This channel reflects my personal railway video archive from 1987 until the present day. The first period covered is 1987 - 92. My main interest was the loco-hauled scene, predominantly diesel power.
Where possible I have included the date, location and locomotive/ unit numbers (where I have them) in captions. I cannot guarantee the loco numbers are always 100% correct, but will look to correct any obvious mistakes or typos once made aware.
After a gap of some 15 years, my videos recommence in 2006 until the present day.
I continue to video the modern scene and plan to upload new content alongside the vintage shots as I go along.
Hope you enjoy the channel. Please feel free to comment or to ask questions.
awwww lovely lovely footage. brings it all back. my grandad used to live in new malden and those iconic sounds i remember so so well, i used to hear from over the way when i used to visit my grandad for a cuppa. wonderful days. also it’s nice to the various slam door emus when they still had their cab ends still without that nasty headlight..as they originally were…no headlight..just that illuminated headcode.
Lovely video. I spent many hours at Willesden back in the early 70's. For a change would go onto Broad Street and just a short walk to Liverpool Street . Thanks for posting. Those were hsppy days!
Thanks for sharing. Glad it brought back memories. Amazing how the world has changed in just a few decades. I remember being able to drive to the North London line from North Surrey in the evenings after work, and still have enough time there to make the trip worthwhile. Can’t begin to think how long that round trip would take on a summer evening nowadays!
Thanks Colin, you’re very welcome. 😊👍 Luckily for me, the mate I go spotting with scrutinises Real Time Trains extensively beforehand to try and maximise the loco-hauled element- hence 2 x69s in just an hour and a half!
Ahhh, toffee apples , was it just the 31/0s that had the power handle that the driver had to take with him when he changed ends .I was told that the power handle looked like a toffee apple so thats how they got their nickname , i was never sure that someone was pulling my leg or not. Does anyone know the truth and real fact on that . Thank you all .
Well if you like Hood, you’ll like the Paddington station videos on the channel. By some fluke, it was my most filmed Class 50. Thanks for watching. 👍😊
Up in the northeast the main traffic for the 56s was MGR trains. In the 80s there were still plenty of collieries open in the north of England. I remember seeing them screaming through Stockton station heading south with a full load for ferry bridge power station .Sadly all the mines are now gone. And so are most of the power stations. Victims of the governments obsession with net zero.
Back in the day it didn’t seem conceivable that one day there wouldn’t be MGRs , or even coal trains of any sort. Amazing how things have changed just in the past few years. 😟
Great compilation of Class 73s from back in the day!!.,but what was the 73 @6.18 doing with 3 Gat Ex coaches and an EPB Unit.??..A curious move that..Thanks.
No idea I’m afraid - I just filmed them and wrote down the numbers 😆. However, there’s always the possibility that someone else on here will know the answer 🤞. Thanks for watching 😊👍
39:48 my 16th birthday!! What station/halt is 3:46? Is that Wandsworth Rd too? Look like a Chatham EMU appearing on the right. So much rather sad looking rolling stock being dragged through here excuse My ignorance but is there a yard nearby it's all going to? 5:54 such a familiar sight! Used to see seacow workings exactly like this thundering through Dorking Deepdene in 70s and 80s 9:50 that's just fabulous!!! Just about to start my GCSEs around thay day. Then a summer of gigs and fun in London!! 12:49 oh man that's the best yet. Full pelt
Thanks for watching and commenting, great my videos bring back memories for so many of you. 😊. And, yes, that is Wandsworth Road at 3:46. Eagle-eyed viewers will note that in my early shots there is no footbridge linking the platforms (underpass only), but by 1990 a metal footbridge had been constructed enabling me to film from there instead.
As a child, I used to leave my bedroom window open at night to hear these being hammered through Warrington. Sad to think that their birthplace - Vulcan Works - is now an anonymous housing estate.
Do you know what the 31 was working ? Picture on Flickr for same date shows it at Liverpool I presume about to work a Manchester Vic or Blackpool service!
