What's Your First Memories Of Trains?

When I was young, we moved right by a Metra line, and just a couple blocks from a station. I was fascinated by these big noisy beasts that rumbled by every hour or so, especially the express trains that bypassed our station, roaring past the house with horn blaring. That was awesome.

One trophy carried by many kids in the area was a flattened penny. We'd go up to the station and lay a penny on the rails for a passing train to squish. Unless the approaching train was an express, in which case we'd never see that penny again.

As we kids got older and less intimidated by the trains, the tracks also became a convenient shortcut to places around. This is one thing I especially like about TSW, as being able to walk trackside on a route brings back some nostalgic feelings.

The el trains, which I'd ride occasionally with a parent, didn't have the same cool factor, being smaller and much less noisy. They did have a front window seat that passengers could look out through, which was great, especially when descending into the subway. Also interesting to kid me was the Evanston (now Purple Line) and Skokie Swift (now Yellow Line) trains running on overhead wires rather than a third rail. I don't remember when the Skokie train went to half third rail on the southern part, while the northern half stayed on catenary, but I remember that when we were really lucky, we'd be driving by at the right time to see a train make the switch while on the move.

 

Thomas for sure. I had a huge collection of the Ertl die-cast trains at one point, and used to watch my VHS tapes of the episodes narrated by George Carlin and Ringo.

Growing up, my parents would also put a cheap Bachmann HO train set under the tree at Christmas. I remember being mesmerized by the shiny silver Santa Fe F-Unit with the dim orange headlight doing lap after lap with a short string of various freight cars. It always bummed me out when the train had to get packed back up with all the rest of the Christmas stuff.

I also had a ton of the BRIO wooden trains; I would make pretty intricate routes on the living room floor and drive my parents crazy. My mom would go to the Hallmark Store in New Milford, CT all the time where they had a BRIO train table on display for kids to play with while parents shopped. At that time they had wooden trains based on real famous prototypes, and I always wanted the Flying Scotsman, IC225, and ICE trains (alas, it was never meant to be!).

Eventually I graduated to my first Lionel O-Gauge train when I turned 10; it was the New York Central Flyer freight set with a 4-4-2 steam locomotive. This was eventually joined by the re-release of the Lego Metroliner train set. I sold off most of the Lionel set a couple of years ago but kept the locomotive and the tender for sentimentality sake; you can't totally get rid of your first real train set! The Metroliner set disapeared into the oblivion of the bulk Lego chest, but I recently got another new copy (and paid dearly for it) which you can see in the Lego Collections thread here.

As far as real trains go, I spent a lot of time with my grandparents in NY state growing up, and they would take me down to the train station in Dover Plains to watch the trains come and go. This was before the extension on the Harlem Line to Wassaic was built, and silver, red, and blue "Beach Ball" FL9's and F10's ran along overgrown tracks to make their connections at Southeast (Brewster North back then).

During summers my parents would drop me off at my aunt's house in Connecticut for long weekends, and she'd take me on the Naugatuck Railroad for rides (usually preceded by breakfast at McDonald's for a sausage biscuit, hash brown, and hot chocolate!). During the 90's the railroad wasn't yet boarding from their Thomaston station, instead boarding from a more temporary set up in the Watertown area. The road's primary power in service at the time was their RS3 #529 (currently under restoration) and U25B #2525... the brilliant bright orange, red, and black paint schemes of both stick out very much in my memories, and set me up as a New Haven Railroad buff for life!

Lastly, every year my parents would take me on trips to Boston, and I always looked forward to riding the green streetcars and watching the purple commuter trains speed by on the median of the Pike. We'd often take the green line to Government Center for shopping at Quincy Market, and I distinctly remember the smell of the creosote from the ties in the subway tunnels as we waited for the train. In addition, we would stay at a Howard Johnson's next to Fenway Park, and during game days my dad would walk with me to grab fresh roasted peanuts from vendors outside the stadium, eventually making our way to the I90 overpass by the Lansdowne Station. Growing up in my sheltered corner of Connecticut with the only trains I knew being the silver Metro-North units on the Harlem and the yellow and greens of the Housatonic freight units, the purple trains were definitely a novelty to my young brain!

Sorry for the lengthy response; it was nice to relive those memories, thank you Jamie.

