Why are British people obsessed with trains?
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- Опубліковано 20 вер 2024
- As a foreigner living in the UK, I've always found it surprising how many British people seem to love trains! Why?? I know trains are a big part of British culture, but where does the fascination come from? Here's a few reasons I've come up with.. let me know your thoughts in the comments!
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Hey! I'm Alanna - a twenty-something documenting my life as a Canadian living in England.
I share the ups and downs of an expat living abroad and what it's really like living in the UK. It's not always easy, but there's been so many wonderful experiences, too. I post a UA-cam video every Tuesday plus an additional video every Saturday on my Patreon account. I also livestream every Wednesday and Sunday at 5:30pm GMT/BST on Twitch.
Alanna x
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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". 😃
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.
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.
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!
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!
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 🤭
As a former "Trainspotter" I loved this post. But, Alana, you really MUST not say "Railroad" to us Brits !! It's the "Railway" HaHa. (I'm laughing but I DO mean it).
If you get the chance you should go to a Station or close to the Trackside when they have a "Steam Loco Special" putting in an appearance. You might, just might, get to understand what is the real fascination with trains.
Meanwhile as you say it is SO easy to get around Britain by rail.
Keep your lovely Posts comin' .... we all LOVE 'em
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.
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.
"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 🤗
One of the iconic sounds of my childhood was the sound of the Westinghouse brake pump
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.
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
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!
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
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.
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.
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)
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.
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.
Quote from Wikipedia: "Modern rail transport commenced with the British development of the steam locomotive in Merthyr Tidfyl when Richard Trevithick ran a steam locomotive and loaded wagons between Pendarren Ironworks and Abercynon in 1802...."
In 1804 Richard Trevithick invented the first train for a race against two different mine owners in Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales. The train was called the Penyderryn because it was named after the Penyderryn mine.
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
??
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.
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.
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.
There are so many reasons why trains became important in UK life and culture. Towns that had existed for 1000 years or more, suddenly had this connection with the outside world. Goods and people could come and go.
In those days the rail lines were all independent, you couldn’t order a stock locomotive, each was designed and built to be an improvement on the last. There were no cars, no planes, they were a technological marvel and people were fascinated by them, coming out to see new engines that were faster or stronger and would give their rail line the 'accolade' of having the fastest train in the country. - trains like the Flying Scotsman.
While the wealthy might come an go regularly, factory workers might go once a year for their trip to the seaside. Later, it was how sons left to go to WW1, sometimes never to return, sometimes received home physically and mentally damaged, by families who likely had little idea of what injuries they may have suffered after being away for three or four years in a country without phones.
Twenty years later it was where kids were lined up with tags on, to say goodbye to their parents as thee kids were loaded onto trains to go to small towns and villages to live with strangers for the war.
It was where troops were shuffled around the country for WW11, with makeshift cafes run by the Red Cross providing tea and food for the troops. From being sent to Scotland for training and eventually all down to Dover to get on the boats for the invasion. After the war, it was again how they came home. Where tea carts were accompanied by nursing stations, to redress wounds and maybe top up pain killers for soldiers destined for various hospitals around the country.
In peacetime, the trains were more romanticized, the boat-train to Paris, the Orient Express, even just the night train to Scotland was considered quite fancy. As small compartmentalized 'islands' these trains were an ideal setting for a drama, there are many well known crime novels based around trains.
There are also movies like Brief Encounter, - a total classic - that uses a train station as a place where people may be brought together. Even as late as 1963 'the great train robbery' became one of the most celebrated heists in the countries history. Before the railways and post offices changed their security, the Great Train Robbery was the last of its type, in a way, the last day of the highwayman.
Fascination with trains faded as rail lines becomes standardized and locomotives became stock items. And while it may seem a British thing, I see there is always a long line of tourists - many American who travel to Kings Cross station to see platform 9 3/4s.
Possibly the best way to get an idea of how trains were regarded is to go to St Pancras or one of the other London stations, they are built like cathedrals.
If you go out to western Canada especially, you will see the Canadian Pacific hotels, built to encourage rail use, Banff and Lake Louise are two of the better known ones. A couple of trains still run through the Rockies, they are very expensive and the journey is the holiday
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?"
