firbeck
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Posts posted by firbeck
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Yeah, but, no, but.
What I mean is that the Stanier tenders fitted to 8F's and Class 5's were no different to those fitted to Jubilees and Coronations, so the firemen would be at the same height, if tempted to shovel coal forward under the cables. Fowler tenders as fitted to 4F's were even lower, so why wasn't the yellow stripe painted on all locos, I gather that it was planned to do so to ex-LNER Pacifics, but they never got round to doing it. Looking at the high tender on 70013 today made me wonder why they weren't given the yellow stripe treatment, after all, Oliver Cromwell was the last official BR Pacific to run under the wires in 1968.
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The French flag is all white.
I thought it was yellow.
I'm ashamed to admit that I couldn't find my English flag this morning, I don't know where it is, I had an alternative choice of two types of Hungarian flag, The RAF flag, Merchant Navy flag, various types of maritime signal flags or a genuine WW2 swastika, actually the flag off the SS headquarters in Brussels.
I did think about flying the latter, but decided it might not be very popular.
Interestingly enough, despite driving around a couple of large local towns today, I only saw a couple of flags, one on a flagpole outside a large country house and another in the window of a hardware shop, perhaps they've all been stolen, along with mine, by members of a certain fundamentalist religious group, mind you, I didn't see any green ones either.
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As its passing through Newark from Lincoln to Kings X late this coming Saturday afternoon, I thought you'd like a taster of what you might see, hear, smell and feel.
I went over to the level crossing at Kelvedon, which is just down the road from me, this morning and was surprised at the number of people there, though I gather that BBC East had given the run from Liverpool St to Norwich quite a bit of publicity.
It makes you realise what terrifying places level crossings can be, I was sitting against the fence on the legal side of the barrier, getting the range on in coming trains. I was concentrating on a loco hauled Norwich express when another one sneaked up behind me, sitting only a few feet away from two trains passing with a closing speed of about 200mph frightened the life out of me!!!!
One of the locals told me that cars zig zag through the half barriers all the time, they must be insane, the time to get through was very short and you can't hear these high speed heavy trains approaching.
Anyway, you can see for miles down the track at that point and along came our Pacific, going pretty quickly, I decided to use the video facility as I'm going to see it pull in at Witham Station this evening, plenty of time for stills then.
Here it is, bang on time at 11:30, the noise was tremendous, well worth a trip to see it if you live near Newark:-
Not great quality but you get the impression of it's power.
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I'd be interested to know the height clearance between a Jubilee/Coronation/ 4F and those not subjected to the dreaded yellow stripe, Class 5, 8F, Brit, etc etc, all of which happily worked under the wires at the period of the end of steam, I recall running into Crewe behind a Class 5 in 1967 on the regular Barrow working, a late substitute for a Brit which failed at Carnforth, 70027 as it happened.
Surely it didn't matter what loco was invloved, a fireman could be short circuited in the tender of any steam engine. It must have been some wierd misguided political descision at the time, any excuse to get rid of steam locos, whichever class they were.
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All the locos now allowed to run under the wires are the same one's that seemed to have had a problem 40 years ago. Even under this age of Health and Safety, it doesn't seem to be an issue any more.
I can't think that circumstances have changed on both sides, the locos haven't changed, nor have the wires, we were just being given excuses at the time in order to discourage those sort of practices, I'm sure of it.
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It seems to be working, lets see what happens now.
Littlebro
Did you take the picture of the 'Crustie'.
Despite the fact that they were always around Toton I don't seem to have taken any pictures of them myself. Ugly, wierd things, your picture was taken later when the F-C boiler had been removed along with the chimney that was set along the side of the boiler, it couldn't have helped the view much from the cab.
Here's a picture I obtained off the net of one on test in the 50's.
I seem to recall them appearing when the Garretts disappeared, I can't believe that they were any better.
If you've ever watched the film 'Von Ryans Express', the Germans pursuing train was hauled by an Italian version of these things, look out for it the next time it's on TV.
A waste of time they may well have been but at least their appearance made for an interesting change, I seem to recall spotting the whole class, converted or unconverted, they still looked odd.
