When Thameslink Trains Went to Guildford
Vložit
- čas přidán 21. 04. 2024
- Did you know there was a few years back in the early 1990's when Thameslink ran services through Central London, and then went down to Croydon, Sutton, Epsom all the way to Guildford.
Let's go back to a time when cassette tapes were the only way to listen to music when on the train ...
NB. There is a fabulous photo of a Class 319 at Effingham Junction with the Network SouthEast clock here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ef...
#thameslink
If my memory serves me right, Thameslink to Guildford may have started in June 1990 ... and lasted two years until June 1992 when it was cut back to West Croydon, which itself only lasted two years until 1994! But if you have any better recollection of dates, please comment away ... !
On the mention of West Croydon there was a branch from there to Wimbledon. One of the many old lines replaced by tramlink. It closed in 1997 and for it's last few years used class 456 emus. It used that small bay platform you can see whenever approaching west Croydon. it was also heavily overgrown and worn out during the 90s. Must've been an interesting journey with tiny platforms and 2 car units
Thameslink did technically run within the past 5 years. When the London Bridge trains were introduced regularly from Epsom pre-covid, they used to run to Guildford (in peak), and were on the system as Thameslink (announced as Thameslink on the platform), although ran using Southern stock. Now though, they don't run to Guildford, and are marked as Southern.
That’s correct. Southern got rid of the service. It’s on the southern map 2019 version
Some years later there was a South West trains from Guildford to West Croydon that got discontinued at some point. I remember seeing that on some London and Southeast train maps.
I think they were proposed to return to Guildford as part of what was then Thameslink 2000 as well, though they never did. Guildford has lost a lot of useful services over the years. Thameslink has gone, all Crosscounty has gone and the South Western service is much reduced (no Guildford to Waterloo via Woking stopping service off peak, fewer trains south to Haslemere and Portsmouth too).
A melancholy retrospective, beautifully produced -- well done! Wait until you're 75, as I am now, and things like this will become even more meaningful. Thanks for making this, from Arizona.
thanks Steve ... lovely comment. I hope to still be travelling the railways at 75!
The words I was about to write
Thanks Geoff. There is something about a re visit to the commutes of our best years, cthanjs so much.
That took me back 60 years! We lived in Fetcham, my mother didn't drive so we would catch the bus to Stoke D'Abernon then train to Guildford. Coming home we would get off at Effingham Junction and I would look for the Leatherhead train coming out the sidings just like you remembered!
Middle aged man reminiscing about a regular train journey from 30 years ago. Who cares? We do because you make us care Geoff. Thanks for another beautiful soulful film.
"Sorry I'm late, there was a points failure"
"At Effingham Junction?"
"No, at effing Surbiton!"
These "smaller" videos you make occasionally have a real power to them and cut incredibly deep and actually make me feel quite emotional. I recently (A few years now) moved away from London having lived there all my life and find myself thinking and reminiscing about my commutes, to school, to social events, to other things, and how some of those things just don't exist now.
But yeah, beautiful video, cheers Geoff ♥
Immediately guessed it had to be Tim on the keys! We spend days, weeks, months of our lives commuting, and some of it can be beautiful 😅
I was going to write “That must be Tim playing…” but sure, I’m too slow… 😅 He played the verse from ‘Take on me’, and later Geoff cited a bit of lyrics from it… (cheating, I’m 🇳🇴‘Ian…)
I came here to say the same. Great to see collabs with similar minded CZcamsrs
I was going to say the same, but I didn't: It's better to be safe than sorry.
Came here to say the same.
Odd that the music kept stopping right before the Take On Me line.
None of commuting is beautiful, you idolise it only because you miss your old selph.
As someone who went to Unit in Guildford and hasn't been back since, a video about the passage of time centering around Guildford hits hard
I feel like we treat commutes as a sort of lost time, that just disappears. So it is so nice getting to see that it isn't just a waste and that we do make memories.
I commuted for years and at first hated it but then realised I could use the time to relax read and listen to music
i can't be the only one who immediately checked the video length was in fact 11 minutes 12 seconds 😁. lovely video and lovely message
Nope, me too. This makes me a little concerned (in a nice way) about have thoughtful and obsessive, even, Geoff is with his video content. Well done though!
