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Managed to buy 4 plates in '68 from a schoolmaster friend who had acquired 20 (!) from Derby Works for their brass weight. Paid £70 for Malay States, Queensland, Hood & North Borneo. Idiot that

Hopefully this will be a picture of the last northbound steam special, perhaps some of you recognise yourselves The last southbound York-Bournemouth is the train on the left.

A topic about old Nottm railway stations might interest a few of the train buffs on here !   http://www.nottinghampost.com/news/history/lost-railway-stations-nottingham-220673

Ayup Ashley,

I don't remember trolley buses going down that road, to get to Clifton via West Bridgeford it was either a South Notts bus from Huntingdon street or Broad Marsh, Or a WBUDC or Notts corporation bus from Broad Marsh, I do remember a corporation bus (No 68 from Farnborough road) getting stuck under that bridge though, and all the passengers got off allowing the bus to rise further under the bridge wedging it good and proper, if more people had got on the bus though it would have lowered on it's springs and allowed it to get from under the bridge,

I think firbeck can put us right on trolley bus routes better than me

Rog

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There were numerous cases of vehicles getting stuck under said bridge , including (Around 1973) a Drey wagon , (Loaded with the Christmas empties (Bottles) from all the pubs in the area ), losing his load and causing a blockage that took 3 days to clear up!!

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A low bridge double deck trolleybus would have been an interesting sight, poles coming off everywhere I reckon!

I'm sure that Nottingham City Transport had a few AEC double deckers with a side gangway and long seats down one side, were they obtained for this route. Bartons certainly had them, we always used to get one when we went swimming from Firbeck school to Radford Baths, considering that there wasn't a single overbridge on the route, it always seemed a bit pointless.

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My mistake was mixing them up with ones in Hull, I do actually remember a single decker trolley bus running on the 36 route, I think on some trial/exchange from Scotland, not too sure if not a "bendy" type? Do remember it was bright orange though, would have been pre 1955

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Vaguely recall seeing a single-decker visitor in ?Slab Square?

Instant impression was the height of the poles - which seemingly put the whole thing out of scale.

Everyone stared, which must have quickly unsettled the passengers!

Cheers

Robt P.

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A low bridge double deck trolleybus would have been an interesting sight, poles coming off everywhere ...

I posted my 'poles' story some while ago, in a thread that I can no longer find...

It concerned a city-bound 41, on which I was riding, not only losing it's pole - whilst travelling at speed on Alpine Street - but the pole detaching and soaring upwards [a la Coningsby Typhoon] and eventually embedding in a high factory roof. The patched roof repair was still evident when I last passed by, about five years ago; some fifty years after the incident!

Cheers

Robt P.

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firbeck,

I think most South Notts and all WBUDC buses had side gangways and the long seats but as far as I can remember none of the City transport ones, up until the late 60s the city transport buses ran over the Clifton bridge and none along the Wilford lane

Rog

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just out of intrest....in the picture of the bridge on page 9.....as you look at the picture just infront of the small brick shed and to the right whats the two lenths of rail either side of the track for?????

jumped off there a few times.....and got away with it...lol

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Restraint/guide rails, to straighten (hopefully) derailed wheels as they approach the confines of the bridge.

Such check rails are normal practice throughout the rail system...

Cheers

Robt P.

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Cheers Rob....just seem abit far from the track to av been any use what so ever.....or is it just the angle of the shot

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The angle and distance seem to be normal...

Do appreciate that a derailed wheel could be running along, ripping up the ballast, some distance from it's track.

The extra check rails, within the gauge going over the bridge, serve the same purpose.

Cheers

Robt P.

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Plantfit

Nottingham City Transport did indeed operate lowbridge double deckers, numbers 199 to 208, AEC Regent III Park Royal Lowbridge delivered 1954 and at least 199 was still going in 1965 until I gather it was sold on to Bartons, I can't find my NCT book though that might have a photo of it.

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d`ya know i dont even bother searchin the net no more.....if i want to know owt i come on ere instead....the pool of information is vast on here.........cheers iain

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Sorry, interrupted by the phone, apparantly Corgi produced a model of SAU 199 in Barton colours which makes me think that they used the same die to produce the NCT double decker, which I have somewhere, I can find me trolleybus, Skills Coach and various other buses but not that one. If anyone collects Corgi buses perhaps they have the AEC lowbridge, which I'm sure is in the later colour scheme probably due to the fact that a colour slide exists of it taken at Broad Marsh in 1965 operating the number 2 service, wherever that went.

