Smiffy49 590 Posted August 8, 2015 Report Share Posted August 8, 2015 A conversation started the other day about the R.O.F. in the Meadows. One of the questions raised was did it have it's own railway or a railway connection? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Cliff Ton 10,457 Posted August 8, 2015 Report Share Posted August 8, 2015 Looks like it. It's the "Engineering Works" here, and it has connections from the lines which went to Clifton Colliery and Wilford Power Station. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Blondie 1,392 Posted August 8, 2015 Report Share Posted August 8, 2015 I once knew someone who worked there back in the 1960's/70's.......He was my friend Susan's ex husband called Paul Scrivens....... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
benjamin1945 16,139 Posted August 8, 2015 Report Share Posted August 8, 2015 I KNEW him 'blonde' at school played against him at Cricket 1950s,did'nt meet him again till the 90s when he was a copper in town,interviewed his son for a job in Security,Chris his name. just had a bit of 'de ja whatsit' think ive told this before ? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
EileenH 496 Posted August 8, 2015 Report Share Posted August 8, 2015 I lived on Hawthorn Street - which had a junction with Kings Meadow Road and I remember being scared of the tanks that would rumble down the road from 'the Gun Factory' as we called it. The road surface was deeply scarred from their tracks. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
PeverilPeril 3,279 Posted August 8, 2015 Report Share Posted August 8, 2015 Railway lines ran into the forge and foundry end of North Shop . I was there 1953 - 60. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Cliff Ton 10,457 Posted August 8, 2015 Report Share Posted August 8, 2015 Lenton Times have a photo of it. http://www.lentontimes.co.uk/images/gallery/lenton_railways/lenton_railways_ordnance_1950_1.htm Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Cliff Ton 10,457 Posted August 8, 2015 Report Share Posted August 8, 2015 I lived on Hawthorn Street - which had a junction with Kings Meadow Road and I remember being scared of the tanks that would rumble down the road from 'the Gun Factory' as we called it. The road surface was deeply scarred from their tracks. Picture the Past has a couple of photos of Hawthorn Street. http://www.picturethepast.org.uk/frontend.php?action=printdetails&keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;NTGM006762&prevUrl= http://www.picturethepast.org.uk/frontend.php?action=printdetails&keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;NTGM000582&prevUrl= Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Bilbraborn 1,594 Posted August 9, 2015 Report Share Posted August 9, 2015 My cousin was a tool maker. He used to work at ROF and sometimes left to work at Raleigh Bicycles. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
catfan 14,793 Posted August 9, 2015 Report Share Posted August 9, 2015 My brother served his apprenticeship there '66 - '72. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
PeverilPeril 3,279 Posted August 9, 2015 Report Share Posted August 9, 2015 Massif steel ingot were delivered by rail and unloaded with the 20t overhead gantry cranes. The ingots were hot forged down into crude gun barrel shapes about 15 feet long. Further processes produced a barrel for Naval guns - about 120mm calibre. A secret process (during WW20 of heat treatment called autofretage (sp) was employed. This was a process that eliminated the sleeving of barrels , thus saving weight - very important on Naval guns. the principal was to have the barrel in compression prior to firing, to stop the barrel splitting. I spent a lot of time observing these procedures as an apprentice. Should not have been in the forge, foundry or test room etc., but with a bit of paper in my hand I could go anywhere and learn by observation. It was reported after the Falklands war that a lot of naval deck gun barrels failed?? Had this have happened during WW2, due to shoddy workmanship the engineers responsible would have been hanged. 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted August 9, 2015 Report Share Posted August 9, 2015 Never knew any of this,fascinating stuff-you can learn a lot on 'ere...in between the moaning!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
firbeck 859 Posted August 9, 2015 Report Share Posted August 9, 2015 In the 50's and 60's any train journey heading west out of Midland Station required you to hang out the window on the left hand side to see:- 1) What interesting loco's were in the sheds ( mainly the usual ). 2) What naval guns were loaded on to crocodile wagons in the sidings at 'The Gun Factory' as my dad used to call it.I can only assume the big boggers were for the cruisers, the last one's to be completed being the 'Tigers' with their automatic quick firing 6 inch guns in 2 paired turrets fore and aft. They never fired their guns in anger, though the last survivor, HMS Blake was still in reserve at Chatham during the Falkands War and was considered for re-activation and deployment if things went seriously wrong, which they nearly did. 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Bubblewrap 3,815 Posted August 9, 2015 Report Share Posted August 9, 2015 One loco I remember seeing in Nottingham Loco was 45542 Home Guard(about 1962/3) unrebuilt Patriots were quite a rarity in Nottingham Quote Link to post Share on other sites