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
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,
Trains in the UK are historically a sign of freedom. 150 years ago towns would have a wakes week when they shut down their mills for a week in summer for maintenance and the workers used the trains to take them to the coast, either on a day trip or to take a holiday. Without trains this would have been impossible as there was no other way to move that many people in the time it took, nor could the workers afford to go away using any other method. Trains opened up the rest of the country to workers who would normally never leave the town they lived in.
Did anyone else put old penny's on the tracks. I used to do it at Heaton junction Newcastle,. When I was a kid
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.
Yay 🎉 so happy for you Alanna. Glad the stress can end and you can focus on your trio back to see your family.
What I look forward to most when visiting the UK from the US is the opportunity to trave by train.
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 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 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
As a Brit:
-we use trains regularly
-Child stories (like you mentioned) such as Thomas or more importantly "Ifor the Engine/Ivor the Engine"
- we invited them
-the inventor of trains, is debated by what you define as a train
Idris the young Dragon. Sleeps in the firebox.
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
It's a lingering sentimentality. An echo of the past ...cherished like so much of our heritage. When the rail came to Britain it opened up travel to ordinary people. Trips to the seaside. It practically invented holidays. It represented freedom and stepping beyond your boundaries. A glimpse into adventure only the upper and upper middle classes had been able to experience before then. Unless they were in the army or navy.
When I was a child, Thomas the Tank Engine did not exist BUT my grandfather was in charge of a railway for the War Department. In the winter, he was on a roster to go into work over the weekend to keep the fires burning low in the steam engines to prevent the boilers freezing. I used to go with him so I was frequently up on the footplate. When I left school, I went to work on the same establishment where my grandfather worked and when it was my break time I often would hop on a steam engine going round to the engine shed and take my break there. My father's brother worked for British Railways and he would take me with him occasionally on a Saturday so I used to ride on the footplate of mainline trains. Many years later I went to work for British Rail and started work as a guard and eventually made my way up to a manager before retiring.
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 have a friend from upstate New York who always buys a week rail card when she comes to the UK. She loves traveling by train here. She even wrote to her local Syracuse newspaper asking why America can't have a national rail network like Britain does. We moan about our rail system but compared to North America, we are really fortunate.
Also, when it comes to beautiful machines, A4 Pacifics are up there with Concorde.
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.
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.
The railways changed the entire social economic nature of the uk. Before the train came, people didn't travel between villages and towns unless they really needed to, because it would take so much longer. It also enabled the industrial revolution to explode as materials and product could be moved much faster than the canal could.
There are many reasons why railways are so popular.
1.
Steam traction was invented here.
2.
After the canal mania there was a railway building mania. Almost every town in the U.K. had a station and most of it was locally funded.
3.
Railways run on humans. No humans no trains and in the historic railway it was particularly labour intense requiring large numbers of people working in concert in a controlled and orderly fashion for a common goal. (Largely)
4.
Riding behind a steam locomotive is like a return to the womb. You are in s soft, warm upholstered environment that sways gently whilst the sound of wheels on rail joints recalls mother's heart beat and the exhaust beat has echoes of mother's breathing.
5.
The amount of visible mechanics on a steam locomotive 1:08 1:08 render its operation much more readily comprehensible than much modern equipment of any sort.
6.
A steam locomotive is almost like a living organism requiring careful tending to keep it functioning.
7.
Older railway equipment pre 1940s very approximately was often beautifully curved and detailed with polished metal parts and colourful with many liveries featuring coloured lining that was a treat for the eye.
I rest my case.
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! 🙏🙏
Just a couple of points. To clear up who invented the Locomotive, it was Richard Trevithick who produced the first Steam Loco however whilst it worked it wasn't very practical as it kept breaking the cast iron rails of the tramway it ran on, however it was the Stephenson's who built the first railways and really accelerated the growth in the practicality of steam locomotives.
You also mentioned the engineering involved in the railways but only in terms of the trains themselves, what is really impressive is when you realise nearly all lines in the UK were built before steam shovels and crains etc. This means all cuttings and embankments were built by men using little more than shovels and wheelbarrows, tunnels were built with black powder explosives and again picks shovels and wheelbarrows and all the stone lined vutting and bridges you see would have been built with hammers, chisels and rudimentary block and tackle. This I believe is the really impressive part of the engineering!
