I moved to London in 2004 and experienced the slam door trains and the flap display timetables for a year or two until they were decommissioned, more than anything these sounds are nostalgia of my early London life.

I remember all the 'slam door' carriages back in the 1980's and 90's. Didn't the railway look a mess back then. Run down, dirty and old. I remember how it was. London Marylebone looked like it was about to be closed for demolition. I am so happy we have a rail system to be proud of now. New trains, nice modern stations, plans to reopen more lines. We still have much more to do, but we are heading the right way.

The sound of the doors slamming was an essential part of the train platform sounds. I do remember seeing real last minute grabs for the door as the train was pulling out. A bit more derring do than last minute dare-devilry on a Routemaster bus. I miss all this vintage transportation so much. Some of the trains on southern region had (so comfortable/luxurious) compartments accessible by a corridor. It was such a pleasure to find you were getting into one of these after a long day in Thamesmead/Abbey Wood on the line to London Bridge. The atmosphere was amazing. The sounds, smells, soothing creaks and groans of the elderly rolling stock and the hisses of the (Westinghouse?) brakes could easily lull you to sleep.

Oh it takes me back to my younger years and early adult college days too later on. I literally remember it all so clearly and simply because of seeing this video of these trains, how odd. These trains were awesome! There are 100s of things to remember about them and not just the slamming doors. Leggin it for a train that is already taking off, already at some speed but still managing to just about open a door and jump on, swinging out on the doors long before the train had stopped at a platform was also a regular thing by youngsters and actually hanging on to them swung out from the train and jumping off before it had even stopped, the creeks and noises, the smells, everything! The crappy fuzzy radio with a smoking guard guy half-heartedly telling you (if he could be bothered to) what the next station was, a guy legging it alongside the train with a bike frantically trying to work out where the big doors and bike part are before wrenching the large ramp down with the guard, hoping the ramp wasnt knackered and there wasnt another bike already in there and trying to get the bike on, the smoking carriages (altho all were really). Opening the windows on doors trying to lean out and open the door with the outside handle as the crappy little metal sliding part inside did nothing to open it lol. Sitting in first class when you were not supposed to and just loving the tissue paper on the back of the otherwise standard mucky seats that were everywhere else on the train, listening to the doors slamming as people got on and off whilst you waited for yours. Chatting to the guard as you had a smoke out of a door window on one of the later trains out and having a laugh with him whilst he sat in his little square room by the bike part ready to press the bell and tell the train to go from a platform, I miss it all, waiting at canterbury and finally getting on one back to Ramsgate or wherever I was going after a long day, i don't know why but they were so much better and nicer to be on at the end of a hard day than trains of today, it's very strange but to me, they were! The list of things great about them and those days is endless! Great video, loved it

That lovely sound of the old electric trains pulling out of the station! And lovely old fashioned announcements. Reminds me of summer Sunday afternoons, travelling from Kent into London.

I miss these old slam door trains. Last time I was on one was in April 12th 2001, just before the Easter weekend. I went from Portsmouth to Southampton.

I Went on one of the last ever slam door trains running on the main line when the final class 101 was retired December 24th 2003. Rose Hill Marple to Manchester Piccadilly. The train was 47 years old and painted in BR Green!

Makes me nostalgic, but seeing that dirty pollution does make me grateful for progress. I wonder if recording today's trains will one day be as interesting to look back on as this video is. Funny how time works.

The 312 and the ticking noise when arriving is a sound of my child hood

Ah, those were the days. I’m feeling nostalgic over a time period I never experienced. Most people think these trains weren’t as safe as the trains of today, but I think they were equally as safe.

It was therapeutic giving those doors a satisfying slam every day.

Beautiful clips of a bygone era! Loved seeing the class 312, probably my favourite slammer.

I miss those days, great piece of film and so clear for the time

Those are the only trains I remember from the UK. Emigrated to Canada in 1981. My grandad worked for British Rail so I remember lots of train rides. Feeling very nostalgic watching these videos.

fantastic I enjoyed traveling on electric slam door stock to kent & Sussex back in the 90's what fun that was :-D thanks for sharing

I think the bubble cars (class 121 heritage) have slam doors and they are still in service today. They have been modified to have electric locks to lock the doors and windows while the train starts to move.

Thanks for posting these videos! Having been born in the late 20th century its a real shame I missed British Rail at its finest, but these videos really do put me back in time!