What I thought was going to be a simple history lesson on Thameslink Trains running to Guildford turned out to be a deeply personal contemplation on the passage of time and how we must enjoy the moment however banal the occasion.
Well done Geoff, you are so good at baring your soul and making us all think about living in the now. Wonderful stuff.
I was a driver at Selhurst in the early 90's & drove class 319's from Selhurst to Guildford . Used to go as far as Farringdon on return, put the pan up then grub at Farringdon.
When I use Guildford station I often stroll to the south end where the multi story car park is, but in my mind's eye the old steam depot is still there as in my spotting days. On one of which I tried to get into the shed by politely asking at the entrance on the adjacent road bridge. The chap who answered my knock asked me what classes of loco I would expect to find there and I proudly reeled off "N's, U's, Ivatt 2MT's, a B4..." upon which he said "Quite right, so you know what's there so no need for you to go and see. Now clear off!"
“We only have now.” Said to me years ago by a retired Policeman. Make the very most of each day, be friendly, be nice, it may be your last. A beautiful video Geoff, thank you.
My mum was involved in Guildford Borough Council around that time and told of a man living near London Road station who was *incensed* that some trains were now going through without stopping because they *made his teacups rattle*. What memories he must have!
'Make your own memories to make your own nostalgia' is such a beautiful line. Thank you for making this lovely video
When I realized the song playing in the background, I went, "Aha!"
😂
It's a lot to take on.
Sadly the sun wasn't always shining ....I'll get my coat.
When I heard the piano music, I knew Tim Traveller was going to be involved :)
Great video Geoff!
One of the most beautiful videos you have ever made. So lovely
The message at the end was just brilliant about enjoying the summer, enjoying the lighter evenings, go and ride trains, travel to random stations and make your own memories and years to come you have your own nostalgia. Memories I made over the years have been brilliant and looking forward to making some more and there are days that I remember like they were only yesterday. Great video Geoff it was produced brilliantly and love one of your stories from the past.
There’s a strange ritual in taking the same journey every day, filled with tiny patterns that we barely ever notice, thank you Geoff for giving an ode to the commute
the final chord playing just as the rear train lights disappear was perfect editing
You spotted it! Ha HAA thank you!
I still remember the train trip where I fell in love with the railway. When I was about 4, I was on a HST and was travelling to London and then when we got to London, we took the London Underground and when I went on the underground, I enjoyed it so much that I started watching videos on CZcams about the Underground. Now I'm 18, and I still have a deep passion for the railways.
Hi TM
I also fell in love with railways and transit due to the London Underground. Which is weird, as I am not even from the UK!
Aged just 13 I remember seeing one of the 'new' HST's. I was train-spotting at Birmingham New Street with my brother. Lucky for us the old driver invited us in to see the controls, and what an impact that had on a very impressionable 13 year old. I have now recently retired, but can tell you my career choice was made for me that fateful day in Birmingham, and I now look back with great affection at my time spent driving those magnificent trains.
Important message at the end their Geoff ! Heading into my 50's and I remember commuting to Burgess Hill every day in the mid-90's. The final slam door trains mixed with more modern Thameslink stock. The station master at Burgess Hill who was the spitting image of Hank Marvin. All nostaligia, will always be fondly remembered by me...
I do miss the slam-doors.
Beautiful video, Geoff. Nostalgia. My family and I returned from 3 wonderful years in Australia in 1975 and getting on the train at Haywards Heath to Victoria, a fellow passenger said he had’nt seen me for a couple of weeks. Then onto the 1950’s corridor carriage with extra soft seats.
Very poetic, a memorial of lost youth, tinged with nostalgia. A great musical accompaniment too.
I'm never goof at writing youtube comments but man this hits hard.
These past couple of months have been rough for me but I know no matter what things will get better and that despite everything I have been living and will continue to do so.
Thanks Geoff, I know everything will work out in the end.
What a beautiful piece of art you deliver us with this video, Geoff!
