watching classic TV shows like The Persuaders, Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) and The Saint on dvd regularly and having vivid memories of watching certain episodes the first time round as a nipper, in many cases over fifty years ago, it's quite mind blowing in a way. There's one particular episode of The Persuaders which always sticks out for me because it was shown the night before my youngest sister was born, it's the one where Roger Moore plays several members of his own family (much like Alec Guinness in Kind Hearts And Coronets), I can replay it in my head, yet it was fifty one years ago!

I'm currently in the middle of changing my cars around (again!) and am looking at buying a Series 1 or 2 Jag XJ / Daimler Sovereign, cars which I remember seeing and lusting over as a kid when they were new and cost as much a new house, looking at photos and videos of them now in the for sale ads makes the intervening five decades disappear in an instant. In their day they were considered big cars with a lot of road presence and quite a large 'footprint', but put one next to a modern family car and they look like toys. They became classics over thirty years ago, yet thirty years later they're still usable cars, they've become time warps on wheels.

Villain 

I can just remember going on steam trains when they where in proper service, probably from Derby.

Interesting that - I think the last steam hauled trains on the Midland Mainline were 1964 / 65.

[Three Litre]

Nov 6, 2023 19:27:10 GMT Villain said:

Nov 6, 2023 19:25:34 GMT Three Litre said:

I can just remember going on steam trains when they where in proper service, probably from Derby.

Interesting that - I think the last steam hauled trains on the Midland Mainline were 1964 / 65.

That would be about right, I was born in '59.

[Cartman]

I remember steam fairly well, as Lancashire was the last part of the country to still run them, the last depots were all in the North West, Rose Grove, Lostock Hall, Carnforth, Patricroft, Newton Heath. Had a few journeys steam hauled in the 60s Bury Knowsley Street to Liverpool, Southport, North Wales which I enjoyed as a kid, who was already into trains!

I do recollect one loco being green on the North Wales trips, presumably a Scot or Jubilee, but too young to properly identify it!

Back to music, if I hear a track from about 1975 to 80/81 ish I can pinpoint accurately in most cases to the part of the year when it was out and memories will be associated with it, but if you give me more recent ones I can't, it could be any time within the last 15 or so years. The 70s are clear memories, more recent years are a bit of a blur

[Three Litre]

Nov 6, 2023 19:40:40 GMT Cartman said:

I remember steam fairly well, as Lancashire was the last part of the country to still run them, the last depots were all in the North West, Rose Grove, Lostock Hall, Carnforth, Patricroft, Newton Heath. Had a few journeys steam hauled in the 60s Bury Knowsley Street to Liverpool, Southport, North Wales which I enjoyed as a kid, who was already into trains!

I do recollect one loco being green on the North Wales trips, presumably a Scot or Jubilee, but too young to properly identify it!

Back to music, if I hear a track from about 1975 to 80/81 ish I can pinpoint accurately in most cases to the part of the year when it was out and memories will be associated with it, but if you give me more recent ones I can't, it could be any time within the last 15 or so years. The 70s are clear memories, more recent years are a bit of a blur

Yeah, well Carty you probably remember The Rocket! 

[Batgirl]

It does still take me by surprise when I see a car like a late 1990s BMW and it has club plates on it! Club plates mean the car is 25 years or older and therefore qualifies for a 'H" plate - historic. How can a 1998 car be classed as historic?! To me it is still modern. (Really, I mean that).

I didn't have a lot of interest in music from 1999 (unless it's the Prince song about NYE) as my son was very young and I was too busy working out how to look after him. The extent of my music knowledge from then doesn't stray past 'Bob the builder' or 'Let's get loud' by Jennifer Lopez so if a department store plays something from that era it would be new to me.

[On To A Winner]

Modern car design definitely doesn’t seem to progress, in comparison how with cars - now recognised as classics - once did.  Developments seem to be more technologically related/ under the bonnet.  There are exceptions, but a lot of modern vehicles do look - to me - very banal.

[Three Litre]

Nov 6, 2023 19:40:40 GMT Cartman said:

I remember steam fairly well, as Lancashire was the last part of the country to still run them, the last depots were all in the North West, Rose Grove, Lostock Hall, Carnforth, Patricroft, Newton Heath. Had a few journeys steam hauled in the 60s Bury Knowsley Street to Liverpool, Southport, North Wales which I enjoyed as a kid, who was already into trains!

I do recollect one loco being green on the North Wales trips, presumably a Scot or Jubilee, but too young to properly identify it!

Back to music, if I hear a track from about 1975 to 80/81 ish I can pinpoint accurately in most cases to the part of the year when it was out and memories will be associated with it, but if you give me more recent ones I can't, it could be any time within the last 15 or so years. The 70s are clear memories, more recent years are a bit of a blur

www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2023/11/08/peter-townend-steam-trains-railway-shedmaster-kings-cross/

Hopefully that link works, quite interesting article.