fogrider
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Posts posted by fogrider
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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 !
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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.
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11 hours ago, PeverilPeril said:
Interesting pic Ian. Universal Engineering. I sold tool steel to them in the 60's. Did they become Castle Engineering or was that along the road? That DS Safari was an awsome vehicle. My mate had one and it seemed very futuristic. It boiled over one day when we were in the Highlands. Opened the bonnet and could not believe the number of pipes and hoses - a right snake pit.
It's been said that the man who designed the DS's had a wife who was bonking a mechanic !
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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 ……….tax and Mot exempt too
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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 !
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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 see what sort of level you were at, fine, take it from there, but £65 ?
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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 ?
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17 hours ago, IAN123. said:
A cave meeting..!!
Maybe a cave in ?
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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 site has now been cleared.
The tunnels described under the streets sound fascinating, I'd be down there with you all !
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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 !
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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.
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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 !
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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 and badged Myford ! (same stuff Chronos flog )
He was a good man. An elderly model engineer I knew here in Hull had bought a fantastic new lathe and a milling machine from Myfords, top stuff. When his eyesight was failing, he rang Myfords who sent two guys , they collected the two machines and gave him THE SAME money back for them.
I think those days have gone …...
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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 !
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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....
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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.
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On 2/28/2016 at 1:54 PM, ValuerJim said:
What was the make of the car? It looks like something out of a 1950s NYPD movie?
A wartime ford WOA, Ford V8 side valve engine, the front tyres look bald !
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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.
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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 it on the road. The devils had removed it before I set off , for a laugh !
One of those memories of the City that lasts a long time !
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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.
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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 ! "
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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.
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They get you both ways !... I remember a couple of jobs in Nottingham where sprinkler heads had failed and caused a flood. We spent ages removing water with dustpans and brushes. It was seen as our job. Another job was during working hours, an actual fire , I've a vague memory it was in Raleighs' packing department, the sprinklers had it in check but we had to go into the torrent coming down to finish the fire off. We were drenched !
I remember a large office building on the North side of Parliament Street, just 'round the corner from Milton Street. All the machines were out at jobs and I was sent on my own in the control unit. The main entrance was up a couple of imposing steps. Water was gushing down and out onto the street. I found the sprinkler plant and closed the main valve. Water stopped, I went back to central.
Later that night it was pointed out there could have been a fire burning somewhere and the valve-off would have let the place 'go up'.
Gulp....
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Sure thing for a big company , especially higher risk places where sprinklers are essential, as you say, the insurance premiums are much more favorable. One small drawback with a wet system if a bulb breaks or fails. I went to a couple of big buildings in Nottingham when a sprinkler head had let go , they really do wack a good spread of water down ! Small price to pay I suppose.
Strangely, there was a period in the sixties and early seventies when a number of sprinklered old Victorian type of factory buildings burned down ( locations all over the UK) because the plant had been "shut down for maintenence. ". Very suspect...….
I wonder if the insurers forked out ?
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Empire, Windmill and other Cafes
in Nottingham City Centre
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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 ?