I am stuck for words.... I am so touched with this film. Within 11 minutes and 12 seconds, you managed to send us a lovely emotional message about passing of time, saving memories and leaving youth behind - and after all those years of following your work (since just couple of - mostly private videos there were there on your channel) this exact video timed so well with what is happening in the life of my family. Exactly today, my younger brother finished high school - same school as I did years ago. We had the same school subjects, the same teachers, the same commute. Your video let me realised that some period in our lives comes to an end today (not just his, mine also). While watching your video, I got touched by memories of people I met throughout that time, old friends, teachers and classrooms, as well as my commute - bendy buses and trolleybuses I took everyday, bus stops I spent my time at, cold freezing mornings trying to learn that last topic for a daily short test and sunny afternoons, coming back home in heavy traffic, simply enjoying the light rays peacefully heating up the side windows of the slowly tootling bus.
We might live in different countries, speak different language, commute to different places, but at the end we all share the same feelings, keeping the simplest memories somewhere deep inside us, just to let them appear when we realise that they are already far behind.
Thank you for reminding me about our humaneness.
Dear Geoff, You made my brother's youthfulness go (and mine somehow too) in even more remarkable way.
Can't believe it, but I am in tears.... 🥲
Thank you and great job as always, Mr Marshall! 👌
Seeing The Network Southeast booklet brings back a lot of memories.
I grew up in Earlsfield in the 60s. My nostalgia was sitting on top of the air raid shelter at the end of the garden counting the number of carriages of each train as it headed towards Wimbledon or Waterloo. My Mum (and neighbours) had the patience of a saint as I yelled out how many each train had. I loved the 4Subs.
My Mum is no longer with us.
Thanks for this Geoff.
Great Video. Tear in my eyes. Remember back then
That was a great video. Always nice to hear people's railway related memories! Its funny how we've had these short lived but fondly remembered services. About 10 years later there was that Anglia Railways service to Basingstoke which came and went within a couple of years.
Thanks for letting us into your past, and an interesting story of the brief service direct to Guildford.
I adore videos like this and no one does it better than Geoff, I used to work in Watford and lived in Harpenden. The 321 bus was unreliable, so I used to get the Thameslink to St Albans and then the little train over to Watford. Did this for three years. Lovely memories. The memories of the ticking clocks have come flooding back. I now commute between Diss and Liv Street twice a week and it's just not the same. Thanks so much for the memories Geoff
Thanks for a soulful and reflective video Geoff. Reminds me of my own 1990s commute from Windsor to Paddington on Network Southeast liveried slam-door class 117s (and often a bubble car 121 on the Windsor branch). Those frosty mornings at Slough listening to HSTs hurtling through waiting for the chug of the local trains on platform 5. Now all replaced by the electric Elizabeth line, which would have made my then onward journey to Liverpool Street oh so much better.
Yeah... I am always here for Geoff Marshall banger. Epic my man. Big Love.
The Nostalgia hitting hard like a Thameslink train going to Guildford
Thanks Geoff, lovely words said. I lost my wife just before the clocks went back, so I now enjoy the nostalgia just looking back a month now and reflecting on how times change in the blink of an eye. Thank You❤
My goodnes Craig, my condolences. Thank you for commenting. Take a train ride? it always works for me. take care sir.
@@geofftech2 Thank You. Your videos always give me a great way to escape for a few minutes.
Thank you Geoff, that was an uplifting delight to watch.
Absolutely beautiful video. Truly stunning. Excellent arrangement from Tim too.
Would love to see more videos like this Geoff. You’ve got me reminiscing. Thinking about London Waterloo the first time I came to London as a 7 year old and how much it’s changed in the 35 years since. Also riding the slammers on the Portsmouth main line and changing onto the old tube stock(all in white London transport livery) on the Northern line to Belsize Park. Good times. Thank you for rekindling those memories 👍🏾
What a lovely video, thanks Geoff, and thanks Tim.
That was lovely. And very touching ❤
Thanks Geoff. I've just spent a weekend in Edinburgh with my wife, and with a morning to spare, and a visit to my brother near Newhaven in the early afternoon, we decided to walk on the footpath from Haymarket to Newhaven along the track of the former Caledonian line from Dalry Junction to Leith North. A delightful walk but evoking memories from my childhood of riding on this line when it was still in service up to April 1962. Bitter-sweet. London suburban railways are almost all still there. Edinburgh, capital of Scotland, lost them all.