EDIT: Found a photo from the time my parents brought me to Essex to ride the steam trains when I was little. I'm not quite sure why my coat is half on and hanging off one side; I'm guessing that's the look I'm getting from my father lol.

 

I watched thomas, but don't know exactly the thing that made me appassionate of trains, probably one uncle i have that have worked as train driver and i questioned him a lot of trains, i wanted to become a real train driver but because of the high cost of the training i can't realize my dream, so after discover TSW 2020 for ps4 (but i'm on this forum from TSW2) i enjoy driving trains on this game

 

Either a Triang Clockwork train set.

Or my parents taking us by train to the "Geordie" coast, South Shields, Seaburn, Whitley Bay or Tynemouth on the Tyneside suburban network, when still DMU (mainly Class 101) operated. I also have the vaguest memory of my dad taking me to see a football match in North Shields and on the way back into Newcastle it was an electric unit, though whether EPB or original LNER type I don't recall.

 

My first memory would probably be walking over the station footbridge on my way to playschool. Unaware at the time, we'll actually until recent years they was 411's calling at the station. My dad used to work at scrap yard that had its own railway and would occasionally take me in the class 09 shunter. I was still a young boy when we moved to a house with a private railway, owned by a steel mill running infront of it. The drivers would occasionally stop and give us a ride, and kindly ask us to keep objects we placed on the rails strictly to pennies! Around the same time my nan bought me a book about deltics with in depth details about everything, including the napier deltic engine. I studied the book and learned everything there was to know about the napier deltic and fell in love with engineering. And that's what my profession is today. Without my love for trains I may never have become a engineer.

 

All I know is I saw Thomas one day and instantly fell in love with his world, which in turn inspired my interest in trains altogether. He's not my favourite though, Gordon holds that honour (don't tell him I said that).

I do remember that I was always watching Thomas, it became my entire life. I also had toy Thomas trains, which caused a few head injuries (I grew up with two brothers who didn't have the slightest interest so throwing my trains at them was the only way).

Never really saw trains in real life as we didn't go anywhere much except for our yearly summer holiday (which was always by minibus as there were a lot of us). Although I was apparently taken to the National Railway Museum as a child - a memory which no longer exists.

I fell in love with an anthropomorphic tank engine, grew to love trains because of him, and am even working on the railways because of it. 5 year old me would have died of excitement if she knew this.

I could probably go on, but I think this post is long enough as it is.

 

When I was nobbut a lad in the early 60s, we used to play in a local park next to the WCML (between Kenton and Harrow & Wealdstone, you can see it in the game). We always used to look out for the trains and we always got excited when it was a diesel rather than a steam train which were still the norm in those days.

 

I honestly could not pick out one specific memory which would be the first, but I grew up in a village which has the ECML skim right alongside it, my bedroom as a child had a view onto it, and my Father were also a driver, so I would imagine the first memory would probably be one of the times I saw that big blue noisy thing, which woke me up every morning, and had asked my mother whether it were my dad driving it and she always used to respond with 'maybe, we'll ask him together later shall we?' though I never did as he would always ask if I saw him before I ever had a chance.

A favourite memory of mine were when my Dad would ring up a station down the line, where he knew one of the ladies who worked in the cafe rather well, and ask her if she could put a bacon sarnie/bap for him on the next train and then he'd send me out to one of my grandad's fields, where the guard, assuming he didn't refuse or chose to eat it himself, would chuck it out and I would then have to search for it and bring it back, alongside any rabbits I had managed to catch whilst waiting, he'd give me some money if I bought a rabbit back! Occasionally, he would get two sarnies, so that I could have one, though that were a rare thing as I were never the most heavenly child. Eventually someone grassed, so that 'system' came to an abrupt halt and he'd send me, or one of my siblings by then, off to the nearest town on a bicycle.

Sorry for waffling on a bit but hope it is at least somewhat interesting.

 

For me, I lived in London for the first few years of my life, and quite often we'd catch the Northern line to Charing Cross (of course with a change at Kennington) and walk to the London Transport Museum. Another early memory is watching a class 458 (when they were 4 cars with no visible end gangway) passing Wimbledon from the Waitrose car park.