I remember riding on slam-door stock on the Metropolitan line back in 1957. The guard used to give "right away" to the driver by shorting out a pair of wires with the metal ferule on his flag and that rang a bell near the driver.

There were so many ways for these to be dangerous, people would often open the doors as the train was coming into a station so you didn't want to stand too close to the edge and get biffed. It was possible to open the door on the wrong side of the train, and one time I opened a door at a station where the platform was shorter than the train, ended up with a big drop down to the track. But for the most part people didn't get hurt, we were aware of the dangers and took account of it.

Much better than the dirty old man trains, the Class 104 dmu!

I was on many of these when younger in the 1990s. I was a child then but went with my dad. I remember that a Hastings service was dispatched from London Bridge with one of the doors still open. I don't know the exact train class but it wasn't a compartment one - it was saloons with end doors. The door was banging around as we accelerated out of the station. Many people would have had to pull the emergency cord, but my dad - an ex soldier - managed to close the door while the train was running at full line speed.

Around here in Romania, the guard blows a whistle and holds a green flag out the door. At night, it is a green flashlight. Interesting to see that the British trains had an integrated bell. Also, modern carriages have their doors locked based on speed (more than 10 km/h I think). Therefore, if a train stops at a red signal, passengers can get off because the doors unlock automatically.

Early 1990's... In 2003-4 there were still slam door trains serving Canterbury (east and west I think)... and that is not a fond memory. Dangerous, very unhandy with luggages, and with interesting side effects. As you had to pull down the window to open the door from the outside knob, windows were ALWAYS left open and in the middle of winter and you could enjoy a refreshing breeze when the train departed... And as there were several doors per carriage, there was always one left open. Coming from continental Europe, that was quite a shock. I was born in 1974 but had never seen one in my life . From 2003 to 2006 I could see most them be retired and sorry for train enthusiasts but that was not a sore miss.

Used to love the slam door trains. Our friend group had so many broken bones from jumping off too soon, usually under the influence. I miss the smoking sections at the ends as well.

2:31 'Hello mr.Camera Man!'

Happy memories.there was excitement as a child travelling days out to Southend on these trains.

fantastic update, one of your best. loved the LTS bits and the DMU sharing a platform with central line- unique stuff

If we had slam doors nowadays we would be hitting idiots standing inside the yellow line on their mobiles.

amazing there weren't more delays with doors left open. Great sounds and captions

So many young people here remembering the slam door trains of that 90s decade. I'm a lot older and was a teenager in 1970s and lived in Gillingham, Kent. I regularly travelled on the BR Blue slam-door trains to Sittingbourne, 8 miles from Gillingham. I think those trains may have been called the BR Blue 421 CIG or something like that and some of the trains (not all), were pulled by the massive BR Blue diesel locomotives. In those days, you could actually open the doors from the inside WITHOUT having to open the window, unlike the trains in the later decades like the 90s. Crikey!,..you could even risk getting your head knocked off by looking out of the window as the train hurtled along the track at 70 miles an hour. Later on, they put bars across the windows so that you couldn't no longer do this.

Loved this video! So many happy memories for me!

I grew up travelling on these, I miss them!

Thank you for posting these. It was a treat to watch.

Happy to have used these "slam door" trains in 1992 when my tortuous journey to work via multiple underground trains eventually took me from Richmond Station to Feltham. That first station looks a lot like Gunnersbury and not Richmond by the way.....

The announcer at Marylebone even in NSE days was very This is the BBC, wasn't he.

Fantastic quality filming for the time. Most videos from back then are really grainy.

+Marcomanseckisax The same sadistic pleasure (for the same reason) would see BR trains at Stratford's platform 8 wait for a Central Line train to arrive at the opposite platform and then just as its doors are open.... they would depart. I can understand this happening in the rush hour when the next train would be 2-3 minutes later (in those days there was a more frequent rush hour service than today) but this was unacceptable in the off-peak when the route was served by trains with two different calling patterns that ran 20 minutes apart (30 minutes on Sundays). Since I did not like waiting so long on a cold, windswept platform so if I was quick enough I would board the BR train as it was starting to leave the station. To do this I would stand on the running board and with one hand hold the hand rail and with the other hand I would open the door and enter the train.

