Video

Great capture and transfer👍

Still some MK1's on BR1's !

The good old Selsdon Triangle (once you go in there you VANISH!) Travelled that line many times I used to live in Croydon (before it became more dangerous than Afganistan!)

Not sure why it suddenly showed up but great stuff none-the-less. Being near East Grinstead, we had the normal width DEMUs and they had a great sound. Travelled them many a time up to London. Also my earliest memory of them is from 1969 when one was going through Grange Road, Crawley Down on the Tunbridge Wells to Three Bridges line. Long since lifted but would be very busy today with Gatwick nearby and the new, massive Railway depot at Three Bridges now. Thanks for the upload.

Thanks for posting this film of superb quality.

Some of the sharpest cine footage I`ve ever seen, great stuff.

Hoover power since 1967 amazing time watching foootage of them in the 1980s era .

Excellent quality & a great selection of locos.

Absolutely wondrous stuff. I've often wondered - on the front of all the TOPS train with yellow fronts the 4VEP or 2EPB or 4SUB or whatever, always looked hand painted. And it was almost always the same script. I always imagined there was one person whose job that was!! Any of you big-brained folk out there know?

There's something so very sad about an overgrown soon-to-be-closed railway line. Maybe it's just me. 🤷‍♂️

I arranged the detonators (For the last arrival) with Alan Lewis in Picc Box 👍

Absolutely fabulous. The sounds of the engine, the sun, the birds, the old buildings, the handover of the token at the single track bit..... I can still smell the summer and the diesel fumes. That old WHISTLE sign at 1:39 - theres one on the Guildford direction track coming into Chilworth. At least i think its still there. 3:35 sounds like an EMU (likely an EPB?) going past in the background too! That unmistakeable station building in the background 6:05. Wonderful! Thanks!

I grew up in Dorking (born 1972) with the Reading-Redhill-Tonbridge line running behind my house so the sound of the 206 Tadpole Units was as familiar as bread and butter, just like these. Such a wonderful sound. I think when I was very little I found standing on the platform next to the engine room quite scary! I travelled on them right up until they were replaced by the Class 117 DMUs in about 1979-1980. The tadpoles always had one carriage with the orange curtains too! We used to travel to Gomshall quite a lot as kids to see Grandparents and when we were heading home they used to thunder down the hill from Guildford direction and I still have a clear memory of how they rocked from side to side on the tracks as they went over the pedestrian crossing for the staggered platform. Thanks for this - you truly cannot beat Super8 with sound for quality from days gone by!! And the guard and platform staff stuff is priceless!

Awesome film 😎. I like the fact it has the original sound. And the vintage look

All that clag 😍

I lived in Blatchington road in the 70s with the branch line between tunbridge wells central and west at the bottom of our garden. As kids we used to love watching the trains go up and down on the single track. They were always in solid blue livery, no white.

I used to live in Orpington when this was filmed. Really excellent quality pictures. What camera/format were you using and would I be correct in thinking you added the music because the camera didn't have a sound facility. How we forget how much technology has advanced since 1986. There's an excellent cab ride video on CZcams running from Cardiff to Newport. Repaint in NSE colours? No, no, no, no, no.

I miss those incredibly noisy old NSE trains

One of my favourite design D.M.U,managed ride on one recently, at Great Central Railway, 125 anniversary event ,Loughborough, March 2024 ,in past from Erdington to Birmingham new st,before had electric trains😂

My goodness the film quality is extraordinary

5:57 - its amazing how much east croydon has changed in a relatively little amount of time, fantastic shot the train coming !

At least the station building is still standing soon after the line closed

Class 323 EMUs had been around 10 years at this point

That's definitely the best livery. Large logo.

I used to travel regularly on this line in late 70s early 80s, deliberately run down by BR with awkward timings and poor maintenance, very short sighted closure. Closing this line put paid to any hope of reopening Uckfield to Lewes cutting the link from Brighton to TWells which is probably why it was closed. That damn supermarket blocking the route made doubly certain it couldn’t fully reopen. The line should have been singled and modernised. I think there were still some ‘high ups’ in BR management left over from the days of Beeching who wanted to continue the good doctors work!

Great video, great units, great sound and great memories. I travelled on the last unit from Hastings to London in May 86.

I never knew they still had slam door trains in Manchester in the 2000s, I thought only the South of England still had them by then?

Goodbye to all the "1066 line" trains, and the fun we had

I remember these rumbling past our back garden in Petts Wood. I liked the EPBs and my 9 year old self didn’t consider these as proper trains. Little did I know I was witnessing legends.

Great footage

Forever grateful to dedicated people who took the trouble to capture this, and then transfer it to digital format so we can all enjoy it. Thank you :)

Were they the best? Probably not. But they had character. All trains did. Nowadays, they all sound the same or just the same thing in a different livery.

It’s a pity that 101685 didn’t have its middle coach. As a Manchester guard I worked that train many times.

Fantastic footage, I'm very impressed with video and audio quality! Nice to hear these units on full song, could they be the biggest 4 cylinder engines ever used in land vehicles of any art?

Just wonderful

The quality of these is quite exceptional, and the attention to detail of this film (and others). I miss those old EPB units rocking from side to side al la 3:30 or 4:25. That semaphore set at 8:53 <sigh>

It’s a shame these never got repainted in NSE livery

I've just realised I am watching this video on the 29th anniversary of the last scheduled service from Dover Western Docks.

Something that's long gone. The internal mail bags

Amazing how long these were in service and I’m surprised that they got such a big send off. Don’t think I’ve ever been on these units when they were in service but I have rode one (or one of the other 1st gen DMU’s) in preservation. Shame the pacers didn’t get such a big send off but they were retired in the middle of COVID so maybe that is why..

Needed a MLV or two to complete the picture.

Lovely Footage from 40 odd years ago ❤️❤️❤️❤️

love his horn

The announcements in this video, some of which are cut off - do you still have the full recordings? These are defunct TOC’s being announced and is very interesting to hear.

Fond memories of the metropolitan cammell class 101 from the 80s & 90s i was always on these going to and from my then girlfriend's, also used cravens limited dmus as well .

Good footage for posterity and some heavy sparking from the Bulleid 2EPB@ 3.42 on.😮😊

This is a brilliant film, much appreciated 👍 But, how is it put together? Is it a team of several camera people, each positioned at various stations? Or, is it all different trains, all filmed by the same person? I am from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, and used to re-visit the town around 1986, so I am very familiar with these old trains. And the introduction of "1066 Electrics" around 1986 - and the introduction of the famous Jaffa Cake painted trains. My favourite railway line, Charing Cross to Hastings. And, nice to see the original Charing Cross railway station, before it was ruined by that giant office monolith above the tracks.

Some excellent catches preserved for all time - particularly the double unit with 12 carriages, thanks!

I used to live in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, about half way between Hastings and London Charing Cross. I used to love the roar of those thumpers pulling into Tunbridge Wells Central station, going up to London. Or, the down train roaring through the Mount Pleasant tunnel as it slowed into Tunbridge Wells Central. The trains were extra narrow due to the tunnels; they also had those orange curtains.

Really excellent film. Thanks 👍