Nostalgia

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Selby White
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Re: Nostalgia

Post by Selby White »

Not been mentioned on here yet but does anyone remember the "Football Specials" the policed trains that British Rail put on at around half the normal fare.

The trains were awful dug out of some scrap yard, no buffet and lucky if the toilets flushed, still when skint was one way of getting to away games. Certainly was a sight to behold when a few hundred Leeds fans disembarked and at the same time letting the locals know who was in town.

To be honest only used them a few times as it was often cheaper on the ordinary trains going from Selby as I still had to get a ticket to Leeds then pay for the Special.

When I did use them its was always fun a few cans of beer to take on, a pack of cards and find two daft lads that would sit in the window seats to play 3 card brag with and you could earn your fare.

One bad memory was a match at Forest the special arrived with around 600 or so of us then escorted to a goods entrance and held there. Eventually rumour went around the match was off, turned out to be because of fog.
The held us there (wouldn't let Leeds fans into the City) for over 3hours as the train back wasn't scheduled until then. No toilets all crammed into a small area it was hell. The Leeds fans as always made the most of the moment with a good sing song, came up with a fitting one to the tune of Newcastles Blaydon races but with a line change to "going down to Nottingham, to see the ******* station"

Anyone one else remember the Specials ?
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NottinghamWhite
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Re: Nostalgia

Post by NottinghamWhite »

Never went on a football special would have loved the experience we used to get the train from Malton to Leeds back in the 60’s but there was nowt special about it :D
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Re: Nostalgia

Post by Paul ITFC »

Sorry to poke my nose in again but in the very late 1960's and early 1970's ITFC used to run a special train called 'The Blue Arrow' and that WAS special. It was organized by a committee formed from the supporters club and had music piped through the train-usually starting with The Seekers 'Morningtown Ride'-and had quizzes etc during the trip.
The fact that Ipswich was and is a long way from a lot of the places we went to made these trips very enjoyable.
My early trips to Elland Road (with Ipswich) would have been by train rather than the coach that I would have been on for the many more recent ones but think they were probably just normal special football trains rather than The Blue Arrow which was only run a few times a season.

One train trip I remember (not Blue Arrow) was when we had been to Shrewsbury for an F.A. Cup game in 1981 and drew and we pulled into Peterborough station on the way back and the Norwich City special train pulled in after they had got beat 6-0 at Man City with just a platform between us. A hell of a lot of police seemed to appear from nowhere and got between the two trains until one or other of us pulled out of the station.
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NottinghamWhite
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Re: Nostalgia

Post by NottinghamWhite »

Paul ITFC wrote:Sorry to poke my nose in again but in the very late 1960's and early 1970's ITFC used to run a special train called 'The Blue Arrow' and that WAS special. It was organized by a committee formed from the supporters club and had music piped through the train-usually starting with The Seekers 'Morningtown Ride'-and had quizzes etc during the trip.
.
I for one enjoy your posts it’s interesting reading other fans nostalgia. So keep poking that nose ;)
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Selby White
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Re: Nostalgia

Post by Selby White »

NottinghamWhite wrote:
Paul ITFC wrote:Sorry to poke my nose in again but in the very late 1960's and early 1970's ITFC used to run a special train called 'The Blue Arrow' and that WAS special. It was organized by a committee formed from the supporters club and had music piped through the train-usually starting with The Seekers 'Morningtown Ride'-and had quizzes etc during the trip.
.
I for one enjoy your posts it’s interesting reading other fans nostalgia. So keep poking that nose ;)
Must agree with NW it's good to have other fans that are genuine football lovers tell us their thoughts and stories, pleased you joined Paul.
Keep your face always toward the sunshine - and shadows will fall behind you.
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Mr Russell
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Re: Nostalgia

Post by Mr Russell »

Selby White wrote:
NottinghamWhite wrote:
Paul ITFC wrote:Sorry to poke my nose in again but in the very late 1960's and early 1970's ITFC used to run a special train called 'The Blue Arrow' and that WAS special. It was organized by a committee formed from the supporters club and had music piped through the train-usually starting with The Seekers 'Morningtown Ride'-and had quizzes etc during the trip.
.
I for one enjoy your posts it’s interesting reading other fans nostalgia. So keep poking that nose ;)
Must agree with NW it's good to have other fans that are genuine football lovers tell us their thoughts and stories, pleased you joined Paul.
Totally agree, your stories are an excellent read. It's great to have other genuine fans from other clubs who can tell us of their experiences.
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Re: Nostalgia

Post by Barlow Boy »

Paul ITFC wrote:Sorry to poke my nose in again
No need for apologies Paul, opposing fans more than welcome :thumbup:
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Selby White
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Re: Nostalgia

Post by Selby White »

Talking of Ipswich and trains I remember my first trip and a few of us decided to do it overnight (talking 70s here).
So it was a few beers around York then the midnight London train that stopped at Peterborough where we would change for Ipswich.
Picked a few more Leeds fans up at Donny so was 20 or so of us.
Journey to Peterborough was fine and passed quickly but then it was the mail train to Ipswich which was a couple of carriages and took forever, seemed to stop at every farmhouse.
Remembering piling into a cafe in Ipswich where one lady was working alone, look on her face when her little cafe was suddenly full of 20+ Leeds fans at 8am all wanting a bacon Sarnie and cup of tea or coffee.
We stayed there until the pubs opened and she worked her socks off keeping us all fed and watered, probably one of her best ever days.
Great day out I just recalled but a long journey. Funny I remember that but nothing about the match.
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NottinghamWhite
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Re: Nostalgia

Post by NottinghamWhite »

My last trip to Ipswich ( love Portman Road :D ) we took over the pub by the station & it was very rowdy in there. A young man behind the bar took a lot of stick & presumably the landlord took objection to this & actually stopped serving. I honestly thought there was going to be a riot but luckily for the pub half a dozen coppers came in & help get the place emptied. On the train on the way back they cleared 2 carriages & just put Leeds fans in there.
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Re: Nostalgia

Post by Paul ITFC »

NottinghamWhite wrote:My last trip to Ipswich ( love Portman Road :D ) we took over the pub by the station & it was very rowdy in there. A young man behind the bar took a lot of stick & presumably the landlord took objection to this & actually stopped serving. I honestly thought there was going to be a riot but luckily for the pub half a dozen coppers came in & help get the place emptied. On the train on the way back they cleared 2 carriages & just put Leeds fans in there.
It is surprising how many sets of supporters claim to have "taken" that pub-presumably The Station-because it is the designated away pub on match days.Certainly Lincoln and Naarwich have claimed to have "taken" that pub but it does not actually take too much taking because of it's match day status.

Thanks to everyone that has welcomed me to this forum, I will probably only usually appear on something that relates to LUFC in the Don Revie years or something that relates to ITFC.
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