It may yet carry something on rails. Edinburgh City Council want to use it (now known as the Roseburn Path) for the Granton extension of the Trams, currently in the early planning stages. It’s meeting resistance though, as it’s a very popular walking and cycling route. But, a keen eye will notice that the concrete base for a turnout towards the Roseburn Path exists on the current tram line between Haymarket and Murrayfield.
What a beautiful video. So personal. So melancholy. It’s moved me to dwell on the ordinary everyday of the past that has gone. Cherish the present because tomorrow it will be history.
What a fantastic, thought provoking and emotive video. Very powerful to watch and very absorbing.
Great work Geoff, keep up the good, no excellent , work.
Geoff, you are exceptionally good at making this type of video.
I started work in Guildford in 1992, August, down from South Wales, my first proper job. It seems a long time ago, yet I don't know what I've done with my life. I'm still in the same company doing roughly the same thing. Never got married, never had children. Where have the years gone? I'm still in Guildford now. We can never go back, so Geoff's message of living for now is a good one. I need to live a bit more. I need to ride the trains a bit more! Thanks Geoff, and thanks Tim for providing the atmosphere for this.
What a strangely, beautiful, melancholic video. It is an area of the country I have no link to but somehow felt strangely nostalgic for it. And a reminder of the relentless march to our ultimate destination.
What a beautiful and very nostalgic video Geoff. Absolutely loved it. I feel this way about the line and stops along the Shrewsbury to Aberystwyth line, as that's the line i had to travel along to get to university in Aberystwyth. I feel a nostalgic ride in the making. Thank you Geoff
your storytelling is amazing. i could feel each emotion and this video brought a tear to my eyes. i’m only 22 and i found my love for trains through your secrets of the underground series and have enjoyed my journeys since and thanks to you geoff, i also currently have and forever will have beautiful memories and nostalgia linked to trains.
A lovely video Geoff! It’s soo true about just enjoying every moment you can and making those memories.
As a Canadian from a region where a train comes through twice or thrice a week, I'd give my right arm to have memories like this.
Magnificent Geoff, how seemingly mundane things in your past can have a huge significance now. What's more, it was accompanied by Tim's wonderful rendition of Take On Me.
Hi Geoff Paul in Orpington I would say one of your finest videos you done very well done 🎉
Enjoyed this. Nice change of pace.
Great video Geoff! You are good at telling a story 😊
What a wonderful, well-produced, gentle video!
Great video We cannot stop that clock so enjoy every minute of what we got. 😢😊😊
That was a quality piece of audiovisual art. Thank you!
Thank you Geoff, as a resident of Bookham during the late 80s and early 90s I often travelled to Guildford on the train and remember how annoying it was to have to change at Effingham Junction just one stop down the line from Bookham because trains didn't run all the way to Guildford. Having recently returned to the area its a great improvement that they do now go all the way without having to change! I don't recall Thameslink services though but thanks for a nostalgic trip down memory lane in a section of the rail network I know very well. ❤
I commuted for 22 years into Canon Street or Victoria and trudged to either Farringdon Road for my first 12 years or Television Centre for the following 10. Returns to Kent early in the morning after a night shift were the only time I got a seat on an almost empty train so I am quite happy that I don't have to do that again and haven't for 16 years.
I left school 40 years ago. My first job was commuting to London Liverpool Street.
Enjoyed it. Good memories.
Seems like it happened recently.
The station has changed, the trains have changed even the line has changed.
Actually the whole world has changed.
Lovely video Geoff. As someone who now happily lives in Stoneleigh it has resonance for me. Just to part fill in a gap, I moved to Farncombe in September 1995 and the West Croydon to Guildford service was still running then. I remember I deliberately went shopping for my house in Croydon so I could go on this service and little railway adventure. Thanks for stirring up some happy memories.
What a beautiful nostalgic video. Loved it!
Wow, we would have been hanging out on Guildford platforms about the same time as each other.
Haven’t been to Guildford station in YEARS though, so had no idea the platform had been extended, and I remember that beautiful old signal box well.
Great video, thanks for the memories.
