Football Specials

[Wormholes of Time]

Hello everyone - Reg's mate here. I've just had a meeting about railway heritage etc and I think I'm going to be given quite a lot of leeway on what I want to do (the GWR Heritage bid has been successful) about Swindon and its railway past, present and future. I think 'Football Specials' would be something I'd like to cover: collecting stories, memories etc and converting them into a sort of performative history. (Obviously, I wouldn't reveal names and so on unless contributors wanted me to.) I can conjure up a couple of my own from the sixties but it would be great if TEF members could contribute too. Fingers crossed (Reg would love this btw). Once collated, I envisage a walk from STEAM to the railway station (via the Gluepot) to the CG with performance hopefully at the CG. Obviously, this successful GWR heritage bid will see me covering far more than football specials but I reckon this is a forgotten bit of Swindon heritage and worth recovering.

[Jimmy HaveHave]

Hopefully a few of the older posters on here will talk about the football special to Wrexham in the mid 70's. I've heard a few stories but it's best coming from anyone who was on it.

Also if the interest was there any reason why we couldn't run a football special again as Bristol City run one to Swansea last week.

[Kinky Tom]

Not being a local and being a little younger than the football special really anyway I'd love to see whatever is discussed here, never even been on a supporters coach.

[RobertT]

never even been on a supporters coach.

You lucky bastard.  They are very different I imagine - on one trip in the 90's, when young enough to not afford other modes of transport, they put Brother Bear on as the film.  A coach of fans going to a match get to watch a familty film, lovely.

[swindonmaniac]

You lucky bastard.  They are very different I imagine - on one trip in the 90's, when young enough to not afford other modes of transport, they put Brother Bear on as the film.  A coach of fans going to a match get to watch a familty film, lovely.

Remember going to Southampton on a few occasions and the lads used to take pockets full of coppers,  just before we arrived at Southampton there used to be rows and rows of greenhouses, yes, you can guess what the coins were for !!.
Can’t remember a special that ever had any toilet rolls after the first couple of minutes into a journey - light bulbs too !!.
Seemed like all part of the day out in them days.

[Jimmy HaveHave]

Remember going to Southampton on a few occasions and the lads used to take pockets full of coppers,  just before we arrived at Southampton there used to be rows and rows of greenhouses, yes, you can guess what the coins were for !!.
Can’t remember a special that ever had any toilet rolls after the first couple of minutes into a journey - light bulbs too !!.
Seemed like all part of the day out in them days.

Many a good trip on Rimes coaches in the late 70's & early 80's

[swindonmaniac]

Many a good trip on Rimes coaches in the late 70's & early 80's

Iris was our leader ..    iris was our leader la, la, la, la.
Bless her.   RIP Iris.

[swindonmaniac]

Not so much regarding a train but remember our mini bus getting bricked on the way out of Birmingham after the 6-4 win.   

[Jimmy HaveHave]

Iris was our leader ..    iris was our leader la, la, la, la.
Bless her.   RIP Iris.

Great memories😀
Shag your women and drink your beer

[TheDukeOfBanbury]

Carlisle was mental, Burnley was mental.
Witnessed some daft things happening on the train the stuff getting chucked out of the windows as it went through small stations could have seriously injured or killed someone.

Always had the local welcoming committee waiting at the station, never realised the volume of the away fans breaking through the Police escort out of the station.

Have a soft spot for the Northern outposts. Much prefer them to the Southern games.

[Jimmy HaveHave]

Carlisle was mental, Burnley was mental.
Witnessed some daft things happening on the train the stuff getting chucked out of the windows as it went through small stations could have seriously injured or killed someone.

Always had the local welcoming committee waiting at the station, never realised the volume of the away fans breaking through the Police escort out of the station.

Have a soft spot for the Northern outposts. Much prefer them to the Southern games.

A mate of mine is a retired police officer and was on the Burnley special (Cup game) under cover and doing surveillance!

[chalkies shorts]

Late 70s / early 80s went to Aldershot, Exeter, Blackpool, Liverpool, Wimbledon, Torquay, Slave Traders. Might have been others. Virtually everyone on the specials were young lads, pissed or glued up. Stewards taking booze of everyone and then drinking it with their mates. Lots of money won or lost in card games. People up scaffolding were particular targets as trains pulled in and out of stations. Stopping at stations was just dumb. The rolling stock was the absolute dregs as it had a good chance of getting trashed.
Liverpool was fun. The walk to and from Lime Street. A little reception committee waiting for us after the game that didn't last long. Pulling into Wimbledon and loads getting off only for the train to go on to Wimbledon Green. The Slave Trade one was when we beat them 3-0, that was fun but when you've got 500 lads you're not really giving much of a fuck.
I missed the Wrexham one, that was supposed to have been the one to be on.

[Jimmy HaveHave]

I done the Aldershot and Wimbledon games both in the FA Cup. I missed the Liverpool cup when the bastard scousers raided the train during the game and stole possessions from supporters luggage.

[Private Fraser]

 One that sticks in the memory was the special train to Millwall (old Den) for the night game on Saturday 7 April 1970. It had a 7pm KO to avoid clashing with the Grand National (FFS!). I was a teenager and went on my own. One thing that was memorable was that the scruffy old train went all the way to New Cross or New Cross Gate (forget which). Then it was a short walk to the ground. A very scary place in the pre-crowd segregation days. I stood behind the goal with other Town fans at the opposite end to the home end. At 2-0 down in the second half, Don Rogers scored and the town fans were spotted by the home fans who you could then see moving from the home end, heading for where we were. I went and stood somewhere else before they arrived. I headed back to the station before the end of the game and as I was walking down the road, a Millwall fan started talking to me about the game and how good the Lions had been when there was a roar from the ground. Millwall had scored a late 3rd goal. The Millwall fan was delighted and I tried hard not to give the game away that I wasn’t a home fan. A memorable trip for a callow youth.

[Legends-Lounge]

Late 70s / early 80s went to Aldershot, Exeter, Blackpool, Liverpool, Wimbledon, Torquay, Slave Traders. Might have been others. Virtually everyone on the specials were young lads, pissed or glued up. Stewards taking booze of everyone and then drinking it with their mates. Lots of money won or lost in card games. People up scaffolding were particular targets as trains pulled in and out of stations. Stopping at stations was just dumb. The rolling stock was the absolute dregs as it had a good chance of getting trashed.
Liverpool was fun. The walk to and from Lime Street. A little reception committee waiting for us after the game that didn't last long. Pulling into Wimbledon and loads getting off only for the train to go on to Wimbledon Green. The Slave Trade one was when we beat them 3-0, that was fun but when you've got 500 lads you're not really giving much of a fuck.
I missed the Wrexham one, that was supposed to have been the one to be on.

Wrexham, Aldershot and Exeter.