StephenFord 866 Posted August 9, 2015 Report Share Posted August 9, 2015 Bubblewrap (nothing to do with the ROF!) in the mid 50s the 7.35 Nottingham - Bristol was quite often an un-rebuilt Patriot (turn and turn about with Jubilees and Black 5s - and occasional rebuilt Patriots, of which 45536 "Private W Wood, VC" was one that sticks in my mind.) Quote Link to post Share on other sites
NewBasfordlad 3,599 Posted August 9, 2015 Report Share Posted August 9, 2015 I had several friends who worked the in the 70s we were all the TA together, one of the things they told me about was the boxes marked industrial pipe that were in fact 105mm tank barrels for the Israelis. Used to visit quite a lot myself when the proof house and pattern room moved there in the late 80s. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
LizzieM 9,507 Posted August 9, 2015 Report Share Posted August 9, 2015 I'm sure there's another thread on here for the ROF but just to put my spoke in ....... my Dad served his apprenticeship there from about 1939 to 1942. Just before his 21st birthday in December 1942 he joined the RAF and then on demob in 1946 he was straight back to the factory and job he hated. He was made redundant in the early 60s and went to Raleigh and then Myford Tools in Beeston but heard a couple of years later that he could get back into the ROF. He was not an ambitious man but just wanted to earn decent money to pay a mortgage and look after his family so he went back to Kings Meadow Road til his retirement in 1986. My dear old Dad never had a good word for that place but he brought home a good wage and that was all that mattered to him. 5 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Chulla 4,946 Posted August 10, 2015 Report Share Posted August 10, 2015 #16 NewBasfordlad. Wasn't the Pettern Room just wonderful. I used to go there to research when I was writing my book Rolls-Royce Armaments. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
PeverilPeril 3,279 Posted August 10, 2015 Report Share Posted August 10, 2015 #16 and #18 re the Pattern Room? This must have been after my time - or it had a different name? Can you describe it please? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Cliff Ton 10,457 Posted August 10, 2015 Report Share Posted August 10, 2015 Interesting to see that on the Old Maps website, i.e. Ordnance Survey, the railway connections are not shown, even on the hi-res maps. I can understand that for security reasons in WW2 and just after, but even up to the mid 1960s the place is just labelled “Factory” with no rail link to the outside world. And yet the map I used, which is just a bog-standard street map, shows the railways clearly. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Chulla 4,946 Posted August 10, 2015 Report Share Posted August 10, 2015 The Pattern Room was a working museum that had almost every kind of rifle, pistol, sub-machine gun from ages past to up-to-date. It also had a terrific archive and library. It moved from Woolwich into a 1-million-pound special secure building at ROF. It had to move when the ROF closed and it went to Leeds. I remember seeing Erfut-made Luger No.1 there. When there had been gun amnesties whereby the public could hand in weapons without fear of prosecution, the Pattern Room used to find examples for its collection. 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
PeverilPeril 3,279 Posted August 10, 2015 Report Share Posted August 10, 2015 Not a single bomb landed on that 34 acre site! One landed just outside the Lenton end wall but missed the rail line. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
NewBasfordlad 3,599 Posted August 10, 2015 Report Share Posted August 10, 2015 Yes Chulla it certainly was. I spent many a happy hour in there at one time. I was researching the .577 Enfield patterns 1853 & 1861 trying different loading technique's and styles of loads to try and improve my long range accuracy. Being in the army reserve at the time my interest soon spread to other things. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Bilbraborn 1,594 Posted August 11, 2015 Report Share Posted August 11, 2015 Re #20. I have a mid 20th century OS 1inch to the mile map in my possession which has no sign of the numerous RAF aerodromes in East Notts but which we all knew were there. I found the map in a skip when they cleared out the locker rooms at Nottingham carriage sidings in the mid 80s preparatory to closure. (It reopened a few years later). Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Smiffy49 590 Posted September 15, 2015 Author Report Share Posted September 15, 2015 Thanks for posting that Cliff Ton and thanks for your PM to remind me about the thread, I had forgotten about it! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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