This is worth watching to hear the stories from the driver alone! He must have been near retirement, talking about going to Leysdown in 1946/1947 and going “on the juice” in 1959. He must have had a lot of knowledge and tales to tell

It's also interesting being able to hear the conversation taking place in the cab.

Great video, thanks for uploading! I loved listening to the conversation too, very good.

I remember these units and this route very well.

London bridge, how it's changed but it still has train spotters, I was there myself recently. Love these old video's. I have loads which I am copying from VHS to WMV ready to upload to KZread. Over 300 but not cab rides I'm afraid. I enjoy riding the trains around London. S many trains running and really interesting scenery, old building and railway structures. Thanks for sharing this

Love watching these old films, brings back memories of the daily commute into London when I was in my 20's. Also, i'm guessing the litter picker wasn't invented until the 90's 😁

19:50 to the right you can see the remains of the WW2 era overhead lines that Hither Green was famous for and the class 71 had its unique pantograph for. Just a bit further down to the left was an old SR water tower that we tried to get saved from demolition but BR wasn't having it and down it came. The chap was asking about Lewisham flyover, the old army bridge there was only designed to last ten years... before the fast diversion ramp, the line used to go to Nunhead joining the old Crystal Palace-Greenwich line which the Nunhead spur is the last remnant of. Before the Lewisham disaster, the railway crossed straight from the Nunhead spur on its way to Greenwich which only a small part of the former embankment can be seen today just behind where St Johns signalbox was. St Johns used to have two sets of platforms, I remember them well and trains stopping there too as the Catford lines used them a lot.

Lovely, takes me back to the old days when I worked for BR Southern Region. Trains had character then. Unlike today's generic plastic and uncomfortable "fine weather" trains.

@jacksugden8190

3 жыл бұрын

The trains were ruby. Thank heavens for private investment.

Such lovely video back in time

The good old days with better stock. Great video

@jacksugden8190

3 жыл бұрын

Absolutely rubbish outdated seats, leaky windows in heavy rain slam food stock, thank heavens for the private sector under Major, better seating, better trains, all that BR stuff was naff, used to ride the 308’s out of Liverpool St to Southend Victoria, bumpy ride.

@HSTPaul

3 жыл бұрын

@@jacksugden8190 I've been on a lot of new stock (700s and 800s) and I've found them more bumpy and the seats and like sitting on a brick wall

Brings back memories of when I used to drive this route !

8:04 - The old headshunt for the Oxted line in the days before the thumpers took over at plat 7 and 7a. Banker's trains, class 33 in, 33 waiting at the headshunt and hooked up quickest then back down again for the next load up sometimes TC's sometimes MK1's that when finished did Exhibition duty over at Olympia-Clapham. The whole thing was timed exquisitely too, as the inboard 33 would follow hot on the heels of the outgoing train and just stop at platform end so signalman could visually see outgoing train had cleared and the 33 would "run" the red into the shunt. It was prob the most exercise any of 'em had in London Bridge other than lifting tea mugs. It was a strange setup as SE division the signalmen were grade F but central side they were grade C. Back around then they phased out the last of the old Bulleid 4SUBs which had the delightful corridor compartments and ornate toilets which ran the LB-East Croydon slows.

Great video and shows just how much change has occurred. London Bridge is unrecognisable now. Used to commute this route for 24 years.

@stevecooksley

4 жыл бұрын

Bromley North hasn't changed a bit!

Nice seeing the 1066 electrics that were running when they electrified the line between Tonbridge & Hastings 7:22

Got the original VHS of this. Not sure whether the cameraman was ex-BR or a big rail enthusiast. Whoever he was, he managed to get into Slade Green while filming from the Cab! Wasn't so successful at Eastleigh though where a driver taking over a DEMU run told him to f"$% off and the filming stopped abruptly!!!

Thirty minutes of listening to Derek and Clive chatting.

Great cab ride, I will attempt to re create this in train simulator

The through service from Central London to Bromley North finished completely during the early 1990s.

london bridge has changed ! lol

I enjoyed the film very much, the driver was a very interesting guy who made this film a bit special.

Fantastic, thanks for posting. Now, to invent that time machine...

Beautiful liveries

@jacksugden8190

3 жыл бұрын

BR was as now all very bland.

