The Night Mail

[Willie Whizz]

At my Junior School the ‘Nit Nurse’ used to take over the Secretary’s room twice a year and we all had to queue on the stairs to be seen-to. I found the wafted smell of the disinfectant totally seductive, and to this day it still evokes lovely childhood memories. Bizarre, but there it is …

[Happy Hippo]

Wafted smells:  Definitely that fleeting aroma of burnt  AVTUR as you exited the side doors of a C130 or similar.

[Northmoor]

2 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

Many years ago had to attend a call at a secondary school and the smell took me straight back to my schooldays,some sort of polish mixed with unwashed teenagers. 

I once went to my son's school for one of those Bring Your Dad to School days.  I spent much of the morning trying very hard to hide how uncomfortable I felt and I knew it was the smell that was the trigger.

 

On a happier front,  I am reply #43002 to TNM which makes me "Top of the Pops".

Edited January 28 by Northmoor

[New Haven Neil]

Having worked in several hospitals (both 'general' and psychiatric) and then becoming an outpatients service manager, I no longer notice the smell.  Fortunately.  Never liked it much when I did.

 

Now, the waft of warm oil that meets you on opening the engineroom door of a ship....bliss.

[BSW01]

I can still remember the smell that met you as you entered the main forge where small steel ingots were formed into railway wheel blanks! 
 

Something like this,

 

 

I know many folk who think that metal doesn’t smell, well it does when it’s heated up! 

[Hroth]

1 hour ago, Oldddudders said:

He could do useful modelling things with dental plastic

 

The facilities to mould plastic*, produce lost wax castings and obtain stainless steel orthodontic wire of various diameters DO come in handy!

 

* Provided you want it in Dental Pink, with little flecks of red embedded in it.

 

52 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

I got plenty of plaster, but having told the guys upstairs it was for casting, they gave me dental plaster, and not plaster of Paris.

 

Ordinary PoP is much used in dental labs, but the harder "brown" plaster, called "stone" is denser and dimensionally superior, used for the later stages of technical procedures, where you don't want bits being abraded from the model.

 

[Hroth]

11 minutes ago, BSW01 said:

I know many folk who think that metal doesn’t smell

 

Brass has a distinctive smell, even when cold.

 

[PhilJ W]

3 hours ago, Hroth said:

When the wind was in the right direction, the large brewery at about a miles distance was quite distinctive!

I was born and brought up in Romford, a brewery town. The River Rom actually ran through the brewery and they used to drain the vats straight into the river. The smell used to pervade the town.

 

1 hour ago, BSW01 said:

I can still remember the smell that met you as you entered the main forge where small steel ingots were formed into railway wheel blanks! 
 

Something like this,

 

 

I know many folk who think that metal doesn’t smell, well it does when it’s heated up! 

Up until the 70's Fords at Dagenham used to produce their own steel and iron. About a mile away was the May and Baker chemicals factory (opposite Dagenham East station). If you drew a straight line between those to sites and extended it about half a mile further you came across Bretons Farm sewerage works. It only took a slight SSW breeze to combine all three pongs.

[Flanged Wheel]

Ships definitely have a unique and, for me, very evocative aroma. I remember stepping into a 42 man mess for the first time (joining a ship in the Caribbean that had already  been deployed for a few months). The smell was like nothing I have ever experienced before or since and defies description. Mind you, this was the mess that was festooned with underwear liberated from ladies of the night so perhaps the special odour was understandable.

[pH]

7 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

Or a kraft paper factory! 

You get that in some towns in BC. They call it the smell of money.

Edited January 28 by pH

[PhilJ W]

12 minutes ago, Flanged Wheel said:

Ships definitely have a unique and, for me, very evocative aroma. I remember stepping into a 42 man mess for the first time (joining a ship in the Caribbean that had already  been deployed for a few months). The smell was like nothing I have ever experienced before or since and defies description. Mind you, this was the mess that was festooned with underwear liberated from ladies of the night so perhaps the special odour was understandable.

Apparently submarines have a unique smell especially after returning from a long patrol.😖

[jamie92208]

25 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Apparently submarines have a unique smell especially after returning from a long patrol.😖

Hence the submariners songNobody washes in a, submarine". 

 

Jamie

[AndyID]

On 26/01/2024 at 21:59, Hroth said:

 

She'll probably get out the branch loppers and trim them herself!

 

 

 

 

Where sheds are concerned, there's always more than one!

 

I call the conservatory on the back of the house the "glass shed", if that helps...

 

 

As the saying goes:

 

" Two sheds are better than one."

[AndyID]

19 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

I had an auntie who used to work at Williams's toffee factory in Bootle who would always have some misshapes in a bowl in her house. Yummy stuff!

 

Dave

 

Canal station in Paisley was adjacent to a Robertson's jam factory. There was a wonderful aroma of whatever they were making that day while waiting for a train.

[AndyID]

The city of Lewiston in Idaho, near the confluence of the Snake and Clearwater rivers, has a big pulp mill. It doesn't half pong. I don't think I could live there.

 

 

 

Edited January 28 by AndyID
Predict this!

[iL Dottore]

4 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

I was born and brought up in Romford, a brewery town. The River Rom actually ran through the brewery and they used to drain the vats straight into the river. The smell used to pervade the town.

