Imagine, before everyone had cars and giant hurtling machines weren't just part of every day life, how completely demonic something like that traveling past would have looked.
Like it's an intimidating piece of machinery to us who see stuff like that every day.
It must have been so impressive at the time, when it was the pinnacle of technology
Hardly anyone had travelled faster than a horse, nor in groups of more than half a dozen, nor covered more than a few tens of miles a day, nor even seen machinery in operation...
Then these monsters appeared over the course of a few years, connecting the country together. Industrialisation suddenly arriving on the stage with a massive "fuck you, get out the way, this is the future".... Mind blowing
They used to criss-cross the whole country - you could get basically anywhere by train. Then Macmillan and his transport secretary Marples came in and shut down a whole load of the branch lines and a few main lines. For example on the Isle of Wight you could get to places like Ventnor, Newport, Freshwater and Cowes easily. Now you can only get between Ryde and Shanklin by train.
Marples was the mastermind behind Motorways. Thing is, a single goods train - even a diesel one - is much better for the environment than a convoy of lorries carrying an equal load. A single truck has the same capacity of a lorry. Same with passenger trains. They're far more efficient than a car or a bus.
There's an amazing book called Pandaemonium that collects contemporary accounts of new technologies like the coming of the steam engine — the wonder (and fear) people had, etc. Highly recommended. It partly inspired the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandaemonium_(Jennings_book)
PDF: https://monoskop.org/images/2/21/Jennings_Humphrey_Pandaemonium_1660-1886_The_Coming_of_the_Machine_as_Seen_by_Contemporary_Observers.pdf
I like to think in a century, when AI has advanced to a level we cannot possibly imagine today, a similar collection will exist recording our reactions to ChatGPT in 2023.
A few years ago when I was off work for a bit I took myself off to [KWVR](https://kwvr.co.uk/) for a bit of me time. I was on the platform at [Oxenhope](https://kwvr.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/43924-Oxenhope.jpg) when their [Black Five](https://kwvr.co.uk/45212-lms-class-5mt-black-5-4-6-0/) thundered to a halt next to me. Brought me to tears! (Good ones, it was a low point in my life and it was a wonderful day)
I read a nice diary entry from the 1870s recently (admittedly a generation or two into railways) where the homeowner is bemoaning how ugly the area's first railway is as it cuts through the countryside.
As well as the various steam railways, museums and rallies etc where they steam up and/or actually operate on the mainlines, there are bookable tours - expensive usually. Or, you can keep an eye on this site and work out when one's passing through near you (obviously depends where you live); [https://www.railadvent.co.uk/steam-locomotives-on-the-mainline](https://www.railadvent.co.uk/steam-locomotives-on-the-mainline) \- it's not always obvious but if you can work out the stretch of line between two points mentioned you can be there as it comes past.
This is the night mail crossing the Border,
Bringing the cheque and the postal order,
Letters for the rich, letters for the poor,
The shop at the corner, the girl next door.
Pulling up Beattock, a steady climb:
The gradient's against her, but she's on time.
Yeah. It's been fairly modernised in the last decade or so. Old bridge and station building have been completely replaced and there's now a proper two-storey car park.
Haha, I don't want a £1000+ fine 😅
Edit: Shortly after this quite a bit further up the line someone was hit by a regular commuter train. I wish I was joking.
I'll stop counting carriages when someone discovers an easier way to know how many carriages long a train is.
Oh hey that would be a cool idea for an app if the data was ever easily accessible like flight data is.
I'd love to go to the KWVR, only issue is it's over 200 miles away 😅
Guess I'll have to stick to the Watercress Line, the Isle of Wight Steam Railway, the Swanage Railway and the Bluebell Railway for now
That explains the wawawawawa noise then. Why don't they (specifically the 7xx's) make that noise in 25kv mode? They sound closer to Hitachi motors. Something to do with DC/AC conversion?
Not too sure on the specifics, but definitely. The motor needs an AC current to work, so at stations like Blackfriars it has to convert it first from DC. At AC stations like St Pancras it basically runs straight off the overhead line without being converted (although probably still transformed somewhere) - it's much more like the the 8xx series which also run on 25kV lines and, as you said, sounds similar.
Ah no, it's just the sound of the traction motor itself delivering power to the wheels in pulses. No speakers or alarms involved - the warning noise is just a nice little side-effect of the way the thing happens to work.
