{"id":11456,"date":"2020-11-19T17:10:27","date_gmt":"2020-11-19T17:10:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tech-ops.co.uk\/next\/?page_id=11456"},"modified":"2020-11-19T18:05:21","modified_gmt":"2020-11-19T18:05:21","slug":"steam-powered-tech-ops-part-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/tech-ops.co.uk\/next\/steam-powered-tech-ops-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Steam-Powered Tech Ops Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Geoff Hawkes<\/strong><\/h3>\nSteam trains, steam rollers as used by road menders and traction engines doing odd bits of heavy work were a common sight in my early childhood and I can still remember the smell of them. I wonder what of our things will evoke such fond memories to the children of today in fifty or sixty years when they are gone?\n

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Alan Taylor<\/strong><\/h3>\nWhen she was young, my ex-wife\u2019s grandfather would arrange for the family to get \u201cpriv\u201d tickets, meet at Swindon station and board the service he was driving to Weston Super Mare.  As a seven year old, she simply assumed that everybody\u2019s grandfather would drive them to the seaside in a steam loco if they wanted a family day out. \n

\n[Ed:  See more about this in\u201cBits of Our History\u201d<\/a>]<\/i>\n

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Pat Heigham<\/strong><\/h3>\nI do so agree with Geoff Hawkes\u2019 mention that the reminiscences should have been recorded.

\nYou don\u2019t say what year this took place \u2013 maybe video handycams weren\u2019t around? I should have loved to have shot on that.

\n

\nThere has been a super programme made with Go-Pro cams (?), think it was the Scotsman, which covered the work of the footplate crew.\n

\nEvery kid wanted to be an engine driver in those days \u2013 I remember being taken up to the front of the train to say hello to the drivers who were unfailingly cheerful and chatty. My maternal grandfather had been an engineer of some description, and lived on Watford Way \u2013 one night I was taken to see a train dash across a bridge opposite his house. It was there and gone in a shower of sparks, but I think it could have been the Flying Scotsman.\n

\nHe also took me to King\u2019s Cross to see the trains \u2013 it had been raining and the carriages came in with water dripping off their gutters. Very evocative, and I remember wondering from where it was that they had come. Perhaps that was the first seeding of my interest and future love of travel to distant climes, subsequently fulfilled by the film industry!\n

\nThere is a huge nostalgia for the age of steam, witness the healthy proliferation of preserved railways and the plethora of railway programmes on TV at this time.\n

\nSome work for ATV\u2019s version of \u2018Tonight\u2019 could be great fun.\n

\nDespatched to Bulmer\u2019s Cider factory at Hereford, the independent apple farmers were filmed bringing in their harvest for cider pressing. Having duly photographed the process, the PR chap suggested that we sample the product. Instructed to leave the building and walk towards a railway track, turn right, and we would come to their hospitality suite. Surprise \u2013 this turned out to be a three or four carriage train of beautifully restored Pullman coaches (one seating, one bar car, one dining car and one converted as a cinema). In an engine shed was a King class loco (King George V) with two ex-GWR drivers who painstakingly looked after it. The train was taken around the country to County Shows where there was a convenient rail siding nearby.\n

\nQuite brilliant!\n\n\n\n\n
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Cider Train at Kensington Olympia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nI took a girlfriend for a day out on the Bluebell Line – when she saw the steam engines, delightfully exclaimed: \u201cChoo-choo\u2019s!\u201d Says it all!\n

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Graeme Wall<\/strong><\/h3>\nA propos<\/i> Pat\u2019s Bulmers story, here is KGV with the Pullmans on one of its early main line trips in 1973.\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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David Newbitt<\/strong><\/h3>\n\nAlso from 1973 \u2013 possibly the same occasion\n\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Just look at the thickness of metal in those brass letters! They didn\u2019t do things by halves in Swindon. There\u2019s something about the industrious looking buffing up going on that serves as a reminder of the immense pride GWR men took in their machinery.\n

\nKing George V for those not of the GWR persuasion was the flagship of God\u2019s Wonderful Railway. She was regularly  through Taunton Station, often on a stopping train, in the 1950\u2019s when I, like most lads, was a frequent purchaser of a 1d platform ticket to indulge in train spotting. 13 coaches was the norm through the summer though more were sometimes encountered.\n

