Forum | Football Special Trains. by hedgeend61

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Football Special Trains. 18:34 - Mar 25 with 3121 views

Not something you see these days, only us old boys would have been on these

I can remember being on Saints fans trains to -

Brighton
Forest FA Cup
West Brom FA Cup
Wimbledon FA Cup at Plough Lne
all late 70's,

Have I missed any?

Football Special Trains. on 19:27 - Mar 25 with 3008 views

PatfromPoole

Fratton 2005 and 2019.

Poll:

If we were today re-instated to the play-off final, would you go on Saturday?

Football Special Trains. on 19:40 - Mar 25 with 2988 views

Andu007

FA Cup Everton 1981

Football Special Trains. on 19:57 - Mar 25 with 2970 views

SalisburySaint

I went on the one to Wimbledon

Also went on the one to Bradford City

Football Special Trains. on 20:33 - Mar 25 with 2908 views

grumpy

Man U with TVs showing endless 'Big Match Games' and Lawrie walking along the train.

Football Special Trains. on 20:50 - Mar 25 with 2894 views

SaintNick

Football Special Trains. on 19:27 - Mar 25 by PatfromPoole
Fratton 2005 and 2019.

Strictly speaking these two weren't special trains, anyone could get on them, I went to Bradford on the special train in 1976, I also went to Brighton in January 1978 and Leicester in 1981.

Perhaps the most entertaining one though was on Boxing Day 1977 when I was on one of the two special trains that went from Liverpool Lime Street to Nottingham Forest, it was eye opening to say the least

Satisfying The Bloodlust Of The Masses In Peacetime

Football Special Trains. on 21:21 - Mar 25 with 2855 views

saintmark1976

Football Special Trains. on 20:33 - Mar 25 by grumpy
Man U with TVs showing endless 'Big Match Games' and Lawrie walking along the train.

I recall it was called The League Liner.

If memory serves me it arrived late,we missed the KO and the game ended in a dismal 0-0 draw.

A throughly miserable day out all round.

Poll:

One week to go. Who will win The World Cup ?

Football Special Trains. on 21:40 - Mar 25 with 2832 views

dirk_doone

1971 FA Cup 5th round at Liverpool. Everton were at home to Derby at the same time. The Southampton and Derby football specials were lined up alongside each other at the station after the game. A few missiles and pleasantries were exchanged. I was on a few in the 70s, including West Brom.

I remember travelling back on trains from northern games with Lawrie and the players. They'd be standing on the platform alongside us at places like Blackpool. But, those were just regular trains.

Football specials were around in the 60s too for FA Cup games. The earliest I can recall was for a 4th round game at Bristol City in 1967. I can't remember anything about the journey, but there were a hell of a lot of us at Ashton Gate that day. There almost certainly would have been at least one for the 1963 FA Cup semi-final.

AI tells me "Football special trains, designed to transport supporters to away games, were operating in Britain in 1927, when the Great Western Railway ran 50 services for the FA Cup Final. While they became synonymous with the 1970s and 1980s, early rail travel for matches began developing as early as the 19th century."

I'm surprised British Rail ran them for as many years as they did, because the trains used to get so badly vandalised and trashed that it can hardly have been worth the trouble.

[Post edited 31 Mar 13:59]

Poll:

How many Pompey fans post on here, pretending to be Saints fans?

Football Special Trains. on 23:17 - Mar 30 with 2283 views

pjt50

Hull in the FA Cup in 1966. Went overnight & left from the old Terminus station. Must have been shortly before it closed.

Don’t remember much about the game. Not only was I just a kid but it was so foggy that you could hardly see the other goal. Not helped by the steam trains going past on the railway line next to the ground. This was when they played at Boothferry Park.

Saints lost 1-0.

Poll:

Where do you hope to see Salisu start (OK, I know we haven't seen him yet)?

Football Special Trains. on 08:53 - Mar 31 with 2156 views

SouthSeaSaint

Football Special Trains. on 23:17 - Mar 30 by pjt50
Hull in the FA Cup in 1966. Went overnight & left from the old Terminus station. Must have been shortly before it closed. Don’t remember much about the game. Not only was I just a kid but it was so foggy that you could hardly see the other goal. Not helped by the steam trains going past on the railway line next to the ground. This was when they played at Boothferry Park. Saints lost 1-0.

I was on the Hull train too overnight from the Terminus Station.
There was about 6 of us in a compartment and I think we all tried to sleep in the luggage racks.
Went down to Plymouth (League) and Bristol City (Cup) on Special Trains.
The most notable was the FA Cup Semi Final v Man Utd at Villa Park in 1963.
There must have been quite a few trains on that day as you can see the queues to get into the station from the top of the hill.

Football Special Trains. on 09:59 - Mar 31 with 2106 views

SaintNick

Football Special Trains. on 08:53 - Mar 31 by SouthSeaSaint

Football special trains as you say were not a modern invention, Northern clubs were taking Special trains in the later 1800's down to London for the FA Cup final and the railways saw it as an easy way to make money in other games too.

Vandalism put paid to it in the end and I think British Rail discotninued them in the mid 1980's

Satisfying The Bloodlust Of The Masses In Peacetime

Football Special Trains. on 13:57 - Apr 1 with 1964 views

SouthSeaSaint

I can remember on the Football special train going down to Bristol City, the rail line was high level going over Bath and more or less all the train's toilet roll stock was thrown out of one side of the train to create streamers and some jokers decided to set fire to them.

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