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Chulla
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Posts posted by Chulla
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A couple of Grantham memories for Smithy49.
I think it was 1951 when a pal and I went by train to Grantham. They would not let spotters stay on the platform, so we went through a tunnel under the lines to a field on the other side. Here we joined more spotters, making about ten or so in all. One of them had the bright idea of sneaking around the loco shed, and we followed him like sheep, not wanting him to see stuff that we couldn't. We never made it because we were intercepted by an official of some kind who then took all of our names, our parent's names, our addresses and where our dads worked. Frightened us to death, but we never heard anymore about it.
Sometime in the mid seventies I was standing on the station when a Deltic was approaching from the south. The speed limit through the station was 90 mph, and the driver throttled back as he came in. After coasting through the station at high speed, when he reached the right-hand bend at the other end of the station he wound up the throttle. The sound it made, affected by the Doppler effect of the receding engine was the most marvellous sound I have ever heard by a train.
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If it had wheels or wings I spotted it!
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As mentioned earlier
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I can only recall the fortifications on the Wallis Street side of the bridge. They consisted of a solid concrete block on both pavements - about six-feet cube as I remember. Up against them were a number of concrete 'drums'. Imagine concrete after being poured into a dustbin and you will get some idea of the size. Now that Benjamin mentions the road actually being blocked to traffic, I remember that also, but that was not what I have described above. I believe the road was blocked to traffic because its strength was not suitable.
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Why is it that hippo girl's message, reproduced above, is nowhere to be seen on my computer? Carni has it and has told me where to look, but it isn't there. What else might I not be seeing? Anyone else having this kind of problem.
In the case of messages regarding meetings, there should be a dedicated topic title that is only used to inform of meetings proposed or actual.
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Past memories of local railways is a popular thread, so perhaps a new thread devoted to trainspotting memories might be a good idea. As nostalgic moments go nothing does it more for me than recalling the smell of soot and steam, the excitement of seeing a 'namer' approaching, and the marking off of the engines seen, in my Ian Allan stock book.
My trainspotting commenced in the late 1940s, observing from Dobbie Bridge on Park Lane, Old Basford (drove over it yesterday). At that time the bridge still had its wartime anti-invasion fortifications in place. The bridge over Cinder Hill Road was the nearest regular spotting venue. Others were Perry Road, Western Boulevard and the bridge over Arnold Road, where the three-levels converged - GN Daybrook-Basford - GN rathole, Basford to Victoria - GC Victoria to Bulwell Common. Thinks: was this the only three-level crossing in England?
Midland and Victoria stations were the local main line visits and trips to further afield were to Newark and Grantham. A month at Pipewood Camp in the summer of 1951 saw almost daily walks to Rugeley to log the mainline locos from Euston to Glasgow.
A Red-letter day was a trip around Derby Loco Works, after which I organised one for myself, aged 13, and four others, and after we were shown the engine repair and new-build shops we were allowed to roam around the vast yard unaccompanied.
Everywhere you went you would see or hear trains - at night I lay in bed listening to the shunting at Babbington pit. Hold-ups at Basford Crossings for coal traffic or the Mansfield tank-engine-hauled passenger trains, and on Bells Lane for the coal trains to Newcastle Wharf were everyday events. The former is still the case, for trains and trams, but there is no-one in a signal box winding a big wheel to open and close the crossing gates.
Happy days, and how fortunate we were to have lived through them.
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Jermy and Westerman. I went in there some years ago and bought Funk and Wagnalls The New Standard Dictionary of the English Language. It is an encyclopaedic dictionary in two volumes, published in 1946. Each volume has 3000 pages and each volume weighs nine-and-a-half pounds. They have beautiful colour plates with tissue protection. Whoever originally purchased them must have put them on a shelf and forgot about them because they are in mint condition, and so are the dust jackets. Cost me ten pounds, easily my best book buy.
The Oxfam bookshop on Market Street is worth a visit.
