BulwellBrian

We would be back to people putting their head in the oven, coal gas contained a high concentration of Carbon Monoxide not present in natural gas.

Ashley, I am sorry to mention this again on the forum but the wagon works was W Rigley & Sons and not Wrigley. The old station building was used as a club house for I think an Artisans Golf Club who were not allowed to use the main club house. You could see them crossing the road with bags of clubs. The signal box at the station was also in use presumably to allow access to the wagon works, it would also be a block post between Bestwood Junction and Leen Valley Junction. There were no trains on this line on Sundays.

The two photo's I have managed to post were taken on the same day sometime around 1959 (note the lone 16t mineral wagon). The second photo shows a new class 71 electric loco on delivery from Doncaster to the Southern Region. Note also the pigeon baskets on the platform, this was a regular sight at Bulwell Common.

Bulwell Common again on the same day, a class 71 electric on route to Southern region new from Doncaster.

Are you sure it was Woodcock on the GCR in 1957, I saw Mallard on an Ian Allan special about that time, I went specially up to Bulwell Common to see it, It was advertised in Trains Illustrated. Perhaps they had to repeat the trip because of high demand. I once saw an A1 at Bulwell Common during a rail strike. I was also on the famous trip from Vic to Eastleigh & Swindon behind Stanier Pacific 46251 City of Nottingham.

I cannot quite make out what class of locomotive is shown, it looks too short to be a O4 2-8-0 and has what looks like a GNR tender so it is possibly a J5 or J6 0-6-0. The loco at Basford North is an ex GCR 4-6-2T LNER class A5.

The green coaches were provided by the Southern Region at Bournmouth. The went North one day and back south the next day. The other set for the oposite direction were provided by York and were the normal BR standard colours. Each set making a one way trip each day. Bulwell Common was my spot for watching trains.

The steam loco named Bulwell Hall was a Great Western Railway Hall Class 4-6-0, it never ran anywhere near Bulwell. there was one called Wollaton Hall as well.

If my memory is right in the 1960's the two sleeper trains left St Pancras on a Sunday evening at 9:15pm and 9:30pm, the first to Edinburgh calling at Kettering, then via Melton Mowbray to Nottingham up to Sheffield and Leeds, over the Settle & Carlisle line then the Waverley route to Edinburgh. The Glasgow train called at Wellingborough then through Leicester, Derby, Sheffield Leeds, Settle & Carlisle line then the G&SWR line via Dumfries to Glasgow. I believe the two trains were in Leeds at the same time. My future wife lived in London and when we were courting I used to travel

The line at the bottom of the golf course remained open after the line alongside Hucknall Road was closed, this was closed after Mapperley tunnel closed. Trains could reach Colwick yards via Bulwell Common & the Vic.

When the Victoria Station was built there was the two railways (Great Central & Great Northern) could not agree on a name, The GCR wanted to call it Nottingham Central but the GNR didn't agree. It was first called Nottingham Joint Station but became Victoria at the suggestion of the then Mayor of Nottingham.

My memory thinks that Union Street crossed Victoria Station on a bridge. It would disappear when the station was demolished

I didn't see the actual crash I was at home on Henrietta Street and ran up to St Albans Road, I wasn.t able to get very close and can only remember smoke from the fire, I was only 8 so my memory is rather dim 60 years on.

I think you are mistaken, double deckers were certainly used to Bestwood Village, I don't think the railway bridge was that low. What else were the double deckers for? They were no use for private hire.

Yes but I was very young (8). It was lunch time and I was home from school for my lunch. The plane came over very low and very noisy then there was a lot of smoke. We kids ran up to the site but were kept away by the police. The plane damaged the chimey of a house on St. Albans Road opposite the sidings. We were late back to school and got into trouble.

Bus stops in Nottingham were red for motor buses & green for trollies. If both used the stop there was one of each colour. There were request stops and compulsary stops.

I have always known it as Bulwell Forest. The Great Northern Railway station which was opposite to the golf house was Bulwell Forest Station. I am sure that the Great Central Railway named their station Bulwell Common to avoid confusion. The golf club is Bulwell Forest Golf Club and the area of housing beyond the playing fields off St Albans Road was called Forest Side. The wagon works was W Rigley & Co, their main works was alongside the GNR station and there was a branch works on the east side of Bulwell Common sidings. I remember the Canberra crash in 1951, you could see where the con

The building on the right was the Westminster Bank, later NatWest, my first current account was there. It was used by NCB No 6 Area to provide the cash for miners wages. The money was taken to the area offices at Bestwood to be made into pay packets for the miners and then taken to the pay offices at the pits, Baddington, Bestwood, Calverton, Clifton, Cotgrave, Gedling, Hucknall, Linby, Radford & Wollaton.

About 1960 my mates and I used to catch a train from Bulwell Common to London Road High Level to go to Football matches, once it went to Arkwright Street because the London Road line was closed for engineering works. I think the train came from Shirebrook. It stopped at Victoria for non fans (wives?) to go shopping. The loco was usually a K3 2-6-0 presumably from Langwith Junction shed.

The coke is and was used in blast furnaces to smelt iron ore to produce iron. The charge into the blast furnace is a mixture of iron ore, coke and limestone. Air is forced through the charge to produce the blast, the heat comes from the burning coke and the limestone acts as a flux. The iron can then be turned into steel in ether a Bessemer converter, or an electric arc furnace. I know of 4 types of coke, Gas coke made in a gas works where the gas is the main product and the coke a by product. Domestic coke like Sunbrite which was intended for household use. This coke was not as strong as the

Coke was always difficult light, no gas in it. Coalite & Rexco & Homefire were easier, they left a bit of gas in it.

Its the old bridge in the photo. It was close to the cottages. The new bridge was later than the photograph to the right in the photo further away from the cottages.