I was a teenager when these were finally phased out and have really found memories of travelling on them in SW London on the lines out of Clapham Junction. In fact they were still running them on the Waterloo to Reading line as late as 2004 if I recall. That said, while I do have nostalgic memories for them looking at this video makes me realise how hazardous and unsafe they were. It is crazy to see people opening the doors while the train is still pulling into the platform. I also remember seeing commuters running alongside trains pulling out of the station trying to jump on as well - crazy if you ask me. That is not to mention the huge step up and down between the doors and the platform. I also remember them often jamming meaning you had to stick your hand out the window to open them from the outside. Is that correct? It looks like that is what the guy is doing at 2:04.

I used to take that DMU service out of Marylebone to Aylesbury in the early 90s up to Wendover, because I did my engineering training at RAF Halton. It looks so old fashioned now. Mind you, it was then..

When I moved to Scotland in 2011 they still had a few of those carriages in operation where if you were inside the coach, you had to reach your arm through the window of the train door to open it. I am not sure when exactly it was but I think they were retired a few years after and I never saw them again.

Takes me back to the days of trips to London on the fenchurch st line from chalkwell into fenchurch or occasionally from Southend vic into Liverpool st

1:44 now that is a noise that brings me back too!!

An interesting point is that under British Rail(ways) there were three distinct generations of slam door EMU. The first generation was for the southern region and was largely mechanically based on Bullied’s designs for the southern railway. In true Southern Railway tradition, some of the trailer cars re-used steel rolling chassis that dated back to the,the 1920s. These included the first Generation of the EPB emus and were built in southern region Workshops until 1953-4. The Second generation was based on the BR Mk. 1 chassis and body shell designs. These were what became the Class 307 overhead units (originally build for the Extension of the 1500v DC overhead electrification from Liverpool St - Shenfield Electrification to Southend. These units were build with conversion to 6.25KV AC in mind. Then there were suburban EPB units for the Southern as well very similar units for the Tyneside Electrification to replace the 1930 Gresley designed 3rd Rail Units……. All subsequent EMUs were based around the Mark 1 suburban or Main Line Body Shell. The Glasgow Blue Trains (class 303) were sort of a hybrid design using the Mk 1 outline but owing a lot to the Original Shenfield Electric (Class 306) design with sliding doors. All EMUs or even DEMUs that were based on BR MK 1 coach technology used a sturdy load bearing Steel Chassis. The Body itself provide little structural support, everything was largely provided by the Steel Chassis. The first change from this was the AM10 class 310 25KV AC outer suburban units for the Birmingham to Euston phase of the west Coast Electrification. This was based on the BR MK2 body shell which was of integral construction i.e. there was no separate chassis but the complete steel body shell provided all structural strength. This was also used on the Class 312 EMUs which were BRs last slam door stock. Some were built for the GE section and were the last EMUs to be delivered new in BR blue, the second delivery of 312s were for the Great Northern outer suburban Electrification of 1975/76 and were the first BR EMU to be delivered in Blue & Grey and the very last slam door stock. One of the questions. Is what caused that distinctive sound of the doors being slammed? I never thought much about this until the late 1970s when I started to be involved on a heritage railway that used both Mk 1 coaches and ex southern Railway Mansell stock which were wooden bodied (with steel outer plating). BR Mk 1 stock had a very different sound when the doors were slammed and I was convinced it was mostly caused by the doors slamming against the body side s and the door frames when closed. I proudly announced this to a fellow volunteer, who smiled and showed me the mechanics of The British Rail Door handle and door catch mechanism. A lot of the sound we associate with post 1950 slam door stock comes from this mechanism that was a major improvement from anything that existed before. Although slam door stock is perceived as being something criminally dangerous that regularly caused injuries of medieval proportions….this is more an impression created by the emerging analytical approach to safety based on risk assessment that has created the “health and safety” culture. Slam door stock was in itself not inherently dangerous….. if they were most of the London Termini would have been awash with ambulances and the daily figures for injured maimed and killed commuters would have been of epic proportions. But getting back to the sound. The sound of opening doors fitting the rubber door stops on the body side is there if you listen for it but it is nothing in volume compared to the loud metallic clicking sound of the doors being closed. That sound is door handle mechanism absorbing the inertia of a steel framed door slamming shut and locking the that door shut with a substantial sprung steel catch locking into place. Opening a BR door mechanism requires quite a bit of force and the mechanism uses cams and springs to ensure that the door will remain held in place even if the door in not fully closed into the door frame. Most of passenger injuries were caused by inattentive/intoxicated passengers falling from doors that were opening or being hit by swinging doors whilst standing on the platform. Had it been the death trap that modern rules implies, it would not have remained in use as long as it did before safety culture became prevalent. Anyone who remembers how cluttered station platforms could be until the late 90s/early 2000s and invariably were at main stations. There was passenger traffic, parcel traffic, mail traffic, news paper traffic. But has there ever been a task so difficult as opening a BR suburban coach door using the inside sliding catch?

great footage here, thanks!

