British Rail Network SouthEast -A foggy day in Oxford November 1988

A request from a subscriber now, some shots from Oxford. Taken on a foggy day in 1988 sees class 50s on NSE Expresses, 47s on Cross Country Inter-City services, DMUs on locals to Bicester, Banbury & Reading plus some freight & light engine moves. If you liked the video please subscribe to my channel, there are lots more transport & quirky vids to upload!

[@ianjones3568]

Love seeing the old style inter city diesel pullers with the old style compartment coaches.

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

That's good, i still have a fair bit to put up!

[@AndreiTupolev]

What a great shot at 0:48 with the 58 suddenly speeding past!

[@dronespace]

Great footage

[@dalejacob4985]

I grew up in grandpont . just down the line from the station. The line was down a small lane. I would stand on the bridge watching the coal trains. going to didcot and transporter trains with montego's and meastro's from cowley car plant going past. I remember those trains with only 2 or 3 carriage's. They we're always dead slow! We played on the tracks and sidings at hinksey in the abandoned carriages. Dangerous but great fun .Happy days.!

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

I'm pleased my upload brought back some great memories....I worked in Hinksey Yard in later years as it was re-opened for ballast trains and i worked trains from there.....

[@westcoastmodels]

Another quality upload. Thank you sir.

[@grumbeast]

Wonderful stuff! Great to see Hoover’s working Thanks for posting, and never thought I’d miss DMUs!

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

I iked DMUs, lots of variety and you could normally see out of the front & rear, great fun!

[@EM-yk1dw]

Nice one again Soi, when travelling by train was a real pleasure, now its just an endurance.

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

Thank you. I know what you mean re travel, i still get about a bit. Recently i had the 'joy' of traveliling on Thameslink and the padded wooden seats! At least they were running this time, back in May it was pot luck as to getting a train at the south end of the East Coast main line. Happily the Moorgat's were running quite well so had an escape route but north of Welwyn it was iffy!

[@JamesPetts]

Very interesting archive!

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

Thank you.....

[@appliance004]

Really enjoyed that, mate. Cheers.

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

My pleasure, i'll keep 'em coming!

[@kathrynwhitby9799]

i remember travelling on some of those DmU's when i was younger.

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

Yes, there were country wide until the mid 1980s when BR started to replace them....

[@vicsams4431]

Great video. Thanks for capturing such evocative sights and sounds of NSE, when loco hauled still ruled supreme. I can remember standing for hours at Oxford and Reading (occasionally Banbury) and Woking and Basingstoke catching 47s and 50s in and out of Paddington and Waterloo. I even recall a similar foggy day at Oxford in 1988. I am sure you and I know each other. Our paths just keep crossing too many times. Bought up on GE and LTS metals. Worked for NSE GE in later years.

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

I too worked under NSE at Ilford Car Sheds until i got my drivers job on Trainload Freight. I used to do a lot of tours as well as days out bashing locos for haulage as can be seen from the uploads. In the 80s i did trips out on AL or rest days but got more desperate in the 90s!

[@vicsams4431]

@@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus I remember Bob Hall (?), Depot Manager at Ilford Car Sheds. I knew some Ilford Drivers, but mainly Stratford drivers and some drivers from Southend Vic, and Norwich. I worked with Malcolm Orbell, who joined Trainload Freight at March / Whitemoor. I also knew Dave, the Trainload Freight driver's manager at Parkeston. I had to go out once in the cab of a Class 66, from North Walsham Oil Depot to Parkeston, aboard 6A22. 35 mph up the GEML. The driver commented "these locos will pull anything, but don't expect them to race". Yes, things 'got more desperate in the 90s'. Sprinters everywhere !

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

@@vicsams4431 ^^'s were rancid and wouldn't pull anything unlike the 59s or 60s which were really type 6 power! The 66s were very noisey in the cab as wel.... horrible things! Never knew Bob hall but did know various SF drivers especially in early 94 when they split the dpot and around 20 or so of them transferred in to Ilford along with some ballast work! Result i thought, the chance to work some diesel trains!

[@vicsams4431]

@@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus I agree. You would think for a fairly modern loco, the Class 66 would be better silenced in the cab, especially as the Noise At Work Regs get for ever more stringent. The driver also commented on how pathetic the front drawbar hook was, and how the front coupling could easily fall off. Oddly, I find the Class 67 more appealing. Having cabbed them from Edinburgh to Inverness, and Aberdeen to Edinburgh (both on the sleeper) and Norwich to Lowestoft. Although nice for bashers who like loud locos, I should imagine the Class 68 is a nightmare for drivers, and guaranteed to cause industrial deafness in later life. The fact they went for fitting an environmental scrubber to the exhaust, instead of a silencer, shows staff that their well-being is sadly not at the forefront.