Hi there, I hope you're well! I'm an archive producer working on a documentary about the miners strikes of 1984, airing on Sky. The director has come across this video of yours. I was wondering if it'd be possible to get your permission to use a few seconds of your clip in our project? Many thanks and I look forward to hearing from you, Caitlin Connelly
Hi Caitlin. I’ve no problem with you using my footage in whatever project you are working on. I’m afraid I have no idea how you would go about doing this, but I presume you do, and know how to keep within the copyright rules governing RU-vid uploads. 😊. I won’t bother to reply to your similar request on the other Paddington upload, as the same applies. Regards, Geoff @OldOakTrains.
@@OldOakTrains Hi Geoff - thank you so much for allowing us to use some of your footage in our project! Can I just double check how you would like to be credited please? Thank you Caitlin
Hi Caitlin, Any credit can be as simple as ‘Old Oak Trains’, thanks. Anything that helps signpost other railway enthusiasts to my RU-vid channel would be much appreciated; after all, sharing my videos with them was the only driver for starting the channel in the first place - everything else has been a bonus. Regards, Geoff.
Hi there, I hope you're well! I'm an archive producer working on a documentary about the miners strikes of 1984, airing on Sky. The director has come across this video of yours. I was wondering if it'd be possible to get your permission to use a few seconds of your clip in our project? Many thanks and I look forward to hearing from you, Caitlin Connelly
Went back around 2010, but haven’t been since, but yes, it was a shadow of its former self, although there was still some freight. Thanks for watching. 👍😊
Goodness, I'd forgotten about this crash. It came so soon after the terrible one at Clapham Junction. Moving 12ft of rail is no small feat. The rail would weigh around 460 lb. Must have been a big gang of burly vandals.
Thanks for posting this. Happy memories of that thudding class 50 beat! I used to hear that from my childhood home 1km away as they opened up heading out through Wimbledon. Although my trainspotting memories are from slightly earlier in the 1980s when they were going through the class refurb and generally (in my memory anyway) were in a lot better condition externally. With a quarter pound paper bag of jelly beans I was happy as Larry on Elm Grove Bridge c1981. 🙂🗒✏
Hi Matt. My memories date from the early 80s too, it’s just I couldn’t afford a video camera back then; not that they were available in 1981! Spent many happy school lunchtimes on that footbridge waiting for the 13:10 Waterloo-Exeter hauled by a blue liveried 50 - happy days 👍😊 cheers; Geoff.
My dad commuted from Dorking to Vauxhall throughout the 70s and 80s. That's his office (GLC, Thatcher put paid to that steady job) in the background with the sort of brown below the windows at 7:20. I always used to look out for him When I was heading up to town for gigs and latterly work etc ❤
Wonderful. Thanks. Years ago I would stand Under that bridge trying to stay dry. I was watching Westerns and Warships and Hymeks. Pannier tanks were station pilots. Paddington has such an atmosphere no matter what era. Thanks again. Howard.
You're welcome Howard. Glad it brought back memories; I can only just remember seeing Westerns there in the summer of '76, long before the days of 'home video'. Thanks for commenting, cheers, Geoff.
Hi Andrew, yes, that’s fine as long as you keep within the the RU-vid rules on using other creators’ content (I’m sure you’ll know all about these 😊). Anything that helps direct new viewers to OldOakTrains is welcome. Thanks for asking 👍.Geoff.
86401 a long way from Northampton again! 😂 Carlisle Citadel looks a bit cleaner now, though there's a noticeable lack of vegetation growing on the tracks. 31 with three coaches, would that have been a train from Leeds?
Likely the Newcastle, 31264 was Thornaby allocated at time despite her old March hare depot motif, yet to gain the TE kingfishers. 47425 and 47477 probably the Leeds services mate.
My pleasure! From south London, a visit to south Wales always seemed a bit of a trek, although doable in a day back then (traffic on M4 permitting), but it was always worth it. 😊👍