 

My first train trips would have been on the District Line in the mid-seventies. Mum and I used to stand at Upney and have a guessing game as to whether the next London-bound train would be red (CO/CP stock) or "white" (R Stock), but there were also plenty of other things to watch, Blue Class 302s rattling past on the LTS, the occasional Class 308 too and RT buses on the 62 going across the bridge.

My first proper memory of a train trip was to Clacton for a holiday at Butlins in 1974. It was a Class 309 (see profile picture). I'd never been at 100 mph before and it was a very exciting event for me. I seem to recall the buffet was still on them trains though that could have been a later trip up to Norfolk behind a 37 or 47. Little did I know, I'd end up living next to the Clacton branch 35 years' later and would be a member of the group trying to preserve one of those Clacton Express units.

 

Galanta, my hometown in southwestern Slovakia, has always been a railway junction, serving the mainline to Nové Zámky (and further to Hungary) in one direction, to Bratislava and further (Czech Republic, Austria etc) the other, and a branch line going to Trnava (which is an important connection to many lines that are served in there and further)

I remember as a kid, my parents, sometimes one of them, sometimes both, would take me to the station to watch trains, and this would often be parked on 2nd track, waiting for departure to Trnava:


but while early train memories are nice, I prefer modern machines, which to me signified much nicer, more comfy, faster etc travel... so when these first appeared, I was thrilled:


my current fav train in possession of the state railway operator is Stadler KISS 160:

one time when I had travelled from Galanta back to Bratislava, I specifically hunted down this one just so I could experience it... was nice, tho a fairly short ride (REX, so it only took like 40mins)

 

Watching CNR DF4Bs dragging passenger cars alongside a local route. Those diesel engines make me totally uninterested to steam ones.

 

Watching Thomas the Tank Engine on TV and reading the books.
However, when I was about 3 or 4, my dad used to take me to his flat in another town which required using trains (about a 30 minute ride) but I can't remember what types they were back than (likely late 1st gen DMUs or early 2nd gen DMUs as it was the mid-late 80s).
After that stopped, I didn't go near trains until I was 15/16 and had to ride them to visit family. I had more interest in aircraft, cars and TV shows like Thunderbirds during that time.

I got back into trains about 8 or 9 years ago after a brief visit to the NYMR whilst visiting a friend who lived in the area. That's when I got to see Sir Nigel Gresley running on the NYMR and then later went to see Flying Scotsman run after her overhaul.

 

Taking trips to Ayr and Glasgow with my grandparents on Class 334's, class 314's and class 380's.

Also loved the occasional trip on a 156 to Oban or Girvan.

Railways have always been a part of my life and now I'm working in one. Training to be a train manager at my heritage railway for railtours and applying for a job in ScotRail.

Very happy.

 

I can't remember a great deal from my childhood but I was apparently a huge fan of 'Ivor the Engine' and later the Thomas TV series as a kid, and refused to miss an episode of either, but what started it all was probably a visit to the Bluebell Railway (of which I have no recollection) when I would have been about 18 months old, because it seems I haven't shut up about trains since then. Well, there were a few years when I didn't talk about them much, but I still enjoyed seeking them out and travelling by train.

I think my earliest memory, though, is probably riding on the Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway with my sister - my grandparents used to put us on the train at one end, drive halfway to wave as we passed, then pick us up from the other end. That was for sure my grandmother's idea - she and my mum have been the big railway enthusiast influences throughout my life. My dad couldn't care less about trains and my grandfather was far more interested in boats and Italian sportscars. But yeah, the Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway has always been and will probably always be quite special to me.

[edit: thanks everyone who shared their own memories, I've enjoyed reading each comment in this thread]

 

I grew up in the 70s and I lived very close to the West coast mainline in Northamptonshire ,got a passion for trains at first by my father taking me to watch the trains at roade cutting used to see class 86s and 87s rush though and the freight and local services so was never boring always something to see so i found it exciting,Then carried on myself and later I remember all the liveres and changes though the years then later still the take over by virgin etc A big highlight i remember was one day spotting the normal expresses coming though and with one exception of seeing an APT train ,only ever seen it once in service in real life. The BR blue era though stands out for me as the highlight of my childhood

 

While I'm an Eastern Region type, I used to really look forward to spending time with my aunt and uncle who backed-on to the WCML just south of Crewe, this was towards the end of the 70s and into the early 80s. It was indeed a very blue scene but there was still so much to watch, diesels on freights and summer specials, the occasional 304 and even rarer a 310/312 (I couldn't tell the difference at the time). But the holy grail was the APT. My uncle got to know its training diagrams and we'd wander down to the bottom of the garden. Unfortunately it was often cancelled but I'll never forget the rush of excitement when I eventually saw it. It was a real buzz seeing something that looked ultra modern.

