Henley-on-Thames - GWR in the 1930's

[Neal Ball]

 

Capital 194 -  in tune with London - different times! Although this is 70’s

 

 

[St Enodoc]

1 hour ago, Neal Ball said:

539 medium wave, that goes back a bit....

 

I remember Capital being 194 FM with the likes of Kenny Everitt, although I guess that’s the early 80’s

Yes, it started on 539 and went to 194 later.

 

Here's the T-shirt in question:

 

 

Some folk here might have an inkling of where that photo was taken...

[Neal Ball]

7 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Yes, it started on 539 and went to 194 later.

 

Here's the T-shirt in question:

 

 

Some folk here might have an inkling of where that photo was taken...

Nice photo
 

Clearly pre satellite days! ...... but where? Obviously London suburbs somewhere...

[St Enodoc]

3 minutes ago, Neal Ball said:

Clearly pre satellite days!

Yes, May 1975.

4 minutes ago, Neal Ball said:

but where? Obviously London suburbs somewhere

Not within 100 miles of London.

[Neal Ball]

27 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

Yes, May 1975.

Not within 100 miles of London.

Not doing very well then! Although I think the car is a Ford Pop....

[Nick Gough]

1 hour ago, St Enodoc said:

Yes, May 1975.

Not within 100 miles of London.

Same month I passed my driving test!

[Nick Gough]

14 hours ago, Neal Ball said:

 

Lovely shots Nick, thanks for sharing.

 

£5 rail tour tickets - different times eh! I too would not have been able to afford it, although a few years later I started to go on a few LNER rail tours trips. These usually went from Watford (I think), to loads of different places, including the NYMR in its early days.

I went on one of the LNER trips, in the mid '70s, to Fort William, Mallaig and Skye.

We boarded Friday evening (Harrow & Wealdstone or Watford Junction), arrive at the Fort first light Saturday, Mallaig then coach trip across Skye. Return south overnight and disembark Sunday morning.

Two nights (not) sleeping in compartment stock - wouldn't do that today!

[St Enodoc]

1 hour ago, Neal Ball said:

Not doing very well then! Although I think the car is a Ford Pop....

Yes, my first car. My colleague, in the picture, and I each owned half of it. The radio cost more than the car...

[Neal Ball]

1 hour ago, Nick Gough said:

I went on one of the LNER trips, in the mid '70s, to Fort William, Mallaig and Skye.

We boarded Friday evening (Harrow & Wealdstone or Watford Junction), arrive at the Fort first light Saturday, Mallaig then coach trip across Skye. Return south overnight and disembark Sunday morning.

Two nights (not) sleeping in compartment stock - wouldn't do that today!

 

Of course thats right, we boarded from Harrow and Wealdstone. I was a member of the Harlington loco society and the Western MRS at the time and went on a few trips with the guys from both clubs.

 

The only multi day one I went on was a trip over to Fishguard harbour, Tenby and other lines in the area - although looking on Six Bells, it was organised by RPPR(?) as the Pembroke Pioneer. On 4th and 5th May 1979, we slept in Mk1 compartment stock as the train headed West: https://www.sixbellsjunction.co.uk 

 

Departing Slough at 23:06 arriving back at 20:22 the following day.

 

Pembroke Dock:

 

 

Tenby station:

 

 

I suspect both are very different today.

 

Given it was 1979 - I had only been working for a couple of years, I'm surprised I didn't go on any of the KGV trips....

 

40 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

Yes, my first car. My colleague, in the picture, and I each owned half of it. The radio cost more than the car...

 

Ah! The days of buying a car and then having to go to Halfords and buy the radio and scrabbling round under the dash to fit it. Then trying to fit the heated rear windscreen and getting those wires through.

 

I remember getting into my first car (Ford Anglia), setting off for work in Hounslow and in those 5 miles or so, the heater still hadn't warmed the car up.

 

Different times eh!

