Rugd1022

Working 6G67 into Small Heath yesterday, including the run round at Tyseley...

Sister ship to the Voight Kampf...? 😉

From the archive of the Birmingham Post & Mail, a locally registered Rover P5B Saloon in Perry Barr in the early '70s...

Photo by Malcolm Keeley / Derek Potter : Hassops Road, Beeches Estate, Great Barr, 1957...

Street Life - Randy Crawford

Some interesting non railway stuff in and around Birmingham...

Photo by Andrew Harthill : tail end of a Royal working at Brum Snow Hill in 1962, at the sharp end is green liveried D1002 'Western Explorer'...

That's given me an idea for a TV show... I shall be straight on the blower to Gerry Anderson Inc.! Some of those craters must be several miles wide.

On the subject of rag 'n' bone men - back in 1972 on a family visit to London we were all schlepping down Chiswick High Road when we saw Harry H. Corbett and Wilfred Bramble with Hercules the 'orse pulling their cart, followed very closely by a large blue BBC van with a camera gear on the roof. Roll on three years later, and on another visit we saw the Mk1 3.0 Consul GT from The Sweeney being driven round Hammersmith Broadway festooned with scaffolding and cameras.

They had to do that as nothing had run on the Rugby - Market Harborough - Peterborough line since June '66, and filming took place in March and April of '67.

Mentioned on page two of the thread way back in December 2011! Great film though and well worth repeat viewings....

I Will - White Album Fabs...

Lovely that. I've been eyeing some up of the old Vox Teardrops and Phantoms on Reverb recently, I still bitterly regret selling my 1967 Teardrop Starstream MkXII with the built in effects a few years ago. Need to get back on the horse and start playing again. Strangely, despite having stump fingers I find 12 strings easier to play than six strings. My first guitar was a black Epiphone 330 with ivory binding etc which looked and sounded pretty good, then I chopped it in for a cheap Squire Tele copy which was ok until I found the Vox Starstream.

The 'Gurney bubble', so called because Dan Gurney couldn't wear a helmet and shut the door as he was too tall (even with the seat altered!). Me being just 5'3'' I wouldn't need one - I've sat in a few replicas in recent years and felt very comfortable in them.

Season Of The Witch - Donovan

Here you go Phil, dirt cheap, never raced or rallied.... honest... 😁

Lovely stuff - even the period 'GB' plate on the back of the Landrover looks bang on!

It's exactly the same on the car forums I frequent, Pistonheads being a prime example. What started out as a TVR forum twenty five years ago is now much, much wider in scope with numerous sections well outside of the core motoring theme and almost every corner of it has more than its fair share of negativity, oneupmanship and downright patronising 'thread captains', a situation which has grown worse over the last couple of years. Oddly enough though, just about the only areas which haven't been swamped (so far) with this barrage of negativity are the classic cars and model railways threads. The F1, football, news, current affairs and politics threads in particular are filled with anger from posters on both sides of any given 'debate', life is way too short for any of that malarkey. I know we have our moments in here but it's nothing like Pistonheads thankfully.... or Mumsnet!

I drove over Harringworth viaduct last week in the dark, it's quite a spooky place at night, even more so when it's foggy as you feel like you're floating across the valley. You can't really tell from down below, but the parapet walls are splayed outwards slightly, with metal brackets bolted to the inner sides to stop them from splaying out any further.

I'd make a start by revisiting a much beloved location with family connections... 1) Straight in at number one pop pickers - Old Oak Common on 17th March 1906, the day the new shed opened and the day my maternal great grandfather (fireman) and two of his brothers (both engine cleaners) transferred there from Westbourne Park, imagine the pristine interior of that vast roundhouse with four turntables, filled with Mr. G.J.Churchward's finest etc. Lovely. Seventy seven years later I found myself working there. 2) All of the London termini during that period after nationalisation when there was a fascinating mix of Big Four and experimental new BR liveries - David Jenkinson's wonderful book 'The Big Four In Colour' gave us a tantalising glimpse into what it was like, but imagine seeing so much more of it in glorious real life colour. 3 ) Paddington station in early 1965 - WR steam is all but gone and it's now wall to wall Diesel-Hydraulics in maroon and green livery, plus of course of D1015 'Western Champion' still carrying its one off golden ochre paint job,the three eight car Blue Pullman sets, D0280 'Falcon' in two tone green, a batch of new two tone green Brush Type 4s and the ubiquitous 350hp shunt engines. 3) Waterloo station in the first half of 1967, with the end of SR steam edging ever nearer and the Bullied Pacific's 'last fling' in the more than capable hands of so many of Nine Elm's footplate crews.... with The Kinks' 'Waterloo Sunset' wafting out of a little transistor radio, naturally. 4 ) Crewe station in 1970 / 71, watching the Class 50s backing onto the Anglo - Scottish expresses, endless AC Electrics and 24s, 25s and 40s on all sorts of traffic. My very first visit to Crewe with my Nan was just like this, we were on the way to visit relatives near Stockport and changed trains there.

I binge watched 'Hadleigh' on DVD early last year and really enjoyed it - in a couple of episodes he drives round in a RHD Monterverdi 375 Coupe, one of just six built.

Footage around Greaves Sidings in the '80s - note the glimpse of the GWR Toad brake van at 32secs, the bottom half of which is still there today, rotting away...

Not a film or TV series but this is great - George Fame does a spot of overtime as a Signalman in 1968...

Higher Than The Sun - Primal Scream

Green Onions - Booker T & The MGs