Slam Door Train Memories
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- čas přidán 20. 09. 2015
- A nostalgic film showing slam door trains in action, as filmed in the early 1990's - for many routes just months before they started being replaced with new sliding door trains!
The film focuses on the outward-opening doors which were opened and closed by the passengers. Several instances are seen of passengers opening doors whilst the train was still entering the station - instead of waiting for it to come to a halt. This was potentially very dangerous, especially if the door hit someone stating on the platform or if the passenger tried to alight from the train whilst it was still moving. But those passengers who recall doing it will suggest that it was still better than waiting (sometimes quite a few seconds) for sliding door train doors to open.
Also seen are examples of short length trains stopping at the designated 'stopping point' which is more suited to longer trains - resulting passengers having to rush along the platform to board the train - and a train which stops outside the station to prevent passengers from boarding it whilst it awaits a green signal.
Heard but not seen is a guard giving the 'right away' signal on a class 308 electric multiple unit train.
Stations filmed at are: Ockendon, Richmond, Upminster, Heaton Park, Greenford, Ealing Broadway, Marylebone and Harrow-on-the-Hill.
The types of train include: Classes 310 / 312, 423, 308, 305, 504, 121, 117, 115.
Seen 'in passing' are Class 321 and London Underground 1962 Tube + D78 Subsurface stocks.
Pure nostalgia!
What is NOT seen (because I did not get to film it) is anyone boarding a train after it had started moving after its 'station stop'. Passengers would jump on the running board and hold on to a handrail whilst opening the door. Of course doing this was potentially dangerous, but since (at stations with cross-platform interchange) the guards on the mainline trains tended to delay giving the train driver the 'right away' signal until the other train's doors were about to open so even I used to do this. Primarily at platform 8, Stratford station, on Sundays, when the next train would be in 30 minutes.
I moved to London in 2004 and experienced the slam door trains and the flap display timetables for a year or two until they were decommissioned, more than anything these sounds are nostalgia of my early London life.
The sound of the doors slamming was an essential part of the train platform sounds. I do remember seeing real last minute grabs for the door as the train was pulling out. A bit more derring do than last minute dare-devilry on a Routemaster bus. I miss all this vintage transportation so much. Some of the trains on southern region had (so comfortable/luxurious) compartments accessible by a corridor. It was such a pleasure to find you were getting into one of these after a long day in Thamesmead/Abbey Wood on the line to London Bridge. The atmosphere was amazing. The sounds, smells, soothing creaks and groans of the elderly rolling stock and the hisses of the (Westinghouse?) brakes could easily lull you to sleep.
The ones with tungsten lighting were so relaxing at night!
You're so right! The unmistakable sound of the door slam conjures up the smell of the thick seat upholstery and vague diesel and oil fumes, plus feeling the heat from those little radiators under the seats. All very emotive and memorable. Oh and the clackety clackety of the train in motion and the squeaky brakes. Many of the things that model railways can't really reproduce.
I remember all the 'slam door' carriages back in the 1980's and 90's. Didn't the railway look a mess back then. Run down, dirty and old. I remember how it was. London Marylebone looked like it was about to be closed for demolition. I am so happy we have a rail system to be proud of now. New trains, nice modern stations, plans to reopen more lines. We still have much more to do, but we are heading the right way.
Including those shut by that fraud Beeching
Honestly....i prefer the older trains for the reasons you listed. I miss the run down, old slam door trains. Much better than the modern ones in my opinion.
You haven't been to Sunderland station recently have you?
you forgot to mention the "eye-wateringly expensive" bit about the current rail system.
You really had to give them a bit of welly to slam them properly shut as well!, especially on the class 310 emus.
Oh it takes me back to my younger years and early adult college days too later on. I literally remember it all so clearly and simply because of seeing this video of these trains, how odd. These trains were awesome! There are 100s of things to remember about them and not just the slamming doors. Leggin it for a train that is already taking off, already at some speed but still managing to just about open a door and jump on, swinging out on the doors long before the train had stopped at a platform was also a regular thing by youngsters and actually hanging on to them swung out from the train and jumping off before it had even stopped, the creeks and noises, the smells, everything! The crappy fuzzy radio with a smoking guard guy half-heartedly telling you (if he could be bothered to) what the next station was, a guy legging it alongside the train with a bike frantically trying to work out where the big doors and bike part are before wrenching the large ramp down with the guard, hoping the ramp wasnt knackered and there wasnt another bike already in there and trying to get the bike on, the smoking carriages (altho all were really). Opening the windows on doors trying to lean out and open the door with the outside handle as the crappy little metal sliding part inside did nothing to open it lol. Sitting in first class when you were not supposed to and just loving the tissue paper on the back of the otherwise standard mucky seats that were everywhere else on the train, listening to the doors slamming as people got on and off whilst you waited for yours. Chatting to the guard as you had a smoke out of a door window on one of the later trains out and having a laugh with him whilst he sat in his little square room by the bike part ready to press the bell and tell the train to go from a platform, I miss it all, waiting at canterbury and finally getting on one back to Ramsgate or wherever I was going after a long day, i don't know why but they were so much better and nicer to be on at the end of a hard day than trains of today, it's very strange but to me, they were! The list of things great about them and those days is endless!