Notts Lad:-
I found this picture on the net of 61264 taken at Colwick, 26/11/67, my 17th birthday, sad that while I was illicitly having a pint in the Admiral Rodney, my poor neglected old friend was rotting away on the other side of the city, glad she's probably now in better health than me.
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Nice to see you back Rob.
I'm having terrible problems with my computer that's prevented me from posting today, perhaps this will work, who knows.
I found a couple of B1 photos stashed away with some of my stuff in the loft up in Nottingham last week, I'll dig them out and post if I can.
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Greene King only allow beer festivals on their premises that sell their own 'REAL ALES'.
Morelands Tangle Foot, don't be fooled, it's artificially made in Bury St Edmunds.
Ruddles, a brewery destroyed in Oakham by them and turned into a housing estate at great profit to themselves while the employees were chucked out on the dole. Don't buy it.
Ridleys, Old Bob, made in Bury St Edmunds, our local brewery shut down and now up for housing development, don't buy it.
No doubt some manipulated form of Kimberley Classic will appear on the Tesco shelves, don't buy it.
Small pebbles create big waves, if you refuse to buy their money making filth, sold at the expense of profit making local breweries and their employees, it would hurt the scumbags, patronise them and their empire will continue to expand, lets stop it now before all you can ever buy in your local pub is their insipid, chemically manipulated cr@p.
I'm sure you think I'm a nutter about all this, but I haven't forgotten the years when we were persuaded that Watneys Red Barrell was the business, followed by the watered down p@ss that Whitbread used to produce, support our local breweries, otherwise you won't be able to go to the Bluebell and buy a pint of Dambuster, it will be another product of the Bury St Edmunds vats and just taste like everything else.
Remember Boddingtons, what a lovely pint that was until Whitbread got their hands on it. We had several years of over promotion of their naff, re-engineered product, where is it now, consigned to history, what a surprise.
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hmmmmm
I was a little concerned about that myself, did you lay an egg in Beefsteaks car then.
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How's it all going.
Our tadpoles have hatched, the pond is teeming with them, as the mortality rate is supposed to be very high, it will be interesting to see how many will survive.
The Robins chicks have hatched and they are frantically feeding them, the adults are so tame, I open the back door in the morning and Mr Robin comes and sits on the step and waits for his wireworms, Scooby Doo takes no notice, I reckon that he's more frightened of them than they are of him.
We have a couple of rare residents, a Blackcap has been singing his heart out in the trees, he's doing it now, I hope he finds a mate. He was joined this morning by a Whitethroat, it must be a hard life to be rare and unlikely to find a pal.
The Goshawks seem to be breeding in the woods near the river, they have constant run ins with the local Rooks who don't like their presence.
I've seen a swallow, house martins and a couple of swifts over here, but no cuckoos yet, has anyone heard any.
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When I was at Firbeck School we used to go swimming at Radford Baths every week in the late 50's early 60's, it was past it's sell by date even then.
We had a Bartons bus that picked us up outside school and Mr Galloway, our teacher, used to give Henry Newton a lift into town for his Forest training sessions.
I recall the changing areas being painted light blue, the girls got changed down the deep end and we were in the shallow end, we had to put an old towel on the floor so that we didn't get verrucas, though everyone did, including me.
I hated it, I had a terrible fear of the water in those days, and despite our teachers best efforts, I never learnt to swim there. I recall the water being very cold and ivy growing through the roof down the deep end and into the filthy toilets which had a high level door leading to the outside. There always seemed to be a qeue of old blokes wanting baths that seemed to coincide with our swimming lessons, I presume that these days they would be classed as peadophiles.
I didn't realise that the place still existed, but what are we supposed to do with it. Victoria Baths in Manchester won the Restoration prize 5 years ago, 5 million has been spent on it to achieve absolutely nothing as far as the public are concerned, it needs another 16 million spent to open it up, but who will go there, historians?
I love Victorian buildings, but who wants to go and swim in an antiquated old place designed over a hundred years ago, certainly not me. We have a lovely pool nearby in Sudbury, Suffolk. It has a beautiful, massive laminated timber roof, a beach with loungers, palm trees, a flume, wave machine, a proper warm, laned swimming pool, and all the stuff that goes with it, jaccusis, cafe, health suite etc etc, you can't beat it, I'm sure that the 16million required to restore Victoria Baths for the enthusiasts would be better spent on something that the public would really appreciate and enjoy.