Wow! Pure art Geoff. Thanks
I only moved to London last summer and always had to switch at West Brompton for the District line from the Overground. In September of last year I moved somewhere else and didn't have to use the Overground anymore, instead I would just get on the District at Wimbledon to Earl's Court. Every time I pass through West Brompton I look out the window and look across the platforms and see the Overground and I feel so much nostalgia.
Even though it was only last summer, it feels like 10 years ago. So much has changed in just a year. Whenever I ride the Overground from Clapham Junction up towards Willesden Junction all the memories of those commutes come flooding back. Since I only used that route in the summer until I moved in September, all the memories are associated with warmth and clear blue skies. My life was so different back then and was populated by different people and events. All of that comes flooding back whenever I pass through West Brompton without fail.
Thank you from this Guildfordian
Is that a thing?
@@andrewnorth170 yes
@@andrewnorth170 I actually wondered if he meant his name was Ian, and he was from Guildford. If there is someone out there called Ian Guildford and he comes from Guildford originally it could all get a bit too much...
I spent 30 years commuting from Derby to London and back. Sometimes 6 days a week, frequently on a Sunday. My most pleasing memories are of the old HST's, especially those with the old Valenta engines in them. I can say in all honesty that while all around me people would be nodding off I never once slept for even a second. I retired in 2022, but when I look back I can honestly say being a train driver on the Midland Main Line was an honour and a pleasure...
i really enjoyed that Geoff. Thank you. The piano music reminded me of one of my favourite TV series, Hill Street Blues with the station sergeant's memorable line "Let's do it to them before they do it to us"' 11:12
This is a reason I watch your videos Geoff. Reflecting on the past, like we all do - I just think this is up there with your best.
A delightful video, great production with lovely sound track and of course a great train and life story as always from Geoff (and help from Tim)
A fantastic video that brought back many memories for me of commuting to London from Guildford in the early 1990s. The seemingly glorious summer evenings made up for the discomfort of travelling in hot over crowded trains. I have lived back in New Zealand for 21 years so it is poignant looking back my time in Guildford and environs especially when the clocks here have recently gone back for winter.
I just love your videos! I was watching it thinking ‘should I be bothered about a train going to Guildford?’ But yes! You make me want to be bothered about a train from the 90s which I never took and never likely to ever take! Thank you so much for the joy you bring.
What a lovely story beautifully shot and edited. Thanks Geoff.
Amazing story. Chin up Geoff, you’re a legend.
best video in ages - thank you!
Good grief Geoff !!....you almost had me weeping there....made me remember waiting in the dark for the first train to London from Datchet. !! :-}
What a beautifully sentimental video. I wonder if in thirty years we’ll be making content about the time Thameslink trains ran to, I dunno… Rainham in Kent as they do now despite it seeming incongruous.
Minutes can seem like forever, but forever speeds by us all.
Beautiful storytelling, beautifully edited. Bravo.
Geoff in very philosophical mode in this latest video.
What a beautiful video with a beautiful memory. Thank you Geoff.
That was a great video on your nostalgia! Time flies, and we do need to make most of the time we have as the years just go!
Got a chance to see a mate in South Wales at the end of May. So, I purchased a rail card, got an excellent deal, and travelling all the way by train, which I'm very looking forward to!
I've been meaning to see the country by train for years now. Glad I've got round to doing it!
Beautiful - made me get emotional at the end. My earliest memories of railways was seeing 5043 'Earl of Mount Edgcumbe' at Coleshill Parkway as a wee lad.
I am sitting here with an utterly stupid grin on my face. Thankyou.
Great video, loved it. Time seems to go quicker the older you get though.
This is a wonderful video, full of modern nostalgia and personal recollections. I do remember when Thameslink went to Guildford, I actually planned a journey once which didn't actually happen. I thought the piano might be Tim, it fitted the whole thing very well. Thank you
I’ve just completed 38 years railway service (with another 4 to go) yet it seems like just yesterday that I climbed the steps to the offices at Brighton station to start my career in April 1986!
Seeing this video, actually makes me wanna shed a tear.
I have fond memories of the Copenhagen S-tog, when i was a schoolboy in the late 2000s/early 2010s. Remembering the old 2nd Generation S-trains, spending many hours of standing on a footbridge that's about 2/3 of a mile west of Albertslund S-train station and watch trains go by. Many hours were spend on Albertslund station itself and the surrounding area.