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Just picked up on this thread since my #276 posting. I found it comforting to hear of other people's experiences, particularly about Lizzie's husband. As I feel no different now health-wise to what I have always felt, my PC condition does not bother me, in fact I hardly ever think about it. Nevertheless it is good to share experiences. If one's psychology has anything to do with how one feels then I will live to be 100!
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As annoying as our TV adverts are, they are not as bad as those in America - 90% of which appear top be for food that does you no good. Watched a film there once. The opening credits rolled and then faded into what did not look like what I was expecting to see. It was the first of the many commercial breaks. Over there they do not give warning of a commercial break - just a straight break into the ad - or when the break has ended.
As for my favourite ad - the one showing dad in the 1950s walking home at night in a street lit by shop lights, and children singing the Ovaltini Song. Just oozes nostalgia.
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Teebee. Feel free to use the info about Rise Park property prices. I got the brochure from the builders in February 1971. We moved into the bungalow on the corner of Portree Drive and Bernisdale Close in September 1972. Ornsay Close was the last part to be completed, in 1973 or 1974.
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Calling Banjo. How about you tell us the evening you would like to meet up with us when you are in Nottingham. Note that Melissa can't make 1st and 7th of October. We will stick with the Roebuck on St James' Street.
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While we are on the subject of men's round things (they are oval, in fact), and straying slightly away from the topic, I am reminded of a story told to me years ago by a chap I worked with. He had a friend who was getting dressed in his bedroom and sans trousers sat on the bed. The mattress was not on the bed and he sat on the cross-wired bed frame. As he did so his weight pressed down and expanded the segments. His round things dropped through the segments. When he stood up the segments retracted to their original size and....
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Hey, katyjay and carni; if you liked my #26 why didn't you give it a Like? (I'm collecting them!)
4th line is Oh ar (Oh yes). The riddle is not my doing - I remembered it from years ago.
Spiders are wonderful insects. No-one teaches them how to construct a web, and yet it is so precise. I once watched one doing so and it was wonderful. As it travelled along one of its lines it held the silk high with one of its legs so as not to touch existing lines and then dabbed it down on one of the radials. The spacing was extremely precise.
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When I started going out with the wife, I met her off the Sherwood bus that terminated outside of Lyons. First time, she said 'I'll
meet you outside Lyons'. I waited alongside one of the lions outside the Council House and wondered why she didn't turn up!
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Totally agree with Smiffy49 about the scene from Rebecca - easily Hitchcock's greatest film. The visuals as the famous prologue is being recited just after the opening credits is one of the greatest opening scenes in film history.
I am not too keen on violence being portrayed on the screen, but there is a film which, for me, has another one of the greatest opening scenes.
THE LETTER [1940] director William Wyler.
The scene is set in the Malayan jungle at night in bright moonlight. The camera slowly pans across the trees revealing the coolies asleep, birds roosting in the trees, and then shows a bungalow. Suddenly, BANG! a gunshot, then BANG!, BANG! again. The coolies awake startled, the birds flutter away. A man staggers out of the door on to the veranda. He falls down the steps on to the ground and out of the bungalow coolly walks Bette Davis, revolver in hand and walks down the steps. BANG!, BANG!, BANG! as she fires the rest of the bullets into him, then the stillness of the night is restored. All this takes place very convincingly on an indoor soundstage, a wonderful example of the skill of the art director.
The Letter is a Somerset Maugham story expertly brought to the screen with a great performance by Bette Davis, who's English accent is impeccable. There is also an excellent performance by one of the lesser members of the cast, Chinese actor Sen Yung, playing a creepy, slimy lawyer.
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#1. Reference the photographs of the construction of the Great Central line held at the Leicester Archive, picture L2780 shows the Bulwell viaduct nearing completion, looking south. What is the large building seen on the left of the image?
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I've had enough of this thread already. I wish I had never started it.
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Melissa. See if you can find Dark Victory online. Sit and watch it with a box of Kleenex beside you.
