My Great Grandfather was a Train Driver in the early to late 1900s here in the UK. Apparently he was treated as a local celebrity in the working class area where he lived. In those days most people rarely travelled further than they could ride their bike. So the train trip to the seaside was an epic adventure and a Train Driver who visited places all over the Country all the time was quite exotic.
The children's novel by John Masefield, "The Box of Delights" starts with Kay Harker travelling home by train for the Christmas holidays. The idea of a train taking you to the start of an adventure is very much a theme of British children's literature, including, more recently, Harry Potter.
To add to the travel context, I think culturally we have fondness for trains, because trains came along for Britain at a time before car ownership was a thing, and really opened up peoples travel possibilities, and specifically made vacations possible. A bit of that persists today. Trains=discovery
Most little boys (and some girls), pretty much as rite of passage, get given a train set for a birthday or Christmas and in many cases they grow up physically but remain little boys at heart and the train set become something of an obsession. On the 18th and 19th of this month The London Festival of Railway Modelling is happening at Alexandra Palace.
The first steam powered railway was built by Cornishman Richard Trevithick between Penydarren (Merthyr Tydfil) and Abercynon in South Wales in 1804 carrying iron ore.
There was a film in 1970 called “The Railway Children” which will have been part of a lot of people’s childhood. It starred a young Jenny Agutter (Call the Midwife) and also had Bernard Cribbins (Dr Who) as a porter called Mr Perks in it.
To be honest I live in Dundee and for no reason whatsover on a day off work I will get a day return to Edinburgh just to go over the Tay Rail Bridge and the Forth Rail Bridge and see the beautiful Fife scenery in between..... just because I can.
As someone who grew up in a railway family, along with watching Thomas/reading the books its nice to hear someone take a positive note on the hobby. Used to being mocked for it but as you say everyone has an interest & that's what makes us all unique. Then again I just like old mechanical things anyway, how they work so on. I will say that we have some of the most scenic railways out there & I love sitting back watching the world go by, music in & escape reality for a while. Great video
The World's first passenger railway was the Stockton and Darlington Railway which opened in 1825. The Bicentennial is coming up in 2025. I was there for the 150th celebration in 1975 and, God willing, I intend to be back in Darlington for that. 😀
I saw your video title, and immediately thought “well, we did invent them”. In my case, interest in trains is genetic, my grandfather used to drive trains. I was a railway enthusiast from the age or two or three. I was already interested in trains before I started reading the Thomas the Tank Engine books. I once saw the Reverend Audrey (the creator of the Thomas books) in person at a model railway exhibition in Nottingham in the 1980s, where he was exhibiting his layout.
Theres also a lot of heritage railways about that most of us went to as kids, and still do as adults. We have hundreds of ride on miniature railways of all sizes all over the place in parks and gardens. Railways just are in all of our lives and steam in particular has a sole, it has to drink water, eat coal, its alive, and that same feeling to some degree carries over to diesels and electrics
There was another train based cartoon way back when, it was called "Ivor the Engine" & was based in Wales. It was done by the same people who did "Noggin the Nog". 😃
My son lives in Falmouth (Cornwall) and I live in Plymouth. Sometimes I drive but, often I go by train (return ticket about £10), because not only is it cheaper than driving, but the scenery is beautiful, the trains are never busy - pure relaxation. I'm not a train or steam engine nut, but my dad taught me about steam engines when I was a kid and I've actually built several of them. PS. Great video Alanna!
I think part of it is that the country is so small and trains were so ubiquitous until 25 years ago that you saw them everywhere. Almost every small town had a station, train tracks ran alongside many roads, and railway crossings were common in towns and cities all over the country. Before we all owned cars, it was possible to walk to the local train station, take a short ride on a train to get your grocery shopping, and be home again in a less time that it takes today to drive.
@@AdventuresAndNaps been on the Hythe railway when my children were pre school and loved it. Stopped for ice cream and children playing on sea front at Romney then back to Hythe on the railway. It's a mini railway with scale down steam engines also they have a Thomas tank engine day which scale down Thomas tank engine and other engine's from the books are used 😀. Obviously been on the Hythe railway a few times also Stan laural a comedian of laural and hardy was a fan of Hythe railway.
My dad absolutely LOVES trains. He goes trainspotting and even ran his own business selling model trains at one point. My mam thinks it may be because, years ago, lots of working class people didn't have much money and therefore collecting train numbers in a pocket book was a common hobby.
I am a train enthusiast - don't know how it started but I did read all the Revd W Awdrey's books as a child (too old for the TV series). I love Canadian Trains and have made several trips to Canada to travel on the trains. One of the best things that I've ever done was a nine day tour of the British Columbia Railway system in a chartered train in 2001 from Vancouver to such places as Prince George, Fort St James, Fort St John and Fort Nelson - way up north in Cariboo Country. I went on another three day charter in British Columbia in 2005 from Prince Rupert to Squamish. These tours were organised by the West Coast Railway Association of Squamish, British Columbia. They have a huge Heritage Park (Railway Museum) at Squamish and I remain a life member of the association. Other favourite trips have been Sault Ste Marie to Hearst on the Algoma Central and Sept Iles to Schefferville on the Quebec, North Shore and Labrador. Canadian trains are magnificent. Although there are fewer passenger trains in Canada than there are here in UK, the railway engineering and the scenery are awesome. You really don't know what you've been missing. BTW I got around in Canada using trains and buses - never used a car - I'd be afraid to drive there as it's on the wrong (for me) side of the road and the rules are so different.
I am not a train nut, but I do live close to Stockton and Darlington. The Darlington Railway Museum is well worth a visit. Very near me is The Causey Arch Bridge the world's oldest single arch railway bridge opened in 1727 before steam trains were invented, when horses were used to pull the carriages and they were filled with coal and iron.
Hi Alanna, I think one area you missed, was the Architecture, so many different styles, so grand, often as big as a cathedral, with similar details. And its not just the stations, but the bridges, and viaducts, tunnels probably less so, until you look at the Tube. Also the art work, examples the tiling on the Tube. The Hotels, at each of the grand stations there are beautiful, grand hotels built by the railways. So many great pubs, mostly called 'the Railway' The wonderful clocks, we have the railways to thank for having the same time across the country, so all (most) of those grand clocks in town centres are due to the railways. I think its also why we understand 24 hour (military) time.
Across Canada there is a chain of hotels that were put in along the Trans-Canada rail line to encourage travel. They are quite beautiful. The London train stations are magnificent, and the hotels attached to them are their crowning glory. In North America,the stations - except at a major terminus are pretty plain and open - same in Australia. You will sometimes hear North Americans or Australians commenting on the scale of English railway stations, not realising that even in a town station, the roofs were so high and grand to be able to cope with the volume of steam and smoke put out by the trains. A forty foot or higher ceiling was just a necessity.
Nice video Alanna. The reason I love train travel is I don't have to drive on long journies and can read a book, go online, chat and relax. It's just so much less stressful and safer than driving on motorways too. It's often quicker as well. What I don't love is the cost of train travel in the UK compared to the rest of Europe. It's ridiculously expensive in that regard.
I grew up in Shepherds Bush in West London and at the end of our street was a coal yard / railway sidings. Every morning I would hear the clinking and clanking of the coal wagons and other freight box cars being shunted onto various tracks. The railway yard is no longer there as they built the huge Westfield shopping Mall on the site. Yes even in my 60s trains still fascinate me. Your video was great. Thanks.
For the past 20 years I've lived next to a railway line. When I moved a few years ago I specifically chose my current home because it was next to a train station as I find the sound of the trains very familiar and comforting. When I was a kid I loved travelling on trains as it always felt like an adventure, so there's definitely the nostalgia aspect too.
