BR in the 1980s Chesterfield Station on 18th February 1986 

You're most welcome and many thanks...Mark

You are most welcome Stephen many thanks....Mark

many thanks for the comment....best wishes to you....Mark

You're very welcome...many thanks for watching and for the comment and thumbs up...best wishes....Mark

Much appreciated, many thanks ...Mark

I will try to keep them coming....just going through a few repeats at present.....many thanks for your interest.....Mark

So do I....Many thanks...Mark

You are most welcome....and many thanks....Mark

You are most welcome...Mark

Thank you for commenting......Yes it was strange to hear those paxman engines at full roar.....their replacements are a bit dull......Mark

You are very welcome KevTheBusDriver.......Mark

You are most welcome....Mark

Many thanks and best wishes...mark

Or just a DMU even....Many thanks for your comment.....best regards...Mark

Many Thanks Steve......They were great days indeed.....Mark

Thanks Bahnchef1994.....Mark

Hi there thanks for the comment...I travelled on The European once from Carlisle to Crewe if I remember rightly around 1988 when filming these trains, it was 86 hauled as far as Willesden? does that make any sense or maybe before, I can't recall her calling points, but definately AC hauled to Crewe....Best wishes...Mark

@@spompey It was 86 hauled to Willesden, a 47 dragged the whole train over the NLL to Stratford, the 47 came off there and the 86 carried on up to Harwich. The train was withdrawn in the May 1988 timetable just as the wires on the NLL were energised, which would have enabled electric haulage for the whole journey. Living close to the Erewash valley line as a child I saw it from the lineside regularly and caught it from Alfreton & Mansfield Parkway a few times. Its long length (I think usually 11 coaches) meant that at the back of the train you could always hear the loud whine of the AC fans from the mk2d coaches when stopped at stations, the loco being so far up front that you couldn't hear it. Thank you for rekindling that memory, there are very few videos of the European so it's a bit of history you have here. More generally I'm a fan of your technique of panning out and shooting the wider scene rather than focusing on the locos per se. You've provided a good bit of railway social history for the youngsters here. Observations in no particular order- How bloody quiet the stations used to be. No constant dopey announcements. But also virtually no passengers either. If you compare with the hordes of passengers travelling today, even post-COVID, the 1986 railway looks like it is on a different planet. It's a useful counter-argument to those who moan how much better the trains used to be...there's no way elderly, slow, infrequent peaks and 47s could have coped with the passenger demand levels the railway has to cope with today. And just look at how acceleration has improved....the loco hauled trains literally crawl out of the station (the HSTs much better). What we've lost has been mostly on the freight side...in the Chesterfield area largely down to the death of the coal industry of course.

@@kevinfowkes2327 So many thanks Kevin for that absolute wealth of info and very generous comment on my filming....Yes I do believe that any archive, even as late as 2000, is of importance especially to the younger gens who never witnessed this era first hand. A bit like me/us who never really experienced steam on the mainline, albeit I have old faded recollections of it.....I do try to capture the scenery, architecture and of course the main action in my vids to hive an idea of what it was like to be there. You are so appreciated and I send my best regards to you.....many thanks again....Mark

Thanks dieseldave3879....Mark

Chesterfield seems to have had a reputation as one of those stations which didn't like spotters very much, at least of the schoolboy variety. A fair few stories on the net about young enthusiasts back in the 70s/80s getting kicked off the station for loitering around the platforms too long.

They did have a 'spotters compound' believe it or not on platform two to keep the spotters in and away from the rest of the platform activity. I've spent many a happy day for all hours on that wall and on the platforms in the 70s 80s and early 90s , and on Tapton footbridge North of the station. Happy memories, knew all the station staff, and with long gone fellow enthusiasts too. Could write a book!

@@sugarbertie1143 Although I spotted at the station 1970-74 my nearest spot was on a bridge near the Coke works in the south, just north of the Avenue sidings. If it rained I could shelter under the bridge and on sunny days sit high up on the embankment. People didn't bother much about trespassers as they do today. Having a 4 track main line full of freight, what a luxury it would be today.

@@alanrobertson9790 Some of my spotting mates used to go to Clay Cross as well. Just cos it was nearer to their homes. I never went down by the Carbonisation Plant , only Storforth Lane occasionally. Happy days with Peaks, 20s, 37s, 31s, 25s, 47s and Saturdays with the holiday trains. Take me back !!