StephenFord

Aha! So you moved from Melton Mowbray pies to Paddy Ryan's pies! Good move.

No - provided you stopped drawing power (i.e. at the white spots) when you coasted over the pointwork there was no arcing. (You didn't need to disconnect from the wire.) You would hear the rattle of the poles as they went over the points, and when that stopped you could power up again (according to what I have read).

I must say getting "Kidnapped" three times over sounds like carelessness !

Always think of my grandma's eldest brother Will, a gunner in the Royal Garrison Artillery, who fell at Boezinge, Belgium on 13 September 1917, buried at Artillery Wood.

#23 - nonnaB - I remember going to Goose Fair with my mum and dad in the late 50s, where we happened to meet an old work colleague of my mum, with her husband. In the course of conversation dad mentioned that he had been in India during the war. The woman's husband said, "Really - did you know a chap called so-and-so...?" (Can't remember the name, but it wasn't Smith.) The woman turned to him and said "Don't be daft Frank, think of how many thousands of British soldiers there were in India..." And then dad replied, "Well, it's a funny thing - but - actually, I did know him..."

The Regents would be the OTVs - I think Bilborough depot had nothing else from 1953/4 when they first arrived on the scene, until the rear-engine buses came in. I certainly recall seeing a photo somewhere of about 20 posed for the camera outside the depot. Park Royal bodies, and a totally competent 9.6 litre engine. Before they were delivered I can just remember their predecessors - the 1937-1939 Regents. There was a 15 minute film of the Old Market Square in 1950 posted on here a couple of months ago, and they appear there on the "30 Broxtowe Estate".

The chapel seems to have been Arkwright Street Baptist. It was built around 1889, being largely funded from the sale of the old Stoney Street Baptist chapel, whose congregation (following a number of more or less acrimonious splits) decided to call it a day, and merge with the Woodborough Road Church, recently established in the new Watson Fothergill chapel at the junction of Alfred Street. There is a marriage register for Arkwright Street held in the archives, showing entries from 1889 to 1929. That does not, of course, mean that the chapel closed then - only, presumably, that 1929 was the la

...I've heard that up to recently (and perhaps still today) there are motorised dhows in the Red Sea powered by Gardner 2-cylinder engines - basically cut down versions of the 5LW used in the Bristol K and Lodekka etc (plus the Guy Arabs).

True Merthyr - but its a funny old thing that Dennis, which always seemed a small time player in those days, survived. AEC? Leyland? Daimler? Guy? - even Bristol? - and as for Gardner engines - oh dear. They just refused to move with the times, and the market eventually walked away from what was a brilliantly rugged and reliable engine from about 1930 to 1970, but unfortunately by then it had just had its day (several times over).

565 ERR was one of five Bristol Lodekkas from this neck of the woods, bought by United Counties in 1971 - this one from Mansfield District, and two each from Midland General and Notts & Derby. I think they (and others from elsewhere) were brought in as stop-gaps to cover for inadequacies in the recently acquired Luton Corporation operation. Even on a good day with a following wind, Luton's buses didn't fit in with United Counties, which, like all the nationalised "Tillings"/BTC companies, standardised on Bristols.

Go for 'em plantfit!

Not so sure about the Consul Classic - they seemed to have a problem with tinworm !

Have we had "Oo - you are awful...but I like you!" ? Was it Dick Emery?

Re #3092 - True! But of course, you can't get penny bangers now!

Hi Oztalgian - This is what the note in the timetable says : "The last picking up point on journeys to Nottingham and the first setting down point from Nottingham is 440 yards from Darcliff Cross Roads in the direction of Blidworth" followed by a footnote "Darcliff Cross Roads is the junction of Blidworth Bottoms Lane and the main Nottingham - Ollerton road." Hope this clears it all up for you.

Good grief PhotograFix - not another from Shropshire! Where are you? - I'm in Minsterley.

My normal breakfast these days is fruit juice, porridge with a blob of golden syrup, two slices of toast and marmalade (the dog comes and gazes at me when I'm spreading the marmalade - so she gets a bit too!), and a dozen or so grapes.

Re #76 - Blondie, Hucknall to Oxton was actually F8. The F4 also nipped through Larkfield Estate at Watnall, and its route into Nottingham was Stockhill Lane and Nottingham Road, Basford.

Re - #72. I reckon Pianoman has remembered right! That seems to be exactly how it was in MGO B8 days, and about the same now for the 141 - except that the extension beyond Mansfield now goes to Sutton via Skegby instead of Clay Cross (which was, indeed a C3 in those far-off days).

Re #71 - the F3 went directly up the A614 Ollerton Road, turning left at Darcliff Cross Roads towards Blidworth Bottoms, right along Field Lane to Blidworth, and then right into Main Street, Mansfield Road and Warsop Lane to Rainworth (the Robin Hood). According to my trusty 1962 timetable (!) it was strictly limited stop - leaving Nottingham you could not get off until a quarter of a mile after turning off the Ollerton Road at Darcliff Cross Roads. This would be a traffic commissioners' condition, in the days before bus de-regulation, to protect revenue on the Trent/East Midlands services to

That was Frankie Howerd.

Re #2 - Quite right Benjamin - or as the Romans would say "Moderato in omnibus" (often wrongly translated as "No more than five standing!") When I was at school, my mum feared being accused of parental neglect if I didn't have bacon, egg and fried bread before going out in the morning. I still love it, but since heart attack last year, I mostly abstain - or occasionally go for the rather anodyne alternative of poached egg, grilled bacon and toast.

Re #67 - Absolutely right Merthyr. I checked it out on Wiki and was planning to come on here and correct myself !

Talking of famous catch-phrases, I think Mona Lot (who was the charwoman) was also the origin of "Shall I do you now, sir?"

Re #56 - I think it was Mona Lot in ITMA who said "It's bein' so cheerful that keeps me going." She had a little brother called Tiddler Lot...