I didn't go on trains that much as a kid but I still grew up to love them. I've had some great times on trains and met some fascinating people. You have time to relax and chat on a train. They make the journey as enjoyable as the destination.
I am an American and was a railroad employee along with several family members. I first got interested in railroads as a child. I have also been to the U.K. twice. I have found that people both in the United States and Great Britain (but especially Great Britain) are interested in varying degrees. At the very least, those aware of my interest have responded well to the extent of wanting to learn more. It is true that the more exposed one is to railways, and the greater relevance there is in daily life, the greater the likelihood of developing an interest in the subject. The thing I have difficulty understanding why people do it is trainspotting, which is writing down numeric identifiers from passing trains and checking these off in books to document what one has seen. I expressed this at the breakfast table at the bed & breakfast I stayed at last trip. The owner said she did trainspotting when she was still a full-time student. It's something to do. I will try to contribute to answering your history question. Richard Trevithick is credited with inventing the first steam locomotive. The Stockton & Darlington was the first "public" railway, meaning anyone could contract to ship or travel using steam locomotives or horses, basically paying "toll" to use the railway. The Liverpool & Manchester I believe was the first railway to operate exclusively with steam locomotives with only their own employees, as do modern railways. I highly recommend visiting the Bluebell Railway, a volunteer-run steam railway. Take a "normal" train to East Grinstead and walk a few hundred feet to the Bluebell Railway's station.
the growth of the standard gauge heritage railway sector since the early days of the Bluebell and the Middleton railway in Leeds has been nothing short of amazing plus a nod to a certain scrapyard in Barry
Trains were the highest tech travel of their day, getting bigger & more powerful etc, this captures the human imagination. From my area alone , 5 trainloads of strawberries EACH DAY went to London in the summers. Thanks Alanna! 🙏🙏
Liverpool has many historical links to early railways, I think that's what has always drawn me to them. But yes, some of my fondest childhood memories was my mum taking us as kids on the train to New Brighton. Wonderful days!
They are talking in Liverpool about re-opening one of the stations for the first passenger train service to Manchester, but with a different name (as it's being used) as the demand is there for that area of outer Liverpool.
Great video, Alanna. If you fancy a very British day out the London Festival of Railway Modelling 2023 is on at Alexandra Palace the weekend after next. If that doesn't make you a railway enthusiast, nothing will! Also great views of London from Ally Pally, if you haven't been there yet.
My grandad was a signalman all his life, my 2 uncles were a train driver (and he part-owned a steam train) and a rail engineer. I was brought up in a train family so I loved trains. Then, I spent almost 10 years working in London using Southeastern and now, I despise the bloody things...
God i miss BR. Even though train was late it was great fun joking about BR and the overpriced can of stout in the service carriage. It was definitely more fun before privatisation and then became depressing.
"She's got a ticket to ride, and she don't care!" Train journeys have a particular sense of security. It's like halfway down the stairs. You're not in the place you've come from and you're not in the place you're going to - you're inbetween, in limbo with all responsibilities suspended. There's the comforting rhythmic clattering; you can eat egg sandwiches; and you can look out the window as well 🤗
I am not a train buff but I really do like traveling on them. It is a major mode of publci transit in this country which is not true in Canada or North America in general.
Many British men of a certain age are fond of trains because public information films in the 70's told us if we get too close to the platform edge you could get sucked off. Americans and Canadians don't like train because when you get to a level crossing it takes an hour for the train to pass.
As Tom Gowen suggested take a look at Geoff Marshall’s UA-cam channel, especially the ‘All the Stations’ series (if you don’t want to watch all the videos there is an hour long documentary about the series) for how and why the British love trains. Btw as for Thomas the Tank engine Awdrey senior was a Reverend and what helped to make the original TV series so popular was Ringo Starr being the narrator!
it is a sense of nostalger. thing like going to the beach on the train as a kid or running for the last train home on a saturday night as a teenager after a night on the town
I still love going on stream trains as not only do I love the sound, noise and smell of them, which is visceral, many of the lines run though some stunningly beautiful countryside too. There are lots of heritage stream train lines all across the UK, including a few near you in Kent, like the spa valley railway and the bluebell line - could be a good outing for an A&N video.
I used to live by next to our heritage steam railway line. Got to see them multiple times a week. Then I met my bloke. He's Welsh & comes from a town called Tywyn. This has a heritage railway called the Tal y Llyn. His dad was part of the movement to get it all restored & actually ran it & did many roles in national & International heritage railway over many years. He received an MBE for services to heritage railway. He also had a hand in helping to restore the East Lancs Railway which is the one I lived next to. Small world, right? First time my bloke stayed at mine we decided to ride the steam train. Got to the station & got chatting to the station master & mentioned FIL. Turns out FIL had his own actual fan base & we got to ride free! We've now moved & live about a 2 min walk from the ELR, so we still see & hear the trains all the time. Been together 17 years & they gradually hook you in. Been on Tal y Llyn a fair bit & dropped FIL name whilst visiting York Railway Museum which led to some rather impressed workers. Sadly lost my FIL in 2017 to cancer. His ashes are buried in a memorial garden for the railway workers at Bryn Glas which is a station on Tal y Llyn. His wife passed in 2018 & her ashes are there too, as are my SIL's who passed in 2020. When the steam railway people get together they can be a really lovely community.
I talked to my great-aunt, who was born in 1918 in the Midlands, about this. They didn't have cars, so trains were vitally important to get from place to place, but more importantly it was how they moved products. Ordering things was a part of life, since there were a lot of things that weren't available locally. So you waited for them to arrive on the train. So if the trains were running, it was important. She also told me that in her small village, the train only stopped a couple of times a week. Good topic.
Doncaster station as an 8 year old around 1980 and seeing an InterCity 125 blat through at 125mph was phenomenal. You didn't just hear it, you felt it... in your chest and bones.
I remember seeing one blast through at our local-ish station when I was probably around that age too. My Dad had a Hornby trainset (which was technically mine too) and as we were heading into the city, I persuaded him to buy a model of the 125 for it.
@@Elwaves2925 I would regularly catch 125s from Paddington to Reading. Through Slough at 125mph (best way). Proper Valenta (original) engined machines that were far more vocal than the later re-engined MTU units.
Yay, at last a train video Alanna. Trains are among my very first memories when my brothers would walk me in the pram down to watch them go by at the local railway line or mum taking us by train to St. Albans for the day. Railways are never to far away in the UK and can take you on a fun journey to another part of the country in no time at all. I hope you get to take a few fun trips on the trains yourself this summer Miss Naps. Choo Choo 👧🚂🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃☺
When i was a kid i was taken to the near by train station and watched trains go by and i really enjoyed it. Now i have a young 3 year old i take him to the local station and he loves it, waves at them as they go by, the trains honk back and he laughs. Yeah stuff like that stays with you.
An interesting take on this subject. Both my grandfathers were railwaymen. There are several working railway museums in my area, run mostly by volunteers. Disused tracks are often turned into bridleways. The Marriotts Way runs from Norwich to a village called Whitwell where there's a museum and cafe. There's also a monument dedicated to the troops who boarded the train at Whitwell to travel to the front in WW1. I doubt many came back. I can see why people might be interested in steam trains but trainspotting is beyond my comprehension.
You might as well ask, "Why are Americans obsessed with cowboys and baseball? Why are Italians obsessed with opera? Why are the French obsessed with wine and food?"
Oh no, this reminds me that I am so old! One of my earliest memories is of standing on a bridge and a steam train passing under me with the smoke and the heat coming from the stack. Now I am a tram driver and we have our own obsessed fans, we call them tramaraks! Great video.
