StephenFord

The blue bus is definitely a N&D AEC Regent of about 1948 vintage (the full-depth driver's windscreen defines it as one of those with pre-selector gearbox - the slightly older but otherwise very similar ones with a manual gearbox had a shallow windscreen). It may even be parked - there was an A1 about 5 o' clock on weekday evenings that started round about there, mainly for Bairnswear workers. The location is actually only a few yards from the earlier posting of the trolleybus turning at Haydn Road - just in front of the house visible behind the A1.

The only place on the Nottingham system (I think) where trolleybuses reversed to turn round, as opposed to having a turning circle. I am given to understand there was a skill/art to reversing a trolleybus over connections without de-wiring, and possibly pulling all the knitting down out of the sky !

Just found a scan of a leaflet that I downloaded some time ago. Sundays 1 July - 9 September 1962. Rambler's train 9.45 from Nottingham, picking up at Beeston, Attenborough, (with connection from Loughborough and Kegworth), Sawley Junction, Spondon, Derby. Then Belper and all station except Monsal Dale to Buxton arriving 12.15. On the return it left Buxton at 7.10, Matlock 7.50 but gives no details of arrival times back in Nottingham. Excursion fares from Nottingham ranged from Ambergate 4/10d, Matlock 5/6d, Bakewell 7/6d, Buxton 9/-.

Re #73 - maybe the third 68 was a South Notts heading parallel down London Road to Trent Bridge ! As for #69 - sorry, Merthyr, I can't help on that one. I too rather lost interest when they started putting bus engines at the wrong end !

Been there and done many of those things !

I agree with Merthyr's figures - Totley tunnel : 6,230 yards between Dore & Totley and Grindleford; Cowburn tunnel : 3,702 yards between Edale and Chinley; and Disley tunnel : 3,866 yards, between Chinley and Hazel Grove. Total 13,798 yards or about 7.8 miles of tunnel from a total distance Sheffield to Manchester of around 43 miles.

Further to #2028 "Yer know what thought did..." - the version I heard was "Thought follered a muck-cart and thought it were a wedding."

Re #3464 - well, if it was still with Mainwaring of Gilfachgoch, I'd hazard a guess at "Dai. the Bus" !

Before anyone asks, I will prove (yet again) my nerd-worthiness! The coach is a Bedford SB3, with Duple 41 seat coach bodywork. It was supplied in 1959 to Mainwaring of Gilfachgoch, and appears to be crossing the English Bridge in Shrewsbury.

Wasn't me - on my honor !

Re #3444 - I think you can still get faggots and hot gravy at some takeaways or maybe chippies in the West Midlands, where I think it's a bit of a traditional thing! Can Carni confirm?

Maybe a dummy would help?

Well, I tried - but it seems I had inadvertently already signed it, and I was told I couldn't be counted twice - presumably because that would be cheating (which, of course, the government never, ever do - do they?!)

It's true there were no stops on the 32 between Old Market Square and General Hospital. I think that service was fairly short lived. It was revived about 10 years later as route 50 running from Broad Marsh via Huntingdon Street to the Old Market Square, and then via Park Row thereby picking up folk for the hospital arriving at all the city bus stations. That was also a single decker, but I think this time it was probably conductor operated.

They were indeed Malcolm. In the old days when they showed more than the final destination on the front, the B3 was via "Eastwood, Brinsley, Selston" while the C5 was via "Eastwood, Jacksdale, Riddings", both of which still trip off the tongue like poetry - well, to those with warped minds anyway!

Thankfully, my dad had a comparatively easy war by most people's standards. He was in the Royal Army Medical Corps. Went to France initially, and was on the west coast near St Nazaire, evacuated around the time of the fall of France. He was then stationed in Sussex at Goodwood House for a period of time, and married my mum in February 1941, shortly after which he went to India, and they never saw one another again for five years. He spoke of the heat, muck and hill stations. However although my sister has his diaries from these years, there is little to suggest much action or immediate danger,

I seem to remember from school days (and I haven't checked this online, but I guess it will be there somewhere) that "sea level" is actually mean sea level at Newlyn, Cornwall. This doesn't answer the question about what happens if/when sea level rises, but maybe its a starting point.

Re #4 - that's expensive firewood - you could buy a forest for that price!

My travelling companions and I (when I used to commute from Grantham to Derby by train) discussed this in great detail, and concluded that house loans ought to be granted on a joint venture basis. In the event that the house was re-possessed the amount the lender received from the proceeds of the sale would never be more than (1) the percentage of the buying price that they had advanced, and (2) the percentage of the repayment period still left to run. That would make them a great deal more careful who they lent to, and how much they lent. It would almost certainly reduce the level of house pr

Two weeks for a bag of Bics Fly? I make a single Bic last that long. A bag of 'em lasts me around 4 months! (And yes, I do have Scottish blood - from my grandmother's side of the family - and I don't spill much of it !) By the way, we are talking of razors and not biros aren't we?

Well, it would be thrown out by the "planners" these days. "We can't have an important cathedral of the new religion (shopping) pulled down just to accommodate a "train station" (as they call them these days). "What would we want a station for in the middle of town? Can't they put it on a brown field site somewhere - say, Toton sidings?"

Well, Scriv, I suppose he was sort of right, in a way. But someone did point out to me many years ago (I think we still had about 18 years to go on our mortgage!) that you eventually pay back about three times as much as you borrow.

Dennis McCarthy?

Actually, I don't think "they" are all that keen on folk who pay their bills on time, especially credit cards. No interest charges that way!

Talking to my little grandson aged 3 yesterday, a phrase used by my mum and grandma came to me without thinking about it : "Be a good lad, and don't eat sludge!" Not sure what my son and his wife thought of that one!