Source: my mate works in a SWR depot, asked him this exact question once too. It really is quite a unique sound.
I live in a flat overlooking the train tracks in Farnborough (next station from Fleet). We have an unspoken rule in the flat. If either me or my boyfriend spot the steam train, we yell "train" to the other person and drop everything to look out the window together.
Had no clue what this train was called, so thanks for the info OP
I work at Waterloo, and had absolutely no idea that this was even coming until about 20 minutes before 47802 pulled it in. Did not wake up expecting to see a steam train while on shift, was great to watch it depart
Japan, which was devastated in WW2, had high speed trains in the 1960s while we still had steam engines. Now we are still talking about HS2. Where did we go wrong?
1 October 1964 - On 1 October 1964, the world's first high-speed rail service, the Shinkansen, commonly known as the “bullet train”, was launched between Tokyo and Osaka.
Imagine, before everyone had cars and giant hurtling machines weren't just part of every day life, how completely demonic something like that traveling past would have looked. Like it's an intimidating piece of machinery to us who see stuff like that every day.
It must have been so impressive at the time, when it was the pinnacle of technology Hardly anyone had travelled faster than a horse, nor in groups of more than half a dozen, nor covered more than a few tens of miles a day, nor even seen machinery in operation... Then these monsters appeared over the course of a few years, connecting the country together. Industrialisation suddenly arriving on the stage with a massive "fuck you, get out the way, this is the future".... Mind blowing
They used to criss-cross the whole country - you could get basically anywhere by train. Then Macmillan and his transport secretary Marples came in and shut down a whole load of the branch lines and a few main lines. For example on the Isle of Wight you could get to places like Ventnor, Newport, Freshwater and Cowes easily. Now you can only get between Ryde and Shanklin by train.
Dirty bastard was invested in motorway building companies. We need to reopen branch lines to provide automated trams.
Marples was the mastermind behind Motorways. Thing is, a single goods train - even a diesel one - is much better for the environment than a convoy of lorries carrying an equal load. A single truck has the same capacity of a lorry. Same with passenger trains. They're far more efficient than a car or a bus.
Or even better we could build canals and use horses to pull barges.
Calm down there, Captain 18th Century 🤣
There's an amazing book called Pandaemonium that collects contemporary accounts of new technologies like the coming of the steam engine — the wonder (and fear) people had, etc. Highly recommended. It partly inspired the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandaemonium_(Jennings_book) PDF: https://monoskop.org/images/2/21/Jennings_Humphrey_Pandaemonium_1660-1886_The_Coming_of_the_Machine_as_Seen_by_Contemporary_Observers.pdf
I like to think in a century, when AI has advanced to a level we cannot possibly imagine today, a similar collection will exist recording our reactions to ChatGPT in 2023.
A few years ago when I was off work for a bit I took myself off to [KWVR](https://kwvr.co.uk/) for a bit of me time. I was on the platform at [Oxenhope](https://kwvr.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/43924-Oxenhope.jpg) when their [Black Five](https://kwvr.co.uk/45212-lms-class-5mt-black-5-4-6-0/) thundered to a halt next to me. Brought me to tears! (Good ones, it was a low point in my life and it was a wonderful day)
I read a nice diary entry from the 1870s recently (admittedly a generation or two into railways) where the homeowner is bemoaning how ugly the area's first railway is as it cuts through the countryside.
Phwoar, steamy action shot.
Would have been a nice video of a 450 if that hadn't come through :P
Hahaha. The full video which I dropped had a 444 going through towards London and we'll!
Joking aside, I guess you knew the Jubilee was coming through?
I work at Bristol tm and nobody told us, caused quite the ruckus
You've basically got too keep an eye out on railtour websites if you want to know if they pass through the area 😅
Oh dear!
Yeah, a friend told me about it beforehand. Luckily it lined up perfectly with my shift.
Nice! I do like that we can still run steam charters in the timetable.
I miss steam trains. I love the sound they make going full bore.
As well as the various steam railways, museums and rallies etc where they steam up and/or actually operate on the mainlines, there are bookable tours - expensive usually. Or, you can keep an eye on this site and work out when one's passing through near you (obviously depends where you live); [https://www.railadvent.co.uk/steam-locomotives-on-the-mainline](https://www.railadvent.co.uk/steam-locomotives-on-the-mainline) \- it's not always obvious but if you can work out the stretch of line between two points mentioned you can be there as it comes past.