As a commuter I dont love trains but I do love the old steam trains such wonderful peices of engineering. Another childhod kids prgramme that features a train and a train song was Chigley.
Super video Alanna. Count me in as someone who actively enjoys the experience of taking the train to get to a desrtination. There's just so much to see out of the window that you miss in a car on the motorway or in a plane. And yes, the stations, the locomotives & carriages, the connections - they're all part of the experience.
Classic British films, The Railway Children and Brief Encounter, involved trains or train stations. Same with many TV Dramas. The UK’s size doesn’t lend itself to flying, and trains were the most economical way to travel longer distances. A train journey can be like your favourite, or worst, flight, but on land.
My late father's apprenticeship was in a Rail Engineering Works. He told me stories from that time. Also as a child I used to watch "Casey Jones" TV series, about a Steam Engine driver's weekly adventures.
Alanna, I would like to recommend a charming film which I think you would really enjoy. It is The Railway Children from 1970. A charming classic and I'm sure you will love it.
My late aunt Elsie lived so close to the railway that teacups used to vibrate in their saucers when a train went past her back kitchen. My own house is also pretty close and when I moved into it in 1979, I used to be awoken at night by trains from the Milford Haven oil refineries but soon became used to them and slept like a log through the clatter.
Alanna, there are many train and tram enthusiasts worldwide. In the US, they're called railfans. Last year my husband and I spent a week in Switzerland riding all sorts of rail (inclines, rack rail, trams, trains, etc). Didn't even scratch the surface. Hurrah for rail!
Trains brought in the modern age. Able to move people faster from A to B. People got to experience the world go past them. An experience of a speeding up of time that changed our experiences for ever. Think of the great train movies. The arrival of a loved ones streaming down the platform, the saying goodbye of loved ones on train station platforms, the train trip itself meeting fellow travellers whilst the countryside goes bye. Such life changing event the Train. Also the future as electric trains enable people to escape cars and reduce their carbon footprint.
I used to love to watch "Casey Jones" (Steamin' and a'rollin'; Casey Jones, you never have to guess; When you hear the tootin' of the whistle; It's Casey at the throttle of the Cannonball Express) an American programme about a cool steam train, which came on usually during the school holidays. Another one was Hammy Hamster's Adventures on the Riverbank, which had live animals acting out scenes, which I was amazed to discover recently was Canadian and not British. Maybe you've heard of it? But I digress... The reason humans get obsessed with stuff, is it gives us something to do between all the eating, drinking and procreation we have to do in order to survive as a species. Also, just watching big things moving very fast is awe-inspiring, whether it's the latest A380 floating in to land at Heathrow or a high speed train. Or a big waterfall for that matter.
One of my first memories (I was 3!) is seeing the last of the Western's (That's an iconic class of diesel!) pulling a railtour (basically the goodbye to the Western's) into York Railway station. For the first time in my life I flew down the stairs without my parents (well, they were behind me, but I wasn't under their control!) and I didn't fall down the stairs. I saw this beautiful throbbing beast right in front of me. I have loved trains ever since.
Very sensible comments Alanna. If we all loved the same thing there would be one heck of a queue for it. The industrial revolution started in Britain, giving the ability to invent these machines, the ideas then being exported. The use of railways led to the urbanization we have now, built around those rail routes. A steam engine is an "inside out" engine, one we can see all the parts, and gives us a good idea of how it works.
I grew up in a railway family, my Dad and older brother both worked for the London Underground. We never had a car and went holiday by train in the summers, train travel was always part of the adventure and that has stuck with me now I'm old, still love travelling by train.
Great video. Trains give you so much access to the country, and the travel experience is so much nicer than a modern airline flight. I can only imagine how liberating they were in the mid 1800's, when the only realistic alternatives for domestic travel were horses or just walking.
Public transport has always been much more central to our lives than it is perhaps across the ponds. Thre is still a sense when you get on a train of going on an adventure or going on holiday. It's not just trains. When I pass a coach I have the urge to get on and go, even without knowing where it's going. You get on and for a few hours it's like leaving all your troubles behind. This doesn't include daily commutes though, those are just tedious.
The childhood angle certainly carries a lot of weight. Until the 50s pretty much all holiday journeys were taken by train to resort towns around the UK. The scale of steam locomotives in particular also makes them very child friendly when it comes to explaining how they work, you can see all the components and how they fit together. Steam locomotives are also a very expressive kind of machine, they're loud and somewhat unpredictable, it's no coincidence that many enthusiasts describe them as living things. And I think it's in that context that trainspotting makes sense as a trend. Its taken now as a catch all for enthusiasts, but way back when it was a fad. For a time kids stood on bridges and platforms collecting locomotive names and numbers just like Pokemon cards. And the timing of that fad was fortunate. When British Rail sent its last steam engines for scrap the trainspotters were reaching maturity and in their thousands they croudfunded the rescue of 300 ish locomotives from scrapyards. The best bit is that at the same time BR cut a bunch of unprofitable branchlines, many of which were also bought up for these trains to run on. So to this day Britain has lots of everyday trains yes, but we also have lots of heritage lines, railways that are run purely as tourist attractions where that enthusiasm gets passed on to the next generation and the next.
I commuted to London by train for 25+ years, so they were kind of necessary - they were (over)crowded, dirty and usually late and when I stopped commuting I breathed a massive sigh of relief. Yet now they're quite a novelty and when I had to get to Edinburgh last year I actually made a point of getting the one meandering train per day that goes all the way from my station in Guildford up to Scotland, just so I could say I'd done it - I was the only person going all the way and the guard on board thought I was mad, although even he didn't do the whole trip as it took so long they had a crew change at York. I thoroughly enjoyed it!!
I have fond memories of train travel with my parents as a child and back and forth journeys home when I was in the Brit Army. I think there is a kind of charm and adventure to rail travel, although I am not a train anorak by any means. Plus, it's nice not have to navigate, worry about other cars or traffic situations.
Love your videos! As touched on in a previous comment a great reason for this love of trains is the 'train set' which is a gift given to youngsters of a train and track with an electrical power source (usually mains supply using a 'transformer' directly into the track). I'm not sure how popular these are today but when I grew up in the sixties they were very popular. Many adults are also hooked; often building huge intricate tracks which duplicate the real thing.
I just love the old steam locomotives; like huge mechanical dinosaurs. One of my greatest memories from my more adult years, was travelling from Southend (where I lived at the time) all the way to Gloucester on the fabulous Duke of Gloucester Locomotive. We grew up with railways being an important part of our day to day life. They are a relaxing form of travel - unless you're a commuter and they are running late or one has been cancelled.
Not trains as such but Sir Rod Stewart spends a great deal of his spare time on building and using his model trains.Apparently his model train layouts are very detailed and extensive. Another obsession!
Hiya Alanna, my Uncle Alan was a train driver, Uncle Alan went on the royal Scot before it was retired, the train was going from Glasgow Central to London Euston, Uncle Alan done the Carlisle to Crewe leg of the journey, and I got the commemorative hat that He wore, until my Nanna gave it away, on a different note, My 3x times Uncle (don't know his name) helped to build the Titanic, the 3x great uncle worked for a crane company in Carlisle called Cowan and Sheldon, the 3x great uncle (plus a few others) laid the Railways in Argentina, this is Choppy in Whitehaven, Cumbria, England
My earliest memory of involvement in trains is a art project of Stephenson Rocket, and it was amazing. Lived within 150m of the Great Western line, infact it was 2 large back gardens, a row of houses, a road, another row of houses a large garden then the railway. Far enough away to not notice the trains but close enough to hear the occasional steam train and there was a railway station 5 minutes away down a railway lane, from the age of eleven I could go on the trains (late 1978)
One of my best memories of a holiday in Western Canada was travelling on the Rocky Mountaineer from Jasper to Vancouver As you said in the video the journey becomes the experience
I had a train set in my childhood. Loved it and played with it so much it actually eventually wore out. The best family Christmas I ever had was when I persuaded my sister to buy my ten year old nephew a Hornby set as a present. Course, I had to help set it up and get it working.... Video adventure suggestion: look on a map for a disused railway line, go exploring it.