Sadly my excitement wasn't matched by my parents, despite repeated pleas to Santa for a Hornby APT, the 370s never ran on my model railway despite me spending all my pocket money electrifying my layout in readiness. I did buy a Class 87 in the end, so the OHL wasn't totally wasted.

 

Awdry's books, absolutely.

Playing pretend trains on the overgrown tracks behind my road, that had been shut down following Beeching.

My parents taking me to the museum in York.

 

First memory of any train was my mother taking me to Gloucester station for the 150th anniversary of the GWR and walking out on the platform as a 5yr old and seeing 6000 King George V instantly ignited the very core of my soul and it felt like destiny, a part of me had been missing and later finding out that I was born exactly 12 years to the minute that the final steam service ran in 1968 under BR, I cannot not do something railway related every day, it's the very core of my being, trains and railways are definitely alive and I feel the warmth of their souls, as they themselves complete my very existence and soul.......

 

Dad used to take me to two-tree island along the seafront to fly our RC plane, afterwards we'd park in a car park and watch the c2c trains go past, didn't know anything about the trains or the line at the time but I did know i thought they were awesome, and how cool it'd be to become a train driver.

It's my motivation now in my career, my ultimate goal is to become a train driver, would love to provide a service to those commuting or just travelling.

 

My first memories of trains Was Thomas the Tank Engine it was, remember going to see the actual steam train as a kid. Also another memory was the Welshpool Heritage steam Railway in Welshpool. 'Welshpool and Llanfair Light Railway' Amazing line it is, haven't been on it for ages. But those were my first memories that got me into trains.

 

First train book memory is of one of The Little Red Engine series. First memories of trains was at NCB Backworth Colliery watching the little 0-6-0 Austeritys chuff about (my great aunt lived round the corner), and riding class 101 and 105 dmus on the Tyne loop. Memories also of a trip to London behind a Deltic in ‘73. It all seems surreal now, but the seeds of railway fascination were well and truly sown.

 

My first memories are from the late 1990s/early 2000s, with Southern Region slam door stock. I remember CEPs/CIGs/VEPs and Class 465s still in NSE livery as well as the new privatised and bland Connex liveries. I remember the sounds of the wheel flanges from the SR slam door stock as they entered Waterloo East and seeing the doors open before passengers alighted (unimaginable in todays railway, I think only a few Slamdoors EMUs actually had central locking).

Another early memory is from June/July 1998 going to Ramsgate in the 1st Class compartment of a 4VEP!

 

My earliest memory was probably the weekly trip to town before I started school. There was always the hope, on my part, that we would get caught at the level crossing over the East Suffolk Line and see a train.
My first train ride was on what was probably a class 101 (educated guess based on what was allocated to Norwich at the time - I was about 4 when it happened) and being taken into the cab by the guard between stations.
I also had a stash of Thomas books, both the original format ones and some Ladybird Books versions that came out after the TV Series was launched.

 

For me it was a darling Kinder Sleep Book of trains and Light Rail systems in Manila Philippines

 

My dad used to commute from Kent to London(SELowS) all week. On Saturday mornings he and I went to the library for his reading material for the journey and my Thomas book. Around 1970.
My first big memory of actual trains was at Victoria station about the same year, watching the engines arrive and depart. Big lumps of metal, massive noise and exhaust(I was confused; they didn't look like steam engines, although huge plumes of 'smoke' filled the air). Being so young this was highly impressionable.

 

My dad worked on the Railway from 1975 to 2000 so I grew up around them, going on trips, spotting etc etc.

My earliest memories though are seeing a 33/1 and 4TC at Weymouth in the mid 1980s and also travelling on a 31 and carriages from Leicester to Birmingham New Street

 

I remember my grandma getting me a I like toy trains: volume 1 VHS after a trip to the local K-mart. Watched a lot then, and I recently watched again on Amazon video. (I lost the tape some years ago)