devonseasider

Yes, forgot to say that it isn't for the faint-hearted . . . .

Yes, that's what I thought - Calvert Lane in the distance towards the left of the picture. Hadn't realised that the ones towards the right must have been at the back of Anlaby Road. The Priory - now there's somewhere my mother used to talk about. Thanks.

Mick - just trying to get my bearings on this picture. I never went round Springhead although I know where it was - mother's relatives lived almost on the Calvert Lane/Springbank West junction, close to what I vaguely remember as an old cinema (I was only 3 or 4 at the time) and I can recall lots of smoke & shunting noises when we visited. In the background of the picture, beyond the lines of wagons, there's a row of houses running left to right. Would that be Calvert Lane?

JA alert! For any connoisseurs (or "dirty old men" as Mrs DS would put it!) who may not have noticed, said young lady was on-screen in "Walkabout", BBC2, early hours of this morning. If you missed it & would like to catch up, I understand it's on I-player for the next 7 days. Enjoy . . . .

Afraid "real life" got in the way of enjoyment so haven't been able to post anything for a few days but have been looking in. Lots of really interesting stuff - makes my efforts seem even worse than I thought! Anyway, here are the last couple of photos from my Dairycoates visit on 3rd November 1963. Apologies again for the lack of quality - hope they may be of some interest despite this. First a couple of diesel shunters around the outside turntable followed by a visiting 04 inside the shed. The next family trip across the Pennines was in February '64 & I "did" Dairycoates again. I remember photographing some of the B16s but the film got damaged many years ago. I've got a couple of prints that I may be able to get a half-decent scan from, but don't hold your breath! If I can't do anything with those, I've got some from later in the year.

Some people get all the luck!

From memory it's a rat in the riverbank rather than a rabbit, but same principle. He's also got a photographer who turns & lifts the camera to his eye to photograph a passing train, again servo-driven.

Own up, Simon - you were looking at David Malton's layout at Thorncombe last November, were you not? Looks good though! Best wishes to all & belated HNY.

CooperCraft are due to appear at the Weston-Super-Mare exhibition tomorrow . . . .

I've checked through my bits of paper but I don't have any photos of that one, at least not identifiable ones. The reason I say that is because it was definitely on Dairycoates on that 3/11/63 visit so it's quite possibly in one of the shots I posted earlier. In fact, it seems that D6730 - 41 inclusive were all there - if only the pictures were clear enough to tell which was which!

Another B1 at Dairycoates, but in happier circumstances than Rob's shot. 61289 inside the shed, 3rd November 1963. And a really badly exposed shot of some of the shunters around the open-air turntable. Same date.

First thing, a belated Happy New Year to all. I hope those of you "up north" are escaping the worst of things. Down here in the "sunny south west" we've been very lucky this time although another big chunk of the Jurassic Coast fell away yesterday & the river's flooded one of the roads into our village today (mind you, that's not unusual). Anyway, enough of that. I've dug out some more Dairycoates photos from that November '63 visit. Again, quality not very good but may be of interest. First two are Dairycoates residents inside the roundhouse complex. 43131 & 68042. Last is another of the EE3 fleet although I can't identify which one. From previous posts I think the building in the background must have been the wheeldrop house.

Its visit to the mechanical doctor a few weeks earlier was obviously a success!

Thanks, Al. I almost got it right - trouble is, it's a long time ago & memories do strange things. Well, mine do! That wheel drop was interesting enough for me to use up a valuable bit of film recording it on a later visit - 31st October 1966 - even though I didn't have enough field of view to get the whole loco into shot. Two days earlier I found a couple of foreigners bracing themselves for the inevitable in Albert Draper's yard. 44311 & 42121

My memory has both bridges in place. Sounds as if there aren't any now. Fairly sure there was still the one there last time I looked on google earth. The garage must be just off that picture, to the right. Interesting photo - isn't that a Dinky Toys crane in front of the hoarding? And what about the poster for Birds Eye Cod Steaks? That's a bit like coals to Newcastle!