A relic of the past it may well be, how many other old Victorian baths are still extant in Nottingham, would anyone ever use them, unlikely, once the publicity has died down.
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I think you'll find that the nice thatched cottage has been obliterated, along with the Bramcote Hills House walled vegetable garden and cottage, they seem to have been converted into a memorial garden, who for, the Planning Commitee or some such council w@nker I guess. I was appalled at the way that this area had been dealt with, but it doesn't surprise me the way that our local council have destroyed the natural habitat behind my garden in their version of a nature reserve, they have no idea, the whole scheme is run by useless, self opinionated twats protecting their careers and pensions.
So what were the stories behind the thatched cottage then.
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I didn't know that Geoff Hurst had a pub in the Peak District, did he live up there then.
More recently he was involved in a car insurance company along with Martin Peters, when my missus worked at a local car dealers they used to be regular visitors, she reckoned that Geoff Hurst was a lovely bloke but Martin Peters was full of himself, constantly reliving his world cup goal in the garage forecourt.
We did a hike along the river at Monsal Dale back in 1967, I've just found a picture of the Youth Hostel and valley taken then, but I have more somewhere, perhaps they should go in another thread.
Enough of that, I can't find any timings of the 70013 trip on saturday apart from what I've already published, odd that, considering thursdays trip down here is detailed precisely, I'm lucky, 70013 is having a 15 minute stopover in our local mainline station, Witham, on it's return, be prepared for lots of pictures on friday.
Ian, if you're interested, two Black 5's 45231 and 45407 are heading out of Crewe for North Wales a week on saturday, they leave at 9:20 and return at 19:45.
The week after, 9th May, your old fave 46233 is doing a run to Holyhead from Crewe, leaving at 10:00 and returning at 19:00.
For you Nottingham folk, you will be blessed with the sight of a GWR Castle class, 5043, Earl of Mount Edgecumbe, running up the Erewash Valley line this Saturday:-
Loughboro' 9:56
Trent 10:05
Toton 10:09
Langley Mill 10:20
Return
Langley Mill 19:35
Toton 19:44
Loughboro 19:55
Hopefully Fynger will be there with his camera and banjo, if you've never seen a Castle Class Fynger, they are a really magnificent looking beast, all gleaming brass and copper, worth nipping down the road from Kimberley to see it roaring through Ilkeston, it ain't far is it.
The GWR always seemed to manage to get things looking so simple, yet perfectly formed, didn't the Castle Class p@ss all the other railway companies off so much, that it was the basis for so many other designs including the Royal Scots.
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Next a nice walk through Bramcote Hills Park.
What happened to Moor Farm, the scene of many discos, now flattened and replaced by a grim building owned by the holy brethren or some such religious w'nkers, thanks chaps, you must feel secure behind your steel fences, do you have a problem, thanks for suppressing fun.
Finally, I tried to trace the cottage owned by Littlebros ancestors, I reckon it was here:-
Wiped out by that pleasant housing estate.
Thats all folks, I'm off to get my tea now.
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This was the bridge to Trowell Moor Colliery:-
As for the colliery, nothing exists:-
I hope that the public realise that underneath this idylic scene are two mineshafts, several hundred feet deep and that the whole area is based on liquid slag dumped from the Stanton Ironworks blast furnaces.
On to Catstone Hill, they've let the trees grow, nice one, the stunning views are now lost, we assault the summit to see absolutely nothing, at least the vandalised trig point is still there along with the old semi caves.:-
What is the point of allowing the trees to grow, who's idea was this.
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It was mothers 93rd birthday last week so I made the journey for the event and to help her out with a few jobs around the house:-
On Wednesday day my son came over and I took him on a trip around my old haunts, some of which I hadn't visited for over 40 years, he thought it was great to see the places that related to some of my little tales, particularly my friends fortunately still standing out house where I set up a distillation and condensing plant in order to make nitro glycerine, and the wall of which was used as a testing area for home made napalm.
Firbeck shops are non existant, no Mr Graham the butcher, no greengrocer, no Mrs Gambles grocery shop, no Mr Oscroft, whose sweet shop was a gem, fireworks sold out the back door, Jubblies for 3d that kept you going all afternoon.
