firbeck

I know I've published these pics before, but for those that haven't seen them, just part of my collection:- They were generally quite happy to let you on to Nottingham Vic for a session of trainspotting, but it was frowned upon at Nottingham Midland as it was at Grantham in later years.

That spiked fence around the Hemlock Stone has been there as long as I can remember, certainly it dates from the early 50's.It certainly discouraged us from trying to climb it as kids,falling to the ground was one thing, getting impaled was another. The only way to get to the top was on the other side from the road, this involved pulling oneself over an overhang, very risky,I was never tall enough to reach decent handholds, but one of my mates once managed it when we were kids, he got to the top, the only person I ever saw climb the 'Stone'. Have the trees been cleared from the top of the hil

Chris Broad is now considered the worlds best bowler, at the moment. Do any of you agree with that. Having watched the West Indian bowlers at their best, not so sure of that, but he is a good lad, he should get more confident in his obvious batting abilities, a good old blaster in the Botham mould. You are a great bowler Chris, you could be a great batsman, get confident and concentrate on your technique, you could be the worlds best all rounder with a bit of confidence, trouble is there are too many hard acts to follow, you must ignore what has gone before and do your own thing.

I don't care what you say, cricket is my first love as far as sport is concerned. Yes, we had the good old days in the 50's/60's when the BBC used to show live matches in the afternoon, I recall watching Gary Sobers setting the record for Notts at Glamorgan by scoring 6 sixes in one over, one of his hits disappearing down the road outside. It is a very technical and skillful sport, I can understand why people compare it watching paint dry, I've always felt that unless you play it yourself, it must be hard to understand the rules, skill and the passion. We formed a cricket team at our Structur

Sad news, I watched an interview with him from 2012 on BBC Breakfast News this morning, he was talking about how difficult the band found it to come up with a follow up album to 'Hotel California'. I was not the greatest fan of the band, I don't have any of their albums, I preferred the more adventurous style of American Country Rock such as 'Little Feat', but they brought that style of music to the public and I really respected them for that. Hotel California was creative and different, just a little watered down in my opinion, but a much better option to the crappy, mindless, aggressive, nas

MI, as you, like me, were/are clearly a 'Thomas' fan, you might like this little story, and if you read this Bilbraborn I'm sure you were with me at the time, could be wrong! My old man was a compositor at Hill and Tyler's print works in Basford, his best friend there was a bloke called Terry who's garden backed on to the GCR line off Western Boulevard. Terry was a real railway enthusiast in every sense of the word, he had a large model railway set up at home, he once gave me a Hornby Dublo 'Bristol Castle' that he couldn't be bothered to convert to 2-rail (I still have it) and hatched a pla

WD Austerity 2-10-0 600 'Gordon', 601 'Kitchener'. WD Austerity 2-8-0 400 'Sir Guy Williams', 401 'Major General McMullen'. All these loco's were based on the Longmoor Military Railway in Hampshire, not far from Petersfield and it closed down in 1969. I can remember the rail connection with the Waterloo-Portsmouth line where it was possible to see loco's and rolling stock from time to time. It's closure coincided with me leaving BGS and starting my RICS Surveying degree at Portsmouth Poly, I seem to recall a section of the line ran alongside the old A3 which I passed many times, but don't re

So did some of the one's that were kept by the WD, 'Gordon' on the Longmoor Military Railway springs to mind. What happened to that, I know it was preserved.

Re Marc Bolan, on the Saturday afternoon prior to the Uni gig he was live in the John Peel Show on Radio 1, playing all sorts of stuff, he was, really fantastic and we were well impressed with the thought of what was to come that night. No chance, it was all ME, ME and performing crap songs in order to receive the adoration of the Teeny Boppers in the crowd. I was stuck standing on a radiator to the right of the throng, otherwise I'd had have given up and gone to the Buttery Bar for a pint of Newccy.

Just a few comments rightfully censored George.

C'mon man, we're not being disrespectful at all, I've said I was not a great fan, so what, that's life, am I supposed to lick ass and weep if Cameron snuffed it tomorrow, I'd rejoice to be honest.

