The Night Mail

[jamie92208]

26 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

 

Hmm that's interesting Jamie. Did my horticulture course there many moons ago and don't recall seeing anything like that. Was it on the main campus? 

 

I do recall that there was a 'satellite' site for the 'yokels' so it could have been there. Unfortunately given the passage of time I can't remember what is was called.

It's not far from the A1 before Tadcaster I think. I was told that the hangar is listed.

 

Found the details.  RAF Bramham Moor.  This link should work hopefully.

https://www.westernfrontassociation.com/world-war-i-articles/an-original-first-world-war-raf-hangar-and-the-story-of-rfc-bramham-moor/

 

Jamie

Edited June 21, 2021 by jamie92208

[PhilJ W]

Thanks for that Jamie. The replica hangers at Stow Maries are based on the same design with a Belfast Truss roof, copied from those at Duxford. Bramham Moor would have been much the same as Stow Maries except most of the buildings would have been demolished in 1919.

[jamie92208]

33 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Thanks for that Jamie. The replica hangers at Stow Maries are based on the same design with a Belfast Truss roof, copied from those at Duxford. Bramham Moor would have been much the same as Stow Maries except most of the buildings would have been demolished in 1919.

That's interesting. We used to have our LTHS committee meetings in Bramham village and behind the room where we met was a garage that had a Belfast shed as Jim Soper called it. It would only have been just over a mile from the airfield. I wonder if some canny fellow had recycled the shed when the airfield closed.

I'll have a look on Google earth.

 

Jamie

 

[Stubby47]

Stow Maries, as close as you can get on Google Street View, has these signs...

 

 

Which is it, public, or private ? 
 

[Happy Hippo]

 

The grid ref of the airfield is 820000

 

Public access from Crows Lane and then past Charity Farm

 

There is another private landing field just to the north at Walton Hall on the OS Map, but the aerial photos show it's been ploughed up.

 

 

[polybear]

5 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

 

4 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

George Aird, the test pilot of the plane in the photo took off in a Lightning and landed in a greenhouse!

 

But seriously, knowing parachutes quite well, and looking at the deployment sequence, he was almost certainly under an only partially inflated canopy when he hit the greenhouse.  He was very lucky to walk away end up with a few broken bones and scratches.

 

Bear used to work with the guy who (IIRC) was first into the greenhouse to help George after he'd crashed; he also (I think) worked on the Aircraft - which included a full rewire of the fire detection system - prior to the crash.  He said there was a right witch hunt after the crash, which was no fun at all.

Apparently George ended up on a hospital ward full of young biker types who'd had accidents.  When one of them asked what had happened to him he simply replied "crashed a Lightning".  They didn't realise it was the EE version and not the BSA version....

[Dave Hunt]

37 minutes ago, Stubby47 said:

Stow Maries, as close as you can get on Google Street View, has these signs...

 

 

Which is it, public, or private ? 
 

 

I suppose that there can be a private road with a public footpath alongside it or even as part of it. After all, most public footpaths cross private land.

 

Dave

[Dave Hunt]

 

 

When I did my first tour in Germany a friend from Gutersloh jumped out of a Lightning and ended up in hospital with a broken collar bone and a few other injuries. In the same ward were two Army types and when he asked what had happened to them one said, "We were out preparing for an exercise when some clown parked a bl**dy aeroplane in the same field, what about you?" It took a while, apparently, before they spoke to him again.

 

Dave

Edited June 21, 2021 by Dave Hunt

[Happy Hippo]

17 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

 

When I did my first tour in Germany a friend from Gutersloh jumped out of a Lightning and ended up in hospital with a broken collar bone and a few other injuries. In the same ward were two Army types and when he asked what had happened to them one said, "We were out preparing for an exercise when some clown parked a bl**dy aeroplane in the same field, what about you?" It took a while, apparently, before they spoke to him again.

 

Dave

The irony would be if the were members of an RE Plant Sqn preparing a field as an airstrip or HLS

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, Happy Hippo said:

Public access from Crows Lane and then past Charity Farm

I had a look on their website and they suggest the Crows Lane route for coaches and another route (Hackmans Lane) for cars. I had a look on Google maps streetview and the coach route looks a bit narrow and muddy. 

[polybear]

2 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

 

When I did my first tour in Germany a friend from Gutersloh jumped out of a Lightning and ended up in hospital with a broken collar bone and a few other injuries. In the same ward were two Army types and when he asked what had happened to them one said, "We were out preparing for an exercise when some clown parked a bl**dy aeroplane in the same field, what about you?" It took a while, apparently, before they spoke to him again.

 

Dave

 

And your mate owned up??

[Adam88]

8 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

 

I always thought this photograph was brilliant: well exposed, good lighting and contrast, you couldn't have asked for better composition, the timing was exactly right, if you had asked the tractor driver to pose then please and look round this way, not that other way, and hang on the the steering wheel for good effect.  However, the best thing about it is that it shows a man's life being saved.

 

I remember looking for it on the internet.  This led me to this article:

 

the story behind an unbelievable photograph

 

and a blog called Fear of Landing written by an American lady called Sylvia Wrigley.  Each week she posts an aviation article, usually safety-related but not always, covering the bold, safe, stupid, lucky, unlucky, skillful, contemporary, historic, etc.  I find her writing very interesting and objective.

 

 

[PhilJ W]

1 hour ago, Adam88 said:

and a blog called Fear of Landing written by an American lady called Sylvia Wrigley.  Each week she posts an aviation article, usually safety-related but not always, covering the bold, safe, stupid, lucky, unlucky, skillful, contemporary, historic, etc.  I find her writing very interesting and objective.