I know this video has been up a while but I needed to let you know - The first full-scale working railway steam locomotive was built by Richard Trevithick in the United Kingdom and, on 21 February 1804, the world's first railway journey took place as Trevithick's unnamed steam locomotive hauled a train along the tramway from the Pen-y-darren ironworks, near Merthyr Tydfil to Abercynon in south Wales.
Great video. From a history perspective: industrialisation, suburbia, bank holidays, package tours (Google Thomas Cook), modern corporate structures, London, development of inland cities in N America, Canadian unification, and many many more things owe a lot to the railways and would either not exist or would probably be substantially different without them. From an interest perspective, they're a form of escapism: the romance of travel, the power of the engineering, the complexity of the systems - not many things unite artists, statisticians, social historians, engineers, environmentalists and industrialists. While passenger rail isn't big in North America, a high percentage of freight in North America uses rail, these differences are as much about physical geography as politics.
I'm from Darlington. The Darlington and Stockton railway is home to the first passenger railway. The steam train to carry passengers was Locomotive No. 1
I made a comment on this about three months ago this is just more thoughts on the subject. One of the big things you don’t get nowadays is the passenger coaches you had then, they were so comfortable being great big benches in your little carriage car, of course the next biggest thing was the sound of these things this was because the rails weren’t welded together then so at each joint the wheels went over a bump which you could hear so on the journey the sound was bumpy, bump, bump in a continues rhythm as you travelled. Then of course was the smell, the smell of the engine smoke, with coal and then the change to coke but the smell outside of course was there in the air as a train went passed, unforgettable, it was almost palpable in the mouth. You must find out where your nearest steam train is and go for a ride. They are quite numerous in the UK, you’ll see and hear and smell what it was like back then. I think I’ve seen on TV that the USA have nostalgic train rides but they looked like everything else there it seams with flags and bands, so they hold nothing of what it was like in the “old” days just a tourists jaunty ride. In the UK the trains are maintained and operated by dedicated enthusiasts and you can ride for miles in them through the British countryside, they are strictly overseen by the rail authority so are completely safe. Go for it you could make a vid about it. Or speak to the organisers and ask whether you can make a vid about their train and rail. Worth a try I bet. Cheers Aah Kid
I live in "Metroland" which was entirely an invention of the Metropolitan Railway (now line) - so the whole train thing is entwined in my personal history. I catch a train to London and arrive in the oldest underground station in the world. It's bound to have an impact on an enquiring mind! 😃
I have loved trains all my life (now in my 60's) My Granddad used to take me to watch trains near to where we lived in London. In 1980 I became a volunteer on one of our British Heritage Railways, I am still a member of the same establishment. Through my volunteer services I have met Royalty, film & TV stars & celebrities, got to drive plenty of trains and made some really good friends. I have also earned some good money working on trains for a period of time since 2009 to 2018. I live right next to the East Coast Main Line (Kings X - Edinburgh) and still love my trains.
Never forget the Hogwarts Express. Trains are a relatively comfortable and efficient way to get around. And it's true they are ubiquitous and, with modernisation, have remained for centuries now. Their benefits are undeniable.
Trains will take you into a city centre, Airports are always miles away from were you want to go. The biggest plus is being to able to travel on short notice just turn up and go.
I think you pretty much covered it. They are also very environmentally friendly, can be faster than cars and planes (sometimes) and are very space efficient. P.S.I just went to both Liverpool and Manchester last weekend for the first time ever (despite being 40 and British) and I was very impressed by both of them. You should totally go!
From a historical perspective, I think it’s difficult to understand now exactly how utterly transformative the coming of the railways was. It bought longer distance travel to the masses. It transformed what foods were available where and other goods too. I saw a history programme where it was pointed out that the road name 'Station Road' is second only to 'High Street'. It even resulted in time-if-day being harmonised across the country. I’m not saying everything about it was good, but it’s impact was absolutely immense.
In the UK few are far from a railway. My lullaby as a 5 or 6 yr old was the distant clanging & banging of goods wagons in the far distance being shunted
You should visit York Alana. Lovely city anyway for a girl that appreciates history with it's medieval city walls and Minster, but it also has the National Railway Museum which partly by virtue of the fact that Britain has the longest history of railways and was at the vanguard of Steam engine technology is absolutely the best Railway museum in the world. Everything is there from really early engines through Queen Victorias personal railway carriage and the great streamlined high speed engines of the 1930s to more modern stuff. These aren't models and pictures they're the actual things, It's a big place but you can get right next to some engines where even the wheels are bigger than you, the magnificence of some of them is breathtaking,
Yes, my mother told me I saw a steam locomotive pulling a couple of coaches slowly along a Branch line in the West Country while we were on holiday (in 1948), it was at a level crossing. I was barely 2 years old. I was so so excited, and thenceforward it was my consuming interest (well, one of them but certainly top of the list!). My father had a model railway in his father's loft around the time of the First War.
My Great Grandfather was a Train Driver in the early to late 1900s here in the UK. Apparently he was treated as a local celebrity in the working class area where he lived. In those days most people rarely travelled further than they could ride their bike. So the train trip to the seaside was an epic adventure and a Train Driver who visited places all over the Country all the time was quite exotic.
The children's novel by John Masefield, "The Box of Delights" starts with Kay Harker travelling home by train for the Christmas holidays.
The idea of a train taking you to the start of an adventure is very much a theme of British children's literature, including, more recently, Harry Potter.
An art critic once said that a steam train is the only piece of heavy machinery that you can put in an oil painting that makes it more picturesque! 🙂
Always wanted a few picture's by that artist who did Elephants and also steam trains.
@@dave_h_8742 David Shepherd?
Steam trains are an essential in most industrial art, (though massive towering factory chimneys usualy feature a lot too!)
That art critic was wrong. What about tug boats?
I remember when Richard Hammond tried to paint a picturesque painting but with a Pagani Zonda in it. Though a nice car, it was not picturesque at all.
To add to the travel context, I think culturally we have fondness for trains, because trains came along for Britain at a time before car ownership was a thing, and really opened up peoples travel possibilities, and specifically made vacations possible. A bit of that persists today. Trains=discovery
Most little boys (and some girls), pretty much as rite of passage, get given a train set for a birthday or Christmas and in many cases they grow up physically but remain little boys at heart and the train set become something of an obsession. On the 18th and 19th of this month The London Festival of Railway Modelling is happening at Alexandra Palace.
The first steam powered railway was built by Cornishman Richard Trevithick between Penydarren (Merthyr Tydfil) and Abercynon in South Wales in 1804 carrying iron ore.
There was a film in 1970 called “The Railway Children” which will have been part of a lot of people’s childhood.
It starred a young Jenny Agutter (Call the Midwife) and also had Bernard Cribbins (Dr Who) as a porter called Mr Perks in it.
There is also a New DVD called the Railway Children Return, which is also worth a watch
Oh yes ! Classic I grew up watching and watched with my kids 👍
Anyone who doesn't shed a tear watching THAT scene is clinically dead.
@@geoffpoole483 “Daddy. My Daddy!”?