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 have been in love with steam trains since I was 3 year old, ( Iam now 68 ). My Grandparents property backed onto a mineral line running from a local coal mine to the main line. I use to run out and wave to the driver and fireman, who would wave back, and if I was really lucky sound the wisle on the little saddle engine.
"Yes, train museums exist". Well, of course, we have museums for just about everything imaginable. We also love our museums too. There are around 150 heritage railways run by volunteers in the UK, and those are a sort of working museum in their own right.
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!
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
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 love cause my grandad did, he was an engineer and would take me to the city on trains and take me to model railway exhibitions, of course I just like trains but also I feel like I'm honouring his memory with every photo/ video.
2023 the year Alanna dons a notepad and pen, binoculars and flask of tea with selfies on platforms up and down the UK. 😂
Most children not so long ago hankered after a train set and nostalgia is a big selling point for many of them.
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.
I live in Stockton. Where trains first happened, so everyday in the high street at 1pm a train sculpture pops out of giant box and makes loud whistles with steam… I can hear it at home…it’s gotten old really fast!!!! 🚂🚂🚂🚂🚂🚂🚂🚂🚂🚂🚂
Not so much trains around here, but living within a stones throw of multiple RAF stations (and growing up in a military family) it's always been military aircraft for me, and being able to sit in my garden at lunch time and watch the jets (currently the Red Arrows) take off/practice had absolutely nothing to do with why we chose to live in this particular house at all... honest!
Old steam locomotives are cool but that's just my inner nerd enjoying how things work and the clever ways people have devised to move things.
Britain used to have a fully developed rail network, where you could get from any town or village to anywhere in the country! However [thanks to my namesake ] most of these branch lines were axed in the 60s....Alannah you are lucky to live in the South East, most areas have only limited train services...
Presented like an enthusiastic trainee trainspotter. Thanks for the interest and information.
My wife takes the mickey out of my love of trains. You are so on target with all your assumption's - grew up next to a railway (Now called the spa valley on the outskirts of Tunbridge Wells) when it was still in steam in the 60s, enjoyed making models - still do - enjoy visiting railways as far as Australia for the Gulflander and India for the hill railway up to Darjeeling (World heritage site) but the one I have not got to yet is most importantly in the country of your birth! "The Canadian Rocky Mountaineer" - that has got to be one of the best train trips on the planet.
This was cool! The ideas with your videos have been so cool recently, it’s cool that I still find all your videos interesting after watching your content for so long!
Yay, thank you!
That 1830 Liverpool/Manchester railway line you mention was the first solely steam powered *passenger* railway in the world, with signals and standards that are carried over to today (with some tweaks) which is why it's considered 'modern' before that many lines would have horses dragging carts/carriages along the tracks, some with cable systems to give the horses a break for hills, but they didn't span the massive 31 miles that a steam locomotive could. The Manchester teminus is still standing and is part of Mosi (Museum of Science and Industry, so mostly about trains and looms, with a nod to computing and Alan Turing...). It's not connected to anything anymore, but the station has been restored and preserved and they did do a little pootle around the site in very rickety old steam powered 'train' that goes past it, at the Liverpool end the station was converted into a goods yard and survived until the 1970's, although one site along the original route is still in use site is (oldest active passenger railway site in the world), but has been (as one can imagine) massively modernised over the centuries, I think the current building is from the 1970's. It's not big or anything, but most other stops along the route were either closed or relocated. Incidentally, there are 4 train stations carrying thousands of people daily into Central Manchester, all within walking distance of each other ,kinda like a scaled down central London. Manchester is a pretty cool place to visit, as is Liverpool, but also York is a must-do (ironically, home of the National Railway Museum, which is right outside the train station) if we're talking Northern Cities with history, York is top of the list. I'm not a massive train nerd, but they're a big part of the industrial revolution which I am interested in. And, well, Manchester is the *home* of that. Incidentally, also used to be the home of the Bank of England because of it, before they decided that it was probably better off to be in the capital. There are 2 other well known buildings in Manchester tied to the early railways, the Midland hotel (one of the posher ones up here) was at the teminus for the London/Manchester (London end being St Pancras with what was The Grand Midland Hotel, because... London = more grand...?) and the Gmex convention centre, which was the railway terminus for a while from the 1870's, then a goods yard for many years until rail freight really did fall out of fashion.