A Mod in the 70's, bloody hell Mick, you really were the original Retro!!! Don't forget Buddy Holly, he really WAS the dogs b@@@@@@s, a life snuffed out when greatness was just being realised, I always felt he would have eclipsed and influenced all we have had since had he lived, don't forget the Beatles were very heavily influenced by him, I recall my brother sobbing when his tragic death was announced. Incidentally, going back to a previous mention on here, I saw the Groundhogs at the Albert Hall in the early 70's, they were amazing, I recall Tony McPhee leaping into the audience while sti

Some interesting comments on here, was I a great Bowie fan, well, despite being part of his era, I wasn't really, respect, yes, but that's about as far as it went. I recall back in 1969 when 'Space Oddity' came out, I was at College in Portsmouth attempting my RICS Surveying degree, us students were all into Free, Groundhogs, Fleetwood Mac, John Mayall, Led Zeppelin et al. One of our housemates bought 'Space Oddity' and played it continually, we hated it, and one night when he wasn't around, I opened the skylight and slid it under the roof slates, I wonder if it's still there!! When the Bowie

Haven't seen this topic before, it was obviously started before my time. I too was on the last trolleybus tour with Brian D who at the time was the secretary of the Nottingham Trolleybus Group, of which myself and Bilbraborn were members, I've probably got some photos of him standing in the middle of the road. There are a few pictures of that night that I took, I haven't time to publish them now as I have to get ready for work, I also took a photo of a B1 at the end of the platform at Vic when the Fine Fare store was being built behind it. As for not 'unscrewing' souvenirs, how could that not

I took this photo of FS at the north end of Grantham Station just before it was withdrawn from BR service, as you can see it had been fitted with German type smoke deflectors:- A3 60097 'Humorist' was fitted with the standard A1/A2 type smoke deflectors back in the 50's, if smoke drift was a problem with A3's I don't understand why the type weren't all so fitted at the same time. Humorist spent most of it's time shedded at 64B Haymarket and I never saw it, there's a photo of it in my 1961/62 Winter Combined Volume.

Scotsman's first mainline outing will be up the Settle and Carlisle line on 23rd January. Royal Scot now in BR green will have it's first mainline outing since BR days on Feb 6th from Crewe to Holyhead, it will then be running with Scots Guardsman on various Cumbrian trips. I wonder how long it is since two Scots have been together in steam, Annesley???

I can only vaguely recall the bus strike, I was in the 6th form at BGS at the time and used to cycle to school and, living off Trowell Rd, we used to catch Midland General buses into town. By coincidence I recall that Bilbraborn was working as a lab technician at a girls Catholic school across town, can't remember which one, how did you cope Mel. I'm sure that there was a strike on the 'Blue Buses' at one point, I can recall having to walk up Birchover Road to catch the NCT 60 service into town.

Thanks Fynger,trust the BBC to get the facts wrong, claiming it was just about to make it's first run when it actually happened a few days ago!!

Just watching the BBC News (6:50am) and they were live from Bury where Flying Scotsman is currently raising steam for a test run up the East Lancs Railway shortly. This will be it's first run in 10 years ( at a cost of £4.2m ). They will be returning live to Bury at about 7:50, worth watching, it looks impressive in it's black livery, under lights and simmering gently. Incidentally, just been outside to watch the International Space Station pass right over my house, looked like a jewel in the sunrise.

The Lincolns were quite famous at the time, some entrepreneur had decided to buy RAF redundant stocks and convert them to fly meat over the Andes from Argentina, a pipe dream, three arrived at Tollerton, two were converted, sat around, then got scrapped, sad. I recall the famous Kings Cup Air Race that took place in 1967 and was won by a silver P-51 Mustang, I cycled over there and watched it when I should have been revising for my 'O' Levels. Sheila Scott??? also took part in her Piper Twin? that she'd just flown around the world in record time, apparently. The airshow was a one off in 1972

That just about sums up our lack of respect for our railway heritage, from the government downwards.

When it came to 'Trainspotting' I doubt whether anybody on here had the experiences that Bilbraborn and I had during the 60's. We were a right pair, we had packed up taking numbers and just concentrated on absorbing the last years of steam and everything associated with it. Remember mate when we drove that 8F out of Colwick shed and put it on the turntable, turned it with difficulty, then put it back in the shed ready for duty, under supervision of the driver and fireman of course, but they realised our enthusiasm and knowledge and let us get on with it. We did so many things together, finding

Just for the comparison, here's a photo taken by me of the original Deltic in the same spot only a year or so previously.

I love your pic of D9009, Alycidon, amongst the foreign interlopers at Toton, it looks, and was, a 'really usefull engine' as Rev Awdry would have said. It was the first production Deltic I ever saw and I photographed the moment at Grantham circa 1961 ( I can't be ar@@@ to look up the actual date ), as you can see by the front buffers and the general appearance, plus the fact the cab was full of men in white coats, I reckon it was on it's first mainline test run from Doncaster, they used to run light engine to there from Vulcan Foundry in Lancs where they were built. Please note the real a

If you drive past there you can still make out the letters 'Truman Aviation' painted on the end of the hangar. Tollerton was discussed on here a while ago and I published my photo's of the Lincoln's parked up there in the late 50's. I also recall Brazilian Airways Constellations being worked on in the large hangar, they couldn't close the hangar doors as the a/c were too big, would have loved to have seen one take of from there, a very graceful aircraft.