@@geoffpoole483
Bury me now 😂😂😂
To be honest I live in Dundee and for no reason whatsover on a day off work I will get a day return to Edinburgh just to go over the Tay Rail Bridge and the Forth Rail Bridge and see the beautiful Fife scenery in between..... just because I can.
As someone who grew up in a railway family, along with watching Thomas/reading the books its nice to hear someone take a positive note on the hobby. Used to being mocked for it but as you say everyone has an interest & that's what makes us all unique. Then again I just like old mechanical things anyway, how they work so on. I will say that we have some of the most scenic railways out there & I love sitting back watching the world go by, music in & escape reality for a while. Great video
Well said bud!
The World's first passenger railway was the Stockton and Darlington Railway which opened in 1825. The Bicentennial is coming up in 2025. I was there for the 150th celebration in 1975 and, God willing, I intend to be back in Darlington for that. 😀
Ivor the Engine was my choice as a child. It must’ve had some influence on me as I worked on a railway for forty years. Great video Alanna.
And you liked Dragons too
Good call....if only PAN PIANO done a cover like she did for ..THOMAS & FRIENDS ...now that be a outfit and a half ?
@@dave_h_8742 Noggin the Nog too!
Oliver Postgate was a master of animation. Ivor the Engine is so clever!
i have great memeories of watching Ivor as a child with my dad
When I visited England a couple f years ago there were stacks of books/magazines about trains in a normal supermarket next to the bread and eggs!
I saw your video title, and immediately thought “well, we did invent them”.
In my case, interest in trains is genetic, my grandfather used to drive trains. I was a railway enthusiast from the age or two or three. I was already interested in trains before I started reading the Thomas the Tank Engine books. I once saw the Reverend Audrey (the creator of the Thomas books) in person at a model railway exhibition in Nottingham in the 1980s, where he was exhibiting his layout.
and the web, computers, vaccines, jet engines. All the things that changed the world.
@@SnabbKassa Telephones, television, light-bulbs, too.
Theres also a lot of heritage railways about that most of us went to as kids, and still do as adults. We have hundreds of ride on miniature railways of all sizes all over the place in parks and gardens. Railways just are in all of our lives and steam in particular has a sole, it has to drink water, eat coal, its alive, and that same feeling to some degree carries over to diesels and electrics
There was another train based cartoon way back when, it was called "Ivor the Engine" & was based in Wales.
It was done by the same people who did "Noggin the Nog". 😃
My son lives in Falmouth (Cornwall) and I live in Plymouth. Sometimes I drive but, often I go by train (return ticket about £10), because not only is it cheaper than driving, but the scenery is beautiful, the trains are never busy - pure relaxation. I'm not a train or steam engine nut, but my dad taught me about steam engines when I was a kid and I've actually built several of them.
PS. Great video Alanna!
I go to Falmouth most years for a holiday and wouldn’t dream of going by anything but train. Especially for the line from Truro to Falmouth
i live in plymouth too!...plymouth in minnesota 🤭
I think part of it is that the country is so small and trains were so ubiquitous until 25 years ago that you saw them everywhere. Almost every small town had a station, train tracks ran alongside many roads, and railway crossings were common in towns and cities all over the country. Before we all owned cars, it was possible to walk to the local train station, take a short ride on a train to get your grocery shopping, and be home again in a less time that it takes today to drive.
If you haven't already this summer pop down to the other end of Kent and take a ride on the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch railway.
I haven't yet! I'll add it to the list ☺️
@@AdventuresAndNaps been on the Hythe railway when my children were pre school and loved it. Stopped for ice cream and children playing on sea front at Romney then back to Hythe on the railway. It's a mini railway with scale down steam engines also they have a Thomas tank engine day which scale down Thomas tank engine and other engine's from the books are used 😀. Obviously been on the Hythe railway a few times also Stan laural a comedian of laural and hardy was a fan of Hythe railway.
My dad absolutely LOVES trains. He goes trainspotting and even ran his own business selling model trains at one point. My mam thinks it may be because, years ago, lots of working class people didn't have much money and therefore collecting train numbers in a pocket book was a common hobby.
I am a train enthusiast - don't know how it started but I did read all the Revd W Awdrey's books as a child (too old for the TV series). I love Canadian Trains and have made several trips to Canada to travel on the trains. One of the best things that I've ever done was a nine day tour of the British Columbia Railway system in a chartered train in 2001 from Vancouver to such places as Prince George, Fort St James, Fort St John and Fort Nelson - way up north in Cariboo Country. I went on another three day charter in British Columbia in 2005 from Prince Rupert to Squamish. These tours were organised by the West Coast Railway Association of Squamish, British Columbia. They have a huge Heritage Park (Railway Museum) at Squamish and I remain a life member of the association. Other favourite trips have been Sault Ste Marie to Hearst on the Algoma Central and Sept Iles to Schefferville on the Quebec, North Shore and Labrador. Canadian trains are magnificent. Although there are fewer passenger trains in Canada than there are here in UK, the railway engineering and the scenery are awesome. You really don't know what you've been missing. BTW I got around in Canada using trains and buses - never used a car - I'd be afraid to drive there as it's on the wrong (for me) side of the road and the rules are so different.
I am not a train nut, but I do live close to Stockton and Darlington. The Darlington Railway Museum is well worth a visit. Very near me is The Causey Arch Bridge the world's oldest single arch railway bridge opened in 1727 before steam trains were invented, when horses were used to pull the carriages and they were filled with coal and iron.
Hi Alanna, I think one area you missed, was the Architecture, so many different styles, so grand, often as big as a cathedral, with similar details. And its not just the stations, but the bridges, and viaducts, tunnels probably less so, until you look at the Tube. Also the art work, examples the tiling on the Tube.
The Hotels, at each of the grand stations there are beautiful, grand hotels built by the railways.
So many great pubs, mostly called 'the Railway'
The wonderful clocks, we have the railways to thank for having the same time across the country, so all (most) of those grand clocks in town centres are due to the railways.
I think its also why we understand 24 hour (military) time.
Across Canada there is a chain of hotels that were put in along the Trans-Canada rail line to encourage travel. They are quite beautiful. The London train stations are magnificent, and the hotels attached to them are their crowning glory. In North America,the stations - except at a major terminus are pretty plain and open - same in Australia. You will sometimes hear North Americans or Australians commenting on the scale of English railway stations, not realising that even in a town station, the roofs were so high and grand to be able to cope with the volume of steam and smoke put out by the trains. A forty foot or higher ceiling was just a necessity.
Did anyone else put old penny's on the tracks. I used to do it at Heaton junction Newcastle,. When I was a kid
Nice video Alanna. The reason I love train travel is I don't have to drive on long journies and can read a book, go online, chat and relax. It's just so much less stressful and safer than driving on motorways too. It's often quicker as well. What I don't love is the cost of train travel in the UK compared to the rest of Europe. It's ridiculously expensive in that regard.
I grew up in Shepherds Bush in West London and at the end of our street was a coal yard / railway sidings. Every morning I would hear the clinking and clanking of the coal wagons and other freight box cars being shunted onto various tracks.
The railway yard is no longer there as they built the huge Westfield shopping Mall on the site. Yes even in my 60s trains still fascinate me. Your video was great. Thanks.
For the past 20 years I've lived next to a railway line. When I moved a few years ago I specifically chose my current home because it was next to a train station as I find the sound of the trains very familiar and comforting. When I was a kid I loved travelling on trains as it always felt like an adventure, so there's definitely the nostalgia aspect too.
What I look forward to most when visiting the UK from the US is the opportunity to trave by train.
I didn't go on trains that much as a kid but I still grew up to love them. I've had some great times on trains and met some fascinating people. You have time to relax and chat on a train. They make the journey as enjoyable as the destination.
