The first time ever I saw ...

[whole diary]

[grahame]

... what pictures do you have from the first time, ever, that you saw?


From today ... my first plug-door HST^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)) at Swindon

[paul7575]

Ahem!

They are better described as sliding (pocket) doors, more like an IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train - replacement for HSTs (manufactured by Hitachi in Kobe, Japan)).  Plug doors are what you get on things like Voyagers, or Desiros, where there are two phases to the motion, separate 'along' and 'in/out' movements.  The previous doors on HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)) are probably also best described as 'hinged plug'.

Paul

[grahame]

Ahem!

They are better described as sliding (pocket) doors, more like an IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train - replacement for HSTs (manufactured by Hitachi in Kobe, Japan)).  Plug doors are what you get on things like Voyagers, or Desiros, where there are two phases to the motion, separate 'along' and 'in/out' movements.  The previous doors on HSTs^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)) are probably also best described as 'hinged plug'.

Paul

OK ...

Thems be the furst daws wot I seen lyke that. 

Technical correction noted. I'm just a passenger / customer.

[JayMac]

The first time ever I saw...

... a Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm de Havilland Sea Vixen in flight. It was doing circuits over South Somerset ahead of RNAS Yeovilton Air Day in July 2014. A remarkable aircraft of an unusual design.

My photographing of it was fortuitous. I was in my parents back garden in Curry Rivel, trying some macro shooting of insects on flowers. The Sea Vixen flew low overhead and I quickly reconfigured the camera (a Fuji digital compact with, fortunately, a long zoom and good manual settings) and managed to grab the image below as the aircraft banked. Any slower getting the camera set and the aircraft would have been further away and the sun would have ruined the shot. Picture not perfect - handheld at 20x zoom and tracking a fast moving jet isn't ideal for really sharp images.



This was the last Sea Vixen in airworthy condition. XP294 (civilian reg G-CVIX). In May 2017 it, and its pilot, survived an emergency wheels-up landing at RNAS Yeovilton, after the landing gear failed to deploy. The aircraft is now in a period of suspended maintenance while plans are drawn up for a viable repair and return to flight.

Video of the wheels up landing:
https://youtu.be/x64-Bea7xXc

[bobm]

The same train Graham, at the same location - but slightly earlier in the day.  My first time too.

[bobm]

..and also saw my first IET^▸ (Intercity Express Train - replacement for HSTs (manufactured by Hitachi in Kobe, Japan)) overhead to diesel changeover.

[Clan Line]

............THE Royal Train.... (How did they keep the front of that thing so clean ??)



The security was somewhat "low key" (lax ?) that day.  The gent in the orange vest was the driver, he had been elsewhere for some minutes, the lad with the "stop here" flag was long gone, I was the only person at that end of the platform. The cab door was open, the engine was running - how do you drive a Class 67........?

[chuffed]

And then HMQ comes along, and says 'And what do you do ?' over your shoulder........

[JayMac]

"I steal trains, ma'am as in jam."

[Gordon the Blue Engine]

Concord, from the cliffs near Lynmouth, when it was doing its tour round the coast of England in 1974.  Note that it was below us!

edit - can a clever administrator make my picture visible and the same size as every one else's? - I don't like just having a small one.

[PhilWakely]

.......an HST^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)) at Exeter



The very first revenue earning HST service [to the South West] passes Exeter St Davids bound for Plymouth with a special excursion from London Paddington on 10th April 1977

[Bmblbzzz]

Cab roof looks very dirty considering it's the first service!

[PhilWakely]

Cab roof looks very dirty considering it's the first service!

First service to the South West - it had been in service between London and Bristol/South Wales for 7 months by that time.

[Bmblbzzz]

Ah, that explains it, thanks. I was thinking they can't have been that dirty, surely, even in the 1970s!

[Umberleigh]

.......an HST^▸ (High Speed Train (Inter City class 43 125 units)) at Exeter



The very first revenue earning HST service [to the South West] passes Exeter St Davids bound for Plymouth with a special excursion from London Paddington on 10th April 1977

Back in 1977, a small boy on the platform at Exeter looks on in wonder at the two first class carriages, restaurant and bar, seats in 4+4 formation and aligned with the windows, the quietness of the interiors with no underfloor engines, the comfortable seats, and the ability to run eight car sets as standard* and realises THIS is the future of passenger rail travel in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom)

* okay, some artistic licence