Minutiae - Bulwell Common and more


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I remember the spirit engines on an aircraft I purchased , I only used it once , the plane never landed correctly ( it crashed), I believe they were called Glowplug engines. You had to attach a battery to the glowplug then spin the propeller to start it, then when it was running it had enough heat in the engine to ignite the spirit.

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I've been delayed by trying to recall what I actually did for string...  The best I can come up with is that I gathered up all the various bits of string I could find, and tied them together.  Sometim

In this case I'm thinking of Bulwell Common and the finer details of how it has changed in my lifetime.   I drive past it pretty much everytime I'm home in Nottingham, but my how it has chan

Back behind my grandma's house in Netherfield were two large banks of cinders and gravel near a ditch which ultimately made it's way to the Trent.  I think it was a branch of the Ouse Dyke.  The kids

One type did indeed use a glow plug for ignition the other was diesel type using purely compression, they were the boggers that nearly always got your fingers.

 

I was reasonably good at building the models but awful as a pilot, I seemed to bring them all home in a bin bag including the two 2mtr gliders.

 

In the end I learnt my lesson and changed to radio controlled scale model boats, at least I could only sink them and if the water was shallow enough wade out and retrieve them.

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Paul says he used Jetex engines on his model aircraft, although he says he mostly made gliders.  I remember when our kids were little, we flew a huge red glider on the Malvern Hills.... very exciting for the kids, - they had to keep running up and down the hills to retrieve it each time.

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14 hours ago, jonab said:

I remember those tiny engines. They were intended for model aircraft. Arthur Saxton's (electrical shop) on Hucknall High Street used to sell them. There were two distinct types: Jetex which used solid fuel - much like a firework and use a fuse for ignition and "diesel" powered which used a mixture of some kind of petroleum spirit, castor oil and amyl nitrate as fuel. These last were the cause of many fires and explosions which all added to the fun.

 

I remember we had an alternative use for Jetex fuses (which looked like a thin wire). That was to thread a piece of fuse along the length of a cigarette (preferably nicked from some unsuspecting kid) and then make sure you were around when he lit it. What would happen was that the fuse would burn down very rapidly, and quite violently, then the fag would fall apart leaving smouldering tobacco all over the place.

 

Ellisdon's, the joke manufacturers, used to sell the necessary kit for making exploding cigarettes.  Basically what looked like a single toy pistol cap, tightly rolled up.  You just pushed one into the end of a cigarette and waited for it to explode.  Not very powerful thankfully.  Much later I came across a different type.. Chinese manufacture I think..  Just a very tiny triangle of cardboard which was also pushed into the end of a cig.  There was an outbreak of them  when I workerd as a mechanic at Courtauld's weaving mill in Skelmersdale.  The one I saw explode was just like the cartoon type, leaving the smoker with a surprised look and a beautifully tattered cig dangling from his mouth.  They were very loud and I suppose a bit dangerous.  For months after, none of us would let our Cigs out of our sight..

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The first 'proper' model aeroplane I was ever close to was on the fields opposite our house on Southglade.  As near as I can recall, I was about 6 or 7 which would make it 1955.. ish.. A chap appeared with this thing.  It was quite crudely painted but it was all there.. complete with a little diesel motor.  I don't recall a battery, so I suppose it was one of the compression-ignition types.  As I recall, the fuel was a mix of Castor Oil and Ether.  There was a lever operated screw on the top of the cylinder which was something to do with starting,  ... or something.

 

This was a 'free flight' model.  I.e., it was neither radio controlled, nor flown in circles on the end of a 'control line'.  Just set it flying and mostly hope for the best.  The chap was using something called 'dethermaliser fuse'.  This, as the name suggests, was a slow burning wick which was mostly used with large hand launched, or towline launched model gliders.. to prevent them from flying out of sight in a 'thermal'... hence the name. This chap had some on the tail, designed to adjust the tail fin to bring the plane down after a certain time.  After the usual 'faff'.. and bruised/ cut knuckles, he got the motor started and launched the plane.  I thought it was amazing..  It flew steadily in wide circles, but was gradually being blown towards the railway embankment of the old Leen Valley line which ran between the field and Hucknall Rd.  Finally, it took a dive into the trees along the embankment, on the Hucknall Rd side.  Despite much searching by the 'big boys', it wasn't found.  As far as I know it never was.. so it could still be there.. though I suppose only the motor and plastic prop would still survive after 60+ years.