[Neal Ball]

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all the readers of Henley on Thames - GWR in the 1930's.

 

This card was used by the GWR at Christmas 1938 and comes from this weeks "Tuesday Treasures" from the GWS at Didcot:

 

The story about Christmas posters and cards was part of this weeks blog at the GWS: https://didcotrailwaycentre.org.uk/product.php/77/tuesday-treasures?fbclid=IwAR2Jc72SBxEZWA7W779x6tlk7c0TdwApiSjz59uSW_sPPKkuDz97OPLdvJE

 

I started my model of Henley on Thames when we moved house in the UK 6 years ago.

 

Looking at the stats today there have been 95.4k views of Henley; 1.4k replies over 57 pages and 76 subscribed followers. 

 

At this time last year there had been 54,496 views; 681 replies over 27 pages and 61 followers.... an increase of some 40,000 views over a year! wow thank you.

 

Whatever your plans for Christmas, I hope you are able to enjoy the festive period during these very strange times. 

 

Stay safe, Regards, Neal.

[37Oban]

1 hour ago, Nick Gough said:

I went on one of the LNER trips, in the mid '70s, to Fort William, Mallaig and Skye.

We boarded Friday evening (Harrow & Wealdstone or Watford Junction), arrive at the Fort first light Saturday, Mallaig then coach trip across Skye. Return south overnight and disembark Sunday morning.

Two nights (not) sleeping in compartment stock - wouldn't do that today!

That brings back memories!  My wife of the time and myself went on a similar trip in '81, IIRC.  Travelled down from Hull to Kings Cross using weekend return tickets and still saved money!

 

Roja

[Neal Ball]

1 minute ago, 37Oban said:

That brings back memories!  My wife of the time and myself went on a similar trip in '81, IIRC.  Travelled down from Hull to Kings Cross using weekend return tickets and still saved money!

 

Roja

 

Maybe a BR Merrymaker trip.

[Harlequin]

Merry Christmas and a Great Western New Year!

 

[37Oban]

No, it was an LNER Society trip.  In those days there were hardly any rail trips run from Hull, and to do it using service trains was expensive, beyond our budget.  Got me thinking now, may have been a year or two earlier!  

 

Roja

[Nick Gough]

1 hour ago, St Enodoc said:

Yes, my first car. My colleague, in the picture, and I each owned half of it. The radio cost more than the car...

I bought my first car a few months later - a 1961, half-timbered Mini estate. The driver's floor well filled up with water on a rainy day, the petrol tank leaked when it was more than half full. It also had a floor mounted 'engine start' button and a long, bendy gear stick, which was a bit like stirring porridge to use. I managed to keep it going for about 18 months until I had to give up on the rotting sub-frames and sills.

The registration number was probably worth more than the car - 8294MG.

Edited December 23, 2020 by Nick Gough
Bit more

[Neal Ball]

30 minutes ago, Nick Gough said:

I bought my first car a few months later - a 1961, half-timbered Mini estate. The driver's floor well filled up with water on a rainy day, the petrol tank leaked when it was more than half full. It also had a floor mounted 'engine start' button and a long, bendy gear stick, which was a bit like stirring porridge to use. I managed to keep it going for about 18 months until I had to give up on the rotting sub-frames and sills.

The registration number was probably worth more than the car - 8294MG.

I remember having bought the Anglia and driving it home, as we went over the level crossing at Feltham, dad said “this will tell how good it is” he was expecting lots of rattles etc. There was nothing and that car saw me pass my test and last a few years before being replaced.

[Nick Gough]

1 hour ago, Neal Ball said:

 

Of course thats right, we boarded from Harrow and Wealdstone. I was a member of the Harlington loco society and the Western MRS at the time and went on a few trips with the guys from both clubs.