I am an American and was a railroad employee along with several family members. I first got interested in railroads as a child. I have also been to the U.K. twice.
I have found that people both in the United States and Great Britain (but especially Great Britain) are interested in varying degrees. At the very least, those aware of my interest have responded well to the extent of wanting to learn more.
It is true that the more exposed one is to railways, and the greater relevance there is in daily life, the greater the likelihood of developing an interest in the subject.
The thing I have difficulty understanding why people do it is trainspotting, which is writing down numeric identifiers from passing trains and checking these off in books to document what one has seen. I expressed this at the breakfast table at the bed & breakfast I stayed at last trip. The owner said she did trainspotting when she was still a full-time student. It's something to do.
I will try to contribute to answering your history question. Richard Trevithick is credited with inventing the first steam locomotive. The Stockton & Darlington was the first "public" railway, meaning anyone could contract to ship or travel using steam locomotives or horses, basically paying "toll" to use the railway. The Liverpool & Manchester I believe was the first railway to operate exclusively with steam locomotives with only their own employees, as do modern railways.
I highly recommend visiting the Bluebell Railway, a volunteer-run steam railway. Take a "normal" train to East Grinstead and walk a few hundred feet to the Bluebell Railway's station.
the growth of the standard gauge heritage railway sector since the early days of the Bluebell and the Middleton railway in Leeds has been nothing short of amazing plus a nod to a certain scrapyard in Barry
Trains were the highest tech travel of their day, getting bigger & more powerful etc, this captures the human imagination.
From my area alone , 5 trainloads of strawberries EACH DAY went to London in the summers.
Thanks Alanna! 🙏🙏
As a Trainspotter Enthusiast from London, this was amazing! Thank You For Sharing :)
Liverpool has many historical links to early railways, I think that's what has always drawn me to them. But yes, some of my fondest childhood memories was my mum taking us as kids on the train to New Brighton. Wonderful days!
They are talking in Liverpool about re-opening one of the stations for the first passenger train service to Manchester, but with a different name (as it's being used) as the demand is there for that area of outer Liverpool.
Presented like an enthusiastic trainee trainspotter. Thanks for the interest and information.
Great video, Alanna. If you fancy a very British day out the London Festival of Railway Modelling 2023 is on at Alexandra Palace the weekend after next. If that doesn't make you a railway enthusiast, nothing will! Also great views of London from Ally Pally, if you haven't been there yet.
My grandad was a signalman all his life, my 2 uncles were a train driver (and he part-owned a steam train) and a rail engineer. I was brought up in a train family so I loved trains. Then, I spent almost 10 years working in London using Southeastern and now, I despise the bloody things...
Lol, even living in the middle of nowhere in West Wales, I've heard of the Southeastern' errr lack of decent service. :)
Ah yes, the benefits of railway privatisation… 😂
God i miss BR. Even though train was late it was great fun joking about BR and the overpriced can of stout in the service carriage. It was definitely more fun before privatisation and then became depressing.
"She's got a ticket to ride, and she don't care!"
Train journeys have a particular sense of security. It's like halfway down the stairs. You're not in the place you've come from and you're not in the place you're going to - you're inbetween, in limbo with all responsibilities suspended. There's the comforting rhythmic clattering; you can eat egg sandwiches; and you can look out the window as well 🤗
I am not a train buff but I really do like traveling on them. It is a major mode of publci transit in this country which is not true in Canada or North America in general.
Many British men of a certain age are fond of trains because public information films in the 70's told us if we get too close to the platform edge you could get sucked off. Americans and Canadians don't like train because when you get to a level crossing it takes an hour for the train to pass.
As Tom Gowen suggested take a look at Geoff Marshall’s UA-cam channel, especially the ‘All the Stations’ series (if you don’t want to watch all the videos there is an hour long documentary about the series) for how and why the British love trains. Btw as for Thomas the Tank engine Awdrey senior was a Reverend and what helped to make the original TV series so popular was Ringo Starr being the narrator!
it is a sense of nostalger. thing like going to the beach on the train as a kid or running for the last train home on a saturday night as a teenager after a night on the town
I still love going on stream trains as not only do I love the sound, noise and smell of them, which is visceral, many of the lines run though some stunningly beautiful countryside too.
There are lots of heritage stream train lines all across the UK, including a few near you in Kent, like the spa valley railway and the bluebell line - could be a good outing for an A&N video.
I used to live by next to our heritage steam railway line. Got to see them multiple times a week. Then I met my bloke. He's Welsh & comes from a town called Tywyn. This has a heritage railway called the Tal y Llyn. His dad was part of the movement to get it all restored & actually ran it & did many roles in national & International heritage railway over many years. He received an MBE for services to heritage railway. He also had a hand in helping to restore the East Lancs Railway which is the one I lived next to. Small world, right?
First time my bloke stayed at mine we decided to ride the steam train. Got to the station & got chatting to the station master & mentioned FIL. Turns out FIL had his own actual fan base & we got to ride free!
We've now moved & live about a 2 min walk from the ELR, so we still see & hear the trains all the time. Been together 17 years & they gradually hook you in. Been on Tal y Llyn a fair bit & dropped FIL name whilst visiting York Railway Museum which led to some rather impressed workers.
Sadly lost my FIL in 2017 to cancer. His ashes are buried in a memorial garden for the railway workers at Bryn Glas which is a station on Tal y Llyn. His wife passed in 2018 & her ashes are there too, as are my SIL's who passed in 2020.
When the steam railway people get together they can be a really lovely community.
I talked to my great-aunt, who was born in 1918 in the Midlands, about this. They didn't have cars, so trains were vitally important to get from place to place, but more importantly it was how they moved products. Ordering things was a part of life, since there were a lot of things that weren't available locally. So you waited for them to arrive on the train. So if the trains were running, it was important. She also told me that in her small village, the train only stopped a couple of times a week. Good topic.
Hiya Richard, is your great Auntie still alive?
Doncaster station as an 8 year old around 1980 and seeing an InterCity 125 blat through at 125mph was phenomenal.
You didn't just hear it, you felt it... in your chest and bones.
I remember seeing one blast through at our local-ish station when I was probably around that age too. My Dad had a Hornby trainset (which was technically mine too) and as we were heading into the city, I persuaded him to buy a model of the 125 for it.
@@Elwaves2925
I would regularly catch 125s from Paddington to Reading.
Through Slough at 125mph (best way).
Proper Valenta (original) engined machines that were far more vocal than the later re-engined MTU units.
"This is the age of the train"
And Lewis 72 never did "hunker" down in a hedge on the side of the Sulby straight as a Nipper ..Bless him
@@tonypate9174
??
Yay, at last a train video Alanna. Trains are among my very first memories when my brothers would walk me in the pram down to watch them go by at the local railway line or mum taking us by train to St. Albans for the day. Railways are never to far away in the UK and can take you on a fun journey to another part of the country in no time at all. I hope you get to take a few fun trips on the trains yourself this summer Miss Naps. Choo Choo 👧🚂🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃🚃☺
Thanks so much Howard!
Always went on holidays via trains.
I find this topic very interesting and look foward to more discussion on the subject!
When i was a kid i was taken to the near by train station and watched trains go by and i really enjoyed it. Now i have a young 3 year old i take him to the local station and he loves it, waves at them as they go by, the trains honk back and he laughs. Yeah stuff like that stays with you.
An interesting take on this subject. Both my grandfathers were railwaymen. There are several working railway museums in my area, run mostly by volunteers. Disused tracks are often turned into bridleways. The Marriotts Way runs from Norwich to a village called Whitwell where there's a museum and cafe. There's also a monument dedicated to the troops who boarded the train at Whitwell to travel to the front in WW1. I doubt many came back. I can see why people might be interested in steam trains but trainspotting is beyond my comprehension.
