Oztalgian

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Posts posted by Oztalgian

  1. After catching the 209 bus and getting off in Fiskerton where Station Street meets Main Road in and going through the Bromley Arms carpark to the "wall" we often used to walk from there to Hazelford, then get the ferry across and fish on the other side of the island.

  2. 5 minutes ago, LizzieM said:

    Look forward to drink some of that next year then Oz!  

    Yes Lizzie, but what really pi$$es me of is that sometimes you can buy it in the UK cheaper than we can here.

    By the way that photo is from the Clare Valley here in South Australia.

    • Upvote 1
  3. The grape harvest is getting underway here in South Australia. Much of the harvesting is done at night and it is quite disconcerting when travelling along lonely country roads when you meet one or more of these moving between vineyards. It feel like you are going to be abducted by aliens.

    (Photo from our ABC)

     

    Image result for grape harvesting machines at night

    • Upvote 2
  4. Only had two cars in the UK the first was a Triumph Herald great little car like this photo Dolphin Grey. Easy to service, lift up the whole front of the car bodywork sit on the tyre and do what needed to be done. Fantastic turning circle too, if you were a bit vigorous when on full lock it used to scrub the tyres like you would not believe and almost push them of the rims. The second was a Ford Cortina MKII only issue I had with that car was the ferrous oxide weevil in the top of the suspension struts fixed by adding reinforcing plates. The car looked pale blue in colour but when it came time to do some touch up and referring to the paint code it was called ???? green. Sold it to a mate when emigrating to OZ

     

    Since being in OZ I must have had about 20 cars both work and family. Work cars were changed every 40,000 km. For those NS Australians I have had various makes and models of, Ford (Falcon)(Telstar), Holden (Commodore), Nissan (Skyline) Holden/Isuzu Shuttle (9 seater bus), Mitsubishi (Magna), Mazda (626) Toyota (Rav 4,) and a Hillman Imp for fun and restoration.

    Best company car Nissan Skyline R31, the smoothest straight six engine I have ever driven.

    Best personal car Toyota Rav4, not exactly inspiring but competent and totally economical, reliable and well put together.

    Photo GB Classic Cars

    Image result for triumph heraldImage result for ford cortina mkii

  5. 4 minutes ago, IAN123. said:

    Repairs to mains after bombing on Ennerdale Rd.Daybrook.

    Would they have been trying to target something in Daybrook, if so what? A hit on the Home brewery site would have damaged morale but were they just badly aimed or jettisoned bombs

    • Like 1
  6. It is thirty years ago that the great benevolent monster in the village I was brought up in fell silent for ever. At its peak it employed just under 2,000 men and was the focus of a thriving village.

    We lived within 250 yards of the shafts and my earliest memory of the mine was walking to and from school four times a day. You could see into the winding house from the road and hear the hiss of the steam from the winding engines. Feel the soft mist from the wooden cooling tower. Watch the wire rope glitter in the sun as it went out from the winding house and over the wheels on the headstocks and down into the shaft. Hear the rumble of the coal preparation plant and the crash as the buckets on the aerial ropeway emptied the waste on to the pit tip to be smoothed out by the growling dirty yellow bulldozers. The chuff - chuff of the little tank engine and the clank of trucks as they were marshalled in the sidings. There was a time in the coldest winters when you could walk down the steepest hill in the village without slipping because of the line where the hot water pipes that supplied the houses kept the road free of ice and snow.

    The warm smell of the canteen and a blue riband biscuit when I used to meet my dad at the end of his day shift. The miners welfare provided great sporting facilities and of course beer for the adults and pop and crisps for the kids after a  walk on a warm Sunday afternoon. The ever present sounding of the hooter calling the men to work was a reminder, in my youth, to get out of a warm bed and get off up to the canteen to catch the paddy to Mansfield.

    I am glad I was not there to see the headstocks dynamited and then cut up for scrap or tons of rubble being tipped down and then concrete capping off the shafts or the demolishing of the canteen. The only obvious sign of the mine that is left now are the engineering workshops that have been converted into factory units, even approaching the village you would not guess that the rolling green country side and fishing ponds were once the pit tips and washery ponds. There is a generation in the village now that never knew the mine and life has inevitably and thankfully moved on.

     

    In memoriam of that benevolent monster, the 22 men who lost the lives and many others that were injured in mining the  black gold that lies beneath Nottinghamshire

     

     

    safe_image.php?d=AQAx40X75fEUsr8x&w=540&

    Photo The Chad

    • Like 9
  7. On ‎2‎/‎11‎/‎2019 at 10:58 PM, Ayupmeducks said:

    I had a G/F in Australia who used to say Never trust a male driver wearing a hat, she was right too!!

    Drive a car with interstate plates and covered in dust with a bush hat on in Sydney it is amazing how other driver keep out of your way.

  8. I think the Castle Bromwich aircraft factory became the Fisher Ludlow car body manufacturing plant that shipped car bodies to many manufacturers that later became BMC, Standard was one such manufacturer. Fisher and Ludlow merged with the Pressed Steel Company to for Pressed Steel Fisher. The Plant in Castle Bromwich is now part of the Jaguar manufacturing plant. A site with a long and illustrious history having built around half of the Spitfires produced in WW2. Lancaster bombers too right up to todays Jaguars.

    • Like 1
  9. 2 hours ago, albert smith said:

    Excursions on Sundays & bank holidays

    Albert, Fascinating insights to days and practices long gone.

    As a kid going on the "pit trip" excursion where the steam trains, often 6 of them picked us up at the nearest station or in the pit yard I never gave much thought to the train crews that provided the service or the bus drivers and conductors that took us to and from the station.

    The train usually picked us up at 7 o'clock so I don't know what time those that got the train sorted out and ready for steaming started work and the bus crews must have been at the depot at 5:30 to have buses out to pick us up from 6:00.

    It used to take about two hours to get where we were going, longer if we were going to Brid or Scarborough, but it was usually Skeg, Mablethorpe or Cleethorpes.

    After our day at the seaside on the beach and the amusements it was back to the train around six or seven and home around 9 or 10 o'clock.

    Your post raised some questions that never entered my head then. For the bus crews I guess it was easy, they could go back to the depot for usual runs or go home until needed again in the evening.

    What happened to the train and its crew? I guess the train was put in a siding, was it kept in steam and if so by whom? Did the crew have a wander around whilst some minders looked after it? At the end of a long day when the train was put to bed was the crew involved in that?

    So much easier these day when I guess that all you have to do is turn a key and a few switches and then you are off.

    • Like 2
  10. 4 minutes ago, Waddo said:

    Lovely stuff hindsight. 

    I know, I had a boss once with 20-20 hindsight.

    I stopped him by asking at the start of one project "What are we going to do wrong on this one?"

  11. John Haynes the creator of Haynes Publishing Owners Workshop Manuals has died aged 80.

    Which bloke on here with any mechanical aptitude hasn't used one of these to service or repair their pride and joy from the 60's, 70's and 80's?

    Thanks to John and these manuals I saved many pounds and often lots of time.

    • Like 1
    • Upvote 2
  12. Peter Tork the bass player of The Monkees has died aged 77.

    Has finally caught The Last Train to Clarksville to meet up with Davy Jones.

    Another voice of the soundtrack of my youth gone, thanks for the memories.