firbeck

Looking at the photo again it can't be 1959, by then we'd gained a Bristol Castle, D8000 and more carriages and wagons including a working TPO, in fact, by then the layout was triple track and screwed to a baseboard. I reckon the photo was taken in 1956 by my old man with his Kodak box camera. Oh, you can just about make out a line of Dinky army vehicles next to the station, probably one of my favourite toys they were quick to access and play with, living in a box under my bed, I've still got all those, in fact I bought a Dinky 1940's army trailer from a charity shop only two weeks ago, and ye

The wonders of Hornby Dublo, my brother and I out in the back garden, summer 1959, the only problem was the dodgy extension cable required to connect the transformer to the main socket in the kitchen. My brother 'accidentally' forgot to disconnect the plug resulting in me getting a nice 240V shock when I unscrewed the junction box connectors. I had a Triang Minic motorway ( still have it ), it was only compatible with Triang Trains, not Hornby Dublo, I thought it was pretty boring watching cars trying to whiz round a track before coming off at corners almost every time. I preferred shunting

Don't worry about the copyright, just make an explanation if you can, there are so many uncredited pictures floating about on the internet what's the point in worrying, unless they're published by Rupert Murdoch of course. I'm sticking to my opinion of where that picture of the 4F was taken, no way is it the Trowell Nursery bridge, I've been to that 'colliery' bridge recently and it matches up to my memories, photo's and general alignment from old maps.

Yep you're right, don't know where I got that name from, wasn't the window covered with orange plastic to keep out the sun?

That must have been the Class 5 that I wanted to buy from you, it had tender drive and some weird AC electric motor system that would have been impossible to convert to Hornby Dublo 3 rail. I've still got the Graham Farish King body that I bought to convert one of my Hornby 00 Castles. This came from the model railway shop that was opposite Long Eaton station, was it called Fox Model Railways, or as some people referred to the owner 'Rob Dog's'. I didn't do a bad deal, my Castle body plus a reasonable amount of cash for the King plus front bogie and brass chimney. With a bit of filing it worke

Another interesting map I found was this one:- Next to where the Wollaton Brickyard is marked on later maps is 'Engine Pit Colliery', which seems to be next to a canal basin linked by a tramway, or 'Tram Road', up to Balloon Wood crossroads, then up what is still a track to Springwood farm, to another 'Trowell Moor Colliery', not the same one described in the previous posting. I don't know what the date of this map is, but it has some fascinating details on there, the mine towards Trowell as shown on the previous map, doesn't exist for a start. Note the 'Tram Road' to Strelley Coal Wharf, d

I found several pictures on Google Images taken by the father of someone called Dave L, who seems to be the same age as me and left the area in 1965, could we have known each other? This picture I've published before, taken in 1952, it shows the brickwork's crossing in the foreground ( what happened to those signs?) with the 'tin bridge' immediately behind, under which traversed the tramway. Where the distant signal stands you can see the orchard behind it where Jackson's Farmhouse stood, the clay pit was to the left of the track, you can see the 'Black Path Bridge' in the background. The dis

Here's a picture of 'Black Path Bridge' taken from Wollaton Vale bridge looking west, unfortunately it's fairly modern:- If you look down on the left hand abutment you'll see the number 14, this isn't the original MR cast iron plate, that vanished years ago. The pipe running across the railway wasn't there in our day, nor was all that ducting that you can see running along the railway, nor was that disgusting graffiti. When it rained we used to shelter under the left hand arch, in those days there was no security fencing, either side of where the camera was positioned was all hawthorn hedge

Does this answer your question Graham:-

Thanks Cliff, you are so efficient, you should get paid for your endeavours.

Graham, I went on my PC when I got home from work and the bloody thing went crazy, it had something to do with an update message from Apple. Just before it occurred I tracked down some interesting maps and photos on the topic I'd not seen before. I've uploaded these but can't get them on Photobucket, in the end I've had to turn off the PC with the switch!! I've things to do now, I'll get back on it tomorrow, meanwhile,try pages 10 and 11 on 'Growing up in Bilborough', http://nottstalgia.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=11421&hl I published some of my pics on there that are self explana

Noooo, the tramway ran through the clay pit, you could make out it's route as the levels of the pit were all over the place. It then ran under the railway via 'tin bridge' straight into the brickworks, I'll try to dig out those pics tomorrow, given my surveying/architectural previous life I could probably draw up a topographical map of the clay pit, it's features are etched in my memory, even the types and positions of trees. By the way, we reffered to the paedos as 'Omos', we weren't that scared of them as we trained our Border Colly pal 'Chips' to attack them, he bloody did too, when one tr

Scriv, about thirty years ago my company in Bishops Stortford got a contract with BP to survey and update plans of their oil distribution depots, wherever they were and whatever their size. One great adventure was to go west and check Swansea, Newcastle Emlyn and finish up at Gloucester. Swansea was huge, I resolved the problem of checking all the pipelines by standing on the highest storage tank and tracing the lines from there, then it was through the hills in the boss's Reliant Scimitar to Newcastle Emlyn where we stayed in a pub for the night. We found the depot the next day, it was tiny,