Thanks, Mick. Brings back memories. I'd forgotten about the garage - wasn't it immediately next to the bridge on the east side of Calvert Lane? Have a vague recollection of it but it is 50+ years ago . . . .

Steady on chaps, don't get carried away! You don't have to be nice, you know, but be gentle . . . . I think some of the photos are quite interesting for various reasons, perhaps even atmospheric, but I think they'd struggle to get as far even as "good" on the quality scale! They're scanned from the original negatives & have been tweaked a little with regard to brightness & contrast in an attempt to make them acceptable. I haven't done anything else to them - no fancy photoshop stuff here. I think what makes them interesting is that they show the nitty gritty reality of the early/mid-60s as seen by a teenager of the time. Some of the negatives were so bad that they never got printed so I'm seeing the pictures now for the first time as I scan them in. In others, it's only now that I'm realising what some of them show - like the articulated coaches on the scrap lines. My real interest back then was the locos themselves, particularly the fast-disappearing steam ones, rather than the wider picture of rolling stock, infrastructure etc. but I wasn't so blinkered as to record steam alone & ignore everything else. I do have photos of some of the early diesels (as you've already seen) which seems to be quite unusual. I'll see what else I can dig out but here are a couple more to be going on with. Taken on the same mucky murky visit as the previous ones. (These are to hand as I've been using them as part of a talk I gave recently to a local railway group.) First shows a couple of Dairycoates' allocation of EE type 3s alongside the straight shed (was this the building with the high-level wheel drop or am I getting confused?) Followed by one of the Ivatt 2-6-0s. Photo isn't clear enough to decipher the number but the last digit is 9 so could possibly be 43069. More to follow after Santa's made his call. Meanwhile, best wishes & thanks for your kind comments.

Derek - thanks, I'll try following up some of those.

Hope no-one minds me gatecrashing this thread but thought the attached may be of interest. All taken at Dairycoates, 3rd November 1963. Nothing special about them, I don't think, apart from perhaps a little bit of "historical interest". The last one is, I believe, the area known as 7 section & shows (badly!) a row of withdrawn V1/V3 tanks in the centre, with some artic coaches on the left. Apologies for the (lack of) quality but at the time I was a spotty 14-year old with a borrowed camera, lots of enthusiasm but absolutely no skill. Little changes (apart from age!). For the record, I was born in Cottingham & lived just off the Anlaby Road, not far from the bus garage, before being whisked 130 miles or so west at the age of 5 as my dad sought better opportunities for work. Mother's aunt & uncle lived at the Springbank end of Calvert Lane & I clearly remember walking up past the fire station & under the double railway bridge to visit them. Also remember clouds of smoke & smog coming from what I now know was the H&BR operating HQ. If only I could borrow the good Doctor's TARDIS for a while . . . . The photos were taken on one of the many trips back over the pennines to visit relatives. Got quite a few more taken over the following couple of years or so if anyone would like to see them. As an aside, parents' wedding certificate shows paternal grandfather's occupation as "LNER". Does anyone know of a register anywhere that would give me some details of what he did & where he did it?

No. I think you'll find: it's Jake the Peg, diddle iddle diddle de with the extra leg, diddle iddle diddle de or someone similar . . . .

A diesel-powered terrier would be quite an interesting beast . . . .

Looking for advice & suggestions from those with far more knowledge & experience of these things than I have. I've seen lots of references to various chips, sound projects & suppliers, but as it's an area I've not been involved in it still seems a bit of a minefield. Would anyone like a stab at suggesting "the best" system to go for, with reasons? Conversely, are there any judged to be better avoided, again with reasons? I'm thinking about availability, quality of control, quality/fidelity of sound (that staccato "bark" was quite distinctive), speaker response and, of course, cost. I know it's very subjective, but is it possible to get a balance between these variables? I'd be interested to hear the thoughts of people who've fitted various ones.

Depends on how dirty she is . . . .

David - your visit to Thorncombe will be fine, don't worry. (besides, any problems during the morning & you will get neither lunchtime pasty nor travelling expenses and there'll be no-one available to run you to A & E) See you in a week or so.