belly39 6:16 Mon Nov 3
Irons Travel Club
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I was going through some old programmes i had and found my Irons Travel Club membership card which I may add was 31 years ago . I remember the porter cabin just inside the main gates next to the Club shop porter cabin where you would buy your tickets for the "special", a train that was usually on its last legs taking us to various parts of the country and hoarded onto buses to arrive at the away ground .I only was a member for one season then as most of us bought the travel-card for under 25's and travelled in the luxury of inter city 125.....and so it all began ..
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Replies - In Chronological Order ( Show Newest Messages First)
HairySpotter
6:24 Mon Nov 3
Re: Irons Travel Club
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i also recall Utopia travel
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Far Cough
6:31 Mon Nov 3
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Founder member of the ICF were you?
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HairySpotter
6:33 Mon Nov 3
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Far Cough, you must recall Belly? wrote so many books
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Far Cough
6:36 Mon Nov 3
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No mate
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HairySpotter
6:37 Mon Nov 3
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me neither
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cuzoftheeast
6:38 Mon Nov 3
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Lacey's coaches
Hated them
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belly39
6:47 Mon Nov 3
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This post is about the Irons Travel Club all those years ago and the memories of that time . I was 15 at the time and yes boys i did travel throughout the eighties home and away I can assure you I wasn't a founder member of the ICF nor have I written any books either. It was a great time to follow West Ham and in 86 we very nearly achieved the dream.
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Andrew Ware
6:53 Mon Nov 3
Re: Irons Travel Club
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i also was a Travel Club member and had my card for many years in with all my programmes.
The cards had your photograph attached.
Mine was taken with me wearing my away games donkey jacket.
Our away support went through a phase of wearing donkey jackets and flat caps.
Working in an office i didnt have one and paid about £8 i think for one from the Army and Navy stores just down from Manor House underground.
I do remember walking out of Ipswich station towards the ground and seeing this sea of donkey jackets and caps disappearing into the distance and thinking it looked like a scene from a history book about the Jarrow March.
And just as suddenly the scene changed and evereyone was into Harringtons and those green puffa jackets with the orange lining.
It all seems a long time ago now.
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Andrew Ware
7:12 Mon Nov 3
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The Irons Travel Club appointed a number of now well known 'Stewards' to maintain order on their trains in the late 1970s. I think they even issued them with armbands, never worn but used to get out of the police escort whilst the rest of us were herded into the Away sections. Coincidently after our 'Stewards' had left the escort there always seemed to be
some kind of melee in the Home support.
The trains were always knackered old stock. We went to Sunderland midweek in the LC and the engine failed on the way home, no engine, no heating so we sat in a freezing carriage somewhere like Doncaster for two or three hours waitg for a replacement engine to take us back to Kings Cross.
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River Plated
7:41 Mon Nov 3
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I still have my ITC card as well. I must have been around 16 or 17 at the time.
I also recall the Stewards, one of which I am sure sells his fanzine outside the ground these days? (My memory could of course be playing up).
I recall the special trains to Old Trafford which used to stop at Warwick Road, by the cricket ground. The train was always bricked on the way back to London, so was not unusual to have the plastic sheeting/blind pulled down across the windows, as you left the area to avoid the glass flying across the carriage. We made the entire journey one year with no glass in the window. Bloody cold it was!
Happy days though, although we had probably lost!
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Sxboy_66
7:46 Mon Nov 3
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I still have a 'You've just met the ICF' card. What do I win?
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wanstead_hammer
7:53 Mon Nov 3
Re: Irons Travel Club
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Yep. Still got the membership card somewhere indoors somewhere. Used to get one of them little cardboard tickets as well.
Remember going to the newcastle petrol bomb game to Manors station, when One Iron was one of the 'Stewards' as you say.
And the same, then went with the persil tickets and then on to the van for the away games. We used to hire a van from a place in Walthamstow (Auto- rent) and come up with some old flannel about we was an hockey team or cricket/basketball team, cos they wouldnt let you hire the band for football.
What made me laugh was, we was all from Stepney. (Hockey and cricket was very popular round there then!!)
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Scully
8:56 Mon Nov 3
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I had one of those, happy memories! Ha Ha!
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North Bank
8:59 Mon Nov 3
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Andrew that takes me back, the travel club cards were light blue weren't they and the size of a credit card, donkey jackets were a regular site in those days on specials
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Far Cough
9:01 Mon Nov 3
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I still see Bank and his trusty donkey jacket in the Chicken Run
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murf tenerife
9:15 Mon Nov 3
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Great memories on this thread.
I remember, Donkey jackets, flat caps, Manors station year of petrol bomb and escort through the shopping centre, Train breaking down on night games Sunderland away, i got home at 6.00am and my dad was getting up for work. Great times
Any one remember Ginger Dennis?
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wanstead_hammer
9:31 Mon Nov 3
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Hahaha. Ginger Dennis.
Yeh, remember him. Tried to act all sensible. Haha.
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murf tenerife
10:55 Mon Nov 3
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We used to call him ginger Hitler
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Exiled In Ireland
11:22 Mon Nov 3
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Great memories. Still got my membership card from 79-80 when i first joined
Remember the food that was sold on board. Slices of gala pie and fruit cake, in cling film.... always sold out on the way home.
Went all over the country for a couple of quid a time - it really was a good laugh.
Much like Belly moved up to the Inter City trains thanks to the Persil vouchers and a little more comfort.
I feel sorry for today's fans - going to football will never be as good as it was in the 70/80s.
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m11
12:42 Tue Nov 4
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My membership was number 9 so one of the very early members along with one of my class mates from school.
I remember one of the early trips was a midweek game at Derby.
Only about 20 or 30 of us on the official train trip. The return train to London was the milk train or the post train something like that. Sitting in a crappy old wooden guard van on the way home, getting back to London at something stupid like 5am!!
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