 

The only multi day one I went on was a trip over to Fishguard harbour, Tenby and other lines in the area - although looking on Six Bells, it was organised by RPPR(?) as the Pembroke Pioneer. On 4th and 5th May 1979, we slept in Mk1 compartment stock as the train headed West: https://www.sixbellsjunction.co.uk 

 

Departing Slough at 23:06 arriving back at 20:22 the following day.

 

Pembroke Dock:

 

 

Tenby station:

 

 

I suspect both are very different today.

 

 

This was Pembroke Dock in May 2011:

I guess the building in your photo was on the left?

 

The other platform building survives in good condition:

 

Tenby Station:

 

The occasion was the 'Pembroke Explorer' tour with 6024 Spud I:

[MrWolf]

12 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Yes, it started on 539 and went to 194 later.

 

Here's the T-shirt in question:

 

 

Some folk here might have an inkling of where that photo was taken...

 

That's definitely a Ford 100E Popular, registered in the Coventry area sometime after February 1960. Someone has added a little bling by fitting the chrome headlight panels from a mid 1950s Ford Prefect.

[Neal Ball]

10 hours ago, Nick Gough said:

 

This was Pembroke Dock in May 2011:

I guess the building in your photo was on the left?

 

The other platform building survives in good condition:

 

Tenby Station:

 

The occasion was the 'Pembroke Explorer' tour with 6024 Spud I:

Im surprised so much survives. Thanks Nick.

 

I have a similar shot of Temby station on the laptop, it hasn’t changed over the years!

 

Did you get a good tour behind 6024? I presume that’s KE2.

[Neal Ball]

As a footnote to all our tour news....

 

I collected a certain Mogul this afternoon from the DHL driver.... less than 24 hours after being despatched by Hattons.

 

Details and a video to follow... very shortly.....

[Nick Gough]

12 hours ago, Neal Ball said:

Im surprised so much survives. Thanks Nick.

 

I have a similar shot of Temby station on the laptop, it hasn’t changed over the years!

 

Did you get a good tour behind 6024? I presume that’s KE2.

It was a good day. 6024 KEI hauled the train from Bristol Temple Meads to Carmarthen and Pembroke Dock  back to Bristol with a 45 minute break at Tenby. The diesel took the train from Carmarthen to Pembroke due to a lack of a run round facility at the terminus.

 

It was certainly more successful than my previous attempt to get to Pembroke, with 6024, in 2007.

On that occasion we were 50 minutes late departing Bristol due to over running engineering works trapping 6024 in the depot. That was followed by defective signals in the Vale of Glamorgan and a nearly three hour late arrival at Carmarthen.

Consequently the tour went no further and returned to Bristol after servicing and turning the loco.

[Nick Gough]

12 hours ago, Neal Ball said:

As a footnote to all our tour news....

 

I collected a certain Mogul this afternoon from the DHL driver.... less than 24 hours after being despatched by Hattons.

 

Details and a video to follow... very shortly.....

Hope this one is a bit more co-operative?

[Tallpaul69]

Happy Christmas and Best Wishes for Christmas and the New Year Neal,

 

When do services resume at Henley on Thames?

 

Cheers

Paul

[Neal Ball]

4 hours ago, Nick Gough said:

Hope this one is a bit more co-operative?

 

It certainly is! Straight from the box, it ran faultlessly on DC and then performed very well in DCC. 

 

In the clip below, I need to sort out the chuff rates and also add some foil behind the firebox LED. Plus of course the usual crew; coal etc.

 

 

 

And on YouTube here: 

 

 

I am very pleased with the loco, coming from the second batch, its so different from the first one.

[Neal Ball]

8 minutes ago, Tallpaul69 said:

Happy Christmas and Best Wishes for Christmas and the New Year Neal,

 

When do services resume at Henley on Thames?

 

Cheers

Paul

 

We have a busy few days; plus 2 x 5L kegs of Harveys Best Bitter to consume, kindly driven over for me in November.

 

Hopefully I will be back at the railway sometime after 27th December.

 

Happy Christmas Paul.