Great video, loved it
That lovely sound of the old electric trains pulling out of the station! And lovely old fashioned announcements. Reminds me of summer Sunday afternoons, travelling from Kent into London.
Same but Brighton or Southend.
I miss these old slam door trains. Last time I was on one was in April 12th 2001, just before the Easter weekend. I went from Portsmouth to Southampton.
The 312 and the ticking noise when arriving is a sound of my child hood
Makes me nostalgic, but seeing that dirty pollution does make me grateful for progress. I wonder if recording today's trains will one day be as interesting to look back on as this video is. Funny how time works.
Well, electric ones Class 305 and 308 don't pollute at all, and DC traction motor sound is unbeatable.
I rode on the trains at start of video Christchurch to London Waterloo hundreds of times and I loved the musky smells from within the carriages ...the good old days !
Imagine their reaction when they discover a complete archive of "virtual railfan",
Well the Class 455's are reaching 40 years old and are as unpleasant as they were when introduced. Only nowadays they stop at many more intermediate stops and take 50% longer to Waterloo. How I long for the days of Network South East and VEP's and CIG's. Drive into London these days
Ah, those were the days. I’m feeling nostalgic over a time period I never experienced. Most people think these trains weren’t as safe as the trains of today, but I think they were equally as safe.
They weren’t as safe but the idea is not to have them crash into each other. A modern train is more crash resistant but you’ll still end up with carnage inside.
who cares what you think?
@@IPerfectDark Quite a lot of people actually, so sod off troll.
I Went on one of the last ever slam door trains running on the main line when the final class 101 was retired December 24th 2003. Rose Hill Marple to Manchester Piccadilly. The train was 47 years old and painted in BR Green!
i still travel that line to this day
I've got that very service on my channel leaving man picc ecs
czcams.com/video/ZB88eq3GRRU/video.html
It was therapeutic giving those doors a satisfying slam every day.
I miss those days, great piece of film and so clear for the time
Thanks :-)
Beautiful clips of a bygone era! Loved seeing the class 312, probably my favourite slammer.
+Highspeedline01 I used to travel on the 312s which worked in the Liverpool St - Colchester service. From Ilford they ran non-stop to Liverpool Street, taking about 12 minutes. When Crossrail opens ALL trains will call at 5 intermediate station, making journeys longer and slower than ever!
+citytransportinfo Weird to think that even though the trains are faster, the journeys aren't.
Thanks for posting these videos! Having been born in the late 20th century its a real shame I missed British Rail at its finest, but these videos really do put me back in time!
+Philip 297 Thanks. This was a real nostalgia blast for me too; when I look at how all trains nowadays have sliding doors it feels like a whole way of life has gone. Thank goodness for video and heritage railways where a few such trains still exist.
@@CitytransportInfoplus Also I like motor sounds of the time: DC hum as train accelerates instead of AC chopper whining.
Philip 297 It really wasn’t fine! Take it from one who is old enough to remember.
fantastic I enjoyed traveling on electric slam door stock to kent & Sussex back in the 90's what fun that was :-D thanks for sharing
Those are the only trains I remember from the UK. Emigrated to Canada in 1981. My grandad worked for British Rail so I remember lots of train rides. Feeling very nostalgic watching these videos.
I think the bubble cars (class 121 heritage) have slam doors and they are still in service today. They have been modified to have electric locks to lock the doors and windows while the train starts to move.
Used to love the slam door trains. Our friend group had so many broken bones from jumping off too soon, usually under the influence. I miss the smoking sections at the ends as well.
Yikes! Did your friends ever hurt anyone waiting in the platforms?
Much better than the dirty old man trains, the Class 104 dmu!
fantastic update, one of your best. loved the LTS bits and the DMU sharing a platform with central line- unique stuff
+david priest Thanks :-)
Have you seen the Greenford film? (this where that DMU & Central Line scene was filmed)
czcams.com/video/9Gr8aoyMBAw/video.html
Enjoy!
Happy memories.there was excitement as a child travelling days out to Southend on these trains.
Thank you for posting these. It was a treat to watch.
Thank you for watching and commenting, I am pleased to hear that you enjoyed my film.
Around here in Romania, the guard blows a whistle and holds a green flag out the door. At night, it is a green flashlight. Interesting to see that the British trains had an integrated bell. Also, modern carriages have their doors locked based on speed (more than 10 km/h I think). Therefore, if a train stops at a red signal, passengers can get off because the doors unlock automatically.
only some British trains had integrated bells
Loved this video! So many happy memories for me!