 

I was playing about and train spotting next to Bulwell Common Station one evening, at the top end of the Common, opposite where the Gala Bingo now stands. Probably around 1958/9. Two blokes were trying to get a 'control line' Spitfire model up and flying.  Control Line planes were flown in circles, attached to the end of two wires.  The wires went into the wing and were connected to the 'control surfaces'.  By applying more pressure to one or the other, the plane could be made to climb or descend.  Even loops and other stunts were possible.  The chaps eventually got the model flying and it was pretty impressive (to me..) at maybe 36" wing span.  As they continued to fly the model, something clearly wasn't right.  It turned out that a part of the propellor which was supposed to lock it, to stop it rotating on its shaft, was worn, so he 'prop' was vibrating in flight.  Deciding the prop was useless. the chap handed it to me.  I thought it was my birthday!!  That 'prop' went straight up on my bedroom wall that night.  A proper trophy..

 

Around about that time, I also used to go down to the railway arch in the Leen Valley embankment where there was farm track.  It is now Bestwood Park Drive.  In a field on the left, a Model Aero Club used to fly their models.  Saturday or Sunday afternoon as I recall.  One of the 'classes' of models, were 'Combat'.  Not much more than a flying wing on a control line, but they would have streamers at the back and the idea was for a couple of planes to chase each other and score, I think, by 'clipping' the streamers of the other.. with the prop.  Another class was 'racing'.. which is pretty self-explanatory.  Shortly after, they moved off to another venue and I  was very disappointed.

 

In my last year at Henry Whipple Primary, I went with the school on a trip to Wembley, to watch an England v Scotland 'Schoolboy International'.  Either in the build up, or maybe at half time.. there was model aircraft flying display.  I was , frankly, much more interested in this, and in the steam train ride there and back, than I was in the match...  Anyway, there was a control line Lancaster Bomber.. with four engines!!.  It came off the lines and dived into the crowd.

I can't imagine that even a smallish diesel motor is something you want smacking into you.. but as far as I know, nobody was seriously hurt.

 

Naturally, I could never afford to get into 'proper' model aircraft. My parents had quite enough on supplying me with all the proper kit for High Pavement, so I didn't complain.  However, I could afford the odd Jetex engine.  They produced a few models but by far the cheapest was the '50 C'.  Oddly, I never got around to fitting one to a model plane.. but I did fit them to Dinky toys etc., and watch them shoot down the street.  Bulwell Library, in Highbury Road, used to have a 'Jetex' book, full of ideas for models using Jetex motors.

I used to go down to the model shop in Pelham St.  Was that 'Gee Dee's?, on a Saturday morning.  I'd buy a pack of Balsa wood..looking out for one with plenty of thin, flat cuts.  Back home, I'd make a simple, hand-launched glider.  I worked mostly on the principle that if it looks right, it is right.  With a bit of time spent 'trimming' their flight.. most worked.. more or less.

 

My next encounter with a flying model was 1972.  I'd not long been married and we were living with the 'in laws' in Liverpool.  Back then, if you didn't know anyone.. you struggled to get work.  After the regular trips to the Job Centre, then doing the housework etc., and spending hours walking around industrial estates seeking work, I was still bored.  I bought as Keil Kraft rubber powered balsa wood model.  To pass the time.  Amazingly, the Keil Kraft tradition seems to be still going, run by this lot... 

 

https://www.vintagemodelcompany.com/keil-kraft.html

 

I spent ages making this kit and once finished, I did a few 'trim' launches in the back garden, before taking it out to a local playing field for 'flight testing'.  Things were going well until a couple of Scouse 'scallies' turned up... probs about 11 years old.

 

"Where'd yer get that mate?"

 

" I made it"

 

" Wot?"

 

"I made it"

 

"Why?"

 

"Because it's a challenge"

 

" Coulda bought one"..

 

"Yep..."

 

Sometimes you know you are wasting your time....

 

I built another similar model in the 80s, to help me through a deep depression.  It worked.  I decided to visit the local model shop to see what was what..  All changed.  Lots of plastic film.  All the diesel motors replaced with tiny, beautifully made and allegedly quiet but very expensive four stroke engines. Radio controlled everything and seemingly no skill. Buy a fancy kit, or a ready built model for anything upwards of a hundred quid and away you go.. Not for me...

 

That said.. some of the modellers now, are making amazing stuff.  Costs a fortune.. but..

 

 

 

Col

 

 

Rockets next....  :)

 

 

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12 hours ago, trogg said:

I remember the spirit engines on an aircraft I purchased , I only used it once , the plane never landed correctly ( it crashed), I believe they were called Glowplug engines. You had to attach a battery to the glowplug then spin the propeller to start it, then when it was running it had enough heat in the engine to ignite the spirit.

 

 

'the plane never landed correctly...' 

 

I'm reminded of the 'Pilot's Adage' ...  'Take off is optional.. Landing isn't..'  I suppose all of us who have tried.. have managed to bend a few quid's worth of model. You do have to admire the guys in the videos above, who have spent many thousands of poonds on their models.

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Did you ever go to Ellisdon's shop, DJ? It was on High Holborn, London. The ads. in comics made it look enormous but it was really quite small but, an absolute paradise for wayward kids (like we seem to have been). I think the original Ellisdons was a theatrical makeup and wig supplier.