And as you say, yes. We all get older. A little more grey, a little more wrinkly but most importantly, more wiser.
I'm only 18 days away from turning 25. remembering the S-trains, like they were in the 2000s makes me feel old, (yes, i know. i shouldn't speak, considering my age... lol), i remember, again, the old 2nd Generation S-trains from the 1960s, and when the current ones were brand new. Sometimes, i can even feel my heart crack from nostalgia.
Despite that i'm only (almost) 25, i remember so much of the past 15 - 20 years of the S-trains and of my childhood, that sometimes, i just feel like crying for the sake of nostalgia. Yes, it hurts like mad on the soul, but we all gotta follow time. The Danish railways might not have much left from my childhood, but i can atleast keep them as fond memories, from when times were much simpler.
Thanks for making this video, Goeff. Yes, i might've shed a tear or two, but i did it for nostalgia.
Cheers on, mate. Greetings from across the Nordic Sea
Very sad to see the state of the “new” S-tog trains. Some of the best ever designed commuter trains.
Yeah... I miss the SWT Blue 450's or SWT as a whole. How time flies eh?
i went through a couple of years (2005/06) of going to Hellerup regularly and would take the train from the airport through Copenhagen. My image of everything there is frozen in time from that period.
@@apuldram when there’s no grafitti, they will look nice, as they’re currently going through a midlife refurbishment. SA 8142 is the first to have been given the full refurbishment. The remaining 134 sets will follow up over the next year and a half
@@paulketchupwitheverything767 oh yeah, back when the Øresundståg were the regular, being both brand new and still under delivery (111 sets build in 12 years. Impressive!) I’m already missing seeing them during their glory days on Kystbanen between Copenhagen and Helsingør…
Beautiful video. I've been to and from, and through, Guildford many times and occasionally through EJ up to London or to wonderful Bookham. Love the A-ha.
Brilliant video. Thanks Geoff.
Lovely film. I do love these little, thoughtful videos.
What a beautiful video
A beautiful reminiscence. When the first bit of piano started, I thought "this reminds me of a Tim Traveller video". The choice of music and its slower tempo so perfectly matched the mood of this.
I'm put in mind of my commute for my first job out of school in the late '90s. Every morning I went to Gravesend station in time to catch the 07.04 that came from Gillingham up to London, but I changed at Dartford for the stopping service to Erith, where I was working. Erith had staggered platforms so the footbridge was at the rear of the train, so I would go right to the end of Platform 1 (now platform 0) to get on the last car. The sound of the 465 crossing the pointwork into the platform was very distinctive and I can still hear it in my mind to this day. It was a cross platform from 2 to 1 at Dartford to another 465 on to Erith. Run by Connex but still in NSE livery.
In the evenings, if I bunked off a few minutes early I could get a slightly earlier than usual train that for some reason was formed of a 4 CEP, and I could treat myself to a ride in the compartment section.
I grew up in Horsley (one stop after Effingham) - went to school @ Howard of Effingham school. This was an awesome nostalgic video for me too, thanks Geoff
There ought to be a Train Changers Club for those people who've spent umpteen hours of their lives waiting for their connection to arrive. I never really experienced this until I went to live in Hungary and ended up getting to know Vámosgyörk station rather well.
All the little things that you see every day and that are so familiar. Then you move home or change jobs and it all disappears from your life and is replaced by something else.
Wonderfully done Geoff👏🏽. It’s got me nostalgic about all the rail journeys I’ve made, including two journeys on the Aldwych branch of the Piccadilly line before it closed in 1994.
Your videos are always really interesting but you just occasionally pull one out of the hat that is thought provoking and hits us right in the heart. Top work.. and great Piano ' Tim Traveller '
🔴🔵⚪
Long-time readers of Modern Railways will remember when the column by Alan Williams regularly featured the shortcomings of train services from Effingham Junction.
This is wonderful Geoff, I especially like the "Take on Me" arrangement and your use of some of the lyrics. As a 50-something man like yourself I find myself nostalgic for a lot of things, a lot of the time, and it's good to know I am not alone. And nor are you!
Loved this video. Loved even more that you called out the video duration, ha! Always made with such love Geoff!
Ha ha! Thanks Luke 😅