I was on many of these when younger in the 1990s. I was a child then but went with my dad. I remember that a Hastings service was dispatched from London Bridge with one of the doors still open. I don't know the exact train class but it wasn't a compartment one - it was saloons with end doors. The door was banging around as we accelerated out of the station. Many people would have had to pull the emergency cord, but my dad - an ex soldier - managed to close the door while the train was running at full line speed.
yes, sometimes the trains did travel with the doors open - thats why the Metropolitan and District railways had doors with rounded tops - these were less likely to be seriously damaged if left open whilst the train was travelling through a tunnel
I remember riding on slam-door stock on the Metropolitan line back in 1957. The guard used to give "right away" to the driver by shorting out a pair of wires with the metal ferule on his flag and that rang a bell near the driver.
+Alejandra y Alan Bowman I know of this (read about it in books) but did not see it in action.
The two wires run alongside most of the underground sections of the tube and surface stock lines, if a train fails in the tunnel and the driver pinches the two wires together this trips the traction current. Also in the cab is a telephone which when clipped to the wires enables comms with the control room.
There were so many ways for these to be dangerous, people would often open the doors as the train was coming into a station so you didn't want to stand too close to the edge and get biffed. It was possible to open the door on the wrong side of the train, and one time I opened a door at a station where the platform was shorter than the train, ended up with a big drop down to the track. But for the most part people didn't get hurt, we were aware of the dangers and took account of it.
yes, for the most part people took responsibility for their safety and as a result despite the dangers there were relatively few accidental deaths from people doing the wrong thing.
I sometimes boarded trains as they started to leave the station, especially on Sundays at Stratford station, where there is cross platform interchange with the Underground. The mainline trains came every 30 minutes and the guards sadistically waited for a Central Line train to start opening its doors before initiating station departure.
Don't bring back slam doors on mainline or branch line trains again. High risk with safety whether in high rise social flats with flammable cladding and without sprinklers and other proper working safety features or on slam door trains being opened by passengers inside a station a good 15 second before it stops are ridiculous risks to the publics health and safety. At least one risk of these high risks has gone now with today's trains operated by automated doors rather than slam doors, the high risk high rise social flats still need to be reduced to zero.
The practice of people getting off one train before it halts and then getting on another moving train on an adjacent train moments later had to end. Hence why automated door trains came in.
That happened to my late mum. Sprained ribs and every thing.
@@dvidclapperton The two examples are not comparable; on a slam-door train you can avoid injury if you use some common sense and are aware of your surroundings, as the vast majority successfully did. Living in a flammable home on the other hand does not put your safety in your own hands, rather you would be helpless should a fire start
@@tressel2489
They won't come back to front line network train services..
2:31 'Hello mr.Camera Man!'
1:44 now that is a noise that brings me back too!!
Early 1990's... In 2003-4 there were still slam door trains serving Canterbury (east and west I think)... and that is not a fond memory. Dangerous, very unhandy with luggages, and with interesting side effects. As you had to pull down the window to open the door from the outside knob, windows were ALWAYS left open and in the middle of winter and you could enjoy a refreshing breeze when the train departed... And as there were several doors per carriage, there was always one left open.
Coming from continental Europe, that was quite a shock. I was born in 1974 but had never seen one in my life . From 2003 to 2006 I could see most them be retired and sorry for train enthusiasts but that was not a sore miss.
I grew up travelling on these, I miss them!
amazing there weren't more delays with doors left open.
Great sounds and captions
thanks
doors left open was sometimes a problem but passengers on the train sometimes closed them to help reduce the delays
also a problem was doors that were opened too soon - sometimes they hit (and seriously hurt) a passenger who was very close to the platform edge
@@CitytransportInfoplus They'd be sued out of existence these days!
great footage here, thanks!
If we had slam doors nowadays we would be hitting idiots standing inside the yellow line on their mobiles.
might knock some sense into them !!
Most folks on their phones alighting the train wouldn't bother to shut the door behind them today
They do have it, on Colchester to Stratford (Norfolk line). Because our trains haven't been upgraded since the days of misty nostalgia.
Slam doors (Mark 3s) are still around but they have central locking - you can't open the door until the driver releases the lock at stations.
@@steved8193 The Guard releases the doors, not the driver.
So many young people here remembering the slam door trains of that 90s decade. I'm a lot older and was a teenager in 1970s and lived in Gillingham, Kent. I regularly travelled on the BR Blue slam-door trains to Sittingbourne, 8 miles from Gillingham. I think those trains may have been called the BR Blue 421 CIG or something like that and some of the trains (not all), were pulled by the massive BR Blue diesel locomotives. In those days, you could actually open the doors from the inside WITHOUT having to open the window, unlike the trains in the later decades like the 90s. Crikey!,..you could even risk getting your head knocked off by looking out of the window as the train hurtled along the track at 70 miles an hour. Later on, they put bars across the windows so that you couldn't no longer do this.
