Train Numbers

[Caran]

Do you remember collecting train numbers back in the very old days?
I'm sure I go back further and collected car numbers or have I imagined that one?

[Cloverjo]

I remember my sister and I standing at the end of our road and writing down the reg plates of the cars that went past. God knows why!

[TonyV]

Didn't do train numbers, but certainly plane registrations at Heathrow, and local light aircraft strip remember having a published book where you could underline registrations you had seen. That would have been in the early 70's lol

[Caran]

I know Cloverjo, what did we do with them?
I lived on the main road between Manchester and Bolton as a child. I can remember doing this as it was so rare for a car to come along.

[Caran]

TonyV going back a lot further than that!

[vulcan42]

started off collecting train numbers, penny platform ticket and we were there for the day, later changed to taking photographs of the engines. Living on the south coast there were lots of coach trips coming in so we collected their numbers as well.

[Jackdaw33]

You could buy books, I think they were called Allen's, listing all the numbers for each train region which you could underline as you saw them. I'm going back to the late 50s.

[malagabob]

I seem to remember collecting car numbers. There weren’t that many around. It was a long time ago.

[Arrods]

I used to collect bus and train numbers. It could be quite dangerous, as we often sneaked into bus depots and engine sheds to get a good collection. We could get a bus and train Rover ticket for about 2s6d if I recall to travel all over London hunting down our quests. Happy days.

When the Routemasters came out, the Ian(?) Allen book I had contained only the first 100 or so numbers as they were so new. For some reason, RM8 was never spotted. Fast forward many years, I saw the bus in London. Crept up to the loft, got the bus book out and proudly underlined RM8. Result!

[Helewel]

I used to have an I-Spy book of car registrations which I took on long journeys to pass the time. The last two letters in the old style registrations indicated the origin of the vehicle if I remember correctly.

[anotheoldgit]

I remember collecting car registration numbers, at that time each town had it's own letter prefix before the number.
The interest was to spot a number that was from another area and then record it, for it's rarity.

I also remember collecting Bus tickets, the interesting ones were 'Worker's Returns', 'Exchange' tickets etc.

Also collected, American 'Fag Packets' ie Camel, Lucky Strike, Philip Morris etc. And also American chewing gum wrappers.

And dare I say it without some calling me a Neo-Nazi, I also collected Nazi badges.

[anotheoldgit]

/// The last two letters in the old style registrations indicated the origin of the vehicle if I remember correctly. ///

I seem to remember that they were the first two letters.

[bhg481]

AOG - currently the first 2 letters, originally the last two of the three letters. My username was a Rover 75 registered in Burnley (HG). My last car was a Volvo registered in Berkshire V299DMO (MO). Current car is a Volvo registered in Birmingham BF08...

[retrocop]

I lived right next to a railway track (s) in Hendon as a kid and collected train numbers. (Steam locos of course).
I then graduated in my teens to hopping on a direct LT double decker armed with my scope,Air Band radio and Ian Allen spotting book.The bus took us direct to the Queen's Building Air Terminal where we joined all the other young spotters. Couldn't happen these days I guess for security reasons. :-(
As I reached about fifteen I graduated to the Paris Air Show for a couple of years. Then I grew up. :-)

[anotheoldgit]

bhg481

Perhaps I am going back further than you.

1 OR 2 LETTER PLATES
ONE OR TWO LETTERS FOLLOWED BY ONE TO FOUR NUMBERS OR REVERSE
These plates are rare and are normally only seen on newer vehicles as cherished or personalised numbers. However, some still exist
and were originally issued to vehicles first registered between 1903 and the mid 1930's.

http://www.cvpg.co.uk/REG.pdf

[bhg481]

AOG - I think we're both saying the same thing. Wherever the letters are (beginning or end), as opposed to numbers, it's the last ones that define the locality ie, ABC123 and 123ABC are both BC locality (Brighton, I think).

[Sqad]

Sqads parentage, that can be identified, originated as farm labourers from the Fens but came to Peterborough in the late 1800's when the railways came to the North East. One of sqad's relatives was on the footplate of Mallard when it broke the record for steam locomotives, down the Essendine slope at 126m.p.h in 1938.

Thre were 3 main books for train spotters:

ABC of LNER
ABC of LMS
ABC of GWR.

I had all three and was a keen spotter.
I followed the family tradition as LNER employee as a porter at Peterborough North Station.

[bhg481]

Sqad - you've forgotten the Southern Region and don't forget the "Combined " volume.

[Jordyboy9]

Always thought this was an English pastime and not much call for it in Scotland ,there again I could be wrong.

[Sqad]

bhg....I have indeed. Thank you.

[marval]

We used to play a game where you looked at the number plate of the car in front. Then we had to make words using the letters in that order.