 

The Sign of Four used to sell quite a lot of Ellisdons stuff.

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Certainly used to go to the Sign of Four.  Black Hand soap, itching powder, Indoor Fireworks, etc.

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Delrosa was responsible for most of the rotting teeth of young children in the 1950's as their stupid parents would put the stuff in the (newly invented) continual pacifiers (a dummy with a reservoir) under the notion that it, being full of vitamin C, was doing them good.

 

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4 hours ago, philmayfield said:

We used to make our own itching powder. Wild rose hips cut open and shaken in a matchbox. The white hairy stuff resulting made a deadly itching powder. Don’t try this at home! smile2

I remember doing this with rose hips, Phil.  Wonder if I ever dropped any of it down the back of your shirt?   I'm sure I would have remembered .... or would I....  maybe I've blocked off all the naughty things I used to do as a small child?

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Some great memories of Bulwell Common here. I do recall kites being flown on there..but not model planes.

Funny thing ...we played on that Common more when we lived in town.

Was it me ?..always seemed to be light aircraft above..from Hucknall?

I think we had a spirit of adventure then..because we were not worldly wide and had little..anyone remember making a bicycle out of odds & ends?

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I always had to make and repair bikes from odds and ends, if I didn't it would mean walking. I spent hours seeking parts to keeping mobile , at one stage a friend always had the part I wanted and in fair condition too. I heard rumours about his source so being the coward I was I never went to him again. Amazing what memories nottstalgia brings back to you.

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I got interested in models planes purely because I lived at 108 Rosetta Rd and a guy who built and flew them lived at 110, he used to do engine tests on the back yard which was fun to watch.

 

Thing have advanced so much now, miniature working jet engines for the very rich and the advances in battery and motor technology mean you very rarely see a diesel or glow plug these days except on vintage models.

 

Of course HSE has raised its head making flying much more difficult and sometimes I think with good reason. Some of those large models would do serious damage to people or property, not the sort of thing you want buzzing the crowds on Bulwell common. There was one at Goosedale museum and American 4 engine bomber built for film work at 16ft wing span it never flew again after filming was finished as it needed the same paperwork as a light aircraft.

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As I recall, a young boy was killed after being hit in the chest by a flying model some years back.  Things were tightened up then I think.

Same thing with full sized airshows.  Very clearly defined 'flightline' separating the crowds from the display.

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  • 4 weeks later...

.. ON KITES, PLANES, ROCKETS and STUFF...... ...Cont'd ...

 

Rockets..  :)

 

Two parts to this I suppose.  The 'easy' bit was playing about with firework rockets.  I think I've talked about this before so I won't drag it out.  Basically, those firework rockets which have a 'star' or whatever, tend to shoot it out of the top .  You can use this to light the fuse of a smaller rocket mounted on top.  If you attach the smaller rocket with a single turn of Sellotape, this is usually blown or burned away so you get 'Separation Stage One'.  The best we managed was three stages.. though they were usually heading back down before stage 3 lit.  Probably using too much weight on stages 2 and 3.  More work needed, though whether I'll bother now ....

 

I made all sorts of fireworks from the time I first got my hands on the necessary chemicals. From about 1960 on..  Mostly they were just flares, using Potassium Nitrate and adding assorted things to get a bit of colour.  Strontium Nitrate for Red, Barium salts for Green, a bit of zinc dust for a bluish hue etc. You could get the rarer stuff like Strontium and Barium salts from the model shop as refills for your Merit Chemistry Set, but they were not cheap and only in small quantities.  We'd get Sulphur and Pot Nitrate from the old Herbalists in Lincoln St Basford for about 2 old pence an ounce or so.  Often nipped down there on our bikes from High Pavement during lunch. I loved the smell in there.  We also made 'bangers' (Small bombs if I'm honest).. though there was no terrorist threat back then so things were viewed rather differently.

 

There was a time in the early to mid 1960s when we had a bit of a craze down our way for making assorted 'fireworks' out of weedkiller and sugar.  There is nothing secret about this .  Sodium Chlorate Weedkiller as an oxidiser, sugar as a fuel.  These days, the Sodium Chlorate you buy is laced with a very effective fire suppressant, so it no longer works.  As an aside, I recall visiting my Dad when he was working as a 'Parkie' in Heathfield Park on Valley Road.. after he was 'invalided' out of the Pit.  He was sitting in his hut, smoking a Park Drive and flicking the ash into the top of an open sack of about  a half hundredweight of Sodium Chlorate.  I asked him to be careful.