Nunsweepit421 I used to live in Gillingham too. I remember these trains fondly, and the Intercity. I remember sticking my head out of a window and going under a tunnel.. got a bit of a scare that day! Always remember the sights and sounds of the trains at the Gillingham crossings.. especially in winter when it got dark early.
Nunsweepit421 There were trains that could be opened from the inside in the 90s I recall. They had little metal latch things you had to squeeze with your fingers.
Brings me back to my days as a boy In the ‘90s
Great video thanks for sharing.
another marvellous video
Fantastic quality filming for the time. Most videos from back then are really grainy.
Great Video. Best era for railways in the UK.
Thanks :-)
I like how the doors act as brakes, slightly increasing drag as the train stops
er, um, thats not quite how the trains were designed to operate! (But I known what you mean).
I never helped with this braking effort as I was concerned a different kind of braking - a breaking of people's bones if they were standing too close to the platform edge and the open door hit them.
The announcer at Marylebone even in NSE days was very This is the BBC, wasn't he.
+Marcomanseckisax The same sadistic pleasure (for the same reason) would see BR trains at Stratford's platform 8 wait for a Central Line train to arrive at the opposite platform and then just as its doors are open.... they would depart.
I can understand this happening in the rush hour when the next train would be 2-3 minutes later (in those days there was a more frequent rush hour service than today) but this was unacceptable in the off-peak when the route was served by trains with two different calling patterns that ran 20 minutes apart (30 minutes on Sundays). Since I did not like waiting so long on a cold, windswept platform so if I was quick enough I would board the BR train as it was starting to leave the station.
To do this I would stand on the running board and with one hand hold the hand rail and with the other hand I would open the door and enter the train.
Happy to have used these "slam door" trains in 1992 when my tortuous journey to work via multiple underground trains eventually took me from Richmond Station to Feltham.
That first station looks a lot like Gunnersbury and not Richmond by the way.....
Legend. Thanks
Ah Ealing Broadway. My old station we had to use. I like looking at slam door trains now but as a kid and teenager they scared me. I had a fear of not being able to open the door and being stuck on the train.
I was a a bit soft back then.
I liked slam door trains and wish we still had them. Especially when at cross platform interchange stations where the guard (of the train with slam doors) would wait until the train arriving at the other platform has stopped and then send the driver the 'safe to depart' signal.
This used to happen at Stratford quite a lot, and whilst in the rush hours when the next train was barely 2 minutes away it would be understandable, it was totally unacceptable on winter Sunday afternoons when the next train would be 30 minutes later. In those days platforms 6/8 were very exposed and even with a gentle breeze it felt freezing. This explains why more than once I would jump on the running board (of the departing train) and whilst holding a handrail with one hand use the other hand to open a slam door and enter the train.
I suppose that it was dangerous, but it cant have been that bad - as I'm still here to tell the tale!
Someone had better get some smelling salts for the 'elf and safety' bods who just read what I said. LOL
They could never bring back slam door trains now. That would be a huge backwards step in the face of the DDA.
We don't want to see the DDA reversed and all manner of inaccessible high floor buses replacing low floor buses, train stations reversing the works that made stations accessible for the disabled and make it hard for them again, and slam doors on exsting newer trains replacing the automated doors.
+@@CitytransportInfoplus
Cameron when he was prime minister who was proud to cut red tape to relax 'elf and safety' was a major reason for the Grenfell tower disaster where re-renovation of it was done after the report for the Lanakal disaster was published and also after the vote in the commons to relax 'elf and safety' made that report to Lanakal surplus to requirements. Disgraceful.
Really you would rather turn the clock back and then carry on as though the DDA never existed. Going back to a byegone era in the railways now would cause more accidents and deaths.
I was a teenager when these were finally phased out and have really found memories of travelling on them in SW London on the lines out of Clapham Junction. In fact they were still running them on the Waterloo to Reading line as late as 2004 if I recall.
That said, while I do have nostalgic memories for them looking at this video makes me realise how hazardous and unsafe they were. It is crazy to see people opening the doors while the train is still pulling into the platform. I also remember seeing commuters running alongside trains pulling out of the station trying to jump on as well - crazy if you ask me. That is not to mention the huge step up and down between the doors and the platform. I also remember them often jamming meaning you had to stick your hand out the window to open them from the outside. Is that correct? It looks like that is what the guy is doing at 2:04.
some of these trains required you to stick your heads out the window because they did not have handles inside
yes I sometimes did board moving trains, especially at Stratford when the trains were every 20 - 30 minutes apart.
opening doors as the train entered the station was dangerous, frequently people on the station platforms were hit and hurt by the open doors
@@cmmartti the windows could slide up and down by pushing on a bar along the top of the window
Yep, handle was only on the out side. I suppose logic being that no one would surely poke their hand out of a moving train to open a door. The seats use to be comfy and I remeber the luggage racks being quite sturdy as well.
