Odd things you've seen - take 2

[biking_fox]

I can't find the original thread for this, so I'm starting a new one.

Paused at a junction by a railbridge, waiting for the lights and a STEAM train went past under the bridge! I couldn't see much of the engine, but great clouds of steam all over the road, and dissapearing off into the distance with a proper chuffing sound.

Had me smiling for the rest of the commute.

 

[Arch]

I can't find the original thread for this, so I'm starting a new one.

Paused at a junction by a railbridge, waiting for the lights and a STEAM train went past under the bridge! I couldn't see much of the engine, but great clouds of steam all over the road, and dissapearing off into the distance with a proper chuffing sound.

Had me smiling for the rest of the commute.

If you were a real buff, you'd have been able to identify the loco from the engine note. And probably where the coal came from....

First things first, what colour was it?

Nice though. I reckon they should run random scheduled services pulled by steam. After all, steam is quite capable of the speed most trains travel at most of the time....

 

[Soltydog]

Nice though. I reckon they should run random scheduled services pulled by steam. After all, steam is quite capable of the speed most trains travel at most of the time....

Nice idea, but I think the vast majority of drivers nowadays won't have even set foot on a steam train, let alone know how to drive one

 

[purplepolly]

a STEAM train went past under the bridge!

We often used to get an ancient diesel in very old british rail green livery and with seats that had huge springs in that continually launched the passengers about half a foot into the air. Rumour was that they were short on stock and had to borrow it back from a museum...

 

[biking_fox]

Quick bit of 'net trawlling. Looks like it was a Princess Class (red) engine on the Crewe-Scarborough outing. - It's a tour company running a weekly? service through summer.

 

[ChrisKH]

Getting out of my beast of a car (Chrysler 3 Litre - sorry) in America last Friday at midnight after a particularly pleasant evening with my lady wife we both looked up to the East as there was a flash of light to see the Space shuttle 60 miles to the East taking off. It was the biggest thing in the sky and the rockets made a huge light despite the distance. After a minute or two the re-usable fuel tanks visibly came off the main rocket and after a minute or so more the shuttle disappeared over the horizon (not going straight up as you would expect) following the curvature of the earth, presumably into orbit.

Unbelievable and it really topped off my hols.

 

[2Loose]

I can't find the original thread for this, so I'm starting a new one.

http://www.cyclechat.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=42243

 

[Tony B]

Not quite that unusual, but today I saw a pob on a electric bike on the pavement.

 

[Arch]

Nice idea, but I think the vast majority of drivers nowadays won't have even set foot on a steam train, let alone know how to drive one

So you hire someone who does, as a freelancer...

BTW, I hope you realise, I'm going to use knowing you, a real train driver, to gain huge kudos with my nephew when I go and see him in October....

 

[gemsno4]

I was on a train between birmingham and coventry a few months back and a steam train went the other way. Me and the bloke opposite kind of looked at each other as if to say "did I imagine that or did you see it too"

Weirdest thing I have seen while communting by bike was a guy on a unicycle going down one of the busiest roads in Birmingham.

 

[Arch]

There are often steam trains sitting at York station at the start or end of special runs. If the wind's in the right direction, I hear them whistling.

I was very excited a while back to see the Class 37 Thunderbirds* on tour on my way back from Winchester, they passed the other way at Didcot. I don't suppose anyone else on the train even noticed them....

(a bunch of Class 37 diesels* used to run out and pick up broken down trains. They are all named after Thunderbirds characters.)

*Class 37, a right proper diesel, second only to the Deltic* in industrial scale grunt...

*Deltic... oh, I'll shut up now....

 

[Maizie]

Ooooh, Deltics! About 10 years ago, I was due to travel to visit a friend in Newcastle. A couple of weekends before, my husband and I went to London for the day, in large part so we could do the bit to get me to King's Cross and I could know where I would appear from the underground, where to find my platform, etc. And we were not yet on the concourse, walking up from the underground, when my husband just stopped walking and turned to me and said 'There's a Deltic in here...' (at the time I didn't understand what this even meant. He explained it to me. And yes, there was a Deltic at one of the King's Cross platforms).

I'm trying to think of ANY odd thing I have seen on my commutes (you know, staying on topic). I can't think of anything. There's a car I pass on one driveway, the car has moss/lichen growing on it, that's about as odd as it gets...

 

[Arch]

Ooooh, Deltics! About 10 years ago, I was due to travel to visit a friend in Newcastle. A couple of weekends before, my husband and I went to London for the day, in large part so we could do the bit to get me to King's Cross and I could know where I would appear from the underground, where to find my platform, etc. And we were not yet on the concourse, walking up from the underground, when my husband just stopped walking and turned to me and said 'There's a Deltic in here...' (at the time I didn't understand what this even meant. He explained it to me. And yes, there was a Deltic at one of the King's Cross platforms).

I believe Chris Rea once did a song based entirely on the beat of a Deltic engine.

I've never heard one, but have seen the engine, and the loco it went in, at the NRM. I gather it is a very distinctive sound. And the loco is huge. I think many people don't realise how big any loco is, because they always see it from a platform a few feet up. You need to be alongside them on the track to really get it.

 

[Arch]

And here it is - the whole album was named Deltics I find out...

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozY3Y28Mksg


And the loco:

Someone cannier than me would be able to say what that tender behind it belongs to....

 

[mr_cellophane]

Driving home on Tuesday down the M6, I saw an old railway carriage heading north and a little while later we passed a Eurotunnel engine heading south. That looked odd as it was missing the wheels.