Ah Ealing Broadway. My old station we had to use. I like looking at slam door trains now but as a kid and teenager they scared me. I had a fear of not being able to open the door and being stuck on the train. I was a a bit soft back then.

I like how the doors act as brakes, slightly increasing drag as the train stops

another marvellous video

Remember Upmister with fondness, as shown in this excellent video, it was possible to get on at Embankment, get off at Upminster and carry onto Southend Central.

We had slam doors right up until 2008 I think, by 2006 they were being outnumbered by the electric door trains. The slams doors always smelt of 30 years of cigs and cigars lol.

Great video thanks for sharing.

Great Video. Best era for railways in the UK.

Brings me back to my days as a boy In the ‘90s

there are still large number of slam door railway coaches in Croatia

I wasn’t seven alive by about 10 years when this footage was filmed, some of it being almost 30 years old, imagine that!

Ah! Grab a door and slam it! Very fun for the children, if they only could stand still long enough…

the intercity 125 is my favourite

Legend. Thanks

Hard to believe this was in the 90s. Say what you like but modern trains are so much better. The infrastructure is still decades out of date though!

4:50 "note where the train stops" - this is the operation-oriented nonsense we STILL HAVE on the Munich Underground. It's because all the driver-only-operated gubbins is at the fore end of the platform to allow for multiple-unit service. Many BR-drivers would wait whilst you sprinted down the platform, but Munich drivers allow themselves the sadistic pleasure of seeing you get to the last door opening, only to close the doors in your face. It's called "keeping to schedule". I call it operator hubris.

Ahh slam doors so much fun Seeing how fast you coukd jump off before the train stopped (Health and safety what health and safety) or running along slamming doors keft open by people in a hurry great days! thanks for sharing

I'm happy Class 43 HSTs are still in use.

Fantastic I really enjoyed that great nse days.

Oh dear, another thing to consider for ‘What if COVID-19 Happened in the 1980s?’ That’s bound to be a big touch point, glad its all automated now.

wow Heaton park station has change a lot ☺

Fuck!!! At 3:40! I love that pop of the pneumatic cam shutting down to coast. - Our older subway trains here in New York City make that same sound when an operator grabs full power, but then coasts (at low speed).

I really miss those days, I remember getting off the train with my ma train still moving the smell of ionised steel and grease, the loud pstfwt of the trains brakes as you stepped down

Very enjoyable compilation. The Glasgow Blue Trains already had sliding doors, yet south of the border, trains were still being made with slam doors- very poor idea! Anyway, loved your video.

R.i.p slamdoors they were in my days

Also, as I recall, the Thames and Chiltern lines were still using loco-hauled trains in the early 90s as well as those noisy old slamdoor DMUs (they were used on the medium-distance trains to places like Oxford and Banbury). Both types disappeared when the Network Turbos appeared.

The slam doors are not a history in my country (Czech Republic). They are very common at local trains - normally a locomotive with 2 or three carriages, and at some fast trains too. This is because Czech railways are still using carriages that were made in former DDR - company WEB Bautzen, carriages form 80s to 90s. Some trains have ,,slamming" doors controlled by the conductor, but this is not common.

Ahhh. . . . Slam Doors! Where, on most of them, you literally had to put your hand out of the window to turn the handle on the outside to open the door, because they wouldn't open properly from the inside!

I lived on the Southern Region at that time (near East Croydon so it would have been NSE South London and Sussex Coast, with some Thameslink and Oxted Line trains) and it was all slamdoor for the medium-distance trains and sliding door trains for suburban trains (Thameslink always was sliding-door). Apart from the problems with disabled access, the coastal slamdoor trains were generally well-liked and comfortable. I also travelled a lot on the Great Eastern out of Liverpool Street which also used a lot of slamdoor trains (similar to those you show at Upminster here) -- they were horribly noisy. In the early 1990s, BTW, slamdoor trains had quite a few years left to run -- I think the last of them didn't leave service until the early 2000s and well after privatisation. I remember seeing slamdoors in Connex livery (which wasn't pretty) and some outlived even that.