Everything in the rec had gone, just a couple of goal posts and some furtive, druggy, youths who made the mistake of making some silly comments aimed at us, they won't do it again.
Off to the train bridge via Albert Leeks house, it's still there but you can't look down the line anymore to spot whether a Brit was coming up hill on the Waverley.
Balloon Woods, much truncated, but still there, a really cute black kid was waiting outside the play centre for a lift home, when I told him it was built on a coal mine he looked bemused and laughed his lack of socks off, he didn't really appreciate that the buildings still extant across the road were used for testing Merlin engines, but why should he.
Up the Moor Farm path and I took this picture off the railway bridge:-
This was the spot where the crossing gate to the old brickworks used to be, long gone, but if you look carefully you will spot one of the old timber posts. What concerns me is what the foundations are like to some of these houses, I noticed that one was built on top of an old bell pit that I recall being filled up with scrap cars in the 50's.
At this point, the old canal cutting has been filled in, why, I don't know, the rotting railway bridge still survives in an isolated area:-
Interestingly enough, the old sough that was talked about in the mineworkings thread is evident to the left of this picture, it's an overgrown ditch that contains the remains of stonework, one of these things that's impossible to photograph succesfully.
After crossing over Coventry Lane, the old canal was much in evidence, but lacked water, why is that.
We found the old brick culvert that I used to crawl through when I was a kid:-
Was it built before or after the canal?
Next, the old stop lock:-
Then we came across an old overbridge with some great graffitti, ignore the ?Wrexham FC stuff and the modern signings, if you can see it, this dated from 1860.
Down to the pound that provided a turning point for the barges serving Trowell Moor Colliery, still there but overgrown and no water????
More later.
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Who cares.
Don't you think that the FA Cup has lost it's magic, playing at Wembley for the semis is ridiculous, wasn't it more of a taster when they had to go to neutral grounds, but we know what it's all about, more bums on seats and more money for the FA.
On top of that, the number of foreign players in the Premiership, who's names mean nothing to me, doesn't help at all, who cares whether the talented twins from wherever can only be identified by a wedding ring.
I found a load of my old football programmes in my mothers loft last week, great, Charlton, Law and Best, that's more like it, how can we ever be considered a great footballing nation when our premier teams are full of imports, we seemed to be able to produce great players in the past, I can't believe that we can't now.
I used to be a real fan, but I'm sick of seeing Agabollocks being replaced in a team by Slovoshiyte, how can any of us identify with any of this. Quite frankly, I don't care anymore, but fans seem keen, so what do I know.
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I think that the first airshow date for the Typhoon is at the Spring air display at Duxford on May 17th. Is anyone interested? Check out their website for the other participants.
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Plantfitt
The rail tour company is not forthcoming with it's timings. All I know is that 70013 leaves Kings Cross at 9:18 and returns at 20:55.
It's going to Lincoln via Spalding and Sleaford and the passengers have a 3+ hour stopover in the City. The train returns via Newark, if I find out any more, I'll let you know.
The A1's were originally fitted with rimless chimnies and Tornado is to be updated as the locos livery is gradually updated, it has nowt to do with wire clearances.
You may have seen this before, here's a picture I took of Jubilee Alberta at Copley Hill shed in Leeds in June 1966 showing clearly the dreaded yellow stripe on the tender.
Yes, a few pics of Monsal Dale would be nice, I haven't been there since a YHA trip in the mid 60's when the line was still active, did you bump into Julia Bradbury?
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Lucky you, I still haven't seen Tornado yet.
You may be interested to know that 70013 is running a special from Kings Cross to Lincoln via Spalding next Saturday, it's also running from Liverpool St to Norwich on Thursday, so we'll be treated to the rare sight of mainline steam in East Anglia, I'll nip over to Hatfield Peveril Station to see it, the station manager there is a bit of a keen type, so I'll be in good company.
Funny how certain steam locos were banned from running under the wires in the 60's, the particular ones, which seemed to be chosen for no good reason, all had a yellow diagonal stripe painted on their cabsides. I seem to remember that excuses included a danger to the crew when shovelling coal forward in the tender, and the chimney being too close to the wires, which could cause a short out. Funny how these factors don't apply anymore.
