62613

When I was at sea in BP, there was an engineer with the same name; I wonder if it's the same fellow?

Quick update; I visited IKEA in Ashton yesterday. The catenary looks complete through Ashton Station on both lines. I don't know how far beyond it extends yet; of course, in the general area of Stalybridge station, I suppose there isn't much can be done until the rest of the work is complete. Apart from the photos posted by SHMD above, I can't see any further progress on the Guide Bridge line at all, either. I went to the tip in Stalybridge today, and decided to have a nosey round the station; you can see the work going on from the waste site. There are several gangs working, but I'm not sure exactly what where. The Station Buffet is open, access is by a barriered off walkway up the outside of the building. You can get onto the platform using it. Several of the mast bases are in position in the station area, but not all. Lastly, there is a massive materials site on the corner of Caroline Street and Bridge Street (next to the Stepan Site) with tonnes of ballast, concrete troughing and other stuff

Think I'd have been saying, get me off next port!

That was fairly standard for all the ships I was on, except the last, which had electric motor - driven cargo pumps; you used to have to wind the frequency up to about 62 before starting them, to avoid blacking out. The only other one that didn't was a 1959 - built products tanker, which had two pump rooms with reciprocating cargo pumps. The steam was from two Scotch boilers operating at 125 p.s.i. She was also 220V d.c., with Ruston D/Gs and a Bellis and Morcom compound emergency generator; all the electric pumps had a steam stand by. The engine was an exhaust piston H & W. Lovely ship!

Had one of those in another engineering discipline. We (the boss and I) took one look at their spec. and said, in so many words "Why are you doing it this way? This other way is a much better idea, both in terms of initial and ongoing costs. To their credit, they listened!

That's the one! I've lost my copy. The general feeling among tanker personnel was that it wasn't very good! Noel Mostert, a South African

I can remember a book in the 1970s called "Supership", which wasn't very nice about VLCCs

How many 400k ton ULCCs were built? I can only think of Shell's Batillus and Bellamya (?) and the Knock Nevis/Seawise Giant. Were there any others? Edit: just thought of a fourth; Pierre Guillaumat

And the Home Office as well

I think BP's first intake of Engineer Cadets (also called apprentices then; we weren't officially cadets until about 1970!) was in 1954. Theirs was the general scheme adopted by the British Shipping Federation. There were variations by company of the way the phases were erm..phased, but the general 2 years at college, one year at sea, back to college, or initally at a marine engineering concern, was the way it was done. There was also a secondment between the first and second years of phase 1 at a marine engineering company; I was at Kinckaids in Greenock, while another lad in my year was seconded to UCS, in the middle of the work - in. One reason why so many shipping companies adopted the "company apprenticeship" route was the ending of national service in 1960; there was an exemption from doing it if you went to sea. With it's ending, a lot of men who had gone down that route came ashore, and all of a sudden, there was a shortage of engineers. A 2/E from Aberdeen whom I sailed with said that the day his call - up papers arrived at his house, he went down the shipping office to sign on.

BP did as well; to become a 3/E, you needed a 2nd Certificate of Competency, and for 2/E you needed chiefs, motor for motorships, and steam for steamers. I think once you obtained your endorsement, you could go chief.

So Peco have gone into the 304.8mm to the foot market now!

They 'fine' you 500 cigarettes, or multiples thereof, for various offences. The first time I went through in 1976, I think it was 1000 for not having the canal light working

Or, Wipe that smile right off your face, Kilroy built the flipping place

The Suez Canal; the only time I ever locked my cabin door while in it!

Friend of mine's brother was a C/E in Houlders. He came back on leave one time, and once he'd put his bags down and unpacked, went to the garage where his car was supposed to be; only it wasn't. Went to his wife and asked "Where's my Aston Martin"? "I sold it" That was it; he went upstairs to the bedroom, packed his bags and left. Or the 4/E when I was on my first trip junior had done 5 trips, and allegedly had had a Dear John on every one. Very bitter, particularly as he eventually did 5 months on that one, when trip lengths were beginning to fall below that

I think it's it bits in store there; not assembled

Great on the fiddle, too. JB's sidekick for many a year

Massive changes at both those stations!

Given the second picture, isn't the first actually Monkseaton, the next station along, rather than Monkwearmouth, which is in Sunderland? There is a very good bar on the station, called the Left Luggage Office.

I think originally, it was going to be a preserved railway. There was also an attempt to turn the station buildings into a restaurant, but everything fell through. I can remember, well into the 70s an industrial loco, a tank wagon and IIRC a van or coach, but everything has now gone.

That would be fine if the taxation from road use didn't go into a general taxation pool.

Yep! Doesn't do much for Hollingworth, Tintwistle or Dinting Vale

The original plan was to run from the existing Mottram roundabout (M67 J4) round through the fields bypassing Mottram Hollingworth and Tintwistle, and rejoining the A628 east of there. There was going to be a spur off it towards Glossop, joining the existing A57 on the Glossop side of Woolley Bridge using a tunnel. I don't know if that's been updated. The part now authorised runs only as far as the A6018 (the road through Mottram cutting) AFAIK

Indeed! It's difficult to see where else it could go. I've walked around the area, and it's wonderful, but something needs to be done about the traffic. I'm not sure that shifting the queues from Mottram Roundabout to another on the Eastern side of Tintwistle (eventually!) does much, though.