That huge gap and step gave me child hood nightmare s of falling under the train. I have a very mild fear of gaps. Bank station Northern line is a nightmare.
@@Naturelady-rf5zx I think you mean Central Line? Very tight curve, the reason for the iconic loudspeaker message "Mind the Gap"
An interesting point is that under British Rail(ways) there were three distinct generations of slam door EMU. The first generation was for the southern region and was largely mechanically based on Bullied’s designs for the southern railway. In true Southern Railway tradition, some of the trailer cars re-used steel rolling chassis that dated back to the,the 1920s. These included the first Generation of the EPB emus and were built in southern region Workshops until 1953-4.
The Second generation was based on the BR Mk. 1 chassis and body shell designs. These were what became the Class 307 overhead units (originally build for the Extension of the 1500v DC overhead electrification from Liverpool St - Shenfield Electrification to Southend. These units were build with conversion to 6.25KV AC in mind. Then there were suburban EPB units for the Southern as well very similar units for the Tyneside Electrification to replace the 1930 Gresley designed 3rd Rail Units…….
All subsequent EMUs were based around the Mark 1 suburban or Main Line Body Shell. The Glasgow Blue Trains (class 303) were sort of a hybrid design using the Mk 1 outline but owing a lot to the Original Shenfield Electric (Class 306) design with sliding doors.
All EMUs or even DEMUs that were based on BR MK 1 coach technology used a sturdy load bearing Steel Chassis. The Body itself provide little structural support, everything was largely provided by the Steel Chassis.
The first change from this was the AM10 class 310 25KV AC outer suburban units for the Birmingham to Euston phase of the west Coast Electrification. This was based on the BR MK2 body shell which was of integral construction i.e. there was no separate chassis but the complete steel body shell provided all structural strength. This was also used on the Class 312 EMUs which were BRs last slam door stock. Some were built for the GE section and were the last EMUs to be delivered new in BR blue, the second delivery of 312s were for the Great Northern outer suburban Electrification of 1975/76 and were the first BR EMU to be delivered in Blue & Grey and the very last slam door stock.
One of the questions. Is what caused that distinctive sound of the doors being slammed?
I never thought much about this until the late 1970s when I started to be involved on a heritage railway that used both Mk 1 coaches and ex southern Railway Mansell stock which were wooden bodied (with steel outer plating).
BR Mk 1 stock had a very different sound when the doors were slammed and I was convinced it was mostly caused by the doors slamming against the body side s and the door frames when closed.
I proudly announced this to a fellow volunteer, who smiled and showed me the mechanics of The British Rail Door handle and door catch mechanism.
A lot of the sound we associate with post 1950 slam door stock comes from this mechanism that was a major improvement from anything that existed before. Although slam door stock is perceived as being something criminally dangerous that regularly caused injuries of medieval proportions….this is more an impression created by the emerging analytical approach to safety based on risk assessment that has created the “health and safety” culture.
Slam door stock was in itself not inherently dangerous….. if they were most of the London Termini would have been awash with ambulances and the daily figures for injured maimed and killed commuters would have been of epic proportions.
But getting back to the sound. The sound of opening doors fitting the rubber door stops on the body side is there if you listen for it but it is nothing in volume compared to the loud metallic clicking sound of the doors being closed. That sound is door handle mechanism absorbing the inertia of a steel framed door slamming shut and locking the that door shut with a substantial sprung steel catch locking into place. Opening a BR door mechanism requires quite a bit of force and the mechanism uses cams and springs to ensure that the door will remain held in place even if the door in not fully closed into the door frame.
Most of passenger injuries were caused by inattentive/intoxicated passengers falling from doors that were opening or being hit by swinging doors whilst standing on the platform. Had it been the death trap that modern rules implies, it would not have remained in use as long as it did before safety culture became prevalent.
Anyone who remembers how cluttered station platforms could be until the late 90s/early 2000s and invariably were at main stations.
There was passenger traffic, parcel traffic, mail traffic, news paper traffic.
But has there ever been a task so difficult as opening a BR suburban coach door using the inside sliding catch?
Takes me back to the days of trips to London on the fenchurch st line from chalkwell into fenchurch or occasionally from Southend vic into Liverpool st
I used to take that DMU service out of Marylebone to Aylesbury in the early 90s up to Wendover, because I did my engineering training at RAF Halton. It looks so old fashioned now. Mind you, it was then..
When I moved to Scotland in 2011 they still had a few of those carriages in operation where if you were inside the coach, you had to reach your arm through the window of the train door to open it. I am not sure when exactly it was but I think they were retired a few years after and I never saw them again.
Fantastic I really enjoyed that great nse days.
there are still large number of slam door railway coaches in Croatia
Remember Upmister with fondness, as shown in this excellent video, it was possible to get on at Embankment, get off at Upminster and carry onto Southend Central.