The snowman was built on that very bridge parapet by myself, the Withey Twins, Ian Hutchings and Mark Miller. It wasn't very big and was intended to land in the tender of the 4F on the midday, Nottingham bound pick up goods usually manned by the same nutty footplate crew who looked out for us to spray us with hot water via a hose from the engine, it was a good game!!That day the freight didn't turn up, we waited and waited until the 12:30 dmu from Sheffield came along, the snowman somehow fell off the parapet and landed on it's roof with a big thump. The dmu started to stop, we legged it back

That map shows you the course of Tottle Brook too and the cottages on the Barton property. The Cockington Road area was known as Gutter Slang, amazing, where did that come from. Firbeck Estate was Dickeys Plantation, I wonder who he was. Graham, if I get chance tomorrow afternoon I'll try and find some of our previous threads on the topic via my PC. The clay pits for the brickworks were situated across the railway via a level crossing and a steel bridge ( tin bridge we called it ), note the tramway running to it, we always suspected the existance of one, I published some pictures of both cro

Bloomin' eck, have you just moved into the area? Not so long ago I did a thing on here about it, I don't know where you'd find it, no doubt a discourse between myself and Bilbraborn, there are some of my photo's showing the Wollaton Vale bridge being built on that thread too. I'm doing this on my I-Phone which is a pain, I'll put up some pics when I can get on to my PC, briefly it was known as 'Black Path Bridge' situated on a bridle path from Balloon Woods crossroads, along the back of Firbeck School (traces still remain). This unmade road served Jacksons House and open drift mine, the kenn

By the way, current US defence spending rules out airshows and very little participation in appearances generally. They also tend not to have display approved pilots based in Europe which means any appearances are strictly single fly-byes only or as quite often in the case of recent Duxford airshows, missing the airfield by a wide margin. I attended most Mildenhall Airshows from 1977 to the final one, obtaining great photo's and video's of all types from the mighty SR-71 doing a low level high speed fuel dump and burn to incredible mass military set pieces on the ground and in the air. Latter

Is there a tenuous suggestion here that 007 may have gone tadpoling in Tottle Brook, The Man with the Golden Jam Jar?

I think it's unlikely they'll have another airshow there, they've been talking about it since the shutters went up after 9/11, but quite frankly the place has been like an armed camp ever since, the viewing area was closed down and all the fences were obscured so you can hardly see a thing from outside. It's a similar story at Lakenheath, they've even shut down public access roads with no prior consultation, what the US wants, the US gets. At least Lakenheath retains it's viewing area, but with a sinister stream of troops in aviation glasses driving by in Hummers. Incidentally, Mildenhall has

Yes, apart from the Jackson's open drift mine there was a huge bell pit mound with a crater in the centre just to the west of it. It must have been ancient as there was a huge tree growing on top of the bank, I remember it well as I attempted to climb it once, rather foolishly wearing short trousers. I slithered all the way down the main trunk while trying to cling on to it, taking the skin off my legs and shredding my trousers, as you well know, the worst part was trying to come up with a good story before you had to go home and face your mother. Incidentally, the crater was used as our main

Tottle Brook starts as two tributaries at Springwood Farm then runs in a slight depression down to Bilborough Road where it is joined by Cockington Road. The plot of land at this point was originally occupied by one of the Barton family who lived in a now demolished brick cottage on the site, there were also two ancient Barton buses at the back of the land which were used as storage sheds. When the property became vacant, the vandals moved in, the cottage was trashed and the buses were flattened to the ground by constant jumping on their roofs causing them to collapse, there doesn't appear to

Well, he's trying for it only under a different name, he calls himself Lafarge.

Hmmm, 10 against Clarkson and no supporters on here so far. So where have the 1m morons come from who have allegedly signed the petition calling for his reinstatement, that's getting on for 2% of the population of the UK, really! Good riddance Clarkson, May and Hammond, go off to Sky and drool over your 'supercars' that only you can afford on there, I will never line the corrupt Murdoch's bulging pockets so thankfully this household will be free of 'Top Gear' at last.

What, in the dark red coat and high heels just about to walk past the map of Britain's shrinking railway system.

The last surviving remnant of Wollaton Bridge, the Bill Posters sign, which I think was bolted to the parapet on the northern side of the bridge, interesting that it says 'CNR' and not 'GNR', a mistake or a flaw in the casting perhaps :- I reckon the bridge was blown up in the summer of 63, very early on a Sunday morning, I wasn't around at the time otherwise I would have gone to watch it, I suspect I was on holiday. The sign was rescued by Steve Wood after the big bang, his father being a police sergeant living just down the road leads me to suspect he was on duty there at the time, he pro