 

This from the Fear of landing from only a few weeks ago. Mid air collision where everyone walked away.

https://fearoflanding.com/accidents/mid-air-collision-on-approach-to-centennial-airport/

Edited June 21, 2021 by PhilJ W

[polybear]

1 hour ago, PhilJ W said:

This from the Fear of landing from only a few weeks ago. Mid air collision where everyone walked away.

https://fearoflanding.com/accidents/mid-air-collision-on-approach-to-centennial-airport/

 

The Pilot obviously knows his stuff...and is able to pick up on the smallest of clues....

 

“Tower, that was a definite mid-air on short final.”

 

Yes, it sure was.....

 

 

[Compound2632]

Highly topical given the thread title, I've just been watching video of the Avanti London Euston - Glasgow Central record attempt, posted to the thread on that. I never tire of the view of the Lune Valley - still waiting to hear if we will be able to holiday up there this year.

 

Meanwhile, on the East Coast route (sorry), Thing 2 has gone off to visit Thing 1 in Durham for a taste of the student life, it being the last few post-exam weeks of Thing 1's final undergraduate term; he's had a wretched time with most of the year spent here, working remotely. Thing 2 is off to university come October, so we're having a taste of Life after Children!

 

Following Thing 2's journey on National Rail Live Departures, I was perturbed by the message "Some Great Northern services depart from St Pancras". The tables have been turned, after only 150 years...

[Oldddudders]

20 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

Following Thing 2's journey on National Rail Live Departures, I was perturbed by the message "Some Great Northern services depart from St Pancras". The tables have been turned, after only 150 years...

Thameslink.

[Dave Hunt]

4 hours ago, polybear said:

 

And your mate owned up??

 

Bit difficult not to when half his squadron as well as some other aircrew mates were visiting and, being aircrew, found the situation uproariously funny.

 

Dave

[Florence Locomotive Works]

Evening all,

 

 

The B12 arrived today to much jubilation, and ended up exceeding my expectations by some margin. It is an excellent model, very quiet and heavy with an excess of torque. I was particularly pleased with the detail on and around the front bogie, something that often seems to be missing on rtr models. 
 

 Here are some photos of shakedown runs on Pwhelli. The engine didn’t need running in as I bought it second hand. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

Above is the relatively extensive inside motion detail. It consists of the drop arm and and upper slide bars.
 

 

 

And here’s a video as an extra treat.

 

 

 

The weather was very nice today, as we had a small rainstorm come in in the wee hours of this morning which will keep the temperature below 90 for the next day or so. However after that it will return to the usual 97 degrees, with the odd drop into the mid 80s in August. But it’s highly unlikely to get below 80 until mid September .

 

On an unrelated note I am considering getting rid of the ballast in my micro layout, as I have come to see that I don’t really enjoy making scenery all that much, and that I prefer to observe the “mechanical principles” of the railway.
 

 

Apologies for the slight ramble. 
 

 

Douglas 

[J. S. Bach]

What scale?

[Florence Locomotive Works]

1 minute ago, J. S. Bach said:

What scale?

4mm OO Dave, I’ve left O till after college.

[Dave Hunt]

12 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

Meanwhile, on the East Coast route (sorry), Thing 2 has gone off to visit Thing 1 in Durham for a taste of the student life, it being the last few post-exam weeks of Thing 1's final undergraduate term; he's had a wretched time with most of the year spent here, working remotely. Thing 2 is off to university come October, so we're having a taste of Life after Children!

 

Our version of Thing 1 went to Durham university at St. Aidan's college and it was through visiting him there that Jill and I discovered the attraction of the city as well as the North East coast. Another benefit of Durham was that it was far enough away to discourage casual visits home from a poor student so the weekly arrival of bags of dirty washing that some of our friends suffered when their kids were at other universities were largely absent. When Thing 2 went to Nottingham, though........

 

Dave

[Compound2632]

16 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

When Thing 2 went to Nottingham, though........

 

We may be in a similar situation. 10 August will decide!

[Happy Hippo]

Durham is appearing to be the university to go to for the railway modellers first born!

 

Our daughter went to Collingwood College;  Richard and Shirley Longley's (founders of Brandbright) son went to  University (Castle) college.

 

Since they both graduated on the same day, we took the opportunity to have very pleasant lunch together.

 

 

[Oldddudders]

My late brother went to Durham, Gray College, while his twin went to Cambridge. This was the early '70s. While Adrian was at Gray, there was some sort of tie-up with the Nepalese Government, and he and a couple of fellow-students were dispatched to Nepal, studying the effects of tourism on rural Nepalese life and culture. It sounds deadly dull, but he enjoyed it. One snippet I recall was that in Summer, tourists would visit the mountainous regions, wearing typical Western clothes, like a vinyl jacket in bright colours, or maybe Gore-tex, if that existed then. The locals were fascinated by these garments, and there were cases of trading their yakskin coat for one - and being the envy of the whole village. Come the Winter, of course - they'd freeze!

 

While they were there, they met a UN fact-finding mission, looking to check on how Nepal was spending various grants it had received. The researchers found much of Adrian's team's findings to be very germane to their study. Somewhere in the depths of a UN library vault is a report in which at regular intervals, footnotes acknowledge the source to be "A.J.Dudley and others : Report of the Effects of Tourism on Nepalese Life". Fame is where you find it. 

 

Actually, I found it on RMweb last night, where I was heralded as the forum know-all. As a token of my esteem for you all on here, I will absolve you of the need to address me as 'Sir', at least for the time being......

[Happy Hippo]

4 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

Actually, I found it on RMweb last night, where I was heralded as the forum know-all. As a token of my esteem for you all on here, I will absolve you of the need to address me as 'Sir', at least for the time being......

One is greatly indebted for the kind thought and thanks His Royal Highness for the absolution.