The childhood theory pans out: Thomas the Tank Engine too, FF VIII, GO Trains, and I vaguely remember they filmed a movie with an old-timey train at Dundas Valley Conservation Area.
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 😀
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@@dave_h_8742 Half train, half bus - if nothing else, they were unique.
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
My Grandfather was a railway signalman - ergo - I love trains!
I volunteer on a heritage railway, so trains must be cool!
You do?? That's pretty cool
You must remember that for thousands of years, the fastest humans have travelled was that of a galloping horse. The train was a massive impact on this and allowed mass high speed movement of people and industries effectively overnight. When it was introduced, there was some 5G tower-esque hesitancy towards it. Some ‘experts’ reported that the human body could not survive sustained speeds above 30mph🤣. Also, I like the fact that you became postbox obsessed, so yes, feel free to become train obsessed.
about 10 yrs ago my dad, brother and a family friend got stranded on the contenient and had to catch a train back to the chunnel and they caught the orient express, my brother talked about it nonstop for years
Aaah, trains: many experiences. The steam age lasted till almost 1970, in the end.
Now, the east coast mainline has the regular schedules of the Tornado steam engine, since it has been certified also at 100mph, so it can travel among other, modern trains each day. Such engineering indeed: it is a 1960s design.
I was born and raised in Luton (no don't say it, its not as bad as everyone thinks) and we've always had good train links to London. Even as a kid my mum and dad used to take me from Luton to London on days out, good memories for me
We invented railways, our gift to the world of which we are very proud. We also invented steam locomotives and following withdrawal refused to let them die. We saved almost 1,000 and are actually building brand new locomotive ( check out A1 Pacific 'Tornado ').
At least in Germany owning a car was something only a few could afford even in the 1950. Bicycle, tramway and railway were the predominant means of travel and communting.
Railway companies were huge businesses, possibly the largest at that time as far as the number of employees are concerned. Maintainance of rolling stock, providing and resupplying coal and water to steam engines travelling, operation of switches and signals, supervision of traffic, ... people employed by railway companies formed their own communities. Many towns had a quarter with houses reserved for railway workers and their families.
It started to change in the 1950ties and 1960ties. Automobiles and road traffic became affordable and popular in the UK. Additionally steam engines were replaced by diesel engines and electric traction which were much easier to maintain with less personel.
Railways are strongly connected to the industrial revolution which made the UK a leading country in this field for many decades. Ten years after the Stockton-Darlington line had been opened the first railway line in Germany has been opened between Nürnberg and Fürth with a steam engine bought from Stephenson shipped in parts to Germany and assembled with his guidance. The steam engine was operated by an engineer from Stephensons's company.
IMO, train spotting took off when the railways expanded and you started with different types of locomotive, then they were numbered followed by having names as well. You would always see people at stations or trackside with pencil and notebook. There was always competition over who could get various named loco's. I was one of those and I can remember the last of the steamers going through Eastleigh station which is opposite what was the engine building and maintenance depot, today it's used for maintenance and storage of loco's and rolling stock.
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.
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?
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.
As a Trainspotter Enthusiast from London, this was amazing! Thank You For Sharing :)
Dont forget all the preserved railway lines. Oh and I would recommend that you watch at least some of the All the Stations videos on youtube.
the chemistry between geoff and vicki is a thing of joy
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.
A lot of this is down to town planning. In the UK the train stations are often within walking distance of where people live. In North America the houses are very spread out (and it's therefore very expensive to install services for those houses too), and NA train stations are surrounded by just huge car parks. And the NA train stations are away from the center of town, so there's no specific reason to go there. So you just drive everywhere instead.
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!
Live over 100 miles to London but can get a train right to the centre of London in 50 minutes. London has a superb network of travel options including trains.
Who knows if I'm a train spotter yet?
Well an anorak is the gateway drug.
And sandwiches in Tupperware.
And a notepad and pen to record serial numbers.
Oh, dear God it's got me.
At the opening of the Liverpool to Manchester railway the MP William Huskisson was run over by Stephenson's Rocket and died, becoming the first railway passenger casualty. I remember this from my History lessons with Miss Gilbert in 1977.