Same bloke did Liverpool Scarborough and Peterborough to Doncaster via the Joint. I have the Liverpool Scarborough one. Excellent films, I wish I could find then others.

Slam doors , excellent.

Interesting to see the single line connection from the down fast at the Country end of grove Park. Wonder when that was removed

My "commute" service, prob my ol' father was working London Bridge 1-6 platforms as this train went thru. The driver's voice sounds familiar. The link line to Bromley North cut out now from platform 3 Grove Park, dunno if they clipped the platform 1 link as that would make servicing the shuttle stock impossible I am thinking. Back in the day, if I overslept or my train was cancelled, I would go to Plat 4 at Grove Park signal phone by the ramp, holler down the line til they put me father on who generously stopped a Hastings or similar express at Plat 2 for me to clamber on, was a perk and a half back then watching the annoyed knowlessmen fuming as I smirked smugly and if lucky, there was sometimes a buffet on the Hasting's so a cup of BR tea (staff rated prices too) BTW David Bowie grew up right next door to Sundridge Park station in a tiny little terraced house behind the College Arm's pub where he did his first gigs, I even went to the same schools and he was our hero locally :)

I remember the crossovers and the old layout for the Cannon St/London Bridge junction (name escapes me) and the former layout at Grove Park before the Networkers came in. I think this was shot around 1987/88? I notice the South Central stock already had the Network South East livery but the South Eastern stock (the EPBs) only had the branding on the Blue & Grey livery. Nice seeing the CEPs in the short-lived Network Express Jaffa Cake livery

@brslamdoornetwork2972

3 жыл бұрын

This may well have been shot during 1988/89 - this service according to the NSE timetable was the 16.58 CX-Bromley North. A very rare diagram indeed. The plethora of 400 series stock and liveries certainly brings back good memories.

@markdixey3180

3 жыл бұрын

@@brslamdoornetwork2972 Thanks! Why was it a rare diagram? Was that because direct trains were infrequent back then? (1/2 daily if I M - F if I remember?)

@markdixey3180

2 жыл бұрын

@@brslamdoornetwork2972 Why was it a rare diagram? Because of the service infrequency?

@uk-martin4905

7 ай бұрын

From memory, I recall there were only one -perhaps two - direct trains to Bromley North in the Mon - Fri morning and evening rush hours.. In my teenage years living in Burnt Ash Lane between Grove Park and Bromley I remember using one only once. It was quite a novelty as the train swung on to the branch just under Grove Park station bridge.

Drivers eye view of the site of the Hither Green Disaster of 1967.

Thrice as many trains back then, huh? 🍸

Good historical video if only to show the assorted litter on the track.

'Going on the juice'.

The driver, is his accent rural Kent?

@ModernSouthernRegion

6 жыл бұрын

Françoise Dupré I believe so. Although it’s rare to hear nowadays. It’s been influenced by the various dialects of London

@markdixey3180

4 жыл бұрын

Could it be a West Country or Norfolk accent - maybe the driver had moved from one of those areas to London?

@trainrover

3 жыл бұрын

by the sounds of it that W Cntry ex-pat must've moved to the Big Smoke d e c a d e s beforehand..actress Brenda Blethyn: now, might hers be Kentaise?!

@Quebecoisegal

3 жыл бұрын

@Dillon Smith I knew a family who lived about 3km out of Green Street Green, on a rural lane, who had definite country accents.

@MarkSmith-tp6zc

7 ай бұрын

Thats Norfolk

More train noise would be nice

and no bloody graffiti

@JohnDoe-mm6kj

7 жыл бұрын

I quite like some of the graffiti I see.

@EM-yk1dw

7 жыл бұрын

No buddleia either.

It's almost as real as Train Simulator :)

@dodgydruid

4 жыл бұрын

I often throw an EPB or a 489 MLV down the South London lines, I do wait for the day they introduce the mighty 4CEP which was the king of the BR EMU's having higher powered traction motors than any of the SR EMU's. A driver I knew loved doing the boat trains, 12 CEP's and a MLV on front and that little single unit had as much power as a 4 coach VEP and this driver said even fully loaded the train was like a racehorse having 16 coaches worth of power and only 13 to drive.

Needs deinterlacing.

Ageing rolling stock of what was British Rail, of which I remember well, thank heavens for private sector investment with new trains that don’t leak heavy rail though the windows, as was one train on Southern Region.