fogrider

I do remember it, fairly well up Mansfield Rd, do remember quite a few steps up, was it the Bamboo or something like that ?, another trendy place , subdued lighting an' all that, seem to remember a record playing " judy in disguise, with glasses"

Total opposite to my other favorite café - Bobs' Elbow Caff, up Mansfield road, real grub, real people. Preferred the cuties in the Peppermill though !

The Pepper MIll, ,had forgotten that place, very trendy place up a passage. Thanks Ian, great memory of some rather delightful girls who were often in there. !970 ?

Our fire engines always had large drip trays underneath, some 6ft by 3ft. Engines and gearboxes all leaked. Rolls Royce B60 and B80 engines ! Even when we got the new AEC diesels in 1971, they dripped a good bit. Par for the course in those days and a certain amount of leakage was accepted from HGV's at their annual test. How things change !

Late last year we went to a talk by a very lovely old lady called Joe (Josephine) Dunn. She was at Bletchley early on and took the new girls under her wings. Lots of interesting stories, she remembered Tommy Flowers, he was the telephone engineer who got the whole plot working. She would surely have known Margaret Wilson. Having visited Bletchley, she put it all into the real world for us - as she experienced it, a privelige to meet one of those backroom wizards.

It's been said that the man who designed the DS's had a wife who was bonking a mechanic !

Car fans !... It's a 1973 D Super 5. Mine 10 years this year. Fast comfortable travel, manual 5 speed box (column change), self levelling headlights, steering long range lamps, the 3 year restoration became a real headache but I got there. No fairies doing magic work through the night like car SOS ! Saw one in King'sLynn Saturday market place in 1957. Bright yellow , when most cars were old black things, I knew I had to have one. First job in 1965, the boss's mistress took me and another lad on a 70 mile trip to a job in one, I was really hooked then ! Good things worth waiting for

Will be visiting that museum this summer, haven't been for a very long time. End of May/early June is the 100th anniversary of Citroen cars, 1000 Citroens going, including my DS. Transport museum a must visit !

When I cleared 70, I only had to fill a form in to renew my car licence. It is assumed that what you declare is truthful, and, like car insurance, if it all goes bang crash and then found you had known health problems, the s**t hits the fan ! I later kept my HGV licence , but only up to 7.5 ton. That does, quite rightly, reguire a medical. Arranged it with a bus company in Lincoln, £55, cheaper than than my GP who wanted £85 ! As for driving tests after 70, I fully agree and looked into having a test with the IAM. The cost is ridiculous. If there was a £20 half hour basic check, to

Why has the Harley sound changed ? It used to be "potato-potato-potato," the sound apparently patented by Harley, now it sounds more like " blib-blob-blib-blob, is this something to do with emissions ?

Maybe a cave in ?

Under the Shakespeare Street Police HQ was 3 levels of caves. The fire brigade had a key and I explored them a couple of times. The Civil defence had an emergency HQ , WW2 era, and there was a joint Police/Forensic science firing range where they fired guns for ballistic checks. Somewhere on the internet is a layout drawing. There was still stuff written on the walls from use as shelters during WW2 including male and female toilets with the Elsan buckets still there ! When I worked at Chalfont drive we were aware there was a "secret " nuclear bunker under there. I believe the whole

Yes, Central was quite a place...…. Re the chiefs car, I sometimes think it was a Singer Vogue, but I've just checked and it was a Humber Sceptre, in a brilliant deep red/crimson. Gauges all over the dashboard, I wanted one ! Probably a series 1a, I'm sure it was a 'C' reg. We seemed to have had a link with Rootes vehicles. A few Commer fire engines over the years, Hillman and Humber cars. I suspect it was a Masonic link, George Hodson was open (rare in those days) about being a senior mason. Washed and polished it a few times !

The photo has now appeared ! I can name quite a few people in the line up from the left, yours truly being no3. The fire was on the early morning of Thursday, coroners enquiry Friday morning and funeral Tuesday the next week. No other enquiry. I had made notes ready for an enquiry ( as it was me who found Albert unconscious ) and after years researching bit by bit, finally completed a full dossier on the fire last year. Not sure why, I just like research and spotting the Nottstalgia site was a real boon.

I can guess which photo it is, Tuesday 21st Jan 1969.Albert Smiths' funeral following the Dakins fire. For some reason, all I get is a cross in a black square and lots of numbers. This happens a few times, computers winning 3 falls to 1 submission !

Only just spotted this post - have a usefull early sixties Harrison L5a, gap bed, 38mm throughway mandrel, very usefull, plus a Tom Senior vertical mill, couldn't do without them now, classic cars and motorbikes always need some sort of machining. A friend of mine knew Chris Moore at Myfords, on one of those great open days, Chris said "gather what you want, I'll work you a price out ". Did me proud, rotary table, alsorts of essentials.. He said at the time the Chinese copies (lathes)were so good looking people bought them, ignoring quality. Mind you, the rotary table was made in Poland

I'm not sure of the legalities, but we were driving fire engines on just a car licence a good few years after it was law to have an HGV licence for wagons. I seem to remember a thing called grandfathers rights, we didn't have to take the test, but were considered qualified ! Grandfather, I was 24 !

You remind me of my HGV test with a fire engine. I was already a driver but the Brigade sent someone on an instructors course. He asked me to take the test to check his standard. I was assured that if I failed, I would still be a driver . On the test day, his advice was to drive "exactly by the book , including speed limits ". ( I was a lunatic driver ). After the test, the examiner said he could not fault me, but I " could have gone a bit quicker, we were holding traffic up ". You can't win sometimes....

Good to see there are some preserved. When I still lived there I never saw a red one of those old Victorian hydrants, they were all black. The Civic society must have records that show them red ? At least they will live on. We had one down the bar at Central, ' re-located 'after it was knocked over by a car. What's happened to all the amazing old stuff we had in the bar I don't know. I think there are photo's of the bar on facebook, the Nottinghamshire retired firefighters site, I'm not on facebook, but have seen the pics.Taken when the station was closing.

A wartime ford WOA, Ford V8 side valve engine, the front tyres look bald !

Anthony, Clifton very kindly put me on the right track for old maps, an excellent resource :- old-maps.co.uk Took some getting used to, but I look at them regularly now, thanks again, Clifton.

One winters day at Dunkirk fire station, I was sent on an errand to Stockhill on the fogrider Triumph Thunderbird sidecar outfit. Snow all cleared off the road, no problem. Out onto the boulevard powering left off the roundabout. The chair came right up, right hand lock to bring it down and head for a pile of cleared snow in the central reservation. Except it was 2" of snow on some re-surfacing rubble. Bang crash. I looked back at the station to see all the lads upstairs watching out of the rec room window. A concrete hydrant post was always on the floor of the sidecar to help keep

The Train, what a fantastic film, Burt Lancaster and Jeanne Moreau play superb parts. The railway scenes so well done, even a scene pouring a white metal bearing. Love it.

Was listening to 'Tommy' on the juke box in a pub up Raleigh Street. After the words "I'm free.....", some wag shouted "I'm four ! "

The large iron gong outside buildings where the sprinkler plant was , had the makers name cast in it, Mather and Platt certainly were the name we saw most. Walter Kidde another. You couldn't miss the sound of a sprinkler gong ! As well as wet systems, there were dry systems, no glass bulb in the head, the pipe layout charged automatically when triggered, typical type for such as a sub station. They meant a small delay in water discharge, but prevented water damage (or shorts !) from accidental operation if a bulb broke. As you stated earlier, helped save many a high risk building.