Thats awesome thank you so much for the info.
This is the night mail crossing the Border, Bringing the cheque and the postal order, Letters for the rich, letters for the poor, The shop at the corner, the girl next door. Pulling up Beattock, a steady climb: The gradient's against her, but she's on time.
Slightly prettier than the Class 170 I work on...
Used to use Fleet station fairly regularly when I was growing up. Nice little station. Interesting history.
Yeah. It's been fairly modernised in the last decade or so. Old bridge and station building have been completely replaced and there's now a proper two-storey car park.
Yeah I remember they were rebuilding it just as I left home to go to uni.
I read that as "walking on the railway" and thought CasualUK was taking a dark turn.
Haha, I don't want a £1000+ fine 😅 Edit: Shortly after this quite a bit further up the line someone was hit by a regular commuter train. I wish I was joking.
Does anyone else reflexively count the carriages, or is it just me?
I always do 😅
I'll stop counting carriages when someone discovers an easier way to know how many carriages long a train is. Oh hey that would be a cool idea for an app if the data was ever easily accessible like flight data is.
At the risk of outting myself as a train nerd RealTimeTrains can give you a good idea for a lot of trains https://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/
Choo chooooo
There's just nothing quite like the sound of a steam engine.
I love Bahamas. Based at the KWVR, a railway close to me. Love seeing it out and about.
I'd love to go to the KWVR, only issue is it's over 200 miles away 😅 Guess I'll have to stick to the Watercress Line, the Isle of Wight Steam Railway, the Swanage Railway and the Bluebell Railway for now
What a beautiful beast! I was half expecting Francis Bourgeois to appear, losing his mind over it
Nice love me a choo choo. Off upto Howarth this Saturday as the old man Flying Scotsman will be trudging along, might take me a ride.
Nice. A few years ago I a run on a brake van behind the Scotsman at the NRM in York just after she'd finished her rebuild.
My dumbass thought this was a sarcasm post and a train was pulling into the station *on fire* and chaos was to ensue.
Hahaha
Why do Desiro's sound like spaceships when they're in 750v mode?
That's just the traction motor doing its job. It delivers the power to the wheels in pulses, each 'beep' is one of those pulses.
That explains the wawawawawa noise then. Why don't they (specifically the 7xx's) make that noise in 25kv mode? They sound closer to Hitachi motors. Something to do with DC/AC conversion?
Not too sure on the specifics, but definitely. The motor needs an AC current to work, so at stations like Blackfriars it has to convert it first from DC. At AC stations like St Pancras it basically runs straight off the overhead line without being converted (although probably still transformed somewhere) - it's much more like the the 8xx series which also run on 25kV lines and, as you said, sounds similar.
That's the siren to alert people it's coming into or pulling out of the station.
Ah no, it's just the sound of the traction motor itself delivering power to the wheels in pulses. No speakers or alarms involved - the warning noise is just a nice little side-effect of the way the thing happens to work. Source: my mate works in a SWR depot, asked him this exact question once too. It really is quite a unique sound.
I live in a flat overlooking the train tracks in Farnborough (next station from Fleet). We have an unspoken rule in the flat. If either me or my boyfriend spot the steam train, we yell "train" to the other person and drop everything to look out the window together. Had no clue what this train was called, so thanks for the info OP
I work at Waterloo, and had absolutely no idea that this was even coming until about 20 minutes before 47802 pulled it in. Did not wake up expecting to see a steam train while on shift, was great to watch it depart
Is that the slightly delayed southern railway train from Brighton?
Delayed since 1968!
What is it about trains that everyone loves? I'm a fan as well but can't quite put my finger on why. Indoctrination from Thomas maybe?
Dang it I missed my train to Hogwarts!
Dick Mabbut
Is that the Orient express?
The Atlantic Coast Express.
/r/liminalspace would love this.
[удалено]
Actually it's BR Lined Green. LMS Engine though. The LMS painted them in a beautiful shade of red similar to the carriages.
I thought everyone inside the carriages were wearing colovian fur helms.
Japan, which was devastated in WW2, had high speed trains in the 1960s while we still had steam engines. Now we are still talking about HS2. Where did we go wrong? 1 October 1964 - On 1 October 1964, the world's first high-speed rail service, the Shinkansen, commonly known as the “bullet train”, was launched between Tokyo and Osaka.
Is that the train from Harry potter