\nSeems to me some of us haven\u2019t entirely grown up!\n

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Bernie Newnham<\/strong><\/h3>\nWhen I was about 12, I was one of the regular group of trainspotters on the Bridle Path at Watford Junction. A place to gather and chat, with the odd train passing. Wait for the Midday Scot, then go home for lunch. Sometimes we’d get on our bikes and go somewhere else.\n

\nA favourite was Old Oak Common roundhouse, where they complexly ignored boys wandering around. Once, 6000 was sitting there, so we climbed into the cab. Completely ignored.\n

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Dave Newbitt<\/strong><\/h3>\nYou\u2019re one up on me there Bernie \u2013 the GWR staff at Taunton were mustard at chasing small boys off. \n

\nOnly once did I ever make it to the engine shed (MPD to the purists I guess), but looking back it was a potentially dangerous area with umpteen sidings, constant shunting and the coaling stage close by.\n

\nAlan\u2019s 4073 Caerphilly Castle is something I very much enjoyed reading about. She was one that I saw many, many times and in later years I went to see her in the Science Museum and eventually took my son to share the experience. Old tech maybe, but he was enthralled, as I believe many youngsters are when close up to steam locomotives.\n

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Graeme Wall<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Here\u2019s 4073 at Swindon museum.\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Nick Ware<\/strong><\/h3>\nSince we all love steam\u2026\n

\nI once had a thoroughly enjoyable day filming on the Swindon and Cricklade railway. The object of the exercise was to re-create a shot in (if I recall correctly) a Charlie Chaplin film. In that shot, a steam loco comes hurtling towards the camera, directly behind a person standing on the track, who steps out of the way at the very last microsecond.\n

\nOur re-creation involved a setup where the camera is adjacent to the track, but at right angles to it, together with the actor. On the track is a huge glass mirror at 45 degrees, giving the camera a head-on shot.\n

\nWe did several practice runs, driver POVs and GVs without the mirror in place (my chance to ride on a tank engine). Then the magic moment. Mirror in place, camera running, and along comes the loco and smashes through the mirror. (Cut to shot of loco carrying on down the track). The shot worked perfectly, but I felt sorry for whoever had to pick up the shattered glass!\n

\nNowadays it would be boring CGI, but it was more spectacular the old way. It was one of those days when you can\u2019t believe you\u2019re actually being paid to have such fun!\n

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Graeme Wall<\/strong><\/h3>\nA real case of it being all smoke and mirrors!\n

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Alan Taylor <\/strong><\/h3>\nGetting paid to have fun certainly makes up for some of the more tedious times.  \n

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Pat Heigham<\/strong><\/h3>\nTo echo Nick\u2019s remark  at being paid to have fun \u2013 I found that working on documentaries, to experience places and manufacturing systems that to a member of the public, would be denied, was fascinating.\n

\nOne job involved shooting in Pilkington\u2019s glass factory, where they made huge sheets of plate glass for shop windows etc.\n

\nThe molten glass flowed out of the furnace on to a conveyor belt, and as it rapidly cooled, a laser scanned the sheet, looking for flaws. When one was spotted, a computer calculated how many standard size panels could be made from the last flaw location, and a motorised diamond cutter whipped across to cut the glass. Any short ends, were shot into a trench, as the belt tipped down to discard them. The smashing sound of the spare bits of glass was satisfyingly wonderful!\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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\"ianfootersmall\"<\/p>\n \n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Geoff Hawkes Steam trains, steam rollers as used by road menders and traction engines doing odd bits of heavy work were a common sight in my early childhood and I can still remember the smell of them. I wonder what … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11456","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"coauthors":[],"author_meta":{"author_link":"http:\/\/tech-ops.co.uk\/next\/author\/alec\/","display_name":"Alec Bray"},"relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 6 years ago","modified":"Updated 6 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on November 19, 2020","modified":"Updated on November 19, 2020"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on November 19, 2020 5:10 pm","modified":"Updated on November 19, 2020 6:05 pm"},"featured_img_caption":"","featured_img":false,"series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tech-ops.co.uk\/next\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tech-ops.co.uk\/next\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tech-ops.co.uk\/next\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tech-ops.co.uk\/next\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tech-ops.co.uk\/next\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11456"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/tech-ops.co.uk\/next\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11456\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11465,"href":"http:\/\/tech-ops.co.uk\/next\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/11456\/revisions\/11465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tech-ops.co.uk\/next\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tech-ops.co.uk\/next\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tech-ops.co.uk\/next\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}