 

So, back to rockets.  A couple of lads lower down Southglade seemed to have an inexhaustible supply of the weedkiller. They appeared with a 'Rocket'.  It was impressive... if a bit 'squat'  Very 'Dan Dare', with fins and a nose cone, but all based on what looked like a longish canister of some sort.  Imagine half of a Pringles tube.  This thing was mounted upright on its fins, on top of one of the numerous 5 gallon empty paint drums which were a ubiquitous feature of 'our' fields and originated from Rigleys Wagon Works.  The fuse was lit, the thing started to produce masses of flame and smoke from the bottom, then it fell over and exploded with a half hearted 'Phuutt' and a cloud of white smoke.

 

The Southglade Road Branch of NASA wasn't really up to speed ...

 

I tried all sorts of 'mixes' of fuel myself, but none worked.  Despite the violent reaction between the components, I just couldn't get any real lift, and mostly ended up with an upside down flare.  Then one day my good friend Rob mentioned he'd read something about using weedkiller and newspaper.  I made a saturated solution of the weedkiller and soaked some newspaper in it.  Left it to dry completely and lit it.  Wow!!  It burned almost faster than the eye could see, leaving next to no residue, which meant that all of the paper was burned as fuel.  Now we were getting somewhere...

 

After a lot more faffing about we decided that the trick was to roll the soaked and still slightly damp newspaper into a really tight coil an then leave it to dry.  Next, wrap it in stiff paper, again tightly coiled.  Finally fix it to a stick.

 

These things worked! Practically every one we made lifted off..  Sadly, absolutely every one exploded in flight. Unevenly packed fuel will do that.  I'd guess our maximum 'altitude' was about 30 feet....

 

It's been in the back of my mind all these years to try again..as with kites and model planes.. Maybe a kite or a plane with my Grandkids.. but rockets probably not....

 

 

 

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Great post again DJ ,memories of Bestwood Estate , I imagine this type of activity happened in most areas but it brings it back to me my childhood of Bestwood. My older Brother and his mates use to do this as well , my place in life was to be at least ten paces behind them as they didn't want to be associated with little kids like me. We also went onto Southglade fields and climbed up the bank to Rigleys to set them off so that the rockets would fly higher, I think the majority of the time they fell to the ground further. Keep them memories coming.

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  • 6 months later...

Time for more 'Minutiae'.  Sadly, I don't have pictures.  And I may have related this before but I can't recall.. it's an age thing...

 

As we looked out from our house on Southglade and over towards Rigley's we saw a hollow meadow , leading to a steep bank. That bank led up to a flat area created by Rigleys Wagon Works, as a storage area for assorted rail rolling stock which they serviced, repaired or scrapped.  It was essentially a large private set of rail sidings.  I think I've already described how one tree, growing from the base of the Leen Valley Line and the 'Rigley's Bank', and no doubt being older than both.., served as our 'swing tree' in the fifties and left me with scars I still bear..

 

However, one summer morning probably around 1956-58.. I awoke to a lot of banging and hammering on the 'Rigley's Bank'.  Back in those days, though I was only about 8 or 9 years old, I was.. like all the other kids. allowed to roam freely on the fields.  I wandered across to the bank and was seriously impressed.

A group of 'bigger boys', had laid a double row of railway sleepers down the bank and were in the process of nailing sheets of scrounged up corrugated iron to them.  They were using any old nails they could get, also from the Rigley's area and mostly what I later found were called 'cut nails'. The nails were used to secure ragged sheets of corrugated iron sheeting to the double row of rail sleepers, to create a  'run'.

Next.. the idea was that some hero would ride another sheet of corrugated iron down the 'run'.

 

So. we have rough sleepers (not the current kind...) jagged sheets of corrugated iron... sticky out 'cut nails', gravity and young lads. ....

 

What could possibly go wrong..??

 

As I recall.. a steady stream of 'walking wounded', with cuts, grazes, lacerations etc., but with character suitably built.

 

Them wer't days.:)

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They certainly were the days, and when the day ended and you went home you wouldn't complain of the cuts and bruises, as you would have to explain where you had been and been up to , then you would receive more bruises.

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Back behind my grandma's house in Netherfield were two large banks of cinders and gravel near a ditch which ultimately made it's way to the Trent.  I think it was a branch of the Ouse Dyke.  The kids had an old tin bath which just seemed to stay there.  We loved to ride down those cinder hills in it.  Usually ended the day with plenty of bumps and grazes, but they were the days when real men didn't cry.  :rolleyes:

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just read that Great Central Auctions at Stonleigh, Warwickshire, have sold a maroon Bulwell Common station totem (Midland Region) for the amazing sum of £2.800. Brilliant. 

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  • 7 months later...

Further to Col's comment re the former NCV car sales site. (I presume it was in this topic) there has been renewed activity over the past three weeks or so. Two large diggers / bulldozers have moved onto the site, and as at yesterday, appear to be levelling the site.

Whether the spring hole problem has been resolved, I don't know, but there's certainly some action evolving. 

I'll try and make an enquiry next time I'm out for a stroll.

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