I really miss those days, I remember getting off the train with my ma train still moving the smell of ionised steel and grease, the loud pstfwt of the trains brakes as you stepped down
I miss them too!
We had slam doors right up until 2008 I think, by 2006 they were being outnumbered by the electric door trains. The slams doors always smelt of 30 years of cigs and cigars lol.
Ahh slam doors so much fun Seeing how fast you coukd jump off before the train stopped (Health and safety what health and safety) or running along slamming doors keft open by people in a hurry great days! thanks for sharing
At Stratford I sometimes jumped on a train that had started to leave the station, especially on a Sunday when services were every 30 minutes.
wow Heaton park station has change a lot ☺
Oh dear, another thing to consider for ‘What if COVID-19 Happened in the 1980s?’ That’s bound to be a big touch point, glad its all automated now.
well there was the Spanish flu pandemic shortly after WW1, although people knew less then about hygiene
the intercity 125 is my favourite
Very enjoyable compilation. The Glasgow Blue Trains already had sliding doors, yet south of the border, trains were still being made with slam doors- very poor idea! Anyway, loved your video.
+Mervyn Partin Thanks. I'm pleased you liked this video.
btw, apart from the London Underground sliding doors trains were introduced by the LMS in Liverpool and LNER in Tyneside in the late 1930's and planned for by the LNER for London and Manchester for new electric trains which were introduced after WW2. Oh and the Liverpool Overhead Railway rebuilt at least one train in this format too. That said, British Railways did then revert to slam doors for other areas, even when building the Glasgow Blue trains.
Hard to believe this was in the 90s. Say what you like but modern trains are so much better. The infrastructure is still decades out of date though!
B M It is quite late on isn’t it?
Not sure what you mean by "better" but they're much more boring.
Ah! Grab a door and slam it! Very fun for the children, if they only could stand still long enough…
Very true
I wasn’t seven alive by about 10 years when this footage was filmed, some of it being almost 30 years old, imagine that!
I'm happy Class 43 HSTs are still in use.
Until the class 800 replaces them ☹️
The HSTs will still be in use for a while, Scotrail are giving them a complete refurb for use on Edinburgh/Glasgow to Aberdeen/Inverness services, and EMT haven't ordered any new trains yet so will and aren't part of the IEP program, so will likely have to refurb their HSTs as well
southeastern failways the hsts will be moved to sxotrail you fucker
Until the nine car class 802s replace them and the hsts go to scotrail
southeastern failways the nine car class 802s will replace them. Class 800s will replace the hsts between 2017 and 2018/19. Then nowadays by 2019, they will just use only 9 car 802s and 5 car 802s
"SLIDEY WINDOWS, SLAMMY DOORS!" -Geoff Marshall
👀
To what Geoff said I would add 'loverly trains' LOL!!
Fuck!!! At 3:40! I love that pop of the pneumatic cam shutting down to coast.
- Our older subway trains here in New York City make that same sound when an operator grabs full power, but then coasts (at low speed).
With the slam doors you wouldn't know if the train was about to leave or not.
often we heard station staff (or the train guard) blowing a whistle. Anyway, life was different in those days. Passengers managed just fine without all the cotton wool wrapping molly-coddling we have in the present era.
Also, as I recall, the Thames and Chiltern lines were still using loco-hauled trains in the early 90s as well as those noisy old slamdoor DMUs (they were used on the medium-distance trains to places like Oxford and Banbury). Both types disappeared when the Network Turbos appeared.
I think that there were relatively few loco hauled trains on the Chiltern routes. I also suspect that most passengers would have preferred more loco hauled trains to diesel multiple units with a throbbing engine beneath the seating areas of every carriage. Especially on longer routes, such as to Oxford.
R.i.p slamdoors they were in my days
Can anyone hear what the train announcement at 1:29 is saying? "...all stations to ?" I travelled on trains like these as a child and remember them well though not fondly. I visit Upminster regularly but the destination in that announcement doesn't sound like anywhere I would expect a train from Upminster to go.
I lived on the Southern Region at that time (near East Croydon so it would have been NSE South London and Sussex Coast, with some Thameslink and Oxted Line trains) and it was all slamdoor for the medium-distance trains and sliding door trains for suburban trains (Thameslink always was sliding-door). Apart from the problems with disabled access, the coastal slamdoor trains were generally well-liked and comfortable. I also travelled a lot on the Great Eastern out of Liverpool Street which also used a lot of slamdoor trains (similar to those you show at Upminster here) -- they were horribly noisy. In the early 1990s, BTW, slamdoor trains had quite a few years left to run -- I think the last of them didn't leave service until the early 2000s and well after privatisation. I remember seeing slamdoors in Connex livery (which wasn't pretty) and some outlived even that.
Yes, the slam doors survived until circa 2005. I have a few photos of them in Connex livery! I think they are on my Flickr photostream.