During my search for a picture of this bus, I found out that two Nottingham and two Notts and Derby trolleybuses are stored at Boughton near Ollerton, presumably by former members of the NTG, does anyone know anything about them and where they are exactly, there's an old army store nearby I wouldn't be surprised if they are kept there, but in what condition.

Shall we get back to trains now.

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firbeck,

Not got one in my collection, the only Nottingham buses/coaches I have are Skills from the Bedford OB to the latest Volvo Plaxton.

Why not start a new thread re: buses?

Rog

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"as was said earlier, why the viaduct was demolished from Weekday Cross is very odd, and now it looks as if they will have to spend huge sums of money crossing over Midland Station, but Civil Servants always know best don't they."

i read somewhere that originally the GC viaduct was considered fine for the tram. But the problem was the company that has plans to extend the broadmarsh out over collin st and beyond. The idea being that the viaduct runs through the newly extended broadmarsh. Apparantly this company decided that they didn't want a great piece of victorian engineering running through their horrible new steel and glass structure. Hence a new metal viaduct was required. Personally I would have thought the old viaduct would look great running through a modern building. A great clash of old and new, works well as St Pancras.

Not sure if all that is true, but I certainly read it somewhere, the post?

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A few years ago the viaduct was classed as a site of special scientific interest and a conservation area because of all the rare plants growing on it.

It was reckoned that seeds from all over the place had dropped there off wagons over the years and taken root, these were able to grow to their full potential after the trains stopped running and the track was lifted.

I'd be interested to know what they did with these plants when the viaduct was demolished, were they simply destroyed or carefully taken away to the Arboretum.

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Beechings Tracks tonight, BBC4, 8:30. Introduced by the wonderful Edwina Currie, who I doubt has caught many trains in her life, but we'll see, she was having it off with John Major who is a bit of a railway enthusiast, so she might be able to tell the difference between a B1 and a Jubilee, not.

It's all about the effects of Beechings cuts on London and the South East. Sounds a waste of time to me, I don't think that the south east was decimated by rail closures like the rest of the country, well the powers that be wouldn't want their minions to have difficulty getting into their overpaid civil service power bases in London would they. I'm sure that Beeching drew a circle on a map of London and worked out a system whereby the number of closures increased outwards so that his Tory pals weren't affected.

Could be a real white knuckle ride this one, with lots of swearing, I'll probably be made to watch it upstairs.

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Saturday 7.10 pm BBC2 Timeshift , Between the Lines - Railways in Fiction and Film.

Monday BBC2 7.00 pm Timeshift , Last days of Steam,

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Saturday 7.10 pm BBC2 Timeshift , Between the Lines - Railways in Fiction and Film.

Monday BBC2 7.00 pm Timeshift , Last days of Steam,

The BBC are repeating what they have already shown in their truncated BBC4 railway series, forget the first one, it's naff and patronising.

I thought that last nights Beeching programme was pretty good, Edwina Currie was actually a good presenter, she had the attitude of being able to put it across for everyone, not just the anoraks, but with a fair bit of enthusiasm and a hint of knowing what she was talking about.

We were treated to a large chunk of the programme being concerned with the GCR as well, it was interesting to see that the director of Chiltern Railways is considering re-opening the line to Rugby, pity that the viaduct across the WCML has been recently dismantled preventing further bits of the GCR to be opened up.

I liked that man, his recreation of the Darjeeling Railway in his back garden was stunning, with people like that in charge, it gives you hope for the future of the railways, enthusiastic, keen type, hands on executives instead of financial institutions running the system is the best way forward.

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Yes, certainly better than I'd anticipated...the mix of Currie and the south-east hadn't filled me with anticipation.

An improvement on the previous offering, despite it's attractive blonde Bristol commuter. The supposed travel experts' narrative on the Cheddar Valley Line (with which I was familiar) bordering on the farcical.

Strange that the Rugby 'birdcage' bridge was only removed very recently, having stood unused for more than 40 years. Logical time to remove it was surely when the WCML was electrified.

Any preserved line wouldn't have got too far north, as the GC route is totally built up just north of Clifton.

Cheers

Robt P.

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