 

Up until the 70's Fords at Dagenham used to produce their own steel and iron. About a mile away was the May and Baker chemicals factory (opposite Dagenham East station). If you drew a straight line between those to sites and extended it about half a mile further you came across Bretons Farm sewerage works. It only took a slight SSW breeze to combine all three pongs.

Romford, Dagenham…. Those names evoke memories. I lived in Gidea Park in the 60s (and as a studious child I absolutely loved the Gidea Park library, especially when I got an adult library card [subject to parental approval]). I went to school in Romford (of which my memories are rather hazy).
 

One thing I do remember, in about 1967, is cycling with friends over to Hornchurch - specifically the RAF Hornchurch airfield (which was closed in 1962). Obviously we weren’t expecting any Spitfires (as regular readers of The Eagle we knew that!) but we were hoping to find some RAF scrap or some overlooked piece of shrapnel. Alas, we were disappointed….

[iL Dottore]

Whilst on the subject of 60s memories, does anyone else remember using Twin Rover tickets during the summer hols?

 

Between the age of 11 and 13 (when the family moved away from the UK) I would regularly cadge ten bob of my indulgent Great Aunt, get a Twin Rover and head for London, spending the whole day exploring - returning in the evening. Apart from visiting my favourite museums (IWM, the Science and Natural History museums, The Maritime Museum) - back when they were (ahem) “proper” museums with huge part of their collections proudly displayed, I just enjoyed riding and exploring the Underground. Things that remain etched in my memory include

• the 1938 tube stock (never bettered in my opinion)
• wooden escalators
• brass (?) uplighters on the escalators
• island platforms (Angel, Islington was one, I think)
• glimpses of tracks diverging off the line to who knew where
• the East London Line

What I don’t recall is where I bought my Twin Rover. I don’t think it was at Romford Bus Garage. Possibly Romford Station?
 

What is the sad side of such memories is the realisation that our children (or perhaps more accurately grandchildren), will never have the opportunity or pleasure of doing the same; not only has the infrastructure changed almost beyond recognition (and in some cases is no longer there), but the museums have been mucked about with and few - if any parents - would allow their kids to disappear unchaperoned for an entire day into London (and without mobile phones to boot).

[Dave Hunt]

10 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

What’s the (TNM) panel’s verdict about hospital smells? 

 

I'm quite happy with the smell of hospital wards, corridors etc. but the unique smell of an operating theatre makes me a little nervous, mainly because I'm shortly going bye-byes whilst someone carves holes in me.

 

Dave

[Dave Hunt]

6 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

Now, the waft of warm oil that meets you on opening the engineroom door of a ship....bliss.

 

Fast jet cockpits have a very distinctive smell. I don't really know how to describe it but it is something that is instantly recognisable and doesn't depend on when or how recently the aircraft has flown or where and when it was made. I climbed into a Lightning cockpit not that long ago, many years after it had last flown but the distinctive smell was immediately apparent. Flight decks of large aircraft don't seem to have the same smell.

 

Dave

[Oldddudders]

12 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

What I don’t recall is where I bought my Twin Rover. 

There was a sort of newsagent in West St, Dorking, where I could buy a Red or Twin Rover on a Friday night, ready for the next day. The nearest service on which either would be valid was the 65 at Leatherhead, so I would have to pay to get from Betchworth back into Dorking, then a 470 bus or 712/3/4 GreenLine to Leatherhead. Fares were the same for each on that stretch. Then they introduced something called, I think, a Central Rover, and I'm not sure where I might have bought that, but I had one or two. This would be 1961 - 64. I definitely had a Twin Rover in January 1961, with Michael White from my class. We took the 660 trolleybus all the way from Hammersmith to North Finchley and back! 

[Dave Hunt]

Today started off quite well with some friends coming round for coffee and cake after church but then another pond cleaning session was undertaken this afternoon. Much of the job requires hand and arm in the water to dead head lily pads and get rotting leaves out from where the fishing net won't reach so after an hour my hands were nearly numb. At that stage I decided that enough was enough and came back indoors, deciding to warm my hands under the hot tap. At first it was quite pleasant but after a minute or so my hands began to ache dreadfully and it took a while for them to calm down. All was not in vain, however, as Jill took pity on me and when I offered to help getting dinner ready told me that I had done enough and to go and sit down while she did it all. 😊 While that has advantages I'm still not looking forward to doing more of the required pond grovelling in the near future.

 

Dave 

[AndyID]

I'm quite partial to the aroma from valve (tube) amplifiers. Probably because it takes me back to when I was a yoot.

[Happy Hippo]

Never let me near a pond.  As soon as I settle in I warm the water up with some bubbling and ........

[TheQ]

Spent 12 Years working in a building half the size of a football pitch. One floor was full of 7ft high rows and rows of 19inch wide cabinets full of valves, with the odd rack of transistors thrown in. Yes a distinctive smell of hot valves.

[Happy Hippo]

I still think the finest smell is when you are on the footplate, so you have hot metal, hot oil, steam, burning coal and, if you are lucky, bacon on the shovel.

 

I would not try cooking on the shovel if the steam loco is an oil burner:  Or worse fireless🤣.