Can anyone hear what the train announcement at 1:29 is saying? "...all stations to ?" I travelled on trains like these as a child and remember them well though not fondly. I visit Upminster regularly but the destination in that announcement doesn't sound like anywhere I would expect a train from Upminster to go.

The doors on some trains were thick and heavy, a kid I saw, had all of his fingers crushed by a slamming door.

With the slam doors you wouldn't know if the train was about to leave or not.

I remember when the first slide trains were introduced to the Wimbledon line services at Clapham Junction. Those units were later transferred (to Liverpool I think) where they were reduced to 3 car from 4 car. The 4th car (one of the middle two) was subsequently put into a 4 car unit with 3 cars of a different design - the odd car was more squat and squarer; also the doors opened wider on the odd car.

watching those doors swing open before the train stops is giving me all manner of anxeity.... but at the same time i kinda wish i could do it myself, just for fun. also, that greater Manchester livery is very Irish isn't it? looks quite smart

"SLIDEY WINDOWS, SLAMMY DOORS!" -Geoff Marshall 👀

Yeah, I remember these "Slam Door" trains from my childhood fairly well. :) Oh yes, long gone are the days in which you often had to risk your life by reaching out through the door window and opening it from the outside (I know that wasn't always the case, but not ALL these particular trains had additional handles on the inside as well). ^^; XD

The fact that the class 357 directly replaced them is a bit sad but like they had to go in the LTS line that is

Was anyone ever hurt in an accident with these doors? According to the Slam Door Project Manager - no. ps great footage.

My company in the early 90s, along with two others, were contracted to come up with a driver controlled locking system. I think all of us came up with usable solutions, but none were implemented, and in the end the stock was replaced. Probably not cost effective. Shame. I enjoyed the experience though.

I think the only slam-doors I've only ever been on are steam trains. I think I remember a Connex slam-door waaay back in the mid-nineties as my mum was waving from the carriage as it departed. But I was only 2 or 3 then so for all I know that never happened... I miss the 90's

Good old days.

A lot of Polish carriages operated by PKP still have slam doors.

Or Colchester to Stratford 2019, one of the two! :D

That footage of the first train was shocking how the doors were opened by passengers while travelling past the platform quite fast and there could have been some serious injuries by passengers falling out the door while train still moving. Yet people think it's great nostalgia, and the same people obviously think slam door suburban trains should return to the network at the expense of health and safety. No they shouldn't. 'Elf and safety has not gone mad. Red tape is often a necessary evil. To get out of a slam door train door 5+ seconds before it stops, and then charging like mad (provided you have not fallen onto the concrete andvthen waiting for an ambulance ) to try to catch another train scheduled to leave within 5 minutes a considerable distance away is just crazy.

This was back when it was absolutely crucial to stand behind the 'yellow line'.

The morbid in me: stats on how many people (drunk or otherwise) opened these doors and fell out mid-ride would be interesting to know. The only thing close to such stats would be that early 1990s "Tamworth Triangle" period, where several young folks kept mysteriously falling out of the Mk3s on the IC125.

Had to watch out on the platform as many people opened the doors before the train stopped so they could hit the ground running.

Nice One

I'm just curious, what if someone didn't close the door? Is there a conductor or someone who checks the door closure?

What a great sound the DMUs made

10000000000000000000/10 nostalgia

They were great to drive bit a pain with regard to safety. People running up at the last minute, to jump on, doors on the catch, and when coming into a station, doors flying open whilst people jumped out on the move.

The seats were more comfortable then, even on the underground trains. Sometimes slam door trains had curtains and fancy lighting and wall mirrors and luggage racks, as well as half decent on train toilets and buffets sometimes. ❤️ It was only towards the end of their lives, that these trains became a liability. I experienced two accidental door opening during the eighties, one during the early eighties and one during the late, both on the Euston commuter line, which is now the part of the Overground line system. The DMUs were much noiser then the EMUs, and a less comfortable ride, plus like the smoking carriages, very smelly.

Riding a train with open doors must be soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo fun

He's the guard and it is a 4 VEP. Pain in the a r s e especially on a 12 car if you had a door 'on the catch' (not shut properly), right down the back or up the front depending on where you were working the train from.

Lovely sound those old DMMUs.

1:51 310 since it has an extra door at guard's compartment on MBS. Late 310s and 312s didn't have it, as they had corridor as-built