You might as well ask, "Why are Americans obsessed with cowboys and baseball? Why are Italians obsessed with opera? Why are the French obsessed with wine and food?"
Oh no, this reminds me that I am so old! One of my earliest memories is of standing on a bridge and a steam train passing under me with the smoke and the heat coming from the stack. Now I am a tram driver and we have our own obsessed fans, we call them tramaraks! Great video.
As a commuter I dont love trains but I do love the old steam trains such wonderful peices of engineering. Another childhod kids prgramme that features a train and a train song was Chigley.
Super video Alanna. Count me in as someone who actively enjoys the experience of taking the train to get to a desrtination. There's just so much to see out of the window that you miss in a car on the motorway or in a plane. And yes, the stations, the locomotives & carriages, the connections - they're all part of the experience.
Thanks Stuart! 🥳
Unless it's a pacer train 😀
🚃🚃🚃🚃
@@dave_h_8742 Half train, half bus - if nothing else, they were unique.
Most children not so long ago hankered after a train set and nostalgia is a big selling point for many of them.
I was born and brought up in Clapham Junction, that’s why (and Geoff Marshall).
Classic British films, The Railway Children and Brief Encounter, involved trains or train stations. Same with many TV Dramas. The UK’s size doesn’t lend itself to flying, and trains were the most economical way to travel longer distances. A train journey can be like your favourite, or worst, flight, but on land.
My late father's apprenticeship was in a Rail Engineering Works. He told me stories from that time. Also as a child I used to watch "Casey Jones" TV series, about a Steam Engine driver's weekly adventures.
Alanna, I would like to recommend a charming film which I think you would really enjoy. It is The Railway Children from 1970. A charming classic and I'm sure you will love it.
My late aunt Elsie lived so close to the railway that teacups used to vibrate in their saucers when a train went past her back kitchen. My own house is also pretty close and when I moved into it in 1979, I used to be awoken at night by trains from the Milford Haven oil refineries but soon became used to them and slept like a log through the clatter.
Alanna, there are many train and tram enthusiasts worldwide. In the US, they're called railfans. Last year my husband and I spent a week in Switzerland riding all sorts of rail (inclines, rack rail, trams, trains, etc). Didn't even scratch the surface. Hurrah for rail!
I'm a Canadian that loves trains. Should I take this as a sign to move to the UK? I think so.
You'll love it and be made welcome my American light friend✌️
Trains brought in the modern age. Able to move people faster from A to B. People got to experience the world go past them. An experience of a speeding up of time that changed our experiences for ever. Think of the great train movies. The arrival of a loved ones streaming down the platform, the saying goodbye of loved ones on train station platforms, the train trip itself meeting fellow travellers whilst the countryside goes bye. Such life changing event the Train. Also the future as electric trains enable people to escape cars and reduce their carbon footprint.
Railways have contributed so much to our architectural heritage, and that’s before you get into the beauty of steam engines themselves.
Interrail tickets, especially first class ones, I would highly recommend.
I used to love to watch "Casey Jones" (Steamin' and a'rollin'; Casey Jones, you never have to guess; When you hear the tootin' of the whistle; It's Casey at the throttle of the Cannonball Express) an American programme about a cool steam train, which came on usually during the school holidays.
Another one was Hammy Hamster's Adventures on the Riverbank, which had live animals acting out scenes, which I was amazed to discover recently was Canadian and not British. Maybe you've heard of it? But I digress...
The reason humans get obsessed with stuff, is it gives us something to do between all the eating, drinking and procreation we have to do in order to survive as a species.
Also, just watching big things moving very fast is awe-inspiring, whether it's the latest A380 floating in to land at Heathrow or a high speed train. Or a big waterfall for that matter.
I volunteer on a heritage railway, so trains must be cool!
You do?? That's pretty cool
One of my first memories (I was 3!) is seeing the last of the Western's (That's an iconic class of diesel!) pulling a railtour (basically the goodbye to the Western's) into York Railway station. For the first time in my life I flew down the stairs without my parents (well, they were behind me, but I wasn't under their control!) and I didn't fall down the stairs. I saw this beautiful throbbing beast right in front of me. I have loved trains ever since.
Yay 🎉 so happy for you Alanna. Glad the stress can end and you can focus on your trio back to see your family.
Very sensible comments Alanna.
If we all loved the same thing there would be one heck of a queue for it.
The industrial revolution started in Britain, giving the ability to invent these machines, the ideas then being exported. The use of railways led to the urbanization we have now, built around those rail routes.
A steam engine is an "inside out" engine, one we can see all the parts, and gives us a good idea of how it works.
I grew up in a railway family, my Dad and older brother both worked for the London Underground. We never had a car and went holiday by train in the summers, train travel was always part of the adventure and that has stuck with me now I'm old, still love travelling by train.
Great video. Trains give you so much access to the country, and the travel experience is so much nicer than a modern airline flight. I can only imagine how liberating they were in the mid 1800's, when the only realistic alternatives for domestic travel were horses or just walking.
Totally agree!
It definitely shrank the world! Introduction of the Bank holiday many classes traveling to sea front
One of the iconic sounds of my childhood was the sound of the Westinghouse brake pump
Public transport has always been much more central to our lives than it is perhaps across the ponds. Thre is still a sense when you get on a train of going on an adventure or going on holiday. It's not just trains. When I pass a coach I have the urge to get on and go, even without knowing where it's going. You get on and for a few hours it's like leaving all your troubles behind. This doesn't include daily commutes though, those are just tedious.
2023 the year Alanna dons a notepad and pen, binoculars and flask of tea with selfies on platforms up and down the UK. 😂
The childhood angle certainly carries a lot of weight. Until the 50s pretty much all holiday journeys were taken by train to resort towns around the UK. The scale of steam locomotives in particular also makes them very child friendly when it comes to explaining how they work, you can see all the components and how they fit together. Steam locomotives are also a very expressive kind of machine, they're loud and somewhat unpredictable, it's no coincidence that many enthusiasts describe them as living things. And I think it's in that context that trainspotting makes sense as a trend. Its taken now as a catch all for enthusiasts, but way back when it was a fad. For a time kids stood on bridges and platforms collecting locomotive names and numbers just like Pokemon cards.
And the timing of that fad was fortunate. When British Rail sent its last steam engines for scrap the trainspotters were reaching maturity and in their thousands they croudfunded the rescue of 300 ish locomotives from scrapyards. The best bit is that at the same time BR cut a bunch of unprofitable branchlines, many of which were also bought up for these trains to run on. So to this day Britain has lots of everyday trains yes, but we also have lots of heritage lines, railways that are run purely as tourist attractions where that enthusiasm gets passed on to the next generation and the next.
I commuted to London by train for 25+ years, so they were kind of necessary - they were (over)crowded, dirty and usually late and when I stopped commuting I breathed a massive sigh of relief. Yet now they're quite a novelty and when I had to get to Edinburgh last year I actually made a point of getting the one meandering train per day that goes all the way from my station in Guildford up to Scotland, just so I could say I'd done it - I was the only person going all the way and the guard on board thought I was mad, although even he didn't do the whole trip as it took so long they had a crew change at York. I thoroughly enjoyed it!!
Look for your local Steam Train line, I think your nearest will be The Bluebell line in Kent, worth a visit in Spring or Summer 😉
think Bluebell might even be in sussex
I have fond memories of train travel with my parents as a child and back and forth journeys home when I was in the Brit Army.
I think there is a kind of charm and adventure to rail travel, although I am not a train anorak by any means.
Plus, it's nice not have to navigate, worry about other cars or traffic situations.