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Why don't they simply build a new station on the site of the original one at Ilkeston, I noticed that there wasn't much left of the old one, but the track formations still allowed for new platforms.
In fact, by utilising the existing freight tracks, couldn't the whole of the Erewash Valley line be used as an extension to the tramway system, reinstating the stations to form mainline links, new ones on the Wollaton line, then putting in a connecting spur at Midland Station, they did it at Manchester, why not here.
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This was my local line when I was a kid, we used to meet up at the black path railway bridge at the back of Firbeck Estate and watch the trains go by, not that there were that many, even in the 50's and 60's.
I've heard once again, that this line is being considered for closure, is this true, has anyone got any information on this, it's been talked about since the days of Beeching, but it always managed to survive.
I took my son for a nottstalgic walk along the canal from Wollaton to the site of Trowell Moor Colliery the other day, which follows the line of the railway. I was very surprised at the number of trains using the route, but concerned about the condition of the track.
The bridge over the old canal is in a terrible state, I don't reckon that anything has been done to it since I was a youth:-
It was riddled with rust and looked very dodgy.
Further on down the line, I looked closely at the track, the up line was all 60ft track with 'clickety click' joints on old wooden sleepers, I recall it being replaced when I was a kid and the fishplates bore this out, being stamped 1960, nearly 50 years old then, amazing.
I can only assume that nothing has been done to update it in order to make an excuse to shut it down, but what do I know.
I'll finish with a pic taken off Trowell Moor Colliery Bridge, perhaps this could well soon be a scene of the past:-
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I remember the creosote works well, we used to cycle to the bridge shown on the map and watch the place in operation. They operated two narrow gauge diesel shunters, BR Departmental ED4 and ED10, they would shunt the open timber wagons loaded up with Jarra sleepers into the creosote chamber. This was a large cylindrical affair that looked like the space craft out of Quatermass, it gave us the creeps. The wagons and sleepers were left to cook for a while, the cylinder being sealed with handles all round the door rather like some continental steam locomotive. After a while the door was opened and the engine was connected up to the wagons and a steaming heap of brown timber was dragged out, Health and Safety would have a field day with all that now, I wonder what the health of the former employees is like these days though.
You will like this:-
ED10, preserved in working order at the Irchester Narrow Gauge Museum near Wellingborough, nice to see something left of the old place.
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I came back from a 4 day trip to the city of my birth late last night, which mainly involved sorting out my mothers house, but thats another story.
Late on monday night we were driving back from my brothers house and happened to drive past the now boarded up White Cow in Ilkeston. I was amazed to see that all the multi coloured 'fairy lights' and spotlights were still blazing away around the building, good one, our eco friendly brewers Greene King's contribution to Global Warming, well they managed to manipulate and bully Bury St Edmunds District Council into approving an unnecesary access into their bottling plant through a rare wetland habitat of amphibians and snakes, so what the heck, who cares about the environment, wer'e Greene King, we can do owt.
My son lives opposite the White Hart at Lenton, formally a Hardy Hansons pub, now obviously owned by our great benevolent leaders in the brewing industry, GK.
Rule number one, despite having an agreement with Hardy Hansons whereby as a local resident you can park your car in our empty car park at night, GK rule that you must now f### off, or else.
Rule number two, you are not allowed to drink your pint slowly in a GK pub, my sons medical student mates were having a pint between lectures at lunchtime and were accused of drinking it too slowly, when they said they were about to go to lectures and couldn't have more than a pint, they were told to get out the pub immediately as they were'nt drinking enough in the near empty pub, nice one, I know these people, they are really nice kids, result, no student will ever set foot in the White Hart again, good business practice on behalf of GK, if it brings down their empire though, I'm all for it.
Steam
in Pete's Nottingham Transport Forum
Posted
Rob
These are the B1 pictures that I found in mothers loft last week, they must have fallen out of the album 40 years ago and been up there ever since, you have my permission to copy them or whatever.
The first one is a bit bent, it must have suffered at the hands of the people that installed the loft installation many years ago.
61131, I reckon it was taken during one of our school railway club trips to Colwick, I don't recall whether, whoever he was, and I have a vague idea, managed to prize off the worksplate, I doubt it.
The next one was taken at Vic and I was praying for it to be your elusive B1, but I think it's 61029, not sure.