(the activity, not the film)
Dave Mundy
My journey to grammar school was by bus and train and legs. The route was part of the GCR and we always had a boring old J5 or A5 tank engine to pull us. On the way home we often were allowed into the cab to fire the boiler and were taught the correct way to throw the coal in. ‘Elf ‘n safety, baa! I never fancied the job of firemen but one of our rigger drivers at KA was one, on the LNER east-coast mainline! Rigging G101 cables was much easier, he told me!
Geoff Fletcher
Tough job indeed and highly skilled – much more to correct firing than is immediately obvious. A long road to become a driver too in steam days – cleaner, oiler, fireman, driver, top link driver if skill and experience allowed.
Dave Mundy
Very similar! It’s amazing to think that having got off our J5 (I’ve still got my Ian Allans with all the J5s underlined!) we would run up to the LNER mainline and got very bored seeing ‘Sir Nigel’, ‘Galtee More’ and ‘Prince Palatine’ every other morning! In the evening I would cycle 3 miles to see the ‘Master Cutler’ for a change. Happy anorak days!
John Hays
It’s gratifying to realise I’m not the only train spotter in our midst. I spent many days around Crystal Palace Low Level station watching a procession of W class locos, three cylinders, dragging freight to Norwood Junction yard, and also spending time in the signal box. I was lucky to be offered a trip to Gipsy Hill in the cab of an E4 tank loco to shunt the yard, and also a cab ride in an electric shuttle to Beckenham Junction and back. This was before nationalisation and on Jan 1st 1948 I cycled to Norwood Junction yard to see the changes and was very disappointed to find everything was exactly the same!
Saturday afternoons were frequently spent at Clapham Junction watching the endless remarshalling of coaches by an ancient 0 8 0 T called "Hecate". Sadly all that ended when fixed formation trains became standard.
Peter Cook
My favourite spots were at my Grandmother’s house in Ellesmere Road, Berkhamsted. Those familiar with the LMS line would know that there is a long straight stretch north of Watford. Standing on a bridge (in about 1956/7) it was always exciting to see one of the Princess Royal class at full chat going at one hell of a lick. It was a sad end some years later to the Princess Anne at Harrow and Wealdstone.
Another favourite spot for a Pinner schoolboy was Northwick Park to where one could easily get by Metropolitan line. Another straight stretch and also had trees from up which the odd woodbine could be puffed. Needed the Parma Violets on the way home!!
It was not too far to cycle to Slough or Langley to see GWR locos, (there was a level crossing not far from a silk ‘factory’ but I can’t remember exactly where!). Sometimes we would make a detour via Northolt to spot maybe a Dakota, Viking, Anson, DC4, DC6 and the odd Dragon Rapide aircraft.
Pat Heigham
A fascinating programme in the ‘slow tv’ genre: no music overlaid, just the conversation and a v/o commentary from the driver and fireman on a “Flying Scotsman” hauled trip on the Severn Valley railway from Bridgnorth to Kidderminster. Mini cams all over the engine made for a very interesting programme if you like steam trains.
Dave Mundy
Oh, to be on the Settle-Carlisle railway this week! (w/e 18th Feb 2017). Magnificent pictures of their scheduled steam service this week on the Six O’Clock News.
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Bernie Newnham
‘Tornado’ was green. I’m sure it was blue last time I saw it here. What colour should it be?
Dave Mundy
‘Tornado’ has been painted in all four colours from grey, dark green, blue, and now GNER lime-green.
Roger Bunce
Dunno about ‘Tornado’ – ‘Typhoon’ is Green and ‘Hurricane’ is Blue – but that’s on the best steam railway in the world – the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch!
Graeme Wall, Peter Fox
‘Winston Churchill’ is red, but ‘Dr Syn’, sister (?) engine of ‘Winston Churchill’ and named for a local smuggler and cleric is always black.
Ian Dow
I booked a holiday cottage for my family in New Romney, and when we all arrived they inspected the property, and were much amazed when looking over the back garden fence to see the loco sheds of the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch Railway. It gradually dawned on them that I didn’t look at all surprised and I had to keep a low profile for some time…
Graeme Wall
I filmed a pilot for a gospel music programme there one time, great fun.
And on the occasion of Chas & Di’s wedding…
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The reason for that picture?
Nick Way
I did my summer stint on OBs in 1981. Dave Hill was with us and as soon as we got back started trying to get a job with OB guys. Somewhere there’s a picture of us in a Tender looking smart with our Royal buttonholes at Chas and Di’s Wedding coverage.
And Now: Buses …
Geoff Fletcher
I’m not well up on buses but I found this interesting shot in some old slides from my now long deceased in-laws. (Slides! – shows my age – should have said transparencies). I wondered if any bus and coach experts might like to identify the make and model.
Maybe it is from a French manufacturer?
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Graeme Wall, Ian Hillson
It’s French, possibly a Renault, though I can’t find a photo of that particular vehicle.
Bernie Newnham
Down the road from us in Watford when I was a child there was a coach builder that took chassis from various places and built coaches on them. This could be the same – some local company.
A touch of Photoshop supplies this…
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David Brunt
Chausson.