What I dislike with sliding door trains is the dirty windows are reflections - with slam door trains it was possible to open the windows and film out... this did not require sticking one's head out which was incredibly dangerous, especially when the train was moving.
Of course on some routes the sliding doors were hand operated and in warm weather passengers could stand next to an open door on a moving train! In those days passengers understood the risks and (from what I've read) it was unheard of for a passenger to fall out of a moving train. Alas, a few Underground train guards came to grief when trains entered the tunnels after leaving stations.
Ahhh. . . . Slam Doors!
Where, on most of them, you literally had to put your hand out of the window to turn the handle on the outside to open the door, because they wouldn't open properly from the inside!
Often, yes - but not always.
On some trains however there were no handles inside the train.
I think the only slam-doors I've only ever been on are steam trains. I think I remember a Connex slam-door waaay back in the mid-nineties as my mum was waving from the carriage as it departed. But I was only 2 or 3 then so for all I know that never happened... I miss the 90's
+BMWM3GTRLOVER A few of the living museum steam centres also use diesel multiple unit trains with slam doors, plus Chiltern Railways use one of the Class 121 Bubble Cars (railcars) seen at Greenford in this film on their Princess Risborough service.
I used to take one of these in the late 90s. There was a rare London Bridge-Guildford around 7:00 that I used Forest Hill-Leatherhead. It had 1st class cars but it wasn't a service with 1st class so I (and a couple of other colleagues) took advantage.
4:50 "note where the train stops" - this is the operation-oriented nonsense we STILL HAVE on the Munich Underground. It's because all the driver-only-operated gubbins is at the fore end of the platform to allow for multiple-unit service. Many BR-drivers would wait whilst you sprinted down the platform, but Munich drivers allow themselves the sadistic pleasure of seeing you get to the last door opening, only to close the doors in your face. It's called "keeping to schedule". I call it operator hubris.
Bahnspotter 10 minutes is nothing
Be safe. Don't try to be faster than Usain Bolt in order to catch your train or connection train.
If there is 15 minute recommended connection time then that's what you should be aiming for. People getting out of their on time slam door train before it stopped, and then rushing to amother train 3 platforms away within 5 minutes of departure time was sheer madness.
Just get on the first open door when you know the train's about to leave and then walk through the train to the carriage you want to sit even though it's now departed, rather than trying to get on the carriage you want to sit on that's way down the platform and you'll miss it.
Good old days.
The doors on some trains were thick and heavy, a kid I saw, had all of his fingers crushed by a slamming door.
I remember when the first slide trains were introduced to the Wimbledon line services at Clapham Junction. Those units were later transferred (to Liverpool I think) where they were reduced to 3 car from 4 car. The 4th car (one of the middle two) was subsequently put into a 4 car unit with 3 cars of a different design - the odd car was more squat and squarer; also the doors opened wider on the odd car.
yes, they went to Liverpool with one carriage being removed and inserted into Class 455 trains. These trains with the differently sized 4th carriage are still in service (summer 2020).
I remember when the prototype PEP units were introduced.
The 508s as you say were 4 cars. One of the intermediate trailers was removed when they headed to Merseyrail. The 455/8s were the first 455s to be introduced as 4 cars, these then allowed the 508s to head North. The second batch, the 455/7s were delivered as 3 cars, with the 508 trailer added to the formation.
The 508s and later 455s replaced the slam door 4SUB and the 4EPBs, 2EPBs, 2SAPs, 2HAPs etc on Southern's South Western division.
455/8s were also introduced on Southern's Central division replacing EPBs etc.
The 508s on Merseyrail look identical to their sister class 507s which operate as one fleet. The passenger door control was removed from the 508s on Merseyrail. The door operation is similar to that on London Underground, all doors open under the control of the guard (driver on the Underground). Not so good on a cold winters day when the train is stood for 15 minutes at a terminus, with all doors wide open.
507s and 8s will be going in a year or two as the Stadler class 777s are now being delivered.
I lived near Chessington for over 50 years and now live in the Merseyside region.
watching those doors swing open before the train stops is giving me all manner of anxeity....
but at the same time i kinda wish i could do it myself, just for fun.
also, that greater Manchester livery is very Irish isn't it? looks quite smart
The fact that the class 357 directly replaced them is a bit sad but like they had to go in the LTS line that is
Nice One
My first trip abroad (Canada doesn't count) was to Great Britain in 1985. I was in railfan heaven with a 30 day BritRail pass. Almost every moving train I saw had at least a single open door flapping around. For 33 years I have wondered, were there any spots where the tracks were close enough together to allow doors to hit each other, smashing into thousands of bits flying everywhere? I thought I might have to return home blinded and disfigured. Sorry if already answered in the 205 existing comments.
I am not sure about places where train doors could hit each other. However, the slam door trains on the Metropolitan Railway had rounded tops as they could (and sometimes did) hit the tunnel walls between Finchley Road and Aldgate.
The slam doors are not a history in my country (Czech Republic). They are very common at local trains - normally a locomotive with 2 or three carriages, and at some fast trains too. This is because Czech railways are still using carriages that were made in former DDR - company WEB Bautzen, carriages form 80s to 90s. Some trains have ,,slamming" doors controlled by the conductor, but this is not common.
A lot of Polish carriages operated by PKP still have slam doors.
Or Colchester to Stratford 2019, one of the two! :D
The morbid in me: stats on how many people (drunk or otherwise) opened these doors and fell out mid-ride would be interesting to know. The only thing close to such stats would be that early 1990s "Tamworth Triangle" period, where several young folks kept mysteriously falling out of the Mk3s on the IC125.
Lovely sound those old DMMUs.
I also thought that the diesel sounds were noteworthy. Thats why I made some of the scenes with them in longer than strictly necessary. It helped that I had a higher quality plug-in stereo microphone.
Had to watch out on the platform as many people opened the doors before the train stopped so they could hit the ground running.
What a great sound the DMUs made
+ mikkie444 thats what I thought too, and is why I included more than was strictly necessary for this specific video
Gotta love the Leyland engine. Some sound hellfire
This was back when it was absolutely crucial to stand behind the 'yellow line'.
Excuse, the yellow what?
You are right about standing back from the platform edge, as sometimes people too close to the platform edge were hit by a door that had been opened on a train that was still arriving at the station.
However, in those days we did not have such things as yellow lines near the platform edge.
@@CitytransportInfoplus In those days people were more responsible and considerate: it was very rare that anyone was hit by a door, and the 'last one out' could almost always be relied upon to shut the door.
As an American, I am fascinated by these iconic British slam-door trains. On my visits to the UK 3 years ago, they were all gone, I think. A couple of questions, if anyone can answer.... Was there any interlocking to prevent the doors from opening while operating at higher speeds between stations? Was there any interlocking to prevent the doors on the "wrong" side of the train from opening (I noticed another train passing close by). I suppose that people were just careful when they had to operate the doors themselves, but in this country, people would not survive being so indulged.
Hello, At first there was a concern that passengers might try to get out when the train was moving, so the doors were locked when it left the station and unlocked when it arrived at the next station. This required a lot of staff and slowed the journey. However, locking doors ceased after a terrible terrible accident - I think it was a crash between several trains, anyway what is relevant here is that the passengers were trapped inside the train (and the carriages all had wooden bodywork) and there was a fire.
Yes, by having unlocked doors there were accidents at stations when people opened doors on moving trains and sometimes even jumped out, but it was still far fewer people than what could happen (again) if they had been locked in.
Nowadays the few trains that have this type of door which are still allowed to use the main railway system (museum railways are different) do have electronic interlocking, but it is of a type that can be disabled remotely - ie: one switch by a member of staff.
1:51 310 since it has an extra door at guard's compartment on MBS. Late 310s and 312s didn't have it, as they had corridor as-built
Thanks!
Yeah, I remember these "Slam Door" trains from my childhood fairly well. :) Oh yes, long gone are the days in which you often had to risk your life by reaching out through the door window and opening it from the outside (I know that wasn't always the case, but not ALL these particular trains had additional handles on the inside as well). ^^; XD
Kryten Prime travel on virgin trains east coast hst and relive the moment
Harrison Vlogs and more Oh, really? I didn't know that. ^^
They were great to drive bit a pain with regard to safety.
People running up at the last minute, to jump on, doors on the catch, and when coming into a station, doors flying open whilst people jumped out on the move.
Away from the stations people were careful - I never heard of anyone falling out of these trains.
But as you say, at the stations 'dangers a-plenty'
I remember being 4-5 years old getting these on way to school in selhurst F me
Probably different trains but still with the hand operated doors. I say this because trains in the Selhurst area are powered by electric rails whilst the trains with hand operated doors seen in this film are powered from overhead wires
i noticed in this video that alot of the passengers were opening the doors before the train stopped at the station that looked very dangerous at the time.
That was the normal way of life - and boarding the train even though it has started departing from the station.
I do not remember ever alighting from a moving train - but especially when in a hurry people did just that - it was dangerous, both to a passenger on the platform who if too close to the platform edge would be hit by the swinging open door and to the person jumping off the train who (if they miss-judged things) ended up rolling on the floor / with a broken bone or crashing into people on the platform.
I've been on a slam door train not too recently - it was ran by East Midlands Trains, I would assume they are finally phasing them out by now...
Perhaps it was an InterCity 125 / HST?
Yes it was! Had to look it up - certainly looks familiar.
10000000000000000000/10 nostalgia
He's the guard and it is a 4 VEP. Pain in the a r s e especially on a 12 car if you had a door 'on the catch' (not shut properly), right down the back or up the front depending on where you were working the train from.
I'm just curious, what if someone didn't close the door? Is there a conductor or someone who checks the door closure?