[@Marcsharp82]

Proper quality, interesting to see the 155

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

The 155 was brand new then, and before they were split and turned into tin rockets! Not sure what service it was on, a trip along to Worscester maybe?

[@IndigoJo]

Soi Buakhao Must have been Worcester; that branch was the only Regional Railways line in that area. They started getting Thames trains services in the mid-90s.

[@dazthomas3281]

have you seen 50033 recently looking great at Severn valley railway!! sounds great. keep up the good videos

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

I must admit i don't get about to preserved lines as much as i would like but i have seen photos in the Beano recently (aka Rail mag!)

[@pxsrrail2558]

Now that is qualité 👌👌👌

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

Thank you!

[@andrewjohnson2628]

I remember riding behind a virgin class 47 from Paddington in the late 90s and I was the only passenger in the front coach lol

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

Yes, they only really got busy when they got to Reading.......

[@dazthomas3281]

love to see the Hoover's nice

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

They were still busy painting them into NSE livery at this time, notice 50 033 Glorious in Large Logo before she became 'Glorious Network Sotheast'!

[@MatthewRailways50033]

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐video 👍👍👍👍😃😎

[@AndreiTupolev]

* 47653, the former Samson, there was only 47653 briefly, as it became 47808 in '89 and then back to 653 in 1993, finally becoming 47781 in 94.

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

Yes, BR loved to renumber things!

[@KThompson1990]

The Mk2 (5179) on the end at 1:53 still exists, currently stored at Tyseley: www.cs.vintagecarriagestrust.org/se/CarriageInfo.asp?Ref=3570

[@ianjones3568]

Aren't they the older style DMUs? The top of the frontage changed to more square with less yellow. Could be the other way round.

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

There are both old and the then new class 155 DMUs seen on this upload.

[@christopherhood9241]

how strange - just scanning in 35 mm photos and i’ve got 47653 at Scarborough on a pennie duty.

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

They certainly got around a bit did the 47s......

[@conkeroonee]

Great memories, when DMUs were routinely thrashed 2:08

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

I like the old, proper DMUs. Had some great runs in them as a passenger as well as driving a couple. I have managed to capture them the length of the country happily so at least we can see how life used to be!

[@EErail26]

Good footage, but are you sure this was November 1989? I suspect it may have been 1988, as by a year later the new station buildings and footbridge were under construction and 50046 was DCWA rather than working Thames and Chiltern passenger services?

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

Well spotted! Yes it is 1988 and i have amened the description, thank you. I think my brain is still a bit jet lagged from a trip to the far east-at least that's my excuse!!! lol

[@marcelomenendez1971]

great footage, just like the song, a perfect day........ to spot trains,I did the same, not video taping, only pictures, in the final of the 70 and for about 20 years here in argentina,where railways were mostly uk companies in the beginning of the rail expansion, sadly in the 90s there were given into a kind of privatization, and the sistem was all vandalized in the name of the progress regards from buenos aires

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

Friends of mine have been to Argentina, Buenos Aires i think, chasing diesel hauled trains. They were told to keep the windows shut as yobs would throw stones & bricks at the train. As a result all the windows were heavy duty plastic so the rocks would bounce off!

[@marcelomenendez1971]

@@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus hi, this may be happens at some points,in the outskirts of great buenos aires,now some new trains are working, with glass windows, and if one is broken, they replaced with glass windows, no more plastics, but is a fact that in some areas the vilolence is still yet

[@nickrockall2845]

My local

[@bonkeydollocks1879]

@0:50 that class 58 was that a coal train for Didcot? The cooling towers came down the other day.

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

Yes, back in the day Didcot was served by MGR trains from UK mines. When they finished imported coal was brought in from Avonmouth. Didn't i hear on the news when the towers came down it went a bit wrong???

[@bonkeydollocks1879]

@@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus yes the electric service nearly felt it

[@trainrover]

Having been shunned by Montreal's forthcoming _Réseau express métropolitain_ for stock, _Bomardier_ is now also being shunned by Via Rail Canada for new push-pull inter-city stock.

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

Well, they're doing quite well over here at the moment but lots of train builders are opening factories so we'll see how long there prefered status lasts. When they were the last train builder in town they had a hold to a degree over the government but with half a dozen factories that will go.

[@AndreiTupolev]

155s got as far as Oxford? Maybe on a Cotswold line working

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

This was before they became 153s. I have a feeling some workings were locals towards Banbury.

[@ChilternTransportProductions]

I don’t think Regional Railways ran up to Banbury from Oxford. But they did from Oxford to Worcester though!

[@Dillwin24]

What route were the 50s operating heading north out of Oxford?

[@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus]

A lot were ECS to the sidings and returned to London. The odd Birmingham was still worked by them at this time, i caught one back from Banbury later in the day.

[@gwrdriver1660]

I think the Paddington to Hereford's were still class 50's then aswell Cheers Rich