Love your videos!
As touched on in a previous comment a great reason for this love of trains is the 'train set' which is a gift given to youngsters of a train and track with an electrical power source (usually mains supply using a 'transformer' directly into the track). I'm not sure how popular these are today but when I grew up in the sixties they were very popular.
Many adults are also hooked; often building huge intricate tracks which duplicate the real thing.
I just love the old steam locomotives; like huge mechanical dinosaurs. One of my greatest memories from my more adult years, was travelling from Southend (where I lived at the time) all the way to Gloucester on the fabulous Duke of Gloucester Locomotive. We grew up with railways being an important part of our day to day life. They are a relaxing form of travel - unless you're a commuter and they are running late or one has been cancelled.
Not trains as such but Sir Rod Stewart spends a great deal of his spare time on building and using his model trains.Apparently his model train layouts are very detailed and extensive. Another obsession!
Hiya Alanna, my Uncle Alan was a train driver, Uncle Alan went on the royal Scot before it was retired, the train was going from Glasgow Central to London Euston, Uncle Alan done the Carlisle to Crewe leg of the journey, and I got the commemorative hat that He wore, until my Nanna gave it away, on a different note, My 3x times Uncle (don't know his name) helped to build the Titanic, the 3x great uncle worked for a crane company in Carlisle called Cowan and Sheldon, the 3x great uncle (plus a few others) laid the Railways in Argentina, this is Choppy in Whitehaven, Cumbria, England
My earliest memory of involvement in trains is a art project of Stephenson Rocket, and it was amazing.
Lived within 150m of the Great Western line, infact it was 2 large back gardens, a row of houses, a road, another row of houses a large garden then the railway. Far enough away to not notice the trains but close enough to hear the occasional steam train and there was a railway station 5 minutes away down a railway lane, from the age of eleven I could go on the trains (late 1978)
One of my best memories of a holiday in Western Canada was travelling on the Rocky Mountaineer from Jasper to Vancouver
As you said in the video the journey becomes the experience
I had a train set in my childhood. Loved it and played with it so much it actually eventually wore out.
The best family Christmas I ever had was when I persuaded my sister to buy my ten year old nephew a Hornby set as a present. Course, I had to help set it up and get it working....
Video adventure suggestion: look on a map for a disused railway line, go exploring it.
I know this video has been up a while but I needed to let you know - The first full-scale working railway steam locomotive was built by Richard Trevithick in the United Kingdom and, on 21 February 1804, the world's first railway journey took place as Trevithick's unnamed steam locomotive hauled a train along the tramway from the Pen-y-darren ironworks, near Merthyr Tydfil to Abercynon in south Wales.
Great video.
From a history perspective: industrialisation, suburbia, bank holidays, package tours (Google Thomas Cook), modern corporate structures, London, development of inland cities in N America, Canadian unification, and many many more things owe a lot to the railways and would either not exist or would probably be substantially different without them.
From an interest perspective, they're a form of escapism: the romance of travel, the power of the engineering, the complexity of the systems - not many things unite artists, statisticians, social historians, engineers, environmentalists and industrialists.
While passenger rail isn't big in North America, a high percentage of freight in North America uses rail, these differences are as much about physical geography as politics.
As a Brit I had a train set as a child. But since then I've never watched Thomas, rarely travel on them and think about them even less.
Ditto!
I'm from Darlington. The Darlington and Stockton railway is home to the first passenger railway. The steam train to carry passengers was Locomotive No. 1
I made a comment on this about three months ago this is just more thoughts on the subject.
One of the big things you don’t get nowadays is the passenger coaches you had then, they were so comfortable being great big benches in your little carriage car, of course the next biggest thing was the sound of these things this was because the rails weren’t welded together then so at each joint the wheels went over a bump which you could hear so on the journey the sound was bumpy, bump, bump in a continues rhythm as you travelled. Then of course was the smell, the smell of the engine smoke, with coal and then the change to coke but the smell outside of course was there in the air as a train went passed, unforgettable, it was almost palpable in the mouth. You must find out where your nearest steam train is and go for a ride. They are quite numerous in the UK, you’ll see and hear and smell what it was like back then. I think I’ve seen on TV that the USA have nostalgic train rides but they looked like everything else there it seams with flags and bands, so they hold nothing of what it was like in the “old” days just a tourists jaunty ride. In the UK the trains are maintained and operated by dedicated enthusiasts and you can ride for miles in them through the British countryside, they are strictly overseen by the rail authority so are completely safe. Go for it you could make a vid about it. Or speak to the organisers and ask whether you can make a vid about their train and rail. Worth a try I bet.
Cheers Aah Kid
I live in "Metroland" which was entirely an invention of the Metropolitan Railway (now line) - so the whole train thing is entwined in my personal history. I catch a train to London and arrive in the oldest underground station in the world. It's bound to have an impact on an enquiring mind! 😃
Immortalised by the poetry of the wonderful John Betleman 👍
@@dandare6623 Yes! And his TV documentary (featuring an old schoolfriend's garden being mown on a Sunday morning 😄).
I have loved trains all my life (now in my 60's) My Granddad used to take me to watch trains near to where we lived in London. In 1980 I became a volunteer on one of our British Heritage Railways, I am still a member of the same establishment. Through my volunteer services I have met Royalty, film & TV stars & celebrities, got to drive plenty of trains and made some really good friends. I have also earned some good money working on trains for a period of time since 2009 to 2018. I live right next to the East Coast Main Line (Kings X - Edinburgh) and still love my trains.
Never forget the Hogwarts Express.
Trains are a relatively comfortable and efficient way to get around. And it's true they are ubiquitous and, with modernisation, have remained for centuries now. Their benefits are undeniable.
Hi Alanna, First Postboxes now Trains it's a slippery slope you know.......!X
Ivor the engine you need to watch that was a big part of people's youth in the UK 👍🏻
Trains will take you into a city centre, Airports are always miles away from were you want to go. The biggest plus is being to able to travel on short notice just turn up and go.
I think you pretty much covered it. They are also very environmentally friendly, can be faster than cars and planes (sometimes) and are very space efficient. P.S.I just went to both Liverpool and Manchester last weekend for the first time ever (despite being 40 and British) and I was very impressed by both of them. You should totally go!
From a historical perspective, I think it’s difficult to understand now exactly how utterly transformative the coming of the railways was. It bought longer distance travel to the masses. It transformed what foods were available where and other goods too. I saw a history programme where it was pointed out that the road name 'Station Road' is second only to 'High Street'. It even resulted in time-if-day being harmonised across the country. I’m not saying everything about it was good, but it’s impact was absolutely immense.
In the UK few are far from a railway. My lullaby as a 5 or 6 yr old was the distant clanging & banging of goods wagons in the far distance being shunted
Was waiting for you to say 'let the train take the strain' !
You should visit York Alana. Lovely city anyway for a girl that appreciates history with it's medieval city walls and Minster, but it also has the National Railway Museum which partly by virtue of the fact that Britain has the longest history of railways and was at the vanguard of Steam engine technology is absolutely the best Railway museum in the world. Everything is there from really early engines through Queen Victorias personal railway carriage and the great streamlined high speed engines of the 1930s to more modern stuff. These aren't models and pictures they're the actual things, It's a big place but you can get right next to some engines where even the wheels are bigger than you, the magnificence of some of them is breathtaking,
Yes, my mother told me I saw a steam locomotive pulling a couple of coaches slowly along a Branch line in the West Country while we were on holiday (in 1948), it was at a level crossing. I was barely 2 years old. I was so so excited, and thenceforward it was my consuming interest (well, one of them but certainly top of the list!). My father had a model railway in his father's loft around the time of the First War.