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If I remember correctly, there was a timeclock for the 1, 7 and 22 buses positioned outside the Bentinck Road Schools, going into town. There was a large clock on a pole there. Something used to happen there; maybe a crew change?
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The thread is drifting off-tack already. It is not about favourite films, it is about favourite scenes in films - describe them!
#3 caftan. I am with you on the raid scene in The Dambusters. The sound of the four Merlin engines being wound up after the mine has been released and the pilot's effort to miss the high ground in front of him was very realistic. Here's one from me:
DARK VICTORY [1939] Director Edmond Goulding,
Bette Davis is a spoilt heiress who one day falls off her horse after her sight temporarily suffers double-vision. She is convinced that there is nothing wrong but is seen by doctor [George Brent]. He gives her tests and when she returns to his surgery for the result - telling him, in effect, that he is wasting his time, she listens to what he says, and her facial expression reveals that she is doubting her own judgement and saying to herself 'please, please, let it be good news'. The scene is superbly directed and acted; the look on Davis's face revealing her inner fears.
She learns that she has a terminal brain tumour, and marries the doctor. He tell her that she will know when the time comes because she will lose her vision and very quickly will die. Time goes by and she is in the garden with her friend planting bulbs. Her friend remarks how strong the sun is, and Davis realises that she cannot feel the heat and that her vision is deteriorating. She goes into the house [her friend knows what is happening] and prepares to meet her end. She calls her two dogs over and bids them goodbye and then climbs the stairs to her bedroom. There is a serene stillness as she climbs into bed, with the maid closing the curtains, and Max Steiner's heavenly music ensures that there is not a dry eye in the house. To my mind this is the finest death scene ever portrayed on the screen, a tribute to a great combination of directing and acting.
Anyone who remains dry-eyed after seeing this is made of stone.
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Calling all film buffs. This thread is for those who would like to tell us about their favourite scene in a film. I am not thinking about scenes where people are being mown down or blown up in their thousands, but rather scenes where the direction and/or acting has made an impression on you. Perhaps the music played its part in creating the ambience. For me this never happens in modern films, but I have a number of examples from films made in the golden age. I would not include modern computer generated images - these are wonderful but are now ten a penny. If anyone wants to follow this thread I will chip in with a few examples.
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re #44. Are any of the Nottstalgia hexperts trying to fathom out what is going wrong and trying to put it right?
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I've just got a Like This notification from katyjay, but the red alert did not appear. So, it looks like although there are no relevant ticks in the Settings, and no red alert, the actual visual notification still appears alongside the text message, but it has not been added to the list of Notifications when you click on the symbol at the top of the page. Thus, this would appear to be the first time that the red alert has not appeared for me. Also, if it did not have a red alert then the Like will not be added to the list of Notifications.
Daft I call it! (Remember that, Ernie Entwhistle's dad in Knockout comic)
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Trainspotting
in Pete's Nottingham Transport Forum
Posted
A magic moment was one Saturday afternoon, sitting on the fence beside the line going over Arnold Road. Slowly approaching up from the New Basford station direction was lone engine A3 Diamond Jubilee, resplendent from the workshops in Apple Green, black and red trim. I can only imagine that it was off Doncaster and was making a trial run, probably down to Grantham and then to Nottingham Victoria and then on to Sheffield. A youth who passed by a little later didn't believe me and got quite stroppy. He, he!, I saw it and he didn't!
The only other time I saw a bright, shiny engine straight out of the shops was at Crewe in July 1951 - Royal Scot Old Contemptibles , I think - and that was also resplendent in Apple Green, not very Midland Region, but it looked gorgeous.
Never stood on Grantham platforms as the 'streaks' sped through - as I said, we were not allowed to.
My cousin and his brother were trainspotters. One of them saw every diesel - all of them. When he had done it he started all over again!
We weren't anoraks, there wasn't any in those days, only windcheaters.
Have to say I'm pleased